# Is "The Snow-Image and Other Twice-Told Tales" by Nathaniel Hawthorne a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Snow-Image and Other Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1852) is identified by: First edition, published by Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, Boston (title page dated 1852, though the copyright page carries an 1851 date), in a printing of 2,425 copies issued simultaneously with a London edition. Though dated 1852 on its title page, the Boston (Ticknor, Reed, and Fields) sheets were released within days of Henry G.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, published by Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, Boston (title page dated 1852, though the copyright page carries an 1851 date), in a printing of 2,425 copies issued simultaneously with a London edition
- Collates [3]-273 pp., 8vo; the true first printing carries the earliest (January 1852) state of the publisher's advertisement catalogue bound in at front
- Bound in publisher's ribbed brown cloth ('style A'), covers stamped in blind, spine lettered in gold and stamped in blind, with yellow coated endpapers
- Contains fifteen tales, including 'The Snow-Image,' 'The Great Stone Face,' 'Main Street,' and 'Ethan Brand' in their first book appearances
- Publisher imprint reads Ticknor, Reed, and Fields
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Nathaniel Hawthorne |
| Publisher | Ticknor, Reed, and Fields |
| Year | 1852 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, published by Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, Boston (title page dated 1852, though the copyright page carries an 1851 date), in a… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, published by Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, Boston (title page dated 1852, though the copyright page carries an 1851 date), in a printing of 2,425 copies issued simultaneously with a London edition. Collates [3]-273 pp., 8vo; the true first printing carries the earliest (January 1852) state of the publisher's advertisement catalogue bound in at front. Bound in publisher's ribbed brown cloth ('style A'), covers stamped in blind, spine lettered in gold and stamped in blind, with yellow coated endpapers. Contains fifteen tales, including 'The Snow-Image,' 'The Great Stone Face,' 'Main Street,' and 'Ethan Brand' in their first book appearances.

## Is this the true first?
Though dated 1852 on its title page, the Boston (Ticknor, Reed, and Fields) sheets were released within days of Henry G. Bohn's London edition, whose title page is dated 1851; the two are generally treated as issued essentially simultaneously in December 1851, with the Boston printing not clearly following the London one despite their differing title-page years.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later Ticknor and Fields reprintings, along with Victorian-era anthology series that regrouped short fiction by theme, do not reproduce the original 1852 ribbed-cloth binding or the dated January 1852 ad catalogue.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Snow-Image and Other Twice-Told Tales* by Nathaniel Hawthorne a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-snow-image-and-other-twice-told-tales
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.