Thomas Hardy First Editions

• Desperate Remedies — 1871 · Tinsley BrothersFirst edition, Tinsley Brothers, London, 1871, in three volumes, published anonymously — Hardy's name appears nowhere in the book, the title page reading only 'Desperate Remedies. A Novel. In Three Volumes.' Published 25 March 1871 in an edition of 500 copies, produced at the author's own expense, Hardy having indemnified Tinsley against loss. The original binding is red sandy-grained cloth, the covers with a…. Census claim CONFIRMED: Tinsley Brothers, London, 1871 is the true first — Hardy's first published book and first novel, and among the rarest of Victorian three-deckers, especially in original cloth. No competing British or American issue of 1871 exists. The first American edition is Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1874, in the Leisure Hour Series, three years later; the census's Holt 1874 date is correct and no…. The title predates the book-club era entirely and no book-club issue exists. The reprint tell that matters most is structural: per Purdy the novel was never reprinted in its original three-volume form, so any three-decker other than Tinsley 1871 is not this book. The specific trap is that unsold sheets of the first edition were converted into a single-volume remainder issue — that remainder is the item most often….
• Under the Greenwood Tree — 1872 · Tinsley BrothersFirst edition, Tinsley Brothers, London, 1872, in two volumes, published anonymously — the title page reads 'Under the Greenwood Tree. A Rural Painting of the Dutch School. By the Author of "Desperate Remedies."' and Hardy's name does not appear. Published early in June 1872, the date usually given being 15 June, in an edition of 500 copies. The original binding is green sand-grain cloth over bevelled boards. The…. Census claim CONFIRMED as to the true first, with one correction to its US attribution: Tinsley Brothers, London, 1872 is the true first, Hardy's second novel and his first Wessex novel. The first American edition appeared in 1873 from Holt & Williams, New York — not 'Holt' simpliciter, though that firm shortly became Henry Holt & Co. — in the publisher's cream cloth decorated in black; it was in fact the first…. The title predates the book-club era and no book-club issue exists. Later one-volume issues, including an 1878 Chatto & Windus edition, are common and carry Hardy's name on the title page with a later date. A specific cataloguing trap to know: reputable dealers list an 1883 issue under the headline description 'the first Wessex novel,' which is a later printing — that phrase describes the work's place in Hardy's….
• A Pair of Blue Eyes — 1873 · Tinsley BrothersFirst edition in book form in three small-octavo volumes, London: Tinsley Brothers, 1873, from a small print run of approximately 500 copies, issued in publisher's green cloth. Collation runs [6], 303, [1 blank]; [6], 311, [1 blank]; [6], 262 pp., and a complete copy retains the half-titles in all three volumes; volume III normally ends with a 16-page Tinsley Brothers catalogue dated March 1873, which is…. The Tinsley Brothers three-decker is the true first and is the first of Hardy's novels to carry his name on the title page — his earlier Desperate Remedies (1871) and Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) had appeared anonymously. It follows serialization in Tinsleys' Magazine (September 1872-July 1873). An American edition (Henry Holt, Leisure Hour Series) also appeared in 1873 but is later; the London edition is the…. Michael Sadleir ranked it No. I in his 'Comparative Scarcities,' i.e. Hardy's scarcest first edition. No book-club issue is at stake for the 1873 first; watch for later Osgood/McIlvaine and Macmillan Wessex-format reprints, which are 'first thus,' not the true first.
• Far from the Madding Crowd — 1874 · Smith, Elder & Co.Two volumes, title pages dated 1874, in publisher's cloth, in an impression of 1000 copies (first published anonymously as a serial in the Cornhill Magazine through 1874). The London edition appeared in November 1874. The Smith, Elder two-volume edition is the first English book edition, but precedence over the American edition is genuinely contested rather than settled. Henry Holt issued a one-volume American edition essentially simultaneously; Purdy records that the American edition carries advertisements dated 17 November 1874 while the London edition was published about 23 November 1874, so the American issue may actually…. One-volume reprints and the later Osgood/Wessex collected editions are not the first.
