# Is "The Old Red Sandstone" by Hugh Miller a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Old Red Sandstone by Hugh Miller (John Johnstone, 1841) is identified by: First edition, small octavo, xxiii, [1], 275 pages, dated in the preface 'Edinburgh, May 1, 1841.' Illustrated with a hand-colored folding frontispiece showing geological sections plus 9 further plates of fossils, and with 4 pages of publisher's advertisements.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, small octavo, xxiii, [1], 275 pages, dated in the preface 'Edinburgh, May 1, 1841.' Illustrated with a hand-colored folding frontispiece showing geological sections plus 9 further plates of fossils, and with 4 pages of publisher's advertisements
- Full title The Old Red Sandstone; or, New Walks in an Old Field
- Publisher imprint reads John Johnstone
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Hugh Miller |
| Publisher | John Johnstone |
| Year | 1841 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, small octavo, xxiii, [1], 275 pages, dated in the preface 'Edinburgh, May 1, 1841.' Illustrated with a hand-colored folding… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, small octavo, xxiii, [1], 275 pages, dated in the preface 'Edinburgh, May 1, 1841.' Illustrated with a hand-colored folding frontispiece showing geological sections plus 9 further plates of fossils, and with 4 pages of publisher's advertisements. Full title The Old Red Sandstone; or, New Walks in an Old Field.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Miller's book was reprinted through many further editions in his lifetime and for decades after his 1856 death, most significantly gaining an appended 'Series of Geological Papers read before the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh' that is absent from the plain 1841 text; only the unexpanded 1841 Johnstone imprint is the first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Old Red Sandstone* by Hugh Miller a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-old-red-sandstone
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.