COLLINS'S MAIN ENGLISH PUBLISHERS
[ Works of Wilkie Collins ] [ Front Page ] [ The Books and Novels ] [Wilkie Collins's Publishers]
[ Sampson Low ] [ Smith, Elder ] [ Chatto & Windus ]
Single titles were
published by Longmans, Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq. R. A.
(1848); Hurst & Blackett, The Queen of Hearts (1859); Tinsley, The
Moonstone (1868); Ellis & Co., Man and Wife (1870); and
Arrowsmith, The Guilty River (1886).
Multiple titles
were published by Bentley, Sampson Low, Smith, Elder and Chatto & Windus.
The last three issued uniform editions but there has been no complete collected
edition. The nearest have been the 29 titles from Chatto & Windus and
the 30 titles from Collier in the US.
Richard Bentley & Son
Richard Bentley published nine first editions:
Antonina (1850), Rambles Beyond Railways (1851), Mr Wray's Cash Box (1852), Basil (1852), Hide and Seek (1854), Poor Miss Finch (1872), Miss or Mrs? and Other Stories (1873), The New Magdalen (1873), and A Rogue's Life (1879).
Basil
appeared in Bentley's
Railroad Library
(Bentley's Shilling Series)
during 1854 before the title was bought by James Blackwood in 1856. Bentley's
final Collins publication came in 1879 with A Rogue's Life in its
half-crown Empire Library.
 |
|
| Blackwood's London Library | Bentley's Empire Library |
Sampson Low
published three first editions: The Woman
in White (1860), No Name (1862)
and My
Miscellanies (1863).
|
|
|
| Woman in White with Gilbert's illustrated title. | Antonina with Low's later green binding. |
Smith, Elder
published two first editions: After
Dark (1856) and Armadale
(1866). In
1865, they added seven titles for which they had taken over the publishing
rights from Sampson Low.
Nine titles were then issued as
‘Cheap editions of Mr. Wilkie Collins’s Novels in
Fancy Boards at 2s. 6d. each.’
Antonina, Basil, Hide and Seek, The Dead Secret, The Queen
of Hearts, The Woman in White, No Name, After Dark and Armadale.
These
were similar in style to yellowbacks. Smith, Elder continued to
issue the nine titles in a variety of uniform editions, adding The Moonstone
in 1872.
1. Pictorial Boards at
2s from 1871.
2. Limp green
cloth at 2s 6d, between 1870 and 1889.
3. Bright red pebble-grain cloth, between 1871 and 1874.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 1865 Fancy Boards | 1871 New Edition in limp cloth | 1876 New Edition | 1871 Yellowback |
Chatto published twelve first English editions. In 1875, they acquired the copyright to most of the earlier titles (excluding Armadale, After Dark and No Name which remained with Smith Elder until 1890, and Bentley's A Rogue's Life); they published the majority of Collins's new works till 1889. Chatto issued several cheap editions from 1875 in various formats, including the New Illustrated Library edition, Piccadilly Novels, Library Edition and Popular Editions. By 1890, they published twenty-nine titles which continued to be issued well into the twentieth century:
Antonina, Basil, Hide and Seek, After Dark, The Dead Secret, The Queen of Hearts, The Woman in White, No Name, My Miscellanies, Armadale, The Moonstone, Man and Wife, Poor Miss Finch, The New Magdalen, Miss or Mrs?: and Other Stories in Outline, The Frozen Deep: and Other Stories, The Law and The Lady, The Two Destinies, A Rogue's Life, The Fallen Leaves, The Haunted Hotel, Jezebel's Daughter, The Black Robe, Heart and Science,"I Say No", The Guilty River, The Evil Genius, Little Novels, The Legacy of Cain, Blind Love.
|
|
|
|
|
Piccadilly Novels |
Small format with limp boards |
Yellowback |
|
|
|
|
|
Popular Edition in pictorial wrappers |
Library Edition |
Popular Edition in tan paper wrappers |
[ Works of Wilkie Collins ] [ Front Page ] [ The Books and Novels ] [Wilkie Collins's Publishers]