# Is "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (Boni & Liveright, 1925) is identified by: First edition, first printing: two octavo volumes, Boni and Liveright, New York, 1925, with no statement of printing on the copyright page — the absence of any printing statement plus the 1925 Boni & Liveright imprint is the identification, not a number line. US Boni & Liveright, New York, 1925 (two volumes) is the true first and the collected edition; the census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing: two octavo volumes, Boni and Liveright, New York, 1925, with no statement of printing on the copyright page — the absence of any printing statement plus the 1925 Boni & Liveright imprint is the identification, not a number line
- Bound in original black cloth, titling and the author's stylized initials stamped in gilt on the spines and front covers (some dealers describe the front-cover device as a gold medallion); pagination Vol
- 1 [viii], 431, [1] pp., Vol
- 2 [x], 409, [1] pp
- Issued together in the publisher's illustrated cardboard slipcase; jackets should be present and priced at the flap, unclipped
- Standard reference is McDonald 18A; also a Haycraft-Queen cornerstone title
- Publisher imprint reads Boni & Liveright

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Theodore Dreiser |
| Publisher | Boni & Liveright |
| Year | 1925 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing: two octavo volumes, Boni and Liveright, New York, 1925, with no statement of printing on the copyright page… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing: two octavo volumes, Boni and Liveright, New York, 1925, with no statement of printing on the copyright page — the absence of any printing statement plus the 1925 Boni & Liveright imprint is the identification, not a number line. Bound in original black cloth, titling and the author's stylized initials stamped in gilt on the spines and front covers (some dealers describe the front-cover device as a gold medallion); pagination Vol. 1 [viii], 431, [1] pp., Vol. 2 [x], 409, [1] pp. Issued together in the publisher's illustrated cardboard slipcase; jackets should be present and priced at the flap, unclipped. Standard reference is McDonald 18A; also a Haycraft-Queen cornerstone title. No reliable state points internal to the first printing are documented in ABAA-level descriptions — a 'white endpapers' first-issue point circulates on aggregator listings but is not corroborated by any dealer bibliography consulted here, so it should not be relied on. Copies bearing a Horace Liveright or Liveright, Inc. imprint necessarily postdate the firm's 1928 renaming and are later printings.

## Is this the true first?
US Boni & Liveright, New York, 1925 (two volumes) is the true first and the collected edition; the census claim is confirmed. The UK Constable edition followed in 1926 and is not the first. The separate signed limited issue of 795 numbered copies, signed by Dreiser, is a distinct limited issue rather than the trade first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The 1929/1930 Horace Liveright one-volume printing carries a 'New Edition in One Volume, September, 1929' statement and is a later, reset edition — the most common look-alike, and the single-volume format alone rules out the first. Any later trade or reprint issue in one volume is a 'first thus' trap; the 1925 first is always two volumes in a slipcase.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *An American Tragedy* by Theodore Dreiser a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/an-american-tragedy
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.