# Is "Treasure Island (text by Robert Louis Stevenson; the inaugural Scribner's Illustrated Classic)" by N. C. Wyeth a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Treasure Island (text by Robert Louis Stevenson; the inaugural Scribner's Illustrated Classic) by N. C. Wyeth (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911) is identified by: The first printing (published September 30, 1911, the first title in the Scribner's Illustrated Classics series) contains 14 tipped-in full-color plates by N. Precedence: the ordinary Scribner's trade first printing IS the true first — no signed/numbered/deluxe/large-paper limited issue of the 1911 Treasure Island was ever produced, and there is no UK/US precedence question (this is a US-origin Scribner's book).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing (published September 30, 1911, the first title in the Scribner's Illustrated Classics series) contains 14 tipped-in full-color plates by N. C. Wyeth, each with a printed captioned tissue guard, plus an illustrated color title page and pictorial endpapers (dealers variously tally the full color-image count near 17 when the paste-on cover label and pictorial title/endpapers are included)
- The defining first-printing point is a Table-of-Contents typographic error: Chapter XVI (Part IV, "The Stockade") is listed at page "23" instead of the correct "123"; this was reset to "123" in the second printing (also dated 1911), making the erroneous "23" state the true first, which is markedly scarcer than the corrected second printing
- The title page is dated 1911 with no later-printing notice on the copyright page
- Binding is black cloth with a color pictorial paste-on label on the front cover, top edge gilt, and pictorial endpapers; the collated text block runs to 273 pages
- Complete first-printing copies retain all 14 plates with their tissue guards
- Unlike the British gift-book illustrators (Rackham, Dulac), Wyeth's Treasure Island was issued by Scribner's ONLY as an ordinary trade edition in 1911 — there was no signed/numbered deluxe or large-paper limited issue — so the trade first printing (with the "23" error) is itself the prized true first
- Publisher imprint reads Charles Scribner's Sons

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | N. C. Wyeth |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
| Year | 1911 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | The first printing (published September 30, 1911, the first title in the Scribner's Illustrated Classics series) contains 14 tipped-in… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The first printing (published September 30, 1911, the first title in the Scribner's Illustrated Classics series) contains 14 tipped-in full-color plates by N. C. Wyeth, each with a printed captioned tissue guard, plus an illustrated color title page and pictorial endpapers (dealers variously tally the full color-image count near 17 when the paste-on cover label and pictorial title/endpapers are included). The defining first-printing point is a Table-of-Contents typographic error: Chapter XVI (Part IV, "The Stockade") is listed at page "23" instead of the correct "123"; this was reset to "123" in the second printing (also dated 1911), making the erroneous "23" state the true first, which is markedly scarcer than the corrected second printing. The title page is dated 1911 with no later-printing notice on the copyright page. Binding is black cloth with a color pictorial paste-on label on the front cover, top edge gilt, and pictorial endpapers; the collated text block runs to 273 pages. Complete first-printing copies retain all 14 plates with their tissue guards. Unlike the British gift-book illustrators (Rackham, Dulac), Wyeth's Treasure Island was issued by Scribner's ONLY as an ordinary trade edition in 1911 — there was no signed/numbered deluxe or large-paper limited issue — so the trade first printing (with the "23" error) is itself the prized true first.

## Is this the true first?
Precedence: the ordinary Scribner's trade first printing IS the true first — no signed/numbered/deluxe/large-paper limited issue of the 1911 Treasure Island was ever produced, and there is no UK/US precedence question (this is a US-origin Scribner's book). Among the trade printings the true first is distinguished by the Table-of-Contents "23"-for-"123" error (Chapter XVI, Part IV, "The Stockade"); the second printing, still dated 1911 on both title and copyright pages, corrects this to "123." Signed/numbered deluxe and fine-press formats exist only for much later editions (Scribner's numbered revivals begun 1981; the modern Suntup Editions letterpress limiteds) — not for the 1911 Wyeth Treasure Island.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later Scribner's printings are common and frequently confused with the first: from 1912 onward reprints add later-printing notices and eventually reduce plate counts (the 1933 reset carried only 12 plates), and the pictorial cover label and gilt top edge are often absent or worn. The single most reliable tell is the Contents reading: a corrected "123" for Chapter XVI marks a second printing or later, never the true first. Twentieth-century Scribner's Illustrated Classics reissues, Grosset & Dunlap and other trade reprints, and modern reprints (Franklin Library 1975, Folio Society editions, the Scribner's numbered deluxe revivals from 1981, and Suntup Editions limiteds) are all explicitly later and are routinely mislisted as "first edition" by non-specialist sellers.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Treasure Island (text by Robert Louis Stevenson; the inaugural Scribner's Illustrated Classic)* by N. C. Wyeth a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/treasure-island-n-c-wyeth
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.