# Is "Widowers' Houses" by George Bernard Shaw a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Widowers' Houses by George Bernard Shaw (Henry & Co., 1893) is identified by: First edition, octavo, collating xix, [5], 126, [2] pp.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, octavo, collating xix, [5], 126, [2] pp
- (the final leaves list other titles in "The Independent Theatre Series" and "Works by the same author"), deckle-edged
- Title page reads "Widowers' Houses
- First Acted at the Independent Theatre in London," issued as Number One of the Independent Theatre Series edited by J. T. Grein
- Bound in cloth, most commonly recorded in dark olive gilt-lettered cloth, though copies in other cloth colors (including green and blue buckram) are also known with no established priority among them
- According to Shaw's own account, the publisher printed no more than 500 copies and never advertised the book
- Publisher imprint reads Henry & Co.

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | George Bernard Shaw |
| Publisher | Henry & Co. |
| Year | 1893 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, octavo, collating xix, [5], 126, [2] pp |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, octavo, collating xix, [5], 126, [2] pp. (the final leaves list other titles in "The Independent Theatre Series" and "Works by the same author"), deckle-edged. Title page reads "Widowers' Houses. A Comedy. First Acted at the Independent Theatre in London," issued as Number One of the Independent Theatre Series edited by J. T. Grein. Bound in cloth, most commonly recorded in dark olive gilt-lettered cloth, though copies in other cloth colors (including green and blue buckram) are also known with no established priority among them. According to Shaw's own account, the publisher printed no more than 500 copies and never advertised the book.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
When Henry & Co. went out of business in December 1897 they turned over roughly 194 unbound sets of first-edition sheets to Shaw, who arranged independently to have them bound (reportedly via Sotheran & Co., in purple cloth); these are the same 1893 setting of type in a different binding, not a later reprint, so a cloth binding that doesn't match the standard trade cloth does not by itself indicate a later edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Widowers' Houses* by George Bernard Shaw a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/widowers-houses
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.