2 Edna Ferber first editions are documented on this shelf, from So Big (1924) to Cimarron (1930) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Edna Ferber title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Edna Ferber copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

So Big — 1924 · Doubleday, Page & CompanyFirst printings state 'First Edition' by itself on its own line at the very bottom of the copyright page. Binding is blue cloth with a gold-stamped design carrying the title and author on the front. Two title-page states exist with no established priority: in State 1 the 'Y' in DOUBLEDAY sits below the 'T' in GARDEN CITY, while in State 2 the 'Y' sits below the 'TY' in GARDEN CITY. Title page dated 1924. US Doubleday, Page 1924 is the true first, identified by the stated 'First Edition' line and the blue cloth binding. The two title-page alignment states are co-equal and neither holds priority. Grosset & Dunlap photoplay and reprint editions are clearly marked and are later, inexpensive copies.
Cimarron — 1930 · Doubleday, Doran & CompanyThe first printing is identified by the words "First Edition" stated on the copyright page, set on its own line at the foot of the page — the designation Doubleday, Doran used for Ferber (the same practice is recorded for So Big and Giant). The copyright page of a first printing reads "COPYRIGHT, 1929, 1930, BY EDNA FERBER," followed by "ALL RIGHTS RESERVED" and the Country Life Press, Garden City imprint line;…. The true first is the American edition: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Garden City, New York, published April 1930. Ferber was an American author publishing with her home house, and the US issue is the edition collected as the first. The first English edition is William Heinemann, London, 1930 (388 pp.), also collected in its own right and correctly described as the first English edition rather than the first…. The most common reprint trap is the Grosset & Dunlap photoplay edition issued for the 1931 RKO film (Richard Dix, Irene Dunne): it carries the 1930 copyright date forward on the copyright page, so the year alone reads as a first — the tells are the Grosset & Dunlap imprint on the spine, title page and jacket, the absence of the "First Edition" statement, the film-still frontispiece/insert, and the jacket's movie….

More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: Edna Lewis, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Edwidge Danticat, Elizabeth Bowen, Elizabeth Gaskell, E.M. Forster.

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