3 Harriet Beecher Stowe first editions are documented on this shelf, from Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly (1852) to Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856) across 3 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Harriet Beecher Stowe 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 Harriet Beecher Stowe copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly — 1852 · John P. Jewett & Co.US first in book form, 2 volumes, John P. Jewett & Co., Boston, 1852 (after serialization in the National Era), published March 20, 1852 (BAL 19343). Verified first-issue textual points: 'spilt' (later corrected to 'spiled') in Volume I, page 42, and 'cathecism' (later corrected to 'catechism') in Volume II, page 74. Issued in several binding forms, cloth in black, purple, brown, and others, plus a gilt 'gift'…. US true first, 1852, two volumes, John P. Jewett, Boston. A London edition appeared the same year, but the Jewett Boston issue is the standard first. The earliest issue carries the 'spilt' and 'cathecism' readings; later 1852 printings already advertise large 'sold' figures. Any copy advertising tens or hundreds of thousands sold is a later printing. The genuine first 2-volume set shows the uncorrected 'spilt' (Vol. I, p.42) and 'cathecism' (Vol. II, p.74) readings.
- A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin — 1853 · John P. Jewett & CompanyFirst edition, 1853: tall 8vo, 262 pp. of text (including the index) followed by two pages of publisher's advertisements; stereotyped by Hobart & Robbins (New England Type and Stereotype Foundery, Boston) -- their imprint on the copyright page -- and printed by Damrell & Moore of Boston. Issued simultaneously under the Boston imprint of John P. Jewett & Company and the Cleveland imprint of Jewett, Proctor and…. The true first is the 1853 Boston edition (John P. Jewett & Company; Cleveland: Jewett, Proctor and Worthington). Same-year (1853) London editions -- notably Sampson Low, Son & Co. (the first English edition), plus other British reprints such as Clarke, Beeton & Co. -- followed the American edition and do NOT precede it. This documentary 'Key' is a separate book from the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) and should…. No book club. The Key was reprinted promptly (later Jewett printings and multiple 1853 London reprints). A genuine American first shows the 262-pp. collation, the Hobart & Robbins stereotype line, and the paired Boston (Jewett) / Cleveland (Jewett, Proctor and Worthington) imprint; later reprints and the London editions carry different imprints or resettings and are not the first.
- Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp — 1856 · Phillips, Sampson and CompanyFirst edition, published in two volumes by Phillips, Sampson and Company, Boston, 1856, Stowe's second major anti-slavery novel following Uncle Tom's Cabin. Volume one collates vi, [7]-329, [1], [6] pp. (advertisements); volume two, v, 6-370 pp. Original binding ('A' per BAL) is decorated dark brown cloth, gold lettering on the spines, boards blind-embossed with a pattern of twenty embossed dots per board, and…. Later reprintings retitled Nina Gordon (an 1866 Ticknor and Fields, Boston reissue) are the same text under a different title and binding; readers should not mistake a Nina Gordon-titled copy, however early, for the original 1856 Dred first edition under its original title and Phillips, Sampson imprint.
More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: Harry Crews, Henry Green, Henry James, Henry Miller, Herman Melville, Herman Wouk.
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