• The Return of the Native — 1878 · Smith, Elder & Co.Three volumes, Smith, Elder & Co., London, dated 1878 (first edition in book form, about 1,000 copies). The decisive first-issue point is on the Volume I title-page: the closing single quotation mark after 'A Pair of Blue Eyes' (in the list of the author's works) is absent in the first issue. The folding 'Sketch Map of the Scene of the Story' by Hardy is present as a frontispiece in Volume I and should be…. The UK Smith, Elder 1878 three-decker is the true first; the US Harper edition is secondary. The Volume I title-page lacking the closing quotation mark after 'A Pair of Blue Eyes' is the recognized first-issue point. One-volume editions and later reprints are not the first.
• The Trumpet-Major — 1880 · Smith, Elder & Co.First published in three volumes by Smith, Elder & Co. on 26 October 1880, in an edition of 1,000 sets, following serialization in Good Words. The primary first-issue binding (600 of the sets) is red diagonal-fine-ribbed cloth, front cover stamped in black with a three-panel design showing an encampment vignette above and a mill vignette below (both drawn by Hardy himself), the rear cover stamped in blind with a…. The Good Words serialization (January-December 1880) was edited by Donald Macleod to remove content he judged unsuitable for the magazine's family readership; Hardy restored this material for the three-volume Smith, Elder & Co. book edition, so the October 1880 book text -- not the magazine text -- represents Hardy's fuller version of the novel. The three-volume first edition was followed by a one-volume 'New Edition' reprinted through the 1880s and 1890s; Hardy added a new preface addressing plagiarism accusations about his source material to an 1895 one-volume printing. These later one-volume reprints do not carry the three-volume first edition's binding-state points (the two-rule and three-rule rear-cover variants).
• Two on a Tower — 1882 · Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & RivingtonFirst published in three volumes by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington in October 1882, in an edition of 1,000 copies, following serialization in the Atlantic Monthly (May-December 1882). The first-edition binding is green diagonal fine-ribbed cloth, lettered in gilt on the spine and blocked in blind on both boards within a three-rule border, with pale-yellow endpapers. Reviewers attacked the novel as…. American editions from Henry Holt and John W. Lovell followed the same year; the three-volume Sampson Low London edition of October 1882 is the true first. Later Sampson Low or collected-edition printings carry Hardy's toned-down 1883 revisions; only the 1882 three-volume set has the original unrevised text.
• The Mayor of Casterbridge — 1886 · Smith, Elder & Co.Two volumes, Smith, Elder & Co., London, dated 1886 (first edition in book form, published May 1886, in a small printing). Issued in publisher's dark blue cloth blocked in black with gilt spine lettering. Half-title in Volume I; publisher's advertisement leaves at the ends of the volumes, though copies are recorded both with and without ads, so their presence is not a reliable single point. The UK Smith, Elder 1886 two-volume edition is the true first book edition; the US Henry Holt 1886 edition is secondary. One-volume reprints and the later Wessex collected edition are not the first.
• The Woodlanders — 1887 · Macmillan and Co.First published in three volumes by Macmillan and Co. in March 1887, after serialization in Macmillan's Magazine (May 1886-April 1887). Of the edition of 1,000 sets of sheets printed, only about 860 were bound up in the primary issue; the remaining sheets were later cased as a distinct remainder binding (Purdy). The primary binding is forest-green buckram-grain cloth with a rounded-corner frame blocked in black…. Later one-volume Macmillan reprints and the collected 'Wessex Novels'/'Wessex Edition' sets carry Hardy's revised text and different title-page dating; only the three-volume 1887 set with the 1887 date is the first edition.
• Wessex Tales — 1888 · Macmillan and Co.First published in two volumes by Macmillan and Co. on 4 May 1888, collecting five stories in revised form after their magazine serialization. Only 750 sets of sheets were printed and just 634 were bound up as the first edition, making the low binding-up figure itself a key point for identifying a genuine first-issue set. The first-edition cloth is dark blue-green, the boards ruled in light green, the spine…. The five stories were later absorbed into the collected 'Wessex Novels'/'Wessex Edition' volumes alongside other short fiction; those later collected printings are not the 1888 first edition.
