# Is "Modern Painters, Volume I" by John Ruskin a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Modern Painters, Volume I by John Ruskin (Smith, Elder and Co., 1843) is identified by: First edition, published anonymously as "by a Graduate of Oxford," London: Smith, Elder and Co., May 1843, large crown 8vo, xxxi+420pp.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, published anonymously as "by a Graduate of Oxford," London: Smith, Elder and Co., May 1843, large crown 8vo, xxxi+420pp
- Publisher's original cloth boards (recorded in green or purple grain) are lettered on the spine "Modern Painters / Their Superiority in the Art of Landscape Painting / to the Ancient Masters," with the title on the front board enclosed in a pictorial device of two trees, a lake, and a setting sun
- Ruskin's name did not appear on a title page of Modern Painters, Volume I, until its fifth edition in 1851; the Wordsworth epigraph on the title page is present from this first printing onward
- The complete five-volume Modern Painters was not finished until 1860, but Volume I, 1843, is the true first-published installment
- Publisher imprint reads Smith, Elder and Co.
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | John Ruskin |
| Publisher | Smith, Elder and Co. |
| Year | 1843 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, published anonymously as "by a Graduate of Oxford," London: Smith, Elder and Co., May 1843, large crown 8vo, xxxi+420pp |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, published anonymously as "by a Graduate of Oxford," London: Smith, Elder and Co., May 1843, large crown 8vo, xxxi+420pp. Publisher's original cloth boards (recorded in green or purple grain) are lettered on the spine "Modern Painters / Their Superiority in the Art of Landscape Painting / to the Ancient Masters," with the title on the front board enclosed in a pictorial device of two trees, a lake, and a setting sun. Ruskin's name did not appear on a title page of Modern Painters, Volume I, until its fifth edition in 1851; the Wordsworth epigraph on the title page is present from this first printing onward. The complete five-volume Modern Painters was not finished until 1860, but Volume I, 1843, is the true first-published installment.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later printings and the collected reissues that followed completion of the five-volume set in 1860 carry Ruskin's name on the title page; a genuine 1843 first-edition title page credits the author only as "a Graduate of Oxford," with Ruskin first named on a Modern Painters I title page in the fifth edition of 1851.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Modern Painters, Volume I* by John Ruskin a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/modern-painters-volume-i
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.