A Little Princess

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 trap: the 1905 Scribner book is the first appearance of the NOVEL, not of the story. The material began as 'Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's', serialised in St. Nicholas Magazine from December 1887 (illustrated by Reginald B. Birch) and published in book form in 1888 - which is precisely why the 1905 copyright page reads 'Copyright, 1888 and 1905'. Burnett then wrote the three-act play 'A Little Un-fairy Princess' (premiered December 1902) and, at her publisher's request, expanded the story into the 1905 novel, adding Lottie, Becky, Melchisedec and the enlarged garret material.