# Is "Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes" by Robert Louis Stevenson a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson (C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1879) is identified by: The true first edition, with a first printing limited to 750 copies, is bound in original gilt-decorated green cloth octavo, with a half-title, a frontispiece illustration by Walter Crane, and a leaf of publisher's advertisements bound in before the half-title. The C.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first edition, with a first printing limited to 750 copies, is bound in original gilt-decorated green cloth octavo, with a half-title, a frontispiece illustration by Walter Crane, and a leaf of publisher's advertisements bound in before the half-title
- This was Stevenson's third published book, following An Inland Voyage
- and Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes
- , and is an early landmark of the personal walking-travel genre
- It recounts Stevenson's twelve-day solo trek, from September 22 to October 3, 1878, with a donkey named Modestine through the Cévennes mountains of south-central France
- Publisher imprint reads C. Kegan Paul & Co.
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert Louis Stevenson |
| Publisher | C. Kegan Paul & Co. |
| Year | 1879 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first edition, with a first printing limited to 750 copies, is bound in original gilt-decorated green cloth octavo, with a… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The true first edition, with a first printing limited to 750 copies, is bound in original gilt-decorated green cloth octavo, with a half-title, a frontispiece illustration by Walter Crane, and a leaf of publisher's advertisements bound in before the half-title. This was Stevenson's third published book, following An Inland Voyage (1878) and Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes (1878), and is an early landmark of the personal walking-travel genre. It recounts Stevenson's twelve-day solo trek, from September 22 to October 3, 1878, with a donkey named Modestine through the Cévennes mountains of south-central France.

## Is this the true first?
The C. Kegan Paul & Co. London edition of 1879 is the true first; a separate American edition from Roberts Brothers of Boston followed later the same year.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes* by Robert Louis Stevenson a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/travels-with-a-donkey-in-the-c-vennes
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.