# Is "The Professor" by Charlotte Brontë (as 'Currer Bell') a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Professor by Charlotte Brontë (as 'Currer Bell') (Smith, Elder, London, 1857) is identified by: London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1857; two volumes, 8vo, published under the pseudonym Currer Bell. Smith, Elder, London, 1857 is the true first and the census claim stands.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1857; two volumes, 8vo, published under the pseudonym Currer Bell
- Half-titles are present in both volumes and are called for
- Publisher's advertisements for Brontë's works appear at the end of both volumes, and a publisher's catalogue at the end of volume 2 is dated June 1857 — the June 1857 dating is the recorded first state of the ads
- In the original binding: publisher's blind-stamped purple cloth, both boards stamped in blind, spines lettered in gilt; spines are commonly and uniformly faded, which is expected rather than disqualifying
- The original binder's ticket is found at the lower edge of the rear pastedown of volume I, as issued
- The novel was published posthumously — Brontë died in 1855 — and was seen through the press by her widower, Arthur Bell Nicholls, who reviewed and edited the text
- Publisher imprint reads Smith, Elder, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Charlotte Brontë (as 'Currer Bell') |
| Publisher | Smith, Elder, London |
| Year | 1857 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1857; two volumes, 8vo, published under the pseudonym Currer Bell |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1857; two volumes, 8vo, published under the pseudonym Currer Bell. Half-titles are present in both volumes and are called for. Publisher's advertisements for Brontë's works appear at the end of both volumes, and a publisher's catalogue at the end of volume 2 is dated June 1857 — the June 1857 dating is the recorded first state of the ads. In the original binding: publisher's blind-stamped purple cloth, both boards stamped in blind, spines lettered in gilt; spines are commonly and uniformly faded, which is expected rather than disqualifying. The original binder's ticket is found at the lower edge of the rear pastedown of volume I, as issued. The novel was published posthumously — Brontë died in 1855 — and was seen through the press by her widower, Arthur Bell Nicholls, who reviewed and edited the text.

## Is this the true first?
Smith, Elder, London, 1857 is the true first and the census claim stands. Harper & Brothers, New York, published the first American edition the same year, 1857; it is a separately collected edition worth naming, but it follows the London printing and is not the true first. The book's oddity is genuine and the census states it correctly: The Professor was the first novel Charlotte completed and submitted — Smith, Elder rejected it in 1846 and again in 1851, steering her instead toward the longer work that became Jane Eyre — so the first-written novel is the last-published, and it closes the seven-novel Brontë canon.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book club edition is documented for an 1857 two-decker; the risk is the ordinary Victorian one. Smith, Elder's own later printings and the cheap collected and uniform editions of Charlotte Brontë's works are the common substitutes, and the Harper New York 1857 is frequently offered simply as 'first edition 1857' without the qualifier 'first American'. Copies rebound out of the original purple cloth lose the binding evidence entirely — Bonhams distinguishes 'the first edition, in the first binding' for exactly this reason — and a set whose rear advertisements have been removed cannot be placed in the first state.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Professor* by Charlotte Brontë (as 'Currer Bell') a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-professor
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.