4 Frances Hodgson Burnett first editions are documented on this shelf, from Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886) to The Secret Garden (1911) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Frances Hodgson Burnett title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Frances Hodgson Burnett copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Little Lord Fauntleroy — 1886 · Charles Scribner's SonsSerialized in St. Nicholas Magazine from November 1885 to October 1886 before Scribner's issued the book on 7 October 1886. First-issue points recorded at BAL 2064 include a De Vinne Press device on the verso of the final text leaf (page [210]), the signature numerals '12' on page 177 and '14' on page 209, and a 14-page 'Scribner's Books for the Young' catalogue bound in at the rear; a separate early state…. US precedes UK: the Scribner's New York edition (7 October 1886) preceded the Frederick Warne & Co. London edition, which followed the same year in November.
- Sara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss Minchin's — 1888 · Charles Scribner's SonsSerialized in St. Nicholas Magazine from December 1887 through February 1888, the story was then issued in book form on 29 February 1888. The first edition collates 83 numbered pages plus a 16-page 'Scribner's Books for the Young' catalogue at the rear, illustrated with six full-page illustrations by Reginald B. Birch. Dealers distinguish two states of this catalogue, corresponding to BAL (Bibliography of…. Book publication on 29 February 1888 came right on the heels of the St. Nicholas Magazine serialization, which had run from December 1887 through February 1888. Burnett later expanded this novella into the full-length A Little Princess (Scribner's, 1905), a different, much longer book that should not be confused with the 1888 first edition. Scribner's 1889 printing is bound in green cloth and carries only 14 pages of advertisements at the rear (versus 16 in the true 1888 first edition) -- a useful quick check for separating the first edition from this early reprint.
- A Little Princess — 1905 · Charles Scribner's SonsFirst edition: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, published 30 September 1905, full title 'A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Told for the First Time'. The title page reads 'WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLORS BY ETHEL FRANKLIN BETTS / CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS / NEW YORK' above the imprint year, and the copyright page reads 'Copyright, 1888 and 1905, by Charles Scribner's Sons' followed by…. The census claim that Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1905 is the true first of the expanded novel is upheld, with a firm date of 30 September 1905. The UK edition the census leaves unnamed is Frederick Warne & Co., London, November 1905, illustrated by Harold H. Piffard - a genuinely different illustrated edition, separately collected, and offered in the trade as a 1905 first in its own right. First-thus…. Scribner printed from the same plates for decades and the copyright page never changed, so a copy offered as a '1905 first' on the strength of the 'Published September, 1905' line alone is unverified - the 1917 Scribner reprint examined for this entry is identical there. Check the title-page imprint year. Later Grosset & Dunlap reprints and the 1963 J. B. Lippincott Tasha Tudor edition are separate editions….
- The Secret Garden — 1911 · Frederick A. Stokes CompanyFirst edition, first printing: Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York, published 25 August 1911. The copyright page, verified against a scanned Stokes copy, reads 'Copyright, 1911, by Frances Hodgson Burnett / Copyright, 1910, 1911, by The Phillips Publishing Co.', followed by the all-rights-reserved notice ('including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian') and 'Printed in the…. The census claim is upheld and can be dated, though 'narrowly' overstates it: the American Stokes edition was published in book form on 25 August 1911 and the English edition followed in October 1911 from William Heinemann, London - Stokes precedes by roughly two months, not by days. The Heinemann first English edition is separately collected and is the Charles Robinson book: publisher's green cloth lettered in…. Stokes reprinted from the same setting for years, and Grosset & Dunlap and other reprint-house editions are common; because the first carries no printing statement, the reliable checks are the two-part Burnett/Phillips copyright notice with nothing added, and conformity to one of the two BAL binding styles. A green-cloth copy missing the pictorial onlay, the frontispiece or any of the three Kirk plates is….
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