# Is "Adventures in the Apache Country" by J. Ross Browne a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Adventures in the Apache Country by J. Ross Browne (Harper & Brothers, 1869) is identified by: New York: Harper & Brothers, 1869 (copyright entered in 1868), collating 535, [4] pages, illustrated throughout with 155 wood-engraved illustrations drawn by Browne himself. The Harper & Brothers New York printing, copyrighted 1868 and dated 1869 on its title page, is the first edition; Sampson Low, Son & Marston issued a separate London edition the same year that dealers catalog as the first British edition rather than a rival first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- New York: Harper & Brothers, 1869 (copyright entered in 1868), collating 535, [4] pages, illustrated throughout with 155 wood-engraved illustrations drawn by Browne himself
- First-edition copies are bound in publisher's cloth stamped with Harper & Brothers' embossed initials on the front and back covers and gilt titling on the spine, with dark brown endpapers
- Browne, who served the Interior Department as a special agent reporting on Indian affairs and on western mineral resources, wrote this account of his mid-1860s travels through Apache-raided Arizona and Sonora in the satirical, self-illustrated style of his earlier travel books, and it remains a primary source on Arizona Territory during the Apache wars
- Publisher imprint reads Harper & Brothers
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | J. Ross Browne |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers |
| Year | 1869 |
| True first | British edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | New York: Harper & Brothers, 1869 (copyright entered in 1868), collating 535, [4] pages, illustrated throughout with 155 wood-engraved… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1869 (copyright entered in 1868), collating 535, [4] pages, illustrated throughout with 155 wood-engraved illustrations drawn by Browne himself. First-edition copies are bound in publisher's cloth stamped with Harper & Brothers' embossed initials on the front and back covers and gilt titling on the spine, with dark brown endpapers. Browne, who served the Interior Department as a special agent reporting on Indian affairs and on western mineral resources, wrote this account of his mid-1860s travels through Apache-raided Arizona and Sonora in the satirical, self-illustrated style of his earlier travel books, and it remains a primary source on Arizona Territory during the Apache wars.

## Is this the true first?
The Harper & Brothers New York printing, copyrighted 1868 and dated 1869 on its title page, is the first edition; Sampson Low, Son & Marston issued a separate London edition the same year that dealers catalog as the first British edition rather than a rival first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The University of Arizona Press re-edition of 1974, edited and annotated by Donald M. Powell, is an abridged modern text of under 300 pages rather than a facsimile of the original 535-page narrative, so a notably shorter copy crediting Powell as editor is a later abridgment, not the 1869 first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Adventures in the Apache Country* by J. Ross Browne a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/adventures-in-the-apache-country
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.