Is My Bugles in the Afternoon a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The first book edition is Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1944, and the first printing is identified by the copyright-page statement "FIRST EDITION / Published February 1944"
• Binding: octavo, blue cloth boards with yellow lettering to the spine and front board, 306 pp
• The Quill & Brush publisher guide corroborates the house rule — Little, Brown has stated "First Edition" or "First Printing" since 1940, adding a number row only in the late 1970s — so for this title the February 1944 line is the point
• Little, Brown reprinted from the same setting in the same blue cloth, and dealers catalogue such copies as e.g. "first edition, third impression"; a first printing must therefore show the February 1944 statement with no later-impression notice added, since the cloth and lettering alone will not separate a first from a wartime reprint

How Little, Brown and Company marked a first edition

• From 1940 onward: Little, Brown adopted an explicit statement, printing 'First Edition' OR 'First Printing' on the copyright page of a first printing. Presence of that phrase, with no overriding later-printing line, deno…
• Time Inc. / Time Warner corporate era (Time Inc. bought L,B 1968; Time Warner Book Group from 1989; editorial/HQ moved from Boston to New York in 2001): the number-line-must-contain-1 rule holds throughout. Imprint on th…

Full Little, Brown and Company first-edition guide →

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. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. 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.
6. 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.

Is this the true first?

US-only first in book form; no UK edition precedes (a Hodder & Stoughton UK issue is recorded, including a Yellow Jacket softcover dated 1952, all later). The first-thus trap runs the other way here: the novel first appeared in print as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post in 1943, so the Little, Brown 1944 is the first book appearance, not the first appearance in print. Collectors of the text in its earliest form take the Post serial; collectors of the book take the Little, Brown.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No specific book-club issue documented in the sources consulted, but contemporaneous reprints are the standing trap: a Grosset & Dunlap reprint dated 1944, a Triangle Books reprint dated 1948, and a 1945 Armed Services Edition (paperbound, oblong format, ASE serial number). Each is identified by its own imprint on the spine and title page rather than by any Little, Brown statement.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Bugles in the Afternoon a first edition?

A first edition of Bugles in the Afternoon by Ernest Haycox (Little, Brown and Company) is identified by: The first book edition is Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1944, and the first printing is identified by the copyright-page statement "FIRST EDITION / Published February 1944".

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. US-only first in book form; no UK edition precedes (a Hodder & Stoughton UK issue is recorded, including a Yellow Jacket softcover dated 1952, all later).

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

No specific book-club issue documented in the sources consulted, but contemporaneous reprints are the standing trap: a Grosset & Dunlap reprint dated 1944, a Triangle Books reprint dated 1948, and a 1945 Armed Services Edition (paperbound, oblong format, ASE serial number). Each is identified by its own imprint on the spine and title page rather than by any Little, Brown statement.

I have a first edition of Bugles in the Afternoon — 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.