# Is "The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck" by Beatrix Potter a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck by Beatrix Potter (Frederick Warne, 1908) is identified by: The first edition is dated 1908 at the foot of the title page and again at the colophon, over the Frederick Warne & Co. UK true first, and the census claim is correct: Frederick Warne, London, 1908.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first edition is dated 1908 at the foot of the title page and again at the colophon, over the Frederick Warne & Co
- London imprint
- Binding is publisher's grey-green paper-covered boards, ruled and lettered in white on the front cover and lettered in white on the spine, with a colour pictorial label mounted on the front cover within a blind rectangular panel with arrowhead corners, outlined in blind
- Collate 84, [1], [1 — printer's imprint] pp., with a colour frontispiece and twenty-six colour plates (included in the pagination), and colour pictorial endpapers of the design catalogued as Quinby Plate IV. The single most important caveat, and one a buyer must be told: the first three impressions (August, October and December 1908) are believed to be typographically identical and cannot be separated, so a copy correct in every point is a demonstrable 1908 first edition but is not demonstrable as a first impression
- References: Linder p
- Quinby 14
- Publisher imprint reads Frederick Warne

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Beatrix Potter |
| Publisher | Frederick Warne |
| Year | 1908 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | The first edition is dated 1908 at the foot of the title page and again at the colophon, over the Frederick Warne & Co |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The first edition is dated 1908 at the foot of the title page and again at the colophon, over the Frederick Warne & Co. London imprint. Binding is publisher's grey-green paper-covered boards, ruled and lettered in white on the front cover and lettered in white on the spine, with a colour pictorial label mounted on the front cover within a blind rectangular panel with arrowhead corners, outlined in blind. Collate 84, [1], [1 — printer's imprint] pp., with a colour frontispiece and twenty-six colour plates (included in the pagination), and colour pictorial endpapers of the design catalogued as Quinby Plate IV. The single most important caveat, and one a buyer must be told: the first three impressions (August, October and December 1908) are believed to be typographically identical and cannot be separated, so a copy correct in every point is a demonstrable 1908 first edition but is not demonstrable as a first impression. References: Linder p. 427; Quinby 14.

## Is this the true first?
UK true first, and the census claim is correct: Frederick Warne, London, 1908. Potter wrote in English for Warne of London and the tales originate there; no American or other-language edition precedes the Warne. Warne's New York issues of the tales are not the collected first. There is no competing edition to name here — unlike The Fairy Caravan, this title follows the normal Potter pattern of London origination.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later printings are dated later on the title page or are undated, so the 1908 date at the title-page foot and at the colophon is the first screen. Endpaper designs were revised across the life of the series, so a later endpaper design in an otherwise correct copy indicates a later impression or a made-up/rebound copy — endpapers and boards should agree with the Quinby Plate IV design for a 1908 copy. Warne reprinted the tales continuously through the twentieth century, and later Warne printings are "first thus" at best.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck* by Beatrix Potter a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-tale-of-jemima-puddle-duck
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.