8vo. (Spotting throughout.) Original red-brown wavy-grained cloth decorated in blind, spine decorated and lettered in gilt (few old tiny repairs to spine ends and near titling, fore-corners rubbed, extremities lightly sunned, hinges starting with some stitching showing); morocco-backed folding case. Provenance: Carroll Atwood Wilson (1886-1947), American book collector (book label).

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF THE AUTHOR'S ONLY BOOK, cloth issue (also appeared in wrappers, no priority) published only 5 months after the true first edition printed in London. During her brief lifetime, the reclusive Emily Bronte chose the pseudonym "Ellis Bell" for her publications. This edition falsely attributes the author to Emily’s sister, Charlotte Bronte, “The Author of Jane Eyre,” owing to Thomas Newby, her publisher in London, who misrepresented the work to the American publisher Harper and Brothers. It would not be until 1850, with the publication of Charlotte’s Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell, that Emily’s authorship was revealed - more than a year following her untimely death from consumption at age 30, in December, 1848. Smith 3; Symington, p.100; Tinker 389.