# Is "Eloise" by Kay Thompson (illustrated by Hilary Knight) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Eloise by Kay Thompson (illustrated by Hilary Knight) (Simon and Schuster, 1955) is identified by: First edition, first printing: Simon and Schuster, New York, 1955, full title 'Eloise: A Book for Precocious Grown Ups'. The census claim that Simon & Schuster, New York, 1955 is the true first is upheld; Eloise is an American book by an American author and illustrator, and the US edition is the collected one.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing: Simon and Schuster, New York, 1955, full title 'Eloise: A Book for Precocious Grown Ups'
- The copyright page carries the address line 'NEW YORK 20, N.Y.', then the words 'FIRST PRINTING', then 'LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 55-11039'; all three lines must be present
- The decisive first-state text point is on page 50, where Eloise says her mother knows Lily Dache; in subsequent printings the name was changed to Coco Chanel, so a copy reading 'Coco Chanel' at page 50 is not a first printing whatever its copyright page says
- Bound in publisher's cream cloth with the Hilary Knight drawing of Eloise stamped on the front board in black and lettering in black and maroon
- The first-issue jacket is a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap - price-clipping removes that point, and the page-50 reading then does the work
- Publisher imprint reads Simon and Schuster
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Kay Thompson (illustrated by Hilary Knight) |
| Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
| Year | 1955 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First edition, first printing: Simon and Schuster, New York, 1955, full title 'Eloise: A Book for Precocious Grown Ups' |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing: Simon and Schuster, New York, 1955, full title 'Eloise: A Book for Precocious Grown Ups'. The copyright page carries the address line 'NEW YORK 20, N.Y.', then the words 'FIRST PRINTING', then 'LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 55-11039'; all three lines must be present. The decisive first-state text point is on page 50, where Eloise says her mother knows Lily Dache; in subsequent printings the name was changed to Coco Chanel, so a copy reading 'Coco Chanel' at page 50 is not a first printing whatever its copyright page says. Bound in publisher's cream cloth with the Hilary Knight drawing of Eloise stamped on the front board in black and lettering in black and maroon. The first-issue jacket is a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap - price-clipping removes that point, and the page-50 reading then does the work.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim that Simon & Schuster, New York, 1955 is the true first is upheld; Eloise is an American book by an American author and illustrator, and the US edition is the collected one. The census's further claim that 'early printings differ in jacket subtitle text' is NOT supported by any source consulted and should not be relied on - it appears to be a garbling of the genuine page-50 Lily Dache / Coco Chanel text point, which is the real early-printing variant. No UK first-edition details were confirmed in this pass, and no source consulted treats a UK issue as collected alongside the American first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No Eloise book-club issue was documented in the sources consulted. Later printings reuse the same cream-cloth binding and the same Hilary Knight jacket art, so the binding is worthless as a printing test; use the copyright page 'FIRST PRINTING' line together with the page-50 reading, and treat either one alone as insufficient. Signed copies inscribed by Thompson and Knight on the front free endpaper are recorded on first printings but signature is not itself an edition point.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Eloise* by Kay Thompson (illustrated by Hilary Knight) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/eloise
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.