# Is "Rip Van Winkle (text by Washington Irving)" by Arthur Rackham a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Rip Van Winkle (text by Washington Irving) by Arthur Rackham (London: William Heinemann, 1905) is identified by: The illustrated 1905 first edition exists in two simultaneous issues. Both issues are the 1905 first edition; the signed/numbered vellum limited issue (250 copies, London: Heinemann, 1905) is the senior and most-prized form among collectors, scarcer than the trade green-cloth issue and far scarcer than the later 1,000-copy Midsummer Night's Dream limited (1908).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- VERIFIED. The illustrated 1905 first edition exists in two simultaneous issues
- The ORDINARY TRADE issue: quarto, 51 mounted colour plates (a colour frontispiece facing the title plus 50 plates, each tipped onto heavy brown paper with a captioned/lettered tissue guard), accompanied by numerous black-and-white illustrations in the text; bound in publisher's green pictorial cloth, front board and spine stamped/lettered in gilt (sleeping Rip vignette to front), green endpapers, all edges stained green
- The signed DELUXE LIMITED issue: limited to 250 copies, each signed by Rackham on the limitation leaf and numbered, with the same 51 mounted colour plates, bound in full pictorial vellum gilt (gilt title/image to front cover, gilt spine) with silk/ribbon ties, top edge gilt and the rest uncut
- This was the first book wholly illustrated by Rackham to be issued in a signed limited edition and the title that established him as the pre-eminent Edwardian colour gift-book illustrator; the 250-copy limitation is small and desirable (one of his earliest and smaller limitations), though not the very smallest of his career
- References: Riall 69
- Latimore & Haskell 26
- Publisher imprint reads London: William Heinemann

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Arthur Rackham |
| Publisher | London: William Heinemann |
| Year | 1905 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | VERIFIED. The illustrated 1905 first edition exists in two simultaneous issues |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
VERIFIED. The illustrated 1905 first edition exists in two simultaneous issues. (1) The ORDINARY TRADE issue: quarto, 51 mounted colour plates (a colour frontispiece facing the title plus 50 plates, each tipped onto heavy brown paper with a captioned/lettered tissue guard), accompanied by numerous black-and-white illustrations in the text; bound in publisher's green pictorial cloth, front board and spine stamped/lettered in gilt (sleeping Rip vignette to front), green endpapers, all edges stained green. (2) The signed DELUXE LIMITED issue: limited to 250 copies, each signed by Rackham on the limitation leaf and numbered, with the same 51 mounted colour plates, bound in full pictorial vellum gilt (gilt title/image to front cover, gilt spine) with silk/ribbon ties, top edge gilt and the rest uncut. This was the first book wholly illustrated by Rackham to be issued in a signed limited edition and the title that established him as the pre-eminent Edwardian colour gift-book illustrator; the 250-copy limitation is small and desirable (one of his earliest and smaller limitations), though not the very smallest of his career. References: Riall 69; Latimore & Haskell 26; Ray 328. All value figures deliberately omitted.

## Is this the true first?
Both issues are the 1905 first edition; the signed/numbered vellum limited issue (250 copies, London: Heinemann, 1905) is the senior and most-prized form among collectors, scarcer than the trade green-cloth issue and far scarcer than the later 1,000-copy Midsummer Night's Dream limited (1908). The London Heinemann issue is conventionally cited as the primary first, with a simultaneous US trade issue under Doubleday, Page & Co., New York (1905); on some copies Doubleday is the first-named imprint on the title page, so transatlantic precedence between the two national trade issues is not firmly documented — treat London/Heinemann as first by convention and hedge accordingly.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Heinemann reprinted this title repeatedly after 1905; later printings commonly REDUCE the plate count (the full first-issue complement is the frontispiece plus 50 = 51 mounted colour plates) and may substitute cheaper binding, so a genuine first must show all 51 mounted plates with their tissue guards, the correct issue binding (green pictorial cloth with all edges green for the trade issue; full vellum gilt for the limited), and an 1905 title/verso with no later date or 'reprinted/new impression' statement. The signed limited must carry the numbered limitation leaf (within 250) and Rackham's autograph. Later and cheaper Heinemann/US reprints and a smaller-format edition circulate; foxing to the plate mounts and tissue guards is near-universal and is NOT in itself a later-printing tell.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Rip Van Winkle (text by Washington Irving)* by Arthur Rackham a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/rip-van-winkle
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.