# Is "From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre à la Lune)" by Jules Verne a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre à la Lune) by Jules Verne (Pierre-Jules Hetzel, 1865) is identified by: True first: Pierre-Jules Hetzel, Paris, published 25 October 1865, in one volume, in-18 format (approx. French original; Hetzel (Paris) 1865, in-18, is the true first — the census is right on publisher and year but wrong on what to look for, on two counts.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first: Pierre-Jules Hetzel, Paris, published 25 October 1865, in one volume, in-18 format (approx
- 11.5 x 18.2 cm), 302 pages plus an errata leaf and 17 pages of extract from the Hetzel bookshop catalogue; issued in demi-percaline chagrinée with smooth spine, gilt fillets and gilt author and title
- THE CRITICAL POINT: the 1865 first edition is NOT illustrated
- The illustrated grand in-8 Hetzel edition, with 41 engravings and a map by Henri de Montaut engraved by François de Pannemaker, did not appear until 1868, when the title was also revised from "Trajet direct en 97 heures" to "Trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes"; the 1868 illustrated printing is noted for the inversion of the illustrations at pages 25 and 32
- The text was serialized in the Journal des débats politiques et littéraires, September–October 1865, preceding the book
- Verne himself gave copies of the plain in-18 to friends rather than the larger in-8
- Publisher imprint reads Pierre-Jules Hetzel

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Jules Verne |
| Publisher | Pierre-Jules Hetzel |
| Year | 1865 |
| True first | British edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first: Pierre-Jules Hetzel, Paris, published 25 October 1865, in one volume, in-18 format (approx |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
True first: Pierre-Jules Hetzel, Paris, published 25 October 1865, in one volume, in-18 format (approx. 11.5 x 18.2 cm), 302 pages plus an errata leaf and 17 pages of extract from the Hetzel bookshop catalogue; issued in demi-percaline chagrinée with smooth spine, gilt fillets and gilt author and title. THE CRITICAL POINT: the 1865 first edition is NOT illustrated. The illustrated grand in-8 Hetzel edition, with 41 engravings and a map by Henri de Montaut engraved by François de Pannemaker, did not appear until 1868, when the title was also revised from "Trajet direct en 97 heures" to "Trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes"; the 1868 illustrated printing is noted for the inversion of the illustrations at pages 25 and 32. The text was serialized in the Journal des débats politiques et littéraires, September–October 1865, preceding the book. Verne himself gave copies of the plain in-18 to friends rather than the larger in-8.

## Is this the true first?
French original; Hetzel (Paris) 1865, in-18, is the true first — the census is right on publisher and year but wrong on what to look for, on two counts. (a) FIRST-THUS / CARTONNAGE TRAP: the census says "Hetzel cartonnage variants drive value". The celebrated Hetzel decorated cartonnages are 1868 and later; they are illustrated editions that postdate the true first and carry no precedence. The priority edition is the plain, unillustrated 1865 in-18 — the opposite of what a cartonnage-hunting eye would select. (b) The first English-language edition is NOT the Sampson Low 1873. It is "From the Earth to the Moon: Passage Direct in 97 Hours and 20 Minutes", translated by J. K. Hoyt, Newark, N.J.: The Newark Printing and Publishing Company, 1869 — large octavo, pp. [1-3] 4-84, printed in double columns with an inserted frontispiece, in publisher's green wrappers printed in black, no statement of printing. It first ran in seventeen installments in the Newark Daily and Weekly Journal from 10 June 1869 and was issued in wrappers later that year. Both L. W. Currey and John W. Knott catalogue it as the first edition in English and a legendary rarity, the Library of Congress holding one of only a few known copies. The Sampson Low (London) 1873 "From the Earth to the Moon Direct in 97 Hours 20 Minutes: and a Trip Round It" (trans. Louis Mercier and Eleanor E. King; frontispiece and seventy-seven plates) is the first British book edition and the first English edition to combine this novel with Autour de la Lune, but it is not the first in English, and the Mercier/King translation deletes roughly 20% of Verne's French text.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
For Verne the governing trap is the Hetzel cartonnage — decorated pictorial boards issued in many types across several decades. These are later illustrated issues, not the 1865 first; a cartonnage can postdate the true first by decades and is dated by binding type and by the bound-in catalogue. Later Hetzel double volumes pairing De la Terre à la Lune with Autour de la Lune begin in 1872 in French. In English, the abridged Mercier/King text was reprinted for over a century by numerous publishers and is the common reprint text; a copy set from it is a reprint regardless of imprint date.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre à la Lune)* by Jules Verne a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/from-the-earth-to-the-moon-de-la-terre-la-lune
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.