# Is "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Jacobs a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs (Published for the author, 1861) is identified by: The title page reads 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The 1861 Boston 'Published for the Author' printing precedes a London edition retitled The Deeper Wrong: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, issued by William Tweedie in 1862.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The title page reads 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
- Written by Herself
- Edited by L. Maria Child
- Boston: Published for the Author, 1861' — the phrase 'Published for the Author' signals that Jacobs financed the printing herself after buying the stereotype plates from the bankrupt firm of Thayer and Eldridge, which had set the type in 1860 but never issued the book before its collapse
- The first edition runs to 306 pages and was struck off by a Boston job printer engaged directly by Jacobs rather than by a conventional trade publisher
- Jacobs wrote under the pseudonym 'Linda Brent' throughout the text, and her authorship was not documented and confirmed by scholars until Jean Fagan Yellin's research in the 1980s
- Publisher imprint reads Published for the author

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Harriet Jacobs |
| Publisher | Published for the author |
| Year | 1861 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The title page reads 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The title page reads 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself. Edited by L. Maria Child. Boston: Published for the Author, 1861' — the phrase 'Published for the Author' signals that Jacobs financed the printing herself after buying the stereotype plates from the bankrupt firm of Thayer and Eldridge, which had set the type in 1860 but never issued the book before its collapse. The first edition runs to 306 pages and was struck off by a Boston job printer engaged directly by Jacobs rather than by a conventional trade publisher. Jacobs wrote under the pseudonym 'Linda Brent' throughout the text, and her authorship was not documented and confirmed by scholars until Jean Fagan Yellin's research in the 1980s.

## Is this the true first?
The 1861 Boston 'Published for the Author' printing precedes a London edition retitled The Deeper Wrong: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, issued by William Tweedie in 1862.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl* by Harriet Jacobs a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl
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.