# Is "Robinson Crusoe (The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe)" by Daniel Defoe a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Robinson Crusoe (The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe) by Daniel Defoe (W. Taylor, London, 1719) is identified by: London: printed for W. The census claim is CORRECT: W.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London: printed for W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row, 1719; octavo, published 25 April 1719 in an edition of about 1,000 copies
- The title-page of Part I carries NO edition statement — any 1719 title reading "The Second Edition," "The Third Edition" or "The Fourth Edition" is a later 1719 printing, not the first
- Taylor ran through four editions within roughly four months
- Part I has an engraved frontispiece portrait of Crusoe by Clark & Pine; the folding engraved world map belongs to Part II (Farther Adventures), not to Part I, so its absence from Part I is not a defect
- Hutchins records three settings each of the title-leaf and the preface plus variant settings of leaf Z4 recto (p
- The commonly cited readings are: title in the second Hutchins variant (semi-colon after "London" in the imprint); preface in the third variant (first page ending "Men always," catchword "apply," second page beginning "apply them"); and Z4r in the state misprinting "Pilot" as "Pilate" (line 2) and "Portuguese" as "Portugnese" (line 21)
- Publisher imprint reads W. Taylor, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Daniel Defoe |
| Publisher | W. Taylor, London |
| Year | 1719 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | London: printed for W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row, 1719; octavo, published 25 April 1719 in an edition of about 1,000 copies |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
London: printed for W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row, 1719; octavo, published 25 April 1719 in an edition of about 1,000 copies. The title-page of Part I carries NO edition statement — any 1719 title reading "The Second Edition," "The Third Edition" or "The Fourth Edition" is a later 1719 printing, not the first; Taylor ran through four editions within roughly four months. Part I has an engraved frontispiece portrait of Crusoe by Clark & Pine; the folding engraved world map belongs to Part II (Farther Adventures), not to Part I, so its absence from Part I is not a defect. Hutchins records three settings each of the title-leaf and the preface plus variant settings of leaf Z4 recto (p. 343). The commonly cited readings are: title in the second Hutchins variant (semi-colon after "London" in the imprint); preface in the third variant (first page ending "Men always," catchword "apply," second page beginning "apply them"); and Z4r in the state misprinting "Pilot" as "Pilate" (line 2) and "Portuguese" as "Portugnese" (line 21). NOTE — the census note's "apply'd" is a misstatement: the point is the catchword "apply" / "apply them." Critically, these settings occur in MIXED combinations (copies are recorded with the corrected "always apply" preface but the uncorrected "Pilate"/"Portugnese" Z4r, and vice versa), so no strict priority runs across the whole book — collate each element separately rather than treating any one reading as a pass/fail test of the first edition. No dust jacket exists for a 1719 octavo; identification is by title-page, collation and setting only. References: Hutchins, Robinson Crusoe and Its Printing 1719-1731 (pp. 52-71, Part I); Grolier English 41; Printing and the Mind of Man 180; Moore 412; Rothschild 775.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is CORRECT: W. Taylor, London, 25 April 1719 is the true first, and there is no earlier or foreign-language edition to displace it — Defoe wrote in English and Taylor published in London. No UK/US precedence question arises; the first American edition is much later and is not the collected form. The sequels are separate first editions completing the set, not part of the first edition of Part I: The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (W. Taylor, London, August 1719; the second issue is identified by the advertisement for the fourth edition of Part I printed on the verso of A4) and Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (W. Taylor, London, 1720), which was never reprinted in Defoe's lifetime. "First thus" trap: nearly every dealer listing headed "Robinson Crusoe first edition" is a first-thus — first illustrated, first of a particular translation, or first of a press's setting.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition exists in the modern sense for a 1719 imprint. The documented reprint tells donors will actually meet: (1) any title-page bearing an edition statement ("The Second/Third/Fourth Edition") — these are Hutchins's later 1719-1731 printings, not the first; (2) Victorian children's and illustrated editions from 1736 onward, which are the overwhelming majority of donated Crusoes; (3) 20th-century press and subscription reprints — Everyman's Library, Limited Editions Club / Heritage Press, and Franklin Library — identifiable by modern paper, publisher's cloth or leatherette, and a 20th-century copyright or colophon leaf. A genuine 1719 Taylor octavo will be in contemporary panelled calf or a later fine binding, with no modern imprint anywhere in the book.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Robinson Crusoe (The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe)* by Daniel Defoe a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/robinson-crusoe-the-life-and-strange-surprizing-adventures-o
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.