First Edition publication information:

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was first published 1 September 1952 in London by Geoffrey Bles. First American edition published 30 September 1952 in New York by Macmillan. It was released as a cloth-bound book. A paperback edition was not released until 1965 in England and 1970 in the United States.

First edition cover art:

First American edition cover:

1964 Fifth Printing Cover

Both first edition covers featured the same art by Pauline Baynes, although it has been colored differently for the American edition. While newer covers refer to this as the Third (or Fifth after 1994) Book in the Chronicles of Narnia, the original cover makes no reference to Narnia. The fifth printing cover has one of Pauline Baynes's illustrations of Reepicheep the Mouse, rather than the Dawn Treader sailing. This is perhaps in response to the popularity of Reepicheep. The British first edition featured an illustration of Reepicheep along the spine. The fifth printing has no art on the spine. It also no longer has the phrase "A Story for Children" on the cover.

First editions of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader are highly collectible and sell for hundreds of dollars at rare book stores. It has been difficult tracking down a first edition of this book, partly because the book is so valuable. Also, many editions of the book that are not first editions are nonetheless cataloged as having been published in 1952. I have discussed this problem with Sue Searing and with Alvan Bregman from UIUC’s Rare Books Room and they have confirmed that short of visiting every library in the World Cat system and physically looking at their copy of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, it is impossible to tell which of these books listed as a 1952 edition might actually be from 1952. To prepare this report I have used a copy belonging to Professor Christine Jenkins, a fifth printing from 1964. I have also used the websites of rare book stores to find cover art for the actual first edition, and have corresponded with an archivist at the Marion Wade Center at Wheaton College to get descriptions of the British and American first editions.

Pagination:

The first British edition has 223 pages. The first American edition has 210 pages. Lewis made some changes for the American edition, which may account for some of the difference in page numbers. However, the changes made by Lewis were fairly minor and some of the difference may be attributed to page layout or font size. The fifth printing has [iv] pre-paginated pages (title page, an illustration of the Dawn Treader, publication information, dedication, and table of contents), followed by 210 numbered pages.

Edited/introduced/dedicated:

 The first edition of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was not edited or introduced by anyone. It was dedicated to Geoffrey Barfield, the adopted son of Lewis’s friend Owen Barfield. Except for The Last Battle (which has no public dedication), all of the Narnia books are dedicated to children known by Lewis.

Illustrations:

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was illustrated by Pauline Baynes, who illustrated all of the Narnia books. There is at least one illustration in each of the 16 chapters and sometimes more.

 Sample illustration:

General appearance

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is printed in Baskerville. The print is about 2.5 millimeters high. It looks a little larger than the average font size for an adult fiction book, but smaller than the font for a standard children’s book.  The top of every left-hand page says The Voyage of the “Dawn Treader” and the top of every right-hand page has the chapter title in italics. Overall, the pages look clean and attractive.  The black and white line art is printed crisply. The book is 20 centimeters tall by 14 centimeters wide.

Image of sample page

The British first edition was bound in sky-blue cloth with silver imprint. The American first edition was bound in blue-grey cloth with blue imprint. The fifth printing was bound in blue cloth with black imprint, featuring a small image of the Dawn Treader sailing with Reepicheep at the bow. The spine has become discolored in places.

Fifth Printing Cover Binding

Title page