# Is "The Book of Household Management" by Isabella Beeton a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beeton (S. O. Beeton, London, 1861) is identified by: For the one-volume book: the first issue states "18 Bouverie St" on the chromolithographic illustrated title page, and the farmyard frontispiece must be present. UK only — the census claim is correct; no US or foreign edition competes.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- For the one-volume book: the first issue states "18 Bouverie St" on the chromolithographic illustrated title page, and the farmyard frontispiece must be present
- Dealer records add that the letterpress title page gives the Strand address and that the errata lists page 57 on its first line
- Collates xl, 1112 pages, with the colour-printed frontispiece and illustrated title, 12 colour plates, and wood-engraved vignettes throughout the text
- The second issue corrects the illustrated title page to "248 Strand" and is generally found without the frontispiece — a copy showing "248 Strand" and lacking the farmyard frontispiece is at best the second issue
- Publisher imprint reads S. O. Beeton, London
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Isabella Beeton |
| Publisher | S. O. Beeton, London |
| Year | 1861 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | For the one-volume book: the first issue states "18 Bouverie St" on the chromolithographic illustrated title page, and the farmyard… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
For the one-volume book: the first issue states "18 Bouverie St" on the chromolithographic illustrated title page, and the farmyard frontispiece must be present. Dealer records add that the letterpress title page gives the Strand address and that the errata lists page 57 on its first line. Collates xl, 1112 pages, with the colour-printed frontispiece and illustrated title, 12 colour plates, and wood-engraved vignettes throughout the text. The second issue corrects the illustrated title page to "248 Strand" and is generally found without the frontispiece — a copy showing "248 Strand" and lacking the farmyard frontispiece is at best the second issue.

## Is this the true first?
UK only — the census claim is correct; no US or foreign edition competes. The live precedence question is internal to the UK. The text appeared first in 24 monthly parts issued by S. O. Beeton from November 1859 to October 1861, in publisher's buff and rose pictorial wrappers, with the colour-printed frontispiece and title page in part 1, 12 colour plates, and advertisements in parts 1, 2 (on yellow paper, carrying the prospectus for the work), 5, 13, 14 and 19; the prospectus promises completion "in 15 or 18 parts," later extended to 24, first announced on the wrappers of part 19. The parts are the true first appearance and are rarer than the book; the one-volume book, collected on 1 October 1861, is the first edition in book form. Both are collected — say which you mean. Material had appeared earlier still in The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue in the period, but "Mrs Beeton" is among the most reprinted books in English: S. O. Beeton and successor houses kept the plates working for decades under near-identical titles, and later editions are heavily revised, re-set and expanded. Modern facsimiles of the 1861 first edition (Southover Press among others) are common and identify themselves on the copyright page. The 1861 book itself is scarce; the ubiquitous copies are later editions.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Book of Household Management* by Isabella Beeton a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-book-of-household-management
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.