# Is "Under the Greenwood Tree" by Thomas Hardy a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy (Tinsley Brothers, 1872) is identified by: First edition, Tinsley Brothers, London, 1872, in two volumes, published anonymously — the title page reads 'Under the Greenwood Tree. Census claim CONFIRMED as to the true first, with one correction to its US attribution: Tinsley Brothers, London, 1872 is the true first, Hardy's second novel and his first Wessex novel.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, Tinsley Brothers, London, 1872, in two volumes, published anonymously — the title page reads 'Under the Greenwood Tree
- A Rural Painting of the Dutch School
- By the Author of "Desperate Remedies."' and Hardy's name does not appear
- Published early in June 1872, the date usually given being 15 June, in an edition of 500 copies
- The original binding is green sand-grain cloth over bevelled boards
- The half-title point is the one that decides sets and is routinely misread: a half-title was issued in volume I ONLY, and volume II correctly has none — a set described as 'lacking the half-title to volume II' is complete as issued, and a volume II carrying a half-title warrants scrutiny
- Publisher imprint reads Tinsley Brothers

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Thomas Hardy |
| Publisher | Tinsley Brothers |
| Year | 1872 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, Tinsley Brothers, London, 1872, in two volumes, published anonymously — the title page reads 'Under the Greenwood Tree |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First edition, Tinsley Brothers, London, 1872, in two volumes, published anonymously — the title page reads 'Under the Greenwood Tree. A Rural Painting of the Dutch School. By the Author of "Desperate Remedies."' and Hardy's name does not appear. Published early in June 1872, the date usually given being 15 June, in an edition of 500 copies. The original binding is green sand-grain cloth over bevelled boards. The half-title point is the one that decides sets and is routinely misread: a half-title was issued in volume I ONLY, and volume II correctly has none — a set described as 'lacking the half-title to volume II' is complete as issued, and a volume II carrying a half-title warrants scrutiny. Collation runs [vi], 215; [vi], 216 pp., octavo. No edition or printing statement is present, so identification rests on the Tinsley imprint, the 1872 date, the anonymous 'By the Author of Desperate Remedies' attribution, the two-volume format, and the original cloth. Purdy pp. 6–8; Sadleir 1117. Few copies survive in original cloth; most sets encountered are later half-morocco or half-calf rebinds, which are handsome but not original state.

## Is this the true first?
Census claim CONFIRMED as to the true first, with one correction to its US attribution: Tinsley Brothers, London, 1872 is the true first, Hardy's second novel and his first Wessex novel. The first American edition appeared in 1873 from Holt & Williams, New York — not 'Holt' simpliciter, though that firm shortly became Henry Holt & Co. — in the publisher's cream cloth decorated in black; it was in fact the first Hardy novel published in the United States, his debut having waited until 1874 there. It follows the Tinsley by a year, so there is no precedence contest and only the Tinsley two-volume set is the collected first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The title predates the book-club era and no book-club issue exists. Later one-volume issues, including an 1878 Chatto & Windus edition, are common and carry Hardy's name on the title page with a later date. A specific cataloguing trap to know: reputable dealers list an 1883 issue under the headline description 'the first Wessex novel,' which is a later printing — that phrase describes the work's place in Hardy's Wessex sequence and is not an edition statement, and the same phrase is applied to the genuine 1872 first. Read the imprint and date, not the headline.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Under the Greenwood Tree* by Thomas Hardy a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/under-the-greenwood-tree
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.