Which publishing house published the first edition of Frankenstein?

The first edition of Frankenstein was published by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones. This small London firm issued Mary Shelley's novel on 1 January 1818, when Shelley was only 20 years old.

The book appeared anonymously in three volumes, following the popular nineteenth-century “triple-decker” format. The first edition consisted of about 500 copies and included a preface written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as a dedication to Mary's father, philosopher William Godwin.

The publisher's name is often missed because later editions came from different firms. The 1823 English edition was published by G. and W. B. Whittaker, while the widely read one-volume revision of 1831 was issued by Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. Mary's name appeared on the title page of the 1823 edition, not the anonymous 1818 original.

The firm’s full name is sometimes printed without the final ampersand or with minor punctuation differences. Those typographical variations do not change the identity of the publishing house.