• A Group of Noble Dames — 1891 · James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co.First published in one volume by Osgood, McIlvaine & Co. in 1891, gathering ten stories framed as tales told by members of the Wessex Field and Antiquarian Club. Hardy revised the stories for book publication and, in places, restored franker material than the text bowdlerized for the serialization of six of the ten stories in the Graphic's 1890 Christmas number. The first-edition binding is cream cloth, the front…. An authorized Harper & Brothers New York edition appeared the same year; the Osgood, McIlvaine London edition is the true first.
• Tess of the d'Urbervilles — 1891 · James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co.First edition in three volumes (three-decker), with the half-titles and the correct first-issue text including the 'Chapter XXV' / 'Saturday Review' points; the 'ramble' and the first-state readings (e.g., the corrected text in later issues). Original cloth in three volumes. UK Osgood McIlvaine 1891 three-volume is the true first; the one-volume 1892 is a later edition. Complete three-decker in original cloth is the landmark. The one-volume editions and later reissues are not the first; any single-volume copy is later.
• Jude the Obscure — 1896 · Osgood, McIlvaine & Co.One volume, issued as Volume VIII of the Wessex Novels collected set and the first separate book edition. The title page is dated 1896 although the book was actually published in November 1895. Points include the 1896-dated title page, the etched frontispiece of Christminster by H. Macbeth-Raeburn with its facing caption leaf, and Hardy's own map of 'The Wessex of the Novels' bound in the volume; issued in the…. The Osgood, McIlvaine edition (title page dated 1896, published November 1895) is the first English book edition. A Harper American edition appeared at nearly the same time following serialization in Harper's Magazine; precedence between the two is debated, so confidence on which strictly precedes should remain modest. Later Macmillan collected-edition printings are not the first.
• The Well-Beloved — 1897 · Osgood, McIlvaine & Co.First edition in book form, London: Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1897, issued as volume XVII of the uniform Wessex Novels in publisher's vertically-ribbed dark green cloth, lettered in gilt on the spine with Hardy's wreathed-monogram device blocked in gilt on the upper board, top edge gilt and other edges untrimmed. It contains a tissue-guarded etched frontispiece ('The Isle of the Story') by H. Macbeth-Raeburn and a…. This is a genuine first edition, NOT a 'first thus' — although the text had appeared serially in 1892 as 'The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved' (Illustrated London News), it was considerably revised and had no prior book publication, so the 1897 Osgood, McIlvaine volume is the first book edition. It is one of three true first editions issued within the Osgood, McIlvaine Wessex Novels series (with Jude the Obscure and…. Later Macmillan Wessex Edition (from 1912) and Uniform/Pocket printings are reprints or 'first thus.' No book-club issue affects the 1897 first.
• Wessex Poems and Other Verses — 1898 · Harper & Brothers, LondonFirst edition limited to 500 copies, published in London by Harper & Brothers of 45 Albemarle Street in December 1898 — dealers record the week of 11 December. Crown octavo (roughly 200 x 131 mm), xi, [1], 228 pages. Publisher's original green ribbed cloth, spine lettered in gilt, a gilt medallion enclosing Hardy's TH monogram on the upper cover, top edge gilt, other edges uncut. Illustrated from Hardy's own…. UK precedes US, despite a shared imprint that invites error. Harper & Brothers ran both a London and a New York house and the title pages name both cities, so the imprint alone will not separate the editions. The London edition dated 1898, limited to 500 copies, is the true first. The first American edition is dated 1899, bound in light green cloth with pictorial decoration in colours, and followed roughly six…. No book-club edition — the book predates book-club publishing. The reprint tell that matters concerns the illustrations: Hardy's drawings were dropped when Wessex Poems was next reprinted in 1912, so any copy of this title lacking the author's illustrations is a later edition. A copy dated 1899 is the American edition, not a second state or later issue of the London first.

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