# Is "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire (written and illustrated by Howard Pyle)" by Howard Pyle a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire (written and illustrated by Howard Pyle) by Howard Pyle (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1883) is identified by: The prized first is the Charles Scribner's Sons (New York) 1883 issue, catalogued BAL 16378 — Pyle's first book, which he wrote, illustrated, and designed entirely (text, every illustration, decorative borders, historiated initials and vignettes, plus the font, layout, paper, and binding). The true first is the American issue: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1883 (title page MDCCCLXXXIII, copyright 1883, BAL 16378).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The prized first is the Charles Scribner's Sons (New York) 1883 issue, catalogued BAL 16378 — Pyle's first book, which he wrote, illustrated, and designed entirely (text, every illustration, decorative borders, historiated initials and vignettes, plus the font, layout, paper, and binding)
- First-printing points: the title page is dated in Roman numerals MDCCCLXXXIII and the copyright leaf reads only 1883 (no later cumulative dates); all page edges are tinted orange; and the endpapers are the original coated brown stock
- Illustration complement is a frontispiece (with tissue guard) plus 23 plates, with head- and tail-pieces throughout (some catalogues count 22 full-page plates)
- Format is variously catalogued as crown octavo or small quarto, collating pp. xx + 296
- Two publisher's bindings of the American first are recorded and precedence between them is not firmly documented: (a) brown cloth-covered boards, the front cover printed in black and red with gilt lettering to cover and spine; and (b) a fine full brown-leather binding, elaborately blind-stamped, with a red spine label and orange edges
- Treat a bright, unrestored copy in original binding with the MDCCCLXXXIII title page, 1883-only copyright, and orange edges as the collected first
- Publisher imprint reads Charles Scribner's Sons, New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Howard Pyle |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons, New York |
| Year | 1883 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | The prized first is the Charles Scribner's Sons (New York) 1883 issue, catalogued BAL 16378 — Pyle's first book, which he wrote… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The prized first is the Charles Scribner's Sons (New York) 1883 issue, catalogued BAL 16378 — Pyle's first book, which he wrote, illustrated, and designed entirely (text, every illustration, decorative borders, historiated initials and vignettes, plus the font, layout, paper, and binding). First-printing points: the title page is dated in Roman numerals MDCCCLXXXIII and the copyright leaf reads only 1883 (no later cumulative dates); all page edges are tinted orange; and the endpapers are the original coated brown stock. Illustration complement is a frontispiece (with tissue guard) plus 23 plates, with head- and tail-pieces throughout (some catalogues count 22 full-page plates). Format is variously catalogued as crown octavo or small quarto, collating pp. xx + 296. Two publisher's bindings of the American first are recorded and precedence between them is not firmly documented: (a) brown cloth-covered boards, the front cover printed in black and red with gilt lettering to cover and spine; and (b) a fine full brown-leather binding, elaborately blind-stamped, with a red spine label and orange edges. Treat a bright, unrestored copy in original binding with the MDCCCLXXXIII title page, 1883-only copyright, and orange edges as the collected first. Unlike the Edwardian gift-book illustrators (Rackham, Dulac), Pyle's Robin Hood was NEVER issued in a signed/numbered deluxe large-paper limited, so the trade first is itself the prized true first — there is no rival signed limited to outrank it. Identification points only, no valuation.

## Is this the true first?
The true first is the American issue: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1883 (title page MDCCCLXXXIII, copyright 1883, BAL 16378). A London issue under Sampson Low also appeared in 1883, bound differently — bevel-edged pale green pictorial cloth blocked in brown, black endpapers, orange edges — and is generally treated as the secondary English issue, said (only tentatively in the trade, "perhaps from the sheets of the first New York edition") to have used or followed the Scribner sheets; that sheets relationship is not firmly documented, so it should be stated as a possibility, not a fact. Because Robin Hood had no signed/numbered deluxe printing, the trade first is itself the prized true first. Precedence between the American cloth binding and the full-leather binding is likewise not firmly established; a clean copy in either original Scribner binding with the correct title page, 1883-only copyright, and orange edges is the standard collected first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Scribner never issued a cheap or paper edition and kept the book in a controlled, fine format, so later Scribner printings closely resemble the 1883 first and are a common trap. The decisive test is the copyright leaf: the true first shows only 1883, whereas later printings carry additional cumulative copyright dates (e.g., 1883 plus 1902/1911 and later) even when the pictorial cover and MDCCCLXXXIII title page look identical. Note especially the 1902 REVISED/condensed edition, for which Pyle supplied a new apologetic preface — it is a distinct later edition, not the first. Edges that are not orange-tinted, or bright/white modern endpapers rather than the original brown, signal a later printing or a rebound copy. Beware modern print-on-demand and leatherette gift reissues that merely reproduce the 1883 copyright notice; verify the actual copyright leaf and the orange edges rather than trusting a stated "1883." (The draft's specific reprint years — 1892, 1903, 1905 — and the "limited run every second year" phrasing are not well supported and have been dropped in favor of the copyright-leaf test and the documented 1902 revision.)

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire (written and illustrated by Howard Pyle)* by Howard Pyle a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood-of-great-renown-in-nottinghamshire
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.