Stowe, Harriet Beecher | First English edition, in the original parts

Property from the Library of John M. Schiff

Stowe, Harriet Beecher

Uncle Tom's Cabin. London: John Cassell, 1852

13 parts, 8vo (204 x 130 mm). Part 13 with woodcut vignette to title-page and woodcut frontispiece, 27 woodcut plates by George Cruikshank; light browning and offsetting, stray spots, Part 1 with the first leaf partially adhered to the wrapper and a marginal closed tear to p.7/8, Part 6 with stray marginal marks in pencil, Part 10 with puncture to upper corner of most leaves. In the original printed wrappers; some light soiling and small chips to wrappers, ownership inscription to front wrapper of first two parts, Part 1 with some slight loss of the wrapper at spine, Part 11 with Part 7's wrapper and with the number hand-corrected, Part 12 and Part 13 with the numbers hand-corrected. Housed in a custom morocco slipcase with folding chemise.

First English edition of Stowe's impassioned antislavery novel, which she had been inspired to write after passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. According to Cohn, the publisher's wrappers are "of very poor quality, and hence difficult to get in a good state." The publishing history of Stowe's novel in England is clear at best. BAL records an edition published by Clarke and Co., presumably in late April or early May 1852, which is frequently described as the first English edition. Despite this, BAL notes that "it may not be the first English edition, however, since Clarke's earliest advertisements and listings indicate that their original edition had only 300 pp."—while the copy received by the British Library contained 329 pages. PMM explains that, "beside the authorized edition published by Thomas Bosworth more than twenty pirated London editions appeared in 1852, one of them, issued in thirteen weekly parts, with illustrations by George Cruikshank."

REFERENCE:

BAL 19518; Cohn 777; PMM 332