# Is "The Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (Nathaniel Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultrey near Cornhil, London, 1678) is identified by: London: printed for Nath. No UK-vs-US and no original-language question: London 1678 is the true first and only first, and the work is English.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London: printed for Nath
- Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultrey near Cornhil, 1678
- The census claim is confirmed
- Entered in the Stationers' Register 22 December 1677 and entered in the Term Catalogue 18 February 1678, the accepted date of publication
- FORMAT IS THE PRIMARY POINT: the first edition is an OCTAVO, collating iv, [10], 232, [1] pages
- Ponder's second edition, also 1678 and also from the Peacock in the Poultrey, was reset in the smaller DUODECIMO format that then remained standard for a century or more — so a 1678-dated copy in 12mo is the second edition, not the first
- Publisher imprint reads Nathaniel Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultrey near Cornhil, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | John Bunyan |
| Publisher | Nathaniel Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultrey near Cornhil, London |
| Year | 1678 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | London: printed for Nath |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
London: printed for Nath. Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultrey near Cornhil, 1678. The census claim is confirmed. Entered in the Stationers' Register 22 December 1677 and entered in the Term Catalogue 18 February 1678, the accepted date of publication. FORMAT IS THE PRIMARY POINT: the first edition is an OCTAVO, collating iv, [10], 232, [1] pages. Ponder's second edition, also 1678 and also from the Peacock in the Poultrey, was reset in the smaller DUODECIMO format that then remained standard for a century or more — so a 1678-dated copy in 12mo is the second edition, not the first. The first edition carries no engraved author portrait; the famous Robert White 'sleeping portrait' of Bunyan dreaming was made for the third edition of 1679 and belongs to that and later editions. The first edition also has the shortest text: the second edition (1678) and the third (1679) each add material Bunyan wrote afterwards, the third being the last he revised himself. Extreme rarity is a point in its own right — for many years the Holford copy was the only one known, and only a handful of copies of the 1678 first are recorded. The Second Part is a separate book: London, Nathaniel Ponder, 1684.

## Is this the true first?
No UK-vs-US and no original-language question: London 1678 is the true first and only first, and the work is English. The First Part (1678) and the Second Part (1684) are separate publications; a set is not a 'first edition' unless both parts are the respective firsts. The spurious Third Part (c.1693) is not by Bunyan and was disowned — it is not part of the work.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The dominant reprint tell is the facsimile: Elliot Stock's line-for-line facsimile of the Holford first-edition copy (London, 1876; reissued New York, Baker & Taylor, 1878) reproduces the 1678 title page exactly and is routinely mistaken for the original. Its type was cast from moulds of 1720 and it is printed on modern paper; look for the Elliot Stock or Baker & Taylor imprint and the modern editorial preface. A 1970 facsimile reprint of Part 1 circulates as well. Beyond facsimiles, this is one of the most reprinted books in English — virtually all donor copies are 19th- or 20th-century illustrated reprints, many advertised as 'as originally published' or 'the first edition text', which are first-thus claims about the text, not first editions.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Pilgrim's Progress* by John Bunyan a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-pilgrims-progress
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.