# Is "The Swiss Family Robinson (Der Schweizerische Robinson)" by Johann David Wyss (ed. Johann Rudolf Wyss) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Swiss Family Robinson (Der Schweizerische Robinson) by Johann David Wyss (ed. Johann Rudolf Wyss) (Orell, Füssli und Compagnie, Zurich, 1812) is identified by: The true first is the German: "Der schweizerische Robinson, oder der schiffbrüchige Schweizer-Prediger und seine Familie," Zurich: Orell, Füssli und Compagnie, volume 1 dated 1812 and volume 2 dated 1813, edited and adapted by Johann Rudolf Wyss from his father Johann David Wyss's manuscript. Zurich 1812-13 (German) is the true first and the census claim is confirmed on that point, but the English precedence note needs correcting in two respects.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the German: "Der schweizerische Robinson, oder der schiffbrüchige Schweizer-Prediger und seine Familie," Zurich: Orell, Füssli und Compagnie, volume 1 dated 1812 and volume 2 dated 1813, edited and adapted by Johann Rudolf Wyss from his father Johann David Wyss's manuscript
- Critical refinement to the census claim: the 1812-13 pair carries only about half the manuscript
- Volumes 3 and 4 followed in 1826 and 1827, so the complete German text spans 1812-27, and a two-volume 1812-13 set is a first edition of a half-finished work rather than of the novel as it is now known
- The first English is London: M.J. Godwin & Co
- (the Juvenile Library), 1814, and it is not titled The Swiss Family Robinson — it is "The Family Robinson Crusoe: or, Journal of a Father Shipwrecked, with his Wife and Children, on an Uninhabited Island." Illustrated with a frontispiece and three plates engraved by Springsguth and Dadley after Henry Corbould, and issued in publisher's paper-covered boards, exceptionally scarce so preserved
- Two issues of the 1814 English are recorded: a two-volume issue, and a single-volume issue with continuous pagination reset from the same standing type, the single-volume issue described as the subsequent one
- Publisher imprint reads Orell, Füssli und Compagnie, Zurich

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Johann David Wyss (ed. Johann Rudolf Wyss) |
| Publisher | Orell, Füssli und Compagnie, Zurich |
| Year | 1812 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is the German: "Der schweizerische Robinson, oder der schiffbrüchige Schweizer-Prediger und seine Familie," Zurich: Orell… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first is the German: "Der schweizerische Robinson, oder der schiffbrüchige Schweizer-Prediger und seine Familie," Zurich: Orell, Füssli und Compagnie, volume 1 dated 1812 and volume 2 dated 1813, edited and adapted by Johann Rudolf Wyss from his father Johann David Wyss's manuscript. Critical refinement to the census claim: the 1812-13 pair carries only about half the manuscript. Volumes 3 and 4 followed in 1826 and 1827, so the complete German text spans 1812-27, and a two-volume 1812-13 set is a first edition of a half-finished work rather than of the novel as it is now known. The first English is London: M.J. Godwin & Co. (the Juvenile Library), 1814, and it is not titled The Swiss Family Robinson — it is "The Family Robinson Crusoe: or, Journal of a Father Shipwrecked, with his Wife and Children, on an Uninhabited Island." Illustrated with a frontispiece and three plates engraved by Springsguth and Dadley after Henry Corbould, and issued in publisher's paper-covered boards, exceptionally scarce so preserved. Two issues of the 1814 English are recorded: a two-volume issue, and a single-volume issue with continuous pagination reset from the same standing type, the single-volume issue described as the subsequent one. No edition statements or number lines exist for any of these — identification is by imprint, date, plates, and volume/pagination structure.

## Is this the true first?
Zurich 1812-13 (German) is the true first and the census claim is confirmed on that point, but the English precedence note needs correcting in two respects. The 1814 M.J. Godwin English is not translated from the German at all: it derives entirely from Isabelle de Montolieu's French adaptation, "Le Robinson suisse, ou journal d'un père de famille naufragé avec ses enfans," Paris: Arthus Bertrand, 1814, in four volumes. The evidence is internal — the English chapter divisions match the French (thirty-six chapters against the German's twenty-eight), the author's name is given in the French form "Wiss," and the German subtitle describing the father as a preacher is dropped. Translation is conjecturally attributed to William Godwin and/or Mary Jane Clairmont, but the attribution is disputed and should not be stated as fact. The English continuation appeared in 1816, and the title "The Swiss Family Robinson" was first adopted only in 1818. So three editions are separately collected: the Zurich German first (1812-13), the Montolieu French (1814), and the Godwin English (1814).

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition at this date. The dominant trap here is not book clubs but "first thus": texts differ substantially across every early edition in all three languages, and virtually every later English "Swiss Family Robinson" from 1818 onward is either a reprint or a fresh adaptation with chapters added, cut, or rewritten — the novel has no stable text. Any English copy titled "The Swiss Family Robinson" is by definition 1818 or later and cannot be the first English. Any German copy carrying volumes 3-4 or dated 1826-27 is the continuation, not the 1812-13 first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Swiss Family Robinson (Der Schweizerische Robinson)* by Johann David Wyss (ed. Johann Rudolf Wyss) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-swiss-family-robinson-der-schweizerische-robinson
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.