Is My An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Philadelphia: C. and A. Conrad, & Co., 1810, a thick octavo co-published with the Somervell & Conrad imprint of Petersburg, Virginia, also named on the title page alongside Norfolk and Baltimore booksellers
• Collates with an engraved stipple portrait frontispiece of Pike, six engraved maps (five folding, including the separately engraved Map of the Internal Provinces of New Spain), and three folding letterpress tables bound in at the rear
• This is the first published account by any American of an official U.S. government expedition into the Southwest, written up by Pike after his return to the United States in mid-1807, covering his 1806-07 reconnaissance during which Spanish troops arrested his party at a stockade on the Conejos River in present-day Colorado, then marched them south through Santa Fe for interrogation and on to Chihuahua before releasing them
• Because the maps and tables were routinely removed, misbound, or replaced in facsimile by later owners, a complete first edition is verified by collating every leaf, map, and table against the full list rather than by any single point

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Do not confuse the 1810 first edition with Elliott Coues's heavily annotated 3-volume 'The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike' (Francis P. Harper, New York, 1895), a modern scholarly resetting of the text with added notes and maps that is often the edition readers encounter first.P-035410

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi a first edition?

A first edition of An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi by Zebulon Montgomery Pike (C. and A. Conrad & Co.) is identified by: Conrad, & Co., 1810, a thick octavo co-published with the Somervell & Conrad imprint of Petersburg, Virginia, also named on the title page alongside Norfolk and Baltimore booksellers.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

Do not confuse the 1810 first edition with Elliott Coues's heavily annotated 3-volume 'The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike' (Francis P. Harper, New York, 1895), a modern scholarly resetting of the text with added notes and maps that is often the edition readers encounter first.

I have a first edition of An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.