A few members of our region had the good fortune to visit the Washington State University (WSU) Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) room in the library to view four first editions of Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. A WSU alum, Lorraine (Kure) Hanaway recently left the first editions to WSU in her will (https://news.wsu.edu/2021/06/07/first-edition-jane-austen-novels-added-wsu-libraries-collection/). Lorraine was one of the founding members of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and was a member of the Eastern Pennsylvania region (http://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/vol-41-no-1/memorium-hanaway/). Dr. Trevor Bond, Associate Dean for Digital Initiative and Special Collections, and Greg Matthews, Special Collections Librarian at MASC, were our guides for the viewing and arranged all the books that we saw. I think two themes that shape my reflections on seeing the first editions are: the importance of preserving and understanding Jane Austen’s early editions and the joy of finding your “small band of true friends” who love Austen.
Preserving and Understanding Jane Austen’s Early Editions
It seems centrally important to understanding Austen’s works to maintain the volume structure of the novels. The three volumes structure clearly organizes the novels that were published during Austen’s lifetime. (Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published posthumously each as two volumes of a four-volume set so we can’t be sure of author intent in terms of volumes.) For example, in Mansfield Park at the end of Volume I, the volume ends quite dramatically when Sir Thomas comes home, and his return is announced to those rehearsing the play by an aghast Julia. While most recent edited editions of the novels preserve the three (or two) volume structure, it is wonderful to actually see the three volumes and think about what it must have been like to read one volume and then be so excited to start the next volume to find out what came next. In the first editions we also see the ways that the printers kept continuity in the text by printing the first word of the next page at the end of the previous page (aka the “catchword”, see Deb Barnum’s blog on collecting books: https://janeausteninvermont.blog/2021/03/06/collecting-jane-austen-book-collecting-101/). We also can see that not many words are printed on each line, so that the words on one page of a current edition might be spread out over two pages in a first edition (compare the Emma proposal scene in the first edition to the proposal scene in the Penguin edition edited by Juliette Wells, marked in the picture below by blue brackets). It feels amazing that these volumes from the early 1800s have survived into the 21st century.
The Proposal Scene in the First Edition of Emma 
The Proposal Scene in Emma, Penguin Edition
Finding Your “Small Band of True Friends”
It was so special to see the first editions with two of our region’s “founding members”. Vic was at our very first meeting in Pullman in June 2017 and Chuck was at our first tea in Spokane in July 2017. They both joined JASNA that year and helped our region to be recognized as an official region. One of the joys of being a regional coordinator is getting to meet new Jane Austen fans in our region in person (such as Deb, who came with Vic) and, through social media and on Zoom, getting to meet people from all over the world who are Janeites. When viewing the first editions I also felt a connection to Lorraine Hanaway, who donated them, although I never had the pleasure of meeting her. I could imagine her walking around the WSU campus in the late 1940s, thinking about the next edition of the student paper, The Daily Evergreen, in her job as editor.
The other Janeite I connected with at the MASC was, unexpectedly, Virginia Woolf! The MASC has a large collection of volumes from Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s personal library (http://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu/masc/onlinebooks/woolflibrary/woolflibraryonline.htm). I knew that Woolf was a big Jane Austen fan. Trevor Bond and Greg Matthews arranged for us to see the Jane Austen books from the Woolf personal library. The novels were mainly the “Everyman Library” versions from the early 1900s, although there was a two volume edition of Pride and Prejudice printed in 1817 by Egerton that was given to Virginia Woolf from John Maynard Keynes (the economist, who was also a part of the Bloomsbury group) and signed by him. I was excited to see first editions of several of the Oxford publications from the 1920s: Lady Susan (pictured), Volume the First, and the final chapters of Persuasion, including the canceled chapter 10. Another volume was probably quite rare since it said in the volume that only 250 were published: a special printing of the final chapters of Persuasion printed on handmade paper with a facsimile version of the canceled chapter 10 in Jane Austen’s handwriting (see picture). Holding volumes that Virginia Woolf held was very special.
Copy of Lady Susan Owned by Virginia Woolf 
Copy of Two Chapters of Persuasion Owned by Virginia Woolf
It was a dream come true for me to be able to hold some Jane Austen first editions. I need to go back and study the first edition volumes in more detail. I also want to get a better look at the P&P from 1817 that belonged to Virginia Woolf. If you live locally and would like to see the volumes, they are available to view when MASC is open. See https://libraries.wsu.edu/masc/ for more information about hours and how to access material in the reading room at MASC.
JASNA Eastern Washington/Northern Idaho 