# Is "Across the Wide Missouri" by Bernard DeVoto a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Across the Wide Missouri by Bernard DeVoto (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1947) is identified by: Two issues of the 1947 first edition exist and the census note missed the senior one. US Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1947 is the true first (Pulitzer Prize for History 1948; Bancroft Prize).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Two issues of the 1947 first edition exist and the census note missed the senior one
- (a) Signed limited issue: 265 numbered copies signed by DeVoto, bound in red cloth with a morocco spine label, front and rear boards stamped in gilt, top edge gilt, illustrated map endpapers, in the publisher's plain acetate jacket — this issue is documented by a single dealer listing and should be confirmed against a second source before being relied on
- (b) Trade issue: tan/wheat cloth (one dealer describes the same binding as off-white linen with red lettering across a beige band repeated on the spine) lettered in red on front board and spine; map of the fur-trade country on endpapers and pastedowns; collation [7], viii-xxvii, [1], 1-483, [1]; large octavo; pictorial jacket with the price present at the front flap
- The printing test is Houghton Mifflin's house rule for the period, on which three independent publisher guides agree: the year appears in Arabic numerals on the title page of first printings and is dropped or altered on subsequent printings
- The copyright-page "first printing" statement and the number row are later HM conventions and should not be expected on a 1947 book
- REFUTED: no source supports the census claim that later printings "degrade" the Miller/Bodmer color plates
- Publisher imprint reads Houghton Mifflin Company

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Bernard DeVoto |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin Company |
| Year | 1947 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Two issues of the 1947 first edition exist and the census note missed the senior one |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Two issues of the 1947 first edition exist and the census note missed the senior one. (a) Signed limited issue: 265 numbered copies signed by DeVoto, bound in red cloth with a morocco spine label, front and rear boards stamped in gilt, top edge gilt, illustrated map endpapers, in the publisher's plain acetate jacket — this issue is documented by a single dealer listing and should be confirmed against a second source before being relied on. (b) Trade issue: tan/wheat cloth (one dealer describes the same binding as off-white linen with red lettering across a beige band repeated on the spine) lettered in red on front board and spine; map of the fur-trade country on endpapers and pastedowns; collation [7], viii-xxvii, [1], 1-483, [1]; large octavo; pictorial jacket with the price present at the front flap. The printing test is Houghton Mifflin's house rule for the period, on which three independent publisher guides agree: the year appears in Arabic numerals on the title page of first printings and is dropped or altered on subsequent printings. The copyright-page "first printing" statement and the number row are later HM conventions and should not be expected on a 1947 book. REFUTED: no source supports the census claim that later printings "degrade" the Miller/Bodmer color plates. The first edition's 81 illustrations after Alfred Jacob Miller, Karl Bodmer (frequently miscopied as "Charles Bodmer" in dealer listings) and George Catlin, 32 in full color, are widely described, but plate degradation in later printings is not a documented point of issue and is not asserted here.

## Is this the true first?
US Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1947 is the true first (Pulitzer Prize for History 1948; Bancroft Prize). The first UK edition is Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1948 — a year later, therefore a reprint rather than a competing first, and collected only as the first British appearance. Within the 1947 first edition the signed limited issue of 265 numbered copies is the senior issue and the trade issue is the ordinary collected first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later Houghton Mifflin printings and the 1964, 1987 and 1998 HM / Mariner reissues are reprints; American Legacy Press (New York, 1981, distributed by Crown Publishers) is a reprint-house issue. A quick shelf tell: reset later printings run about 450-451 pp. against the first's 483 pp.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Across the Wide Missouri* by Bernard DeVoto a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/across-the-wide-missouri
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.