# Is "Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women" by George MacDonald a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women by George MacDonald (Smith, Elder & Co., 1858) is identified by: London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill, 1858; published 28 October 1858; octavo, pp. UK only for precedence: Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1858 is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill, 1858; published 28 October 1858; octavo, pp. [1-4] [1] 2-323 [324: blank]. Original decorated dark green pebbled cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold, cream endpapers, all edges untrimmed; more than one binding variant exists — dealers refer copies to Wolff's copy I / copy II, and a blind-stamped olive-green cloth is also recorded
- The advertisements carry the working state point: the first state has a 16-page publisher's catalogue bound in at the rear dated September 1858, while a later state carries ads dated July 1859
- There is no edition or printing statement and no number line
- Shaberman No
- 8 is the standard bibliographical reference
- The book was issued before the dust-jacket era, so no jacket point applies
- Publisher imprint reads Smith, Elder & Co.

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | George MacDonald |
| Publisher | Smith, Elder & Co. |
| Year | 1858 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill, 1858; published 28 October 1858; octavo, pp. [1-4] [1] 2-323 [324: blank]. Original decorated… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill, 1858; published 28 October 1858; octavo, pp. [1-4] [1] 2-323 [324: blank]. Original decorated dark green pebbled cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold, cream endpapers, all edges untrimmed; more than one binding variant exists — dealers refer copies to Wolff's copy I / copy II, and a blind-stamped olive-green cloth is also recorded. The advertisements carry the working state point: the first state has a 16-page publisher's catalogue bound in at the rear dated September 1858, while a later state carries ads dated July 1859. There is no edition or printing statement and no number line; Shaberman No. 8 is the standard bibliographical reference. The book was issued before the dust-jacket era, so no jacket point applies.

## Is this the true first?
UK only for precedence: Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1858 is the true first. The first American edition did not appear until Loring, Boston, in 1870 — twelve years later — so no simultaneous-issue question arises and the census claim is confirmed. The real hazard here is 'first thus' traps, which are numerous: the 1905 Arthur C. Fifield first Hughes-illustrated edition (thirty-three new Arthur Hughes illustrations, edited by Greville MacDonald), the 1915 J. M. Dent Everyman No. 732 with a new Greville MacDonald preface (the edition C. S. Lewis bought at the railway station), and the 1971 Gollancz Phantastes & Lilith with the C. S. Lewis introduction.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition applies — an 1858 London novel predates the book-club era by decades. Reprint tells are therefore imprint-based: any copy naming Loring, Fifield, Dent/Everyman, Daldy Isbister, Gollancz or a modern press is a reprint or 'first thus', not the Smith, Elder sheets. The target is a Smith, Elder title page dated 1858 in blind-stamped dark green pebbled cloth with the September 1858 catalogue at the rear.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women* by George MacDonald a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/phantastes-a-faerie-romance-for-men-and-women
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.