# Is "The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family" by William Makepeace Thackeray a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family by William Makepeace Thackeray (Bradbury and Evans, 1855) is identified by: First edition, issued in 24 monthly parts in 23 (numbers 23 and 24 combined as a double number) from October 1853 to August 1855, in yellow printed wrappers with advertisements, then bound in two volumes.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, issued in 24 monthly parts in 23 (numbers 23 and 24 combined as a double number) from October 1853 to August 1855, in yellow printed wrappers with advertisements, then bound in two volumes
- Illustrated throughout by Richard Doyle with an engraved vignette title, 46 full-page plates, and more than 100 wood-engraved vignettes and historiated initials -- Doyle's illustrations (rather than Thackeray's own, as in his earlier Vanity Fair and Pendennis) are themselves an identifying feature of a correctly-illustrated first-edition set
- Cited as Van Duzer 147 and Shepherd 121
- Publisher imprint reads Bradbury and Evans
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | William Makepeace Thackeray |
| Publisher | Bradbury and Evans |
| Year | 1855 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, issued in 24 monthly parts in 23 (numbers 23 and 24 combined as a double number) from October 1853 to August 1855, in yellow… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, issued in 24 monthly parts in 23 (numbers 23 and 24 combined as a double number) from October 1853 to August 1855, in yellow printed wrappers with advertisements, then bound in two volumes. Illustrated throughout by Richard Doyle with an engraved vignette title, 46 full-page plates, and more than 100 wood-engraved vignettes and historiated initials -- Doyle's illustrations (rather than Thackeray's own, as in his earlier Vanity Fair and Pendennis) are themselves an identifying feature of a correctly-illustrated first-edition set. Cited as Van Duzer 147 and Shepherd 121.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family* by William Makepeace Thackeray a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-newcomes-memoirs-of-a-most-respectable-family
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.