# Is "Peter and Wendy" by J. M. Barrie a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie (Hodder & Stoughton, 1911) is identified by: UK Hodder & Stoughton first: the title-page verso is undated and carries no notice of any subsequent printing — any statement of a later impression rules out the first. The census is correct: the UK Hodder & Stoughton edition (London, 1911) is the accepted true first, published 18 October 1911, with Charles Scribner's Sons (New York) following on 21 October 1911 — three days later, hence "nearly simultaneous" but not co-equal.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- UK Hodder & Stoughton first: the title-page verso is undated and carries no notice of any subsequent printing — any statement of a later impression rules out the first
- Collation is vii, 267 pp. with 13 plates including the frontispiece and title, illustrated by F. D. Bedford
- Binding is publisher's olive-green cloth elaborately blocked in gilt to spine and front cover, the front design showing Peter, two mermaids and the crocodile; octavo, roughly 21 x 15 x 4 cm
- US Scribner's first: the copyright page reads "Published October, 1911" and carries the Scribner seal — both must be present
- A blue-cloth Scribner variant is recorded with a colour tipped-in frontispiece, as against the green cloth in which the frontispiece is tinted only; the sources consulted do not establish priority between these two Scribner bindings, so neither is asserted here as first state
- Jackets on either edition are seldom encountered; a first-issue jacket is priced at the flap
- Publisher imprint reads Hodder & Stoughton

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | J. M. Barrie |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton |
| Year | 1911 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | UK Hodder & Stoughton first: the title-page verso is undated and carries no notice of any subsequent printing — any statement of a later… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
UK Hodder & Stoughton first: the title-page verso is undated and carries no notice of any subsequent printing — any statement of a later impression rules out the first. Collation is vii, 267 pp. with 13 plates including the frontispiece and title, illustrated by F. D. Bedford. Binding is publisher's olive-green cloth elaborately blocked in gilt to spine and front cover, the front design showing Peter, two mermaids and the crocodile; octavo, roughly 21 x 15 x 4 cm. US Scribner's first: the copyright page reads "Published October, 1911" and carries the Scribner seal — both must be present. A blue-cloth Scribner variant is recorded with a colour tipped-in frontispiece, as against the green cloth in which the frontispiece is tinted only; the sources consulted do not establish priority between these two Scribner bindings, so neither is asserted here as first state. Jackets on either edition are seldom encountered; a first-issue jacket is priced at the flap.

## Is this the true first?
The census is correct: the UK Hodder & Stoughton edition (London, 1911) is the accepted true first, published 18 October 1911, with Charles Scribner's Sons (New York) following on 21 October 1911 — three days later, hence "nearly simultaneous" but not co-equal. Burnside Rare Books (ABAA) catalogues the Hodder as "the true first edition of the novel colloquially known as Peter Pan". Both editions are illustrated by F. D. Bedford and both are collected, the British generally the more sought. The census is also correct that the play text is a separate and much later book: it was not published until 1928, as Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up — a distinct work, not an edition of this novel.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No 1911 book-club issue is documented. The dominant traps are the many later Hodder & Stoughton reprints and decorative-cloth reissues — a 1930 Hodder "New Edition" is one commonly offered — which retain Bedford's plates and similar gilt-blocked cloth but state a later printing or a later date on the title-page verso. Reduced-format and abridged Peter Pan retellings, and editions illustrated by other hands, are separate works and not printings of Peter and Wendy at all.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Peter and Wendy* by J. M. Barrie a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/peter-and-wendy
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.