# Is "The Peterkin Papers" by Lucretia P. Hale a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Peterkin Papers by Lucretia P. Hale (James R. Osgood and Company, 1880) is identified by: First collection in book form of Hale's Peterkin family sketches, individual episodes of which had run for years in Our Young Folks and later St.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First collection in book form of Hale's Peterkin family sketches, individual episodes of which had run for years in Our Young Folks and later St
- Nicholas magazines
- The first edition is a small octavo bound in green cloth stamped in gilt and black on the spine and in black on the front cover, illustrated with eight full-page line drawings including a tissue-guarded frontispiece
- A sequel, The Last of the Peterkins, followed in 1886 not from Osgood but from Roberts Brothers, so its binding should not be mistaken for a variant of this earlier book's first edition
- Publisher imprint reads James R. Osgood and Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Lucretia P. Hale |
| Publisher | James R. Osgood and Company |
| Year | 1880 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First collection in book form of Hale's Peterkin family sketches, individual episodes of which had run for years in Our Young Folks and… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First collection in book form of Hale's Peterkin family sketches, individual episodes of which had run for years in Our Young Folks and later St. Nicholas magazines. The first edition is a small octavo bound in green cloth stamped in gilt and black on the spine and in black on the front cover, illustrated with eight full-page line drawings including a tissue-guarded frontispiece. A sequel, The Last of the Peterkins, followed in 1886 not from Osgood but from Roberts Brothers, so its binding should not be mistaken for a variant of this earlier book's first edition.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Houghton, Mifflin and Company absorbed Osgood's list after his 1885 failure and kept The Peterkin Papers in print for decades; its 1924 Riverside Bookshelf printing carries new color illustrations by Harold Brett rather than the original eight line drawings, which readily distinguishes later Houghton Mifflin printings from the Osgood first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Peterkin Papers* by Lucretia P. Hale a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-peterkin-papers
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.