The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire (written and illustrated by Howard Pyle)

Scribner never issued a cheap or paper edition and kept the book in a controlled, fine format, so later Scribner printings closely resemble the 1883 first and are a common trap. The decisive test is the copyright leaf: the true first shows only 1883, whereas later printings carry additional cumulative copyright dates (e.g., 1883 plus 1902/1911 and later) even when the pictorial cover and MDCCCLXXXIII title page look identical. Note especially the 1902 REVISED/condensed edition, for which Pyle supplied a new apologetic preface — it is a distinct later edition, not the first. Edges that are not orange-tinted, or bright/white modern endpapers rather than the original brown, signal a later printing or a rebound copy. Beware modern print-on-demand and leatherette gift reissues that merely reproduce the 1883 copyright notice; verify the actual copyright leaf and the orange edges rather than trusting a stated "1883." (The draft's specific reprint years — 1892, 1903, 1905 — and the "limited run every second year" phrasing are not well supported and have been dropped in favor of the copyright-leaf test and the documented 1902 revision.)