The Family Robinson Crusoe: or, Journal of a Father Shipwrecked, with His Wife and Children, on an Uninhabited Island
London: M.J. Godwin and Co.…, 1816. Item #06175
The First Complete Edition in English of The Swiss Family Robinson
The 1814 First English Edition Sheets
With Wyss's Continuation Appearing in English for the First Time
An Exceptional Copy in Contemporary Sheep
WYSS, Johann David. The Family Robinson Crusoe: or, Journal of a Father Shipwrecked, with His Wife and Children, on an Uninhabited Island. Translated from the German of M. Wiss. [Translated by William Godwin and/or Mary Jane Godwin]. London: Printed for M.J. Godwin and Co., at the Juvenile Library, 41, Skinner-Street, and Hailes, Piccadilly, 1816.
First complete edition in English of The Swiss Family Robinson, incorporating sheets of the 1814 first English edition of the first part, here reissued with an 1816 cancel title-page, together with the first appearance in English of Wyss's continuation.
Three parts in two twelvemo volumes (6 7/8 x 4 1/8 inches; 175 x 105 mm.). Vol. I: xxii, 144; 202, [2, editor's note and blank] pp.; Vol. II: iv, 380 pp. Engraved frontispiece and five engraved plates after Henry Corbould, together with an engraved folding map.
Contemporary sheep, smooth spines ruled in gilt, red morocco labels lettered in gilt, small circular green morocco labels with volume numbers in gilt. Joints expertly and almost invisibly restored; corners a little worn. Volume I with early ink “No 7” on front pastedown; Volume II with early ink “No 8” on front pastedown. Volume I with short fore-margin tear to C1 (pp. 25/26); small portion of lower blank corner of C11 (pp. 45/46) torn away; tiny piece from fore-margin of D12 (pp. 71/72). Small worm track extending from the upper edge of the front board through the upper blank margin of the contents leaf, without loss of text. Volume II with short clean fore-margin tear to E1 (pp. 73/74). Plates somewhat stained and foxed; folding map with two tiny holes, approximately 1/8 inch, at an old fold. Some sporadic light foxing throughout.
Despite these minor defects, a remarkably attractive survival in its original contemporary bindings - and the finest copy of this issue that we have encountered in nearly sixty years of dealing in antiquarian books.
The bibliographical history of the first English edition of The Swiss Family Robinson is unusually complex. Johann David Wyss's Der Schweizerische Robinson was first published at Zürich in 1812. Wyss, a Swiss pastor, originally devised the story for the instruction and entertainment of his four sons, and his son Johann Rudolf Wyss subsequently prepared it for publication. Conceived in conscious imitation of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, the book combined the excitement of the desert-island adventure with lessons in natural history, practical ingenuity, self-reliance, family cooperation, and Christian morality.
The first English translation appeared from Mary Jane Godwin's Juvenile Library in 1814 under the title The Family Robinson Crusoe. The first issue appeared in two volumes with separate pagination. A subsequent issue rearranged the sheets into a single-volume format with continuous pagination and other alterations.
The present copy is of particular bibliographical interest because it preserves the original 1814 sheets with the break in pagination after p. 144 and the characteristic error of p. 197 misnumbered 167.
At the conclusion of the first portion appears the editor's note announcing that the continuation of the story had been received from Germany and would subsequently be translated and published - the notice clearly surviving in the present copy.
That promise was fulfilled in 1816. The earlier sheets were reissued with a cancel title-page dated 1816 and accompanied by the newly translated continuation, which appears here for the first time in English.
The present set therefore represents the first complete edition in English of The Swiss Family Robinson: the text of the first English edition combined with the first English appearance of its continuation.
The engraved illustrations add considerably to the charm of the edition. Particularly appealing is the folding “Map of Swiss Pastor & his Family in the Desert Island,” together with scenes of the family's adventures - including the kangaroo and other exotic fauna that provided the young reader with both entertainment and instruction. The map and plates are all present in this copy.
The work subsequently became universally known as The Swiss Family Robinson and developed into the most celebrated of the “Robinsonades” - the large body of adventure literature inspired by Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Its extraordinary longevity stems from Wyss's successful combination of instruction and adventure: shipwreck, exploration, exotic animals, ingenious inventions, survival and the creation of a new home, all within the framework of an unusually close and resourceful family.
It became one of the enduring classics of children's literature and has remained in print, in innumerable adaptations and retellings, for more than two centuries.
An exceptionally appealing copy of a rare and bibliographically complicated children's classic, in contemporary bindings: the first complete edition in English, preserving the sheets of the 1814 first English edition and adding Wyss's continuation in English for the first time.
Gottlieb, Early Children's Books, 140; Gumuchian 4907; Osborne Collection I, p. 318; Herman W. Liebert, “The Swiss Family Robinson: A Bibliographical Note,” Yale University Library Gazette, July 1947, pp. 10–13.
Price: $15,000.00