# Is "Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical (Gray's Anatomy) -- first American edition" by Henry Gray a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical (Gray's Anatomy) -- first American edition by Henry Gray (Blanchard and Lea, 1859) is identified by: First American edition, large octavo (about 10 the printed price x 6 the printed price in.), xxxii, 754 pages, illustrated with the original 363 wood-engraved figures after Henry Vandyke Carter's drawings. The true first edition of the work is London: John W.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First American edition, large octavo (about 10 the printed price x 6 the printed price in.), xxxii, 754 pages, illustrated with the original 363 wood-engraved figures after Henry Vandyke Carter's drawings
- Blanchard and Lea reset the type from the 1858 London original, correcting a number of typographical errors present in the first London printing and expanding the index
- The title page reads 'Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1859,' distinguishing it from the London first
- Publisher imprint reads Blanchard and Lea
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Henry Gray |
| Publisher | Blanchard and Lea |
| Year | 1859 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First American edition, large octavo (about 10 the printed price x 6 the printed price in.), xxxii, 754 pages, illustrated with the… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First American edition, large octavo (about 10 the printed price x 6 the printed price in.), xxxii, 754 pages, illustrated with the original 363 wood-engraved figures after Henry Vandyke Carter's drawings. Blanchard and Lea reset the type from the 1858 London original, correcting a number of typographical errors present in the first London printing and expanding the index. The title page reads 'Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1859,' distinguishing it from the London first.

## Is this the true first?
The true first edition of the work is London: John W. Parker and Son, 1858, edited by Henry Gray with illustrations by Henry Vandyke Carter; the Philadelphia, Blanchard and Lea printing described here is the first American edition, issued about a year later, before Blanchard and Lea had purchased full American rights (which they did for their authorized 'American edition' of 1862).

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
From the 1862 American edition onward, and through some two dozen further American editions into the 20th century, the book was progressively re-edited by other hands after Gray's 1861 death; any title page naming a later editor is a much later revision, not the 1858/1859 original text.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical (Gray's Anatomy) -- first American edition* by Henry Gray a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/anatomy-descriptive-and-surgical-grays-anatomy-first-america
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.