I don't understand why there isn't a date of first publication when filling the "Work details" form. You can set a date for each edition of the work, but it's not easy to understand when a certain book has been originally published.

Describe the problem that you'd like solved

I'd like to be able to set a "first edition" date and then a specific date for every edition.

Proposal & Constraints

A label could be added in the "Work details" form (which can be left blank, in case the exact date is unkown or uncertain); then in the edition details we'll be able to insert the date of that specific edition.

When showing a book to a user, actually the user only sees the "Publication date" label, which can be misleading for someone (it refers to that edition of to the first edition?). Two labels could be shown instead: one saying "First time publication" and "This edition".

Additional context

For instance, if you search for "King Solomon's mines" (https://openlibrary.org/works/OL17449W) how can you say that it has been published the first time in 1885? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Solomon's_Mines) Are you going to scroll all 110 editions? Hoping that someone added the first one, since very often the first editions are not present at all.

Stakeholders