The first edition of Rook's was published in two volumes by Blackwell Scientific Publications in Oxford in 1968.

It was jointly edited by Arthur Rook, Darrell Wilkinson and John Ebling.

[1] Rook was the editor of the British Journal of Dermatology from 1968 to 1974[2] a dermatologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and a medical historian.

[3] An online version was introduced for the eighth edition in 2010.

[4] The ninth edition in four volumes was published by Wiley in 2016.