Is My Cane a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition, first printing: Boni & Liveright, New York, 1923, with the 1923 date on the title page and NO printing or impression statement on the copyright page
• THE DECISIVE TELL IS THE 1927 REISSUE: Cane was not reprinted until 1927, when Boni & Liveright issued a second printing that IS stated as such ("2nd printing"/second impression) on the copyright/publication page
• That 1927 impression is itself scarce and is the trap most often sold as a first — check the copyright page for a stated impression and check the title-page date
• 239 pp.; foreword by Waldo Frank; deckle edges
• BINDING DESCRIPTIONS CONFLICT and no priority is established: ABAA dealers describe the publisher's cloth variously as buff cloth stamped in yellow and black and as grey cloth stamped in marigold and dark blue
• These may well be the same cloth catalogued under different light or differing degrees of fading; treat neither description as a state point

How Boni & Liveright, New York marked a first edition

• No statement of printing on the copyright page of firsts; later printings designated 'second printing', etc.
• Therefore: absence of any later-printing notice = first printing (for the vintage era).

Full Boni & Liveright, New York 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 British 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?

The census claim is confirmed. Boni & Liveright, New York, 1923 is the true and only first edition; no contemporaneous, earlier, or simultaneous British edition is recorded, and there is no original-language question. Modern reissues are "first thus" only and carry no precedence — notably the Liveright/Norton editions, including the 2011 Liveright edition edited by Rudolph P. Byrd and Henry Louis Gates Jr. The 1923 Boni & Liveright is the only edition collected as a first.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue of the 1923 edition is documented in any source consulted — the title famously failed commercially and went out of print until its 1960s rediscovery, so there was no club market for it. The functional equivalent of the book-club trap on this title is the stated 1927 Boni & Liveright second printing, which shares the publisher and the general appearance of the first and is distinguished only by the title-page date and the stated impression on the copyright page.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Cane a first edition?

A first edition of Cane by Jean Toomer (Boni & Liveright, New York) is identified by: First edition, first printing: Boni & Liveright, New York, 1923, with the 1923 date on the title page and NO printing or impression statement on the copyright page.

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. The census claim is confirmed.

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

No book-club issue of the 1923 edition is documented in any source consulted — the title famously failed commercially and went out of print until its 1960s rediscovery, so there was no club market for it. The functional equivalent of the book-club trap on this title is the stated 1927 Boni & Liveright second printing, which shares the publisher and the general appearance of the first and is distinguished only by the title-page date and the stated impression on the copyright page.

I have a first edition of Cane — 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.