# Is "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" by Isabella L. Bird a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by Isabella L. Bird (John Murray, 1880) is identified by: The true first edition was published in two octavo volumes in October 1880 (volume I: xxiii, 398 pages; volume II: xiv, 383 pages), bound in original pictorial cloth, with a wood-engraved frontispiece and text illustrations in each volume and one folding color map.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first edition was published in two octavo volumes in October 1880 (volume I: xxiii, 398 pages; volume II: xiv, 383 pages), bound in original pictorial cloth, with a wood-engraved frontispiece and text illustrations in each volume and one folding color map
- The narrative takes the form of letters to Bird's sister describing her 1878 journey, made with a Japanese interpreter, Itō Tsurukichi, through areas of northern Honshu and Hokkaido that few if any Westerners had previously visited, including an extended account of the Ainu people
- The two-volume edition sold well enough that John Murray issued further printings within its first months, demand that later led the publisher to commission a shortened one-volume version
- Publisher imprint reads John Murray
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Isabella L. Bird |
| Publisher | John Murray |
| Year | 1880 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first edition was published in two octavo volumes in October 1880 (volume I: xxiii, 398 pages; volume II: xiv, 383 pages), bound… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The true first edition was published in two octavo volumes in October 1880 (volume I: xxiii, 398 pages; volume II: xiv, 383 pages), bound in original pictorial cloth, with a wood-engraved frontispiece and text illustrations in each volume and one folding color map. The narrative takes the form of letters to Bird's sister describing her 1878 journey, made with a Japanese interpreter, Itō Tsurukichi, through areas of northern Honshu and Hokkaido that few if any Westerners had previously visited, including an extended account of the Ainu people. The two-volume edition sold well enough that John Murray issued further printings within its first months, demand that later led the publisher to commission a shortened one-volume version.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
John Murray issued a one-volume abridged edition in 1885, titled on its title page as a 'New Edition, Abridged,' that reduced Bird's original text by roughly half; a true first edition must be the full two-volume 1880 set, not the 1885 (or later) one-volume abridgment.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Unbeaten Tracks in Japan* by Isabella L. Bird a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/unbeaten-tracks-in-japan
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.