The Life of Charlotte Brontë

The London Smith, Elder two-volume edition (1857) is the true first. A first American edition appeared the same year from D. Appleton & Co., New York (1857); it follows the London printing and is collected only as the first American, not the true first. Both the first and the second editions were recalled in May 1857 under threat of libel, after which the text was substantially revised for the third edition (the so-called 'mutilated edition'), so the earlier unrevised London setting is the one collectors seek.