# Is "Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical (Gray's Anatomy) -- first American edition" by Henry Gray a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical (Gray's Anatomy) -- first American edition by Henry Gray (Blanchard and Lea, 1859) is identified by: First American edition, large octavo (about 10 the printed price x 6 the printed price in.; 257 x 165 mm), collating xxxii, 754 pp., illustrated with the 363 wood-engraved figures after Henry Vandyke Carter's drawings. The true first edition of the work is London: John W.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First American edition, large octavo (about 10 the printed price x 6 the printed price in.; 257 x 165 mm), collating xxxii, 754 pp., illustrated with the 363 wood-engraved figures after Henry Vandyke Carter's drawings
- Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1859 — printed from the 1858 London original, with a number of the first London printing's typographical errors corrected and the index expanded
- The title page reads 'Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1859,' distinguishing it from the London first
- Issued in publisher's cloth or contemporary leather (sheep/calf) library bindings
- Publisher imprint reads Blanchard and Lea
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Henry Gray |
| Publisher | Blanchard and Lea |
| Year | 1859 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First American edition, large octavo (about 10 the printed price x 6 the printed price in.; 257 x 165 mm), collating xxxii, 754 pp.… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First American edition, large octavo (about 10 the printed price x 6 the printed price in.; 257 x 165 mm), collating xxxii, 754 pp., illustrated with the 363 wood-engraved figures after Henry Vandyke Carter's drawings. Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1859 — printed from the 1858 London original, with a number of the first London printing's typographical errors corrected and the index expanded. The title page reads 'Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1859,' distinguishing it from the London first. Issued in publisher's cloth or contemporary leather (sheep/calf) library bindings.

## Is this the true first?
The true first edition of the work is London: John W. Parker and Son, 1858, by Henry Gray with illustrations by Henry Vandyke Carter. The Philadelphia Blanchard and Lea printing described here is the first American edition, issued about a year later as an imprint of the English edition before Blanchard and Lea had purchased full American rights — which they did for the first AUTHORIZED American edition of 1862 (the first of some twenty-five distinct American editions).

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
From the 1862 authorized American edition onward, and through the further American editions into the 20th century, the book was progressively re-edited by other hands after Gray's death in 1861; any title page naming a later editor (or a printing dated after 1859) is a much later revision, not the 1858/1859 original text. No book-club edition is at issue here.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical (Gray's Anatomy) -- first American edition* by Henry Gray a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/anatomy-descriptive-and-surgical-grays-anatomy-first-america
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.