# Is "Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life, and Every-Day People" by Charles Dickens a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life, and Every-Day People by Charles Dickens (John Macrone, London, 1836) is identified by: FIRST SERIES: London: John Macrone, 1836; two volumes, 12mo, published February 1836, with the preface dated 'February, 1836'. The census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- FIRST SERIES: London: John Macrone, 1836; two volumes, 12mo, published February 1836, with the preface dated 'February, 1836'
- The controlling first-printing point is the printer's imprint: the first printing carries the Whiting imprint (the second and third Macrone printings carry the Hazard and Vizetelly imprints respectively)
- Sixteen Cruikshank etchings — an etched frontispiece and seven further plates in each volume; frontispieces are bound facing p
- No half-titles are called for in the First Series
- In the original binding: dark green / olive-green embossed leaf-patterned cloth, spines lettered and stamped in gilt with a decorative shield, yellow coated endpapers
- Walter E. Smith records a schedule of internal typographic flaws in both volumes that should be checked against the copy
- Publisher imprint reads John Macrone, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Charles Dickens |
| Publisher | John Macrone, London |
| Year | 1836 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | FIRST SERIES: London: John Macrone, 1836; two volumes, 12mo, published February 1836, with the preface dated 'February, 1836' |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
FIRST SERIES: London: John Macrone, 1836; two volumes, 12mo, published February 1836, with the preface dated 'February, 1836'. The controlling first-printing point is the printer's imprint: the first printing carries the Whiting imprint (the second and third Macrone printings carry the Hazard and Vizetelly imprints respectively). Sixteen Cruikshank etchings — an etched frontispiece and seven further plates in each volume; frontispieces are bound facing p. 47 (vol. I) and p. 24 (vol. II). No half-titles are called for in the First Series. In the original binding: dark green / olive-green embossed leaf-patterned cloth, spines lettered and stamped in gilt with a decorative shield, yellow coated endpapers. Walter E. Smith records a schedule of internal typographic flaws in both volumes that should be checked against the copy. SECOND SERIES: Macrone, complete in one volume, 12mo, published December 1836 with the printed title-page dated MDCCCXXXVII (1837), while the etched title is dated 1836 — the 1837 printed title is correct for a first and is not a later state. First issue is WITHOUT the list of plates at the Contents; half-title present; etched pictorial title-page and nine Cruikshank plates; original speckled pink cloth, covers with a central wreath and linear borders in blind; 20pp. of publisher's advertisements dated December 1836 at the end, which independently fix the true publication date. References: Smith I:1, 2; Eckel pp. 11-13; Sadleir I, 699, 700.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is confirmed. This is Dickens's true first book: the Macrone First Series of February 1836 precedes the first number of The Pickwick Papers (March 1836). There is no UK-vs-US or foreign-language precedence question. Note the date conflict in the record: Wikipedia dates the Second Series to August 1836, but this is contradicted by the auction and dealer record — the 20pp. of publisher's advertisements bound at the end are dated December 1836 and the printed title-page reads 1837, and Sotheby's catalogues the volume as '1837 [1836]'. December 1836 with an 1837-dated printed title is the correct description. A complete set requires both Series, each in its own distinct publisher's cloth (leaf-patterned dark green for the First Series, speckled pink for the Second) — the two series were never uniformly bound.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Pre-dates book clubs. The principal traps are 'first thus': the Chapman and Hall reissue in twenty monthly parts (November 1837 - June 1839) and the Chapman and Hall one-volume edition of 1839, both with reworked Cruikshank plates, are commonly offered as firsts. Within Macrone's own printings, the Hazard and Vizetelly printer's imprints mark the second and third printings of the First Series — the Whiting imprint is the only first. A Second Series volume WITH the list of plates at the Contents is a later issue.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life, and Every-Day People* by Charles Dickens a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/sketches-by-boz-illustrative-of-every-day-life-and-every-day
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.