# Is "Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities" by Robert Smith Surtees a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities by Robert Smith Surtees (Walter Spiers, 1838) is identified by: True first edition in book form, published by Walter Spiers in London in 1838, collecting sketches that had first appeared unillustrated in the New Sporting Magazine between 1831 and 1834. Book-form publication began with this 1838 Spiers edition; the unillustrated magazine sketches that preceded it in the New Sporting Magazine (1831-1834) do not constitute prior book publication.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first edition in book form, published by Walter Spiers in London in 1838, collecting sketches that had first appeared unillustrated in the New Sporting Magazine between 1831 and 1834
- The first edition is octavo, running to 358 pages, and illustrated with twelve plates by 'Phiz' (Hablot Knight Browne), issued in the publisher's gilt-blocked cloth
- The far more famous edition with hand-colored aquatint plates by Henry Alken is not a variant of this book but a wholly separate second edition, published by Rudolph Ackermann in 1843 with a different illustrator, publisher, and set of plates
- Publisher imprint reads Walter Spiers
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert Smith Surtees |
| Publisher | Walter Spiers |
| Year | 1838 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first edition in book form, published by Walter Spiers in London in 1838, collecting sketches that had first appeared unillustrated in… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
True first edition in book form, published by Walter Spiers in London in 1838, collecting sketches that had first appeared unillustrated in the New Sporting Magazine between 1831 and 1834. The first edition is octavo, running to 358 pages, and illustrated with twelve plates by 'Phiz' (Hablot Knight Browne), issued in the publisher's gilt-blocked cloth. The far more famous edition with hand-colored aquatint plates by Henry Alken is not a variant of this book but a wholly separate second edition, published by Rudolph Ackermann in 1843 with a different illustrator, publisher, and set of plates.

## Is this the true first?
Book-form publication began with this 1838 Spiers edition; the unillustrated magazine sketches that preceded it in the New Sporting Magazine (1831-1834) do not constitute prior book publication. The Alken-illustrated edition of 1843 is a distinct later second edition, not a suppressed or alternate state of the 1838 first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The edition most often associated with the title in the market -- with hand-colored aquatint plates by Henry Alken -- is the 1843 Ackermann second edition, not the 1838 Spiers true first, which carries plates by Phiz instead. A separately withdrawn Alken portrait plate of Jorrocks, 'A Citizen of Credit and Renown,' is known from only one located example and belongs to that later 1843 edition; it has no bearing on identifying a genuine 1838 first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities* by Robert Smith Surtees a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/jorrockss-jaunts-and-jollities
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.