# Is "The Story of a Puppet, or The Adventures of Pinocchio" by Carlo Collodi; translated by Mary Alice Murray a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Story of a Puppet, or The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi; translated by Mary Alice Murray (T. Fisher Unwin, 1892) is identified by: The first English-language translation of Collodi's Pinocchio, rendered by Mary Alice Murray and published in London by T. Translated from Italian.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first English-language translation of Collodi's Pinocchio, rendered by Mary Alice Murray and published in London by T. Fisher Unwin in 1892 as part of the publisher's 'Children's Library' series, with the half-title headed accordingly
- It retained the original illustrations by Enrico Mazzanti that had appeared in the 1883 Italian first edition, though the title page misprints the illustrator's name as 'C. Mazzanti' -- a recognized first-issue point
- The title page itself is printed in red and black, and the volume collates to 232 pages with a tissue-guarded frontispiece
- Publisher imprint reads T. Fisher Unwin
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Carlo Collodi; translated by Mary Alice Murray |
| Publisher | T. Fisher Unwin |
| Year | 1892 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | The first English-language translation of Collodi's Pinocchio, rendered by Mary Alice Murray and published in London by T. Fisher Unwin in… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The first English-language translation of Collodi's Pinocchio, rendered by Mary Alice Murray and published in London by T. Fisher Unwin in 1892 as part of the publisher's 'Children's Library' series, with the half-title headed accordingly. It retained the original illustrations by Enrico Mazzanti that had appeared in the 1883 Italian first edition, though the title page misprints the illustrator's name as 'C. Mazzanti' -- a recognized first-issue point. The title page itself is printed in red and black, and the volume collates to 232 pages with a tissue-guarded frontispiece.

## Is this the true first?
Translated from Italian. This is the first appearance of Pinocchio in English; the Italian original was first serialized in the Giornale per i bambini from 1881 and first published in book form by Felice Paggi of Florence in 1883.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Pinocchio entered wide circulation after being reprinted in Everyman's Library in 1911 and in numerous later juvenile reprint series; those printings do not carry the T. Fisher Unwin imprint or Mazzanti's plates in their original first-edition state.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Story of a Puppet, or The Adventures of Pinocchio* by Carlo Collodi; translated by Mary Alice Murray a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-story-of-a-puppet-or-the-adventures-of-pinocchio
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.