# Is "The Professor. A Tale" by Charlotte Brontë (as 'Currer Bell') a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Professor. A Tale by Charlotte Brontë (as 'Currer Bell') (Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1857) is identified by: London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1857; two volumes, 8vo, published under the pseudonym Currer Bell. The census claim is confirmed: the Smith, Elder two-volume London edition of 1857 is the true first, and it takes precedence over the first American edition (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1857), which followed the London issue in the same year and which was also issued in a paperbound form.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1857; two volumes, 8vo, published under the pseudonym Currer Bell
- Half-titles are present in both volumes and are called for
- Publisher's advertisements for Brontë's works appear at the end of both volumes, and a publisher's catalogue at the end of volume 2 is dated June 1857 — the June 1857 dating is the recorded first state of the ads
- In the original binding: publisher's blind-stamped purple cloth, both boards stamped in blind, spines lettered in gilt; spines are commonly and uniformly faded, which is expected rather than disqualifying
- The original binder's ticket is found at the lower edge of the rear pastedown of volume I, as issued
- The novel was published posthumously — Brontë died in 1855 — and was seen through the press by her widower, Arthur Bell Nicholls, who reviewed and edited the text
- Publisher imprint reads Smith, Elder & Co., London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Charlotte Brontë (as 'Currer Bell') |
| Publisher | Smith, Elder & Co., London |
| Year | 1857 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1857; two volumes, 8vo, published under the pseudonym Currer Bell |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1857; two volumes, 8vo, published under the pseudonym Currer Bell. Half-titles are present in both volumes and are called for. Publisher's advertisements for Brontë's works appear at the end of both volumes, and a publisher's catalogue at the end of volume 2 is dated June 1857 — the June 1857 dating is the recorded first state of the ads. In the original binding: publisher's blind-stamped purple cloth, both boards stamped in blind, spines lettered in gilt; spines are commonly and uniformly faded, which is expected rather than disqualifying. The original binder's ticket is found at the lower edge of the rear pastedown of volume I, as issued. The novel was published posthumously — Brontë died in 1855 — and was seen through the press by her widower, Arthur Bell Nicholls, who reviewed and edited the text.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is confirmed: the Smith, Elder two-volume London edition of 1857 is the true first, and it takes precedence over the first American edition (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1857), which followed the London issue in the same year and which was also issued in a paperbound form. Both are collected; the London two-decker is the true first. The book's other well-known distinction is chronological rather than bibliographical: The Professor was the first of Charlotte Brontë's novels to be written (and was rejected by Smith, Elder in 1846) but the last to be published.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue exists for an 1857 three-decker-era title. The tells to watch are the first American Harper & Brothers 1857 New York edition, later Smith, Elder one-volume reprints, and copies rebound out of the original purple cloth — rebinding destroys the binder's ticket and the blind-stamping evidence, leaving the half-titles and the June 1857-dated catalogue at the end of volume 2 as the surviving checks. Copies lacking the half-titles or with a later-dated or absent catalogue are not in the first state.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Professor. A Tale* by Charlotte Brontë (as 'Currer Bell') a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-professor-a-tale
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.