# Is "Pollyanna" by Eleanor H. Porter a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter (L. C. Page & Company, 1913) is identified by: Page firsts are identified by the impression statement printed on the copyright page (verso of the title leaf); the first printing reads "First Impression, February, 1913" and names no later impression. US L.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- L. C. Page firsts are identified by the impression statement printed on the copyright page (verso of the title leaf); the first printing reads "First Impression, February, 1913" and names no later impression
- Because Page reprinted from the same setting continuously, a 1913-dated copy is very often a later impression — the twelfth impression is dated October 1913 and the twentieth impression February 1914, so the stated month is decisive, not the title-page year
- Later impressions list the accumulated impression sequence on the copyright page (the Library of Congress copy runs "First impression, February, 1913... forty-seventh impression, January, 1920")
- Collation is reported as x, 310, [6], 10 pp., including publisher's advertisements, with a frontispiece and full-page black-and-white plates by Stockton Mulford
- Binding is not a printing point: publisher's cloth is reported in a copper/pink watered or "wave" cloth stamped in gilt and in a pink fleur-de-lys cloth, and the Internet Archive's copy in pink watered cloth is the twentieth impression
- A secondary tell: the 1913 first carries the "L. C. Page & Company" imprint, while copies imprinted "The Page Company" reflect the firm's later name and are later impressions
- Publisher imprint reads L. C. Page & Company

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Eleanor H. Porter |
| Publisher | L. C. Page & Company |
| Year | 1913 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | L. C. Page firsts are identified by the impression statement printed on the copyright page (verso of the title leaf); the first printing… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
L. C. Page firsts are identified by the impression statement printed on the copyright page (verso of the title leaf); the first printing reads "First Impression, February, 1913" and names no later impression. Because Page reprinted from the same setting continuously, a 1913-dated copy is very often a later impression — the twelfth impression is dated October 1913 and the twentieth impression February 1914, so the stated month is decisive, not the title-page year. Later impressions list the accumulated impression sequence on the copyright page (the Library of Congress copy runs "First impression, February, 1913... forty-seventh impression, January, 1920"). Collation is reported as x, 310, [6], 10 pp., including publisher's advertisements, with a frontispiece and full-page black-and-white plates by Stockton Mulford. Binding is not a printing point: publisher's cloth is reported in a copper/pink watered or "wave" cloth stamped in gilt and in a pink fleur-de-lys cloth, and the Internet Archive's copy in pink watered cloth is the twentieth impression. A secondary tell: the 1913 first carries the "L. C. Page & Company" imprint, while copies imprinted "The Page Company" reflect the firm's later name and are later impressions.

## Is this the true first?
US L. C. Page & Company, Boston, 1913 is the true first; the census claim is confirmed. No UK or other-language edition precedes it — Page was the originating publisher. The trap here is terminological rather than geographic: every one of Page's forty-seven impressions through January 1920 is the "first edition" in the strict bibliographical sense (one setting of type), so dealer copy reading "first edition" routinely describes a later impression. Only the stated February 1913 first impression is the first printing.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition is documented in the sources consulted. The practical reprint tell is the copyright-page impression statement: any month later than February 1913, or a list of multiple impressions, marks a reprint. Copies with no impression statement at all, or with "The Page Company" imprint, are later still.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Pollyanna* by Eleanor H. Porter a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/pollyanna
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.