# Is "Ramona" by Helen Hunt Jackson a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson (Roberts Brothers, 1884) is identified by: Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884, octavo, collating [ii], 490 pages plus four pages of publisher's advertisements, bound in the publisher's original gilt-stamped green cloth (gilt on the spine, black and gilt on the front board) with floral endpapers. The true first issue carries only the Boston: Roberts Brothers imprint dated 1884 on the title page.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884, octavo, collating [ii], 490 pages plus four pages of publisher's advertisements, bound in the publisher's original gilt-stamped green cloth (gilt on the spine, black and gilt on the front board) with floral endpapers
- The 1884 first edition is entirely unillustrated; the earliest added illustrations were four halftone views of Rancho Camulos, promoted as 'the Home of Ramona,' bound into a Roberts Brothers appendix only in 1889, with fuller pictorial editions following from Little, Brown and Company beginning in 1900
- A copy containing any photographic or halftone illustrations is therefore a later printing, not the true 1884 first edition
- Publisher imprint reads Roberts Brothers
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Helen Hunt Jackson |
| Publisher | Roberts Brothers |
| Year | 1884 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884, octavo, collating [ii], 490 pages plus four pages of publisher's advertisements, bound in the publisher's… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884, octavo, collating [ii], 490 pages plus four pages of publisher's advertisements, bound in the publisher's original gilt-stamped green cloth (gilt on the spine, black and gilt on the front board) with floral endpapers. The 1884 first edition is entirely unillustrated; the earliest added illustrations were four halftone views of Rancho Camulos, promoted as 'the Home of Ramona,' bound into a Roberts Brothers appendix only in 1889, with fuller pictorial editions following from Little, Brown and Company beginning in 1900. A copy containing any photographic or halftone illustrations is therefore a later printing, not the true 1884 first edition.

## Is this the true first?
The true first issue carries only the Boston: Roberts Brothers imprint dated 1884 on the title page. A later issue adds a four-line imprint for Samuel Carson & Co. of San Francisco and is dated 1885 on the title page; it should not be mistaken for the true first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Illustrated reprints beginning with the 1889 Roberts Brothers appendix and continuing through the 1900 Little, Brown 'Monterey' edition (paintings by Henry Sandham) and the 1913 Little, Brown 'Tourist Edition' (photographs by Adam Clark Vroman) add pictures of Rancho Camulos and other sites tied to the novel's tourist trade; none of this pictorial matter appears in the plain-text 1884 first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Ramona* by Helen Hunt Jackson a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/ramona
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.