# Is "The Railway Children" by E. Nesbit a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Railway Children by E. Nesbit (Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. Ltd., 1906) is identified by: Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., London, 1906 is conventionally catalogued as the first edition, by auction houses and specialist dealers alike, and the census is right about the publisher and year.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Wells Gardner, Darton & Co
- Ltd., London, 1906
- 8vo (233 x 144mm)
- Collates half-title, frontispiece, pictorial title, and 19 further plates — twenty plates including the frontispiece — all after C. E. Brock, with 10 pages of publisher's advertisements at the end
- Original pictorial maroon cloth blocked in gilt; top edge gilt, the others uncut
- These points are corroborated independently by a Sotheby's cataloguing of an author-presentation copy and by a specialist dealer description, and they agree in every particular
- Publisher imprint reads Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. Ltd.

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | E. Nesbit |
| Publisher | Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. Ltd. |
| Year | 1906 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | Wells Gardner, Darton & Co |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. Ltd., London, 1906. 8vo (233 x 144mm). Collates half-title, frontispiece, pictorial title, and 19 further plates — twenty plates including the frontispiece — all after C. E. Brock, with 10 pages of publisher's advertisements at the end. Original pictorial maroon cloth blocked in gilt; top edge gilt, the others uncut. These points are corroborated independently by a Sotheby's cataloguing of an author-presentation copy and by a specialist dealer description, and they agree in every particular. The text was serialised first, in The London Magazine, in thirteen instalments from January 1905 to January 1906, ahead of book publication. Note that the illustrator is C. E. Brock, not H. R. Millar — Millar illustrated the Psammead books and is frequently misattributed to this title.

## Is this the true first?
Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., London, 1906 is conventionally catalogued as the first edition, by auction houses and specialist dealers alike, and the census is right about the publisher and year. But the census's flat claim that 'US Macmillan followed' is NOT established and should not be relied on. The first American edition — The Macmillan Company, New York, 1906, also with Brock's drawings, 309pp, in pictorial cloth with the title in red to the front board and gilt to the spine, top edge gilt — appeared in the same year, and at least one established dealer (Ulysses Rare Books) states the book was published simultaneously in England and America in 1906. Month-level precedence between the London and New York editions is not documented in any source consulted. Both editions are collected; the American should be described as the first American edition, not as a later reprint of the English.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The chief reprint risk is not book-club issues — the title predates the book-club era — but same-date publisher reprints: later Wells Gardner printings retain the 1906 title-page date, as do early Macmillan New York reprints, and one is offered online explicitly as a '1906 Macmillan early reprint'. Collate for the full complement of twenty Brock plates and for the 10pp of publisher's advertisements at the end, and check the maroon pictorial cloth with top edge gilt and remainder uncut, rather than trusting the title-page date.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Railway Children* by E. Nesbit a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-railway-children
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.