The Book of Household Management

UK only — the census claim is correct; no US or foreign edition competes. The live precedence question is internal to the UK. The text appeared first in 24 monthly parts issued by S. O. Beeton from November 1859 to October 1861, in publisher's buff and rose pictorial wrappers, with the colour-printed frontispiece and title page in part 1, 12 colour plates, and advertisements in parts 1, 2 (on yellow paper, carrying the prospectus for the work), 5, 13, 14 and 19; the prospectus promises completion "in 15 or 18 parts," later extended to 24, first announced on the wrappers of part 19. The parts are the true first appearance and are rarer than the book; the one-volume book, collected on 1 October 1861, is the first edition in book form. Both are collected — say which you mean. Material had appeared earlier still in The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine.