# Is "Cimarron" by Edna Ferber a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Cimarron by Edna Ferber (Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1930) is identified by: The 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 true first is the American edition: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Garden City, New York, published April 1930.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The 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 two-year copyright is normal for the first and is not by itself a point
- There is no number line — Doubleday, Doran did not use one in this period; later printings simply drop the "First Edition" line while retaining the 1930 title-page date, so the absence of the statement is the disqualifier
- Collation is [xii], 388 pp., octavo, with decorative (pictorial) endpapers
- The dust jacket is by Howard Willard and shows a mounted rider silhouetted against a setting sun; a first-issue jacket is unclipped with the price present at the front flap
- Advance review copies were issued ahead of the trade printing in original printed wrappers (some carrying a printed William Allen White endorsement on the front cover); these are catalogued by dealers as first edition, advance review copy and are a separate pre-publication issue, not a later reprint
- Publisher imprint reads Doubleday, Doran & Company

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Edna Ferber |
| Publisher | Doubleday, Doran & Company |
| Year | 1930 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The 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… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The 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 two-year copyright is normal for the first and is not by itself a point. There is no number line — Doubleday, Doran did not use one in this period; later printings simply drop the "First Edition" line while retaining the 1930 title-page date, so the absence of the statement is the disqualifier. Collation is [xii], 388 pp., octavo, with decorative (pictorial) endpapers. The dust jacket is by Howard Willard and shows a mounted rider silhouetted against a setting sun; a first-issue jacket is unclipped with the price present at the front flap. Advance review copies were issued ahead of the trade printing in original printed wrappers (some carrying a printed William Allen White endorsement on the front cover); these are catalogued by dealers as first edition, advance review copy and are a separate pre-publication issue, