# Is "Black Beauty" by Anna Sewell a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (Jarrold and Sons, 1877) is identified by: Published 24 November 1877 with the subtitle 'The Autobiography of a Horse,' collating 247 pages with 8 pages of publisher's advertisements at the rear.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Published 24 November 1877 with the subtitle 'The Autobiography of a Horse,' collating 247 pages with 8 pages of publisher's advertisements at the rear
- John Carter's More Binding Variants records three bindings on the first-edition sheets: binding 'A' has the horse's head and cover border blocked in gilt, binding 'B' is identical but with the horse's head and border in black rather than gilt, and binding 'C' uses an entirely different cover block -- a gilt-titled green cloth stamped with a gold medallion of the horse's portrait
- Carter found binding 'C' comparatively common in the trade while 'A' and 'B' survive in only a handful of copies each; because a fifth edition already circulating by the end of 1878 was also issued in binding 'C,' only 'A' and 'B' can be said with certainty to represent the true 1877 first-edition state, while 'C' copies may include remaindered stock or undifferentiated 1878 reprint sheets bound up alongside genuine first-edition ones
- Publisher imprint reads Jarrold and Sons
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Anna Sewell |
| Publisher | Jarrold and Sons |
| Year | 1877 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | Published 24 November 1877 with the subtitle 'The Autobiography of a Horse,' collating 247 pages with 8 pages of publisher's advertisements… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Published 24 November 1877 with the subtitle 'The Autobiography of a Horse,' collating 247 pages with 8 pages of publisher's advertisements at the rear. John Carter's More Binding Variants records three bindings on the first-edition sheets: binding 'A' has the horse's head and cover border blocked in gilt, binding 'B' is identical but with the horse's head and border in black rather than gilt, and binding 'C' uses an entirely different cover block -- a gilt-titled green cloth stamped with a gold medallion of the horse's portrait. Carter found binding 'C' comparatively common in the trade while 'A' and 'B' survive in only a handful of copies each; because a fifth edition already circulating by the end of 1878 was also issued in binding 'C,' only 'A' and 'B' can be said with certainty to represent the true 1877 first-edition state, while 'C' copies may include remaindered stock or undifferentiated 1878 reprint sheets bound up alongside genuine first-edition ones.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later Jarrold printings, including a fifth edition already circulating by the end of 1878, were issued in the same 'C' cloth binding used for much of the first edition, so binding style alone does not reliably distinguish a genuine 1877 first-edition copy from a slightly later reprint; only the rarer 'A' (gilt) or 'B' (black) horse's-head binding gives certainty of first-edition status.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Black Beauty* by Anna Sewell a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/black-beauty
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.