2 John L. Stephens first editions are documented on this shelf, from Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea, and the Holy Land (1837) to Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan (1841). Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that John L. Stephens 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 John L. Stephens copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea, and the Holy Land — 1837 · Harper & BrothersThe true first edition was issued anonymously in two volumes octavo by Harper & Brothers, its title page reading 'By An American' rather than naming Stephens, and it was illustrated with a folding map and numerous full-page plates depicting scenes and monuments from Stephens's 1836 journey through Egypt, the Sinai, Petra, and Palestine. This was Stephens's first book, and its enthusiastic reception established…. The true first edition was published in New York by Harper & Brothers in 1837; a 'new edition, with additions' followed from Richard Bentley in London in 1838 and postdates the American original. Once Stephens's authorship became widely known, later Harper & Brothers printings and other nineteenth-century reprints openly credited 'John L. Stephens' on the title page; a title page naming Stephens outright, rather than reading 'By An American,' is not the true anonymous first issue.
Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan — 1841 · Harper & BrothersThe true first edition was issued in two volumes illustrated with ninety-six engravings after Frederick Catherwood's drawings, including a folding map and a folding frontispiece, with plates cut by several New York engraving firms including Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Smillie. It is Stephens's account, illustrated throughout by Catherwood, of their joint expedition documenting Maya ruins across Central America and…. Harper & Brothers kept the plates in print for decades, issuing at least eleven later printings through 1871 carrying headings such as 'Twelfth Edition'; any copy whose title page states a printing or edition number is a later Harper reprint, not the true 1841 first.

More Nonfiction & Memoir shelves: John McPhee, John Milton, John Ruskin, John Stuart Mill, Jon Krakauer, Jonathan Swift.

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