# Is "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. (Privately printed for the author, Ithaca, N.Y., 1918) is identified by: The true first is the 1918 privately printed pamphlet, imprint "Ithaca, N.Y.: Privately printed," with the printer's line reading "Press of W. US only; there is no competing UK or foreign-language edition.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the 1918 privately printed pamphlet, imprint "Ithaca, N.Y.: Privately printed," with the printer's line reading "Press of W. F. Humphrey, Geneva, N.Y." Note W. F., not the "W. P. Humphrey" carried for decades in Library of Congress and WorldCat records: the broken type was misread, and the Library of Congress corrected its record in September 2009
- It collates 43 pages in wrappers and is textually shorter than everything that follows: no Spelling chapter, no Exercises, and the Syllabication rule sits under "The Elementary Rules of Usage" rather than under "A Few Matters of Form." A second privately printed edition followed in 1919 from the same printer and the same imprint; the Catalogue of Copyright Entries records both years, and ABAA dealers describe the 1919 as the second of the two private printings
- The first trade edition is the 1920 Harcourt, Brace and Howe issue, expanded to 52 pages, and the "and Howe" imprint is itself the date check, since Will D. Howe left the firm in 1921 and the imprint thereafter reads Harcourt, Brace and Company
- Publisher imprint reads Privately printed for the author, Ithaca, N.Y.
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | William Strunk Jr. |
| Publisher | Privately printed for the author, Ithaca, N.Y. |
| Year | 1918 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is the 1918 privately printed pamphlet, imprint "Ithaca, N.Y.: Privately printed," with the printer's line reading "Press of… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first is the 1918 privately printed pamphlet, imprint "Ithaca, N.Y.: Privately printed," with the printer's line reading "Press of W. F. Humphrey, Geneva, N.Y." Note W. F., not the "W. P. Humphrey" carried for decades in Library of Congress and WorldCat records: the broken type was misread, and the Library of Congress corrected its record in September 2009. It collates 43 pages in wrappers and is textually shorter than everything that follows: no Spelling chapter, no Exercises, and the Syllabication rule sits under "The Elementary Rules of Usage" rather than under "A Few Matters of Form." A second privately printed edition followed in 1919 from the same printer and the same imprint; the Catalogue of Copyright Entries records both years, and ABAA dealers describe the 1919 as the second of the two private printings. The first trade edition is the 1920 Harcourt, Brace and Howe issue, expanded to 52 pages, and the "and Howe" imprint is itself the date check, since Will D. Howe left the firm in 1921 and the imprint thereafter reads Harcourt, Brace and Company.

## Is this the true first?
US only; there is no competing UK or foreign-language edition. The 1918 privately printed Ithaca pamphlet is the true first. The 1920 Harcourt, Brace and Howe issue is the first trade edition and is separately collected in its own right. The 1959 Macmillan "Strunk & White" (revised, with an introduction and a chapter on writing by E. B. White) is a distinct revised work, a "first thus," not a printing of Strunk's 1918 book, and it is the single most common misidentification. Be aware that many general sources state flatly that the book was "privately printed in 1919," following E. B. White's own recollection; the specialist record documents two private printings, 1918 first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1918 or 1919 private printings or for the 1920 trade edition. The hazard is the reprint field rather than a club: the 1959 Macmillan Strunk & White and its many later Macmillan / Allyn & Bacon / Longman printings, plus modern facsimile and public-domain reprints of the 1918 and 1920 text (usually marketed as "The Original Edition"), are abundant and are routinely offered as firsts. A Thrift Press (Ithaca) printing exists whose title page styles the author "William Strunk, Jr., Professor of English, Emeritus"; that word dates it after his 1937 retirement and rules out an early private printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Elements of Style* by William Strunk Jr. a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-elements-of-style
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.