3 Howard Pyle first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire (written and illustrated by Howard Pyle) (1883) to The Wonder Clock (1888) across 3 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Howard Pyle title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Howard Pyle copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire (written and illustrated by Howard Pyle) — 1883 · Charles Scribner's Sons, New YorkThe prized first is the Charles Scribner's Sons (New York) 1883 issue, catalogued BAL 16378 — Pyle's first book, which he wrote, illustrated, and designed entirely (text, every illustration, decorative borders, historiated initials and vignettes, plus the font, layout, paper, and binding). First-printing points: the title page is dated in Roman numerals MDCCCLXXXIII and the copyright leaf reads only 1883 (no…. The true first is the American issue: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1883 (title page MDCCCLXXXIII, copyright 1883, BAL 16378). A London issue under Sampson Low also appeared in 1883, bound differently — bevel-edged pale green pictorial cloth blocked in brown, black endpapers, orange edges — and is generally treated as the secondary English issue, said (only tentatively in the trade, "perhaps from the sheets…. Scribner never issued a cheap or paper edition and kept the book in a controlled, fine format, so later Scribner printings closely resemble the 1883 first and are a common trap. The decisive test is the copyright leaf: the true first shows only 1883, whereas later printings carry additional cumulative copyright dates (e.g., 1883 plus 1902/1911 and later) even when the pictorial cover and MDCCCLXXXIII title page….
- Otto of the Silver Hand — 1888 · Charles Scribner's SonsWritten and illustrated entirely by Pyle, the first edition collates xiii, [i], 170, [4]pp plus 16pp of publisher's advertisements. It includes a frontispiece titled 'In the Belfry' along with further full-page plates, decorative vignettes, and initials throughout the text. The standard Pyle bibliography by Morse & Brinckle counts 26 full-page plates, 36 decorations, and 16 initials for the book, 78 illustrations…. A full blue-cloth binding stamped in silver and black is documented for later Scribner printings of Otto of the Silver Hand and should not be mistaken for the 1888 first-edition binding, which is half leather over pictorial green cloth.
- The Wonder Clock — 1888 · Harper & BrothersThe tales, written by Pyle with verses by his sister Katharine Pyle, first appeared serially in Harper's Young People between 1885 and 1887. The book was deposited for copyright on 19 October 1887 ('Copyright, 1887, by Harper & Brothers' appears on the copyright page), but the first-edition title page and binding both carry the 1888 date under which the book is properly collected. Collation is xiv, 318pp, with an….
More Children's & YA shelves: Hugh Lofting, J. K. Rowling, J. M. Barrie, Jacqueline Woodson, Jeff Kinney, Jerry Spinelli.
← All authors · All genres · part of the First-Edition Identification resource.