The Cricket on the Hearth.: A fairy tale of home.

New York: Harper & Brothers,, 1846. The bibliographer's copy First US edition, first printing. This was the copy of the bibliographer Walter Smith, with his pencilled ownership signature on the title page, and is the copy photographed and described in his bibliography of Dickens. The Cricket on the Hearth, the third of Dickens's five Christmas books, was first published in the UK on 20 December 1845. This first US printing was published on 26 January 1846, preceding the rival edition of Wiley & Putnam by four days. A second printing by Harper & Brothers can be distinguished as the dedication page is dated March 1846, here the requisite January. Octavo. Original brown wrappers printed in black. Housed in grey cloth solander box. With 16-page catalogue of advertisements at rear. Recent bookplate of collector Peter Russell mounted to inside cover of box. Very light peripheral chipping to wrappers, small chip to pp. 17-8 with loss to pagination, light spotting to contents. A very good copy. Smith, Charles Dickens: A Bibliography of His First American Editions: The Christmas Books, pp. 63-6.