Thackeray Claming 3000 Copies of Esmond, First Edition

Peter L. Shillingsburg, Professor of English, Mississippi State University

Note 57 to Chapter 5 of the author's Pegasus in Harness: Victorian Publishing and W. M. Thackeray, which University Press of Virginia published in 1992. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.

Thackeray often rounded out figures and is therefore unreliable for specific information. The edition was either 2,500 or 2,750, not 3,000. Smith's letter, no longer extant, must have been written around 15 November.

Last modified: 4 April 2001