# Is "Robert's Rules of Order (Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies)" by Henry M. Robert a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Robert's Rules of Order (Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies) by Henry M. Robert (S. C. Griggs & Company, 1876) is identified by: True first: Chicago, S. US first (Griggs, Chicago, 1876) is the true first; no foreign precedence.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first: Chicago, S. C. Griggs and Company, 1876 — original title 'Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies' (cover short-title 'Robert's Rules of Order'), issued February 1876 in a self-financed printing of 4,000 copies
- Decisive sourced collation: 176 numbered pages, containing only Part I and Part II, with the Table of Rules placed at the BACK; the revised second edition (July 1876) is enlarged to 192 pp, adds 'Part III: Miscellaneous,' and moves the Table of Rules to the front
- Corroborated by Wikipedia and The First Edition Rare Books / RobertsRules.org
- NOTE: fine first-printing states WITHIN the 1876 first edition are not consistently documented in available dealer or bibliographic sources; the reliable, sourced test is the 176-pp / two-part / Table-of-Rules-at-rear collation that separates the first edition from the July 1876 second edition
- Publisher imprint reads S. C. Griggs & Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Henry M. Robert |
| Publisher | S. C. Griggs & Company |
| Year | 1876 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first: Chicago, S. C. Griggs and Company, 1876 — original title 'Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies' (cover… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
True first: Chicago, S. C. Griggs and Company, 1876 — original title 'Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies' (cover short-title 'Robert's Rules of Order'), issued February 1876 in a self-financed printing of 4,000 copies. Decisive sourced collation: 176 numbered pages, containing only Part I and Part II, with the Table of Rules placed at the BACK; the revised second edition (July 1876) is enlarged to 192 pp, adds 'Part III: Miscellaneous,' and moves the Table of Rules to the front. Corroborated by Wikipedia and The First Edition Rare Books / RobertsRules.org. NOTE: fine first-printing states WITHIN the 1876 first edition are not consistently documented in available dealer or bibliographic sources; the reliable, sourced test is the 176-pp / two-part / Table-of-Rules-at-rear collation that separates the first edition from the July 1876 second edition.

## Is this the true first?
US first (Griggs, Chicago, 1876) is the true first; no foreign precedence. Because Robert revised almost immediately, the principal traps are the July 1876 second edition (192 pp, adds Part III) and the later heavily revised editions (3rd, 1893; 4th, 1915, 'completely reworked and 75% enlarged'), all of which are 'first thus' at best.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue at first appearance; countless modern reprints and public-domain reissues of the 1876 text exist and are not the first edition. Any copy paginated to 192 pp or containing 'Part III: Miscellaneous' is not the first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Robert's Rules of Order (Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies)* by Henry M. Robert a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/roberts-rules-of-order-pocket-manual-of-rules-of-order-for-d
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.