By Julie Hadsell
“It is a truth universally acknowledged” that Jane Austen is a fan favorite for literature lovers all over the world.[1] Known for her beloved stories centering on themes of love, class, and social expectations set in Regency era England, Austen penned six novels that stand the test of time. In Emma, the last to be published before Austen’s death, our titular character experiences troubles and triumphs as she practices her matchmaking skills and perhaps even ends up with a match herself.
Austen lovers (also known as Janeites) may be interested to learn that the Winterthur Library holds a rare Austen in its collections. Published in Philadelphia in 1816 by Mathew Carey, this edition of Emma was the first Jane Austen work to be published in the United States, with only six known copies still surviving.[2] At the time, an American publisher reprinting a British work without informing the original publisher and author was fully legal, so we can assume Austen never knew about this first U.S. edition.
What makes this edition so special? Mathew Carey immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1784, and was a publisher, businessman, political writer, and self-proclaimed lover of novels and romances. In late 1816, he published Emma with a print run of 500 copies, almost a year to the day after the original edition was published in England. The book was credited on the title page to “the author of Pride and Prejudice,” though American readers did not yet have a reprint of Austen’s earlier works.
Publishing Emma was a significant financial risk for Carey, and unfortunately no documentation exists to explain his decision to reprint the novel. At the time, Austen was an anonymous author never published in the States, and Carey and his printers took several economic shortcuts to save money on their risk. Some of these included condensing the novel into two volumes—it had originally been published in England in three—and using cheap paper and bindings. This, combined with sometimes rushed work assumed to be done by a young and inexperienced apprentice, likely explains why only six copies of the original 500 are known to still exist. In her book Reading Austen in America, Juliette Wells explains, “given the (understandably) low production values of Carey’s reprinted Emma, volumes would likely have disintegrated unless an owner cared enough to invest in having them rebound well.”
Despite the shortcuts taken in its production, Winterthur’s copy of Emma, bound in calf leather and bearing the signature of E. I. du Pont, is in great condition. This lack of wear or significant markings sets Emma apart from other titles in the du Ponts’ personal libraries, and suggests that Emma was either not frequently read, or not enjoyed. Despite this possible lack of interest on the du Ponts’ part, E. I. du Pont was a contemporary of Mathew Carey and owned many of his publications.
Interested in viewing Winterthur’s copy of Jane Austen’s Emma? Contact the Winterthur Library at reference@winterthur.org, but don’t delay. Emma will be traveling to the Morgan Library in New York for their exhibition A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250 from May through September 2025.
Interested in learning more about the six surviving copies? Find Reading Austen in America by Juliette Wells at the Winterthur Library during any drop-in visit, Monday–Friday.
[1] Opening line from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: a Novel.
[2] Read more about Mathew Carey and how he published the U.S. reprint of Emma in Juliette Wells, Reading Austen in America, 2017.