# Is "Mary Poppins" by P. L. Travers (illustrated by Mary Shepard) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers (illustrated by Mary Shepard) (Gerald Howe Ltd, 1934) is identified by: First edition, Gerald Howe Ltd, London, 1934, with 'First Published 1934' on the copyright page and no later printing statement. The census claim that Gerald Howe, London, 1934 is the true first is upheld on trade consensus rather than on a dated citation.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, Gerald Howe Ltd, London, 1934, with 'First Published 1934' on the copyright page and no later printing statement
- Bound in publisher's yellow cloth stamped in dark blue
- 206 pages plus preliminaries, with 27 line illustrations by Mary Shepard (13 of them full-page) plus chapter tailpieces, and pictorial endpapers; approximately 7 the printed price x 4 the printed price inches
- The first-issue jacket is grey with the Mary Shepard illustration printed in yellow, and is a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap - price-clipping destroys that point
- One UK dealer listing describes a dark blue cloth copy, but the auction records and the ABAA description consulted agree on yellow cloth stamped in dark blue, so treat a blue-cloth copy offered as a UK first with suspicion: blue cloth is the American binding
- Publisher imprint reads Gerald Howe Ltd
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | P. L. Travers (illustrated by Mary Shepard) |
| Publisher | Gerald Howe Ltd |
| Year | 1934 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First edition, Gerald Howe Ltd, London, 1934, with 'First Published 1934' on the copyright page and no later printing statement |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First edition, Gerald Howe Ltd, London, 1934, with 'First Published 1934' on the copyright page and no later printing statement. Bound in publisher's yellow cloth stamped in dark blue; 206 pages plus preliminaries, with 27 line illustrations by Mary Shepard (13 of them full-page) plus chapter tailpieces, and pictorial endpapers; approximately 7 the printed price x 4 the printed price inches. The first-issue jacket is grey with the Mary Shepard illustration printed in yellow, and is a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap - price-clipping destroys that point. One UK dealer listing describes a dark blue cloth copy, but the auction records and the ABAA description consulted agree on yellow cloth stamped in dark blue, so treat a blue-cloth copy offered as a UK first with suspicion: blue cloth is the American binding.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim that Gerald Howe, London, 1934 is the true first is upheld on trade consensus rather than on a dated citation. Whitmore Rare Books catalogues the Howe printing simply as the first edition, Doyle offered it as 'the first edition of the first Mary Poppins book', Tennants catalogued it as the first edition, and every Reynal & Hitchcock copy consulted is catalogued as the first AMERICAN edition - a term of art conceding it is not the true first. However, no source consulted supplies a month- or day-level publication date for either 1934 issue, so the ordering is the settled trade position and not a proven date gap; readers should treat it as such. Both editions are collected. The first American edition is Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, 1934, bound in publisher's blue cloth stamped in darker blue, illustrated with the same 27 Mary Shepard line cuts, and issued in a priced jacket with the price present at the flap.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Some Howe copies carry a wrap-around 'Junior Book Club' promotional band; this is a promotional band on the trade issue, not a book-club reprint, and its survival is a bonus rather than a demerit. A later-issue text tell that cuts across printings: the original 1934 'Bad Tuesday' chapter was rewritten by Travers in 1967 and revised again in 1981, so any copy carrying the revised chapter is post-1966 regardless of what its copyright page claims. Gerald Howe did not publish the sequel - Mary Poppins Comes Back came from Lovat Dickson in 1935 - so a 'matched set' in Howe bindings is not possible.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Mary Poppins* by P. L. Travers (illustrated by Mary Shepard) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/mary-poppins
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.