# Is "Jacob's Room" by Virginia Woolf a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf (The Hogarth Press, 1922) is identified by: Published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, Richmond, October 1922, in a first impression of 1,200 copies printed by R. The Hogarth Press edition (Richmond/London, October 1922) is the true first, and the census claim is confirmed on that point.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, Richmond, October 1922, in a first impression of 1,200 copies printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh (Kirkpatrick A6a
- Woolmer 26)
- Bound in crocus-yellow cloth boards with a printed paper label on the spine lettered in black; leaves untrimmed
- Issued in the pictorial dust jacket designed by Vanessa Bell — the first Hogarth Press book to carry a Bell-designed jacket — Vanessa drew the design, Virginia chose the terracotta colouring and Leonard advised on the lettering; the jacket is usually absent, and surviving examples are commonly faded from their original brightness
- Sources disagree on the exact day of publication (26 vs 27 October 1922), so only the month is asserted here
- About 40 copies of this same impression went to Hogarth Press subscribers and carry a small hand-printed slip pasted to the front free endpaper, which Woolf completed, signed and dated by hand in at least some copies; these are not a separate large-paper or signed limited issue and are catalogued under the same Kirkpatrick A6a
- Publisher imprint reads The Hogarth Press

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Virginia Woolf |
| Publisher | The Hogarth Press |
| Year | 1922 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, Richmond, October 1922, in a first impression of 1,200 copies printed by R. &… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, Richmond, October 1922, in a first impression of 1,200 copies printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh (Kirkpatrick A6a; Woolmer 26). Bound in crocus-yellow cloth boards with a printed paper label on the spine lettered in black; leaves untrimmed. Issued in the pictorial dust jacket designed by Vanessa Bell — the first Hogarth Press book to carry a Bell-designed jacket — Vanessa drew the design, Virginia chose the terracotta colouring and Leonard advised on the lettering; the jacket is usually absent, and surviving examples are commonly faded from their original brightness. Sources disagree on the exact day of publication (26 vs 27 October 1922), so only the month is asserted here. About 40 copies of this same impression went to Hogarth Press subscribers and carry a small hand-printed slip pasted to the front free endpaper, which Woolf completed, signed and dated by hand in at least some copies; these are not a separate large-paper or signed limited issue and are catalogued under the same Kirkpatrick A6a.

## Is this the true first?
The Hogarth Press edition (Richmond/London, October 1922) is the true first, and the census claim is confirmed on that point. The first American edition followed from Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1923 (Kirkpatrick A6b, about 1,500 copies); it is a later separate edition, not a co-first, and carries 'Copyright, 1923' on the copyright page. The census description of 'a 40-copy signed issue' is corrected: the subscriber copies are part of the single 1,200-copy first impression and are distinguished only by the pasted hand-printed slip, not by paper, binding or a limitation statement. Note also that Jacob's Room was Woolf's third novel, not her debut — The Voyage Out (1915) and Night and Day (1919) were Duckworth books — so 'first Hogarth novel' is a press milestone rather than a first appearance in book form by the author.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1922 first. The usual confusions are the Hogarth second impression of 1,000 copies, printed shortly after the first began selling briskly; the later Hogarth Uniform Edition (from 1929); and the 1923 Harcourt, Brace American edition, which is frequently offered as 'the first edition' when it is the first American. Check against the A6a points: 1,200-copy impression, crocus-yellow cloth, black-lettered printed paper spine label, untrimmed edges.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Jacob's Room* by Virginia Woolf a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/jacobs-room
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.