# Is "The House That Jack Built" by Randolph Caldecott a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The House That Jack Built by Randolph Caldecott (George Routledge and Sons, 1878) is identified by: One of the first two Caldecott picture books commissioned by engraver-printer Edmund Evans, issued alongside 'The Diverting History of John Gilpin' for the Christmas 1878 trade.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- One of the first two Caldecott picture books commissioned by engraver-printer Edmund Evans, issued alongside 'The Diverting History of John Gilpin' for the Christmas 1878 trade
- The true first edition was issued as an individual toy book of about 30 pages in the original color-printed pictorial paper wrappers, not in the later cloth-bound compilation volumes that gathered several toy books together, which Routledge and then Frederick Warne issued from the 1880s onward
- As with Caldecott's other Evans-printed toy books, no date is printed anywhere in the book itself
- Publisher imprint reads George Routledge and Sons
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Randolph Caldecott |
| Publisher | George Routledge and Sons |
| Year | 1878 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | One of the first two Caldecott picture books commissioned by engraver-printer Edmund Evans, issued alongside 'The Diverting History of John… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
One of the first two Caldecott picture books commissioned by engraver-printer Edmund Evans, issued alongside 'The Diverting History of John Gilpin' for the Christmas 1878 trade. The true first edition was issued as an individual toy book of about 30 pages in the original color-printed pictorial paper wrappers, not in the later cloth-bound compilation volumes that gathered several toy books together, which Routledge and then Frederick Warne issued from the 1880s onward. As with Caldecott's other Evans-printed toy books, no date is printed anywhere in the book itself.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Routledge, and later Frederick Warne, reissued sets of Caldecott's individual toy books bound together into compilation volumes ('R. Caldecott's Picture Book' and similar titles); these compiled cloth volumes postdate, and are not, the individually wrappered first issue of this title.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The House That Jack Built* by Randolph Caldecott a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-house-that-jack-built
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.