# Is "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905) is identified by: First edition: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, published 30 September 1905, full title 'A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Told for the First Time'. The census claim that Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1905 is the true first of the expanded novel is upheld, with a firm date of 30 September 1905.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, published 30 September 1905, full title 'A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Told for the First Time'
- The title page reads 'WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLORS BY ETHEL FRANKLIN BETTS / CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS / NEW YORK' above the imprint year, and the copyright page reads 'Copyright, 1888 and 1905, by Charles Scribner's Sons' followed by 'Published September, 1905'
- IMPORTANT CAUTION verified directly against a scanned Scribner reprint: the 'Published September, 1905' line is NOT by itself a first-printing point, because Scribner carried it unchanged into later printings - the reprint examined has a title page dated 1917 while its copyright page still reads 'Copyright, 1888 and 1905' and 'Published September, 1905'
- Since Scribner dated the title-page imprint, the imprint year is the check: a first must read 1905 there
- Collates vii-266 pages, approximately 9 x 7 inches, with a colour frontispiece and eleven full-page colour plates by Ethel Franklin Betts (twelve colour illustrations in all)
- Bound in publisher's blue cloth, pictorially decorated and lettered in gilt, top edge gilt
- Publisher imprint reads Charles Scribner's Sons

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Frances Hodgson Burnett |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
| Year | 1905 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First edition: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, published 30 September 1905, full title 'A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First edition: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, published 30 September 1905, full title 'A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Told for the First Time'. The title page reads 'WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLORS BY ETHEL FRANKLIN BETTS / CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS / NEW YORK' above the imprint year, and the copyright page reads 'Copyright, 1888 and 1905, by Charles Scribner's Sons' followed by 'Published September, 1905'. IMPORTANT CAUTION verified directly against a scanned Scribner reprint: the 'Published September, 1905' line is NOT by itself a first-printing point, because Scribner carried it unchanged into later printings - the reprint examined has a title page dated 1917 while its copyright page still reads 'Copyright, 1888 and 1905' and 'Published September, 1905'. Since Scribner dated the title-page imprint, the imprint year is the check: a first must read 1905 there. Collates vii-266 pages, approximately 9 x 7 inches, with a colour frontispiece and eleven full-page colour plates by Ethel Franklin Betts (twelve colour illustrations in all). Bound in publisher's blue cloth, pictorially decorated and lettered in gilt, top edge gilt.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim that Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1905 is the true first of the expanded novel is upheld, with a firm date of 30 September 1905. The UK edition the census leaves unnamed is Frederick Warne & Co., London, November 1905, illustrated by Harold H. Piffard - a genuinely different illustrated edition, separately collected, and offered in the trade as a 1905 first in its own right. First-thus trap: the 1905 Scribner book is the first appearance of the NOVEL, not of the story. The material began as 'Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's', serialised in St. Nicholas Magazine from December 1887 (illustrated by Reginald B. Birch) and published in book form in 1888 - which is precisely why the 1905 copyright page reads 'Copyright, 1888 and 1905'. Burnett then wrote the three-act play 'A Little Un-fairy Princess' (premiered December 1902) and, at her publisher's request, expanded the story into the 1905 novel, adding Lottie, Becky, Melchisedec and the enlarged garret material.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Scribner printed from the same plates for decades and the copyright page never changed, so a copy offered as a '1905 first' on the strength of the 'Published September, 1905' line alone is unverified - the 1917 Scribner reprint examined for this entry is identical there. Check the title-page imprint year. Later Grosset & Dunlap reprints and the 1963 J. B. Lippincott Tasha Tudor edition are separate editions rather than printings of the first and are frequently miscatalogued. A first must retain the colour frontispiece and all eleven Betts plates; no book-club issue of the 1905 first is documented.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *A Little Princess* by Frances Hodgson Burnett a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/a-little-princess
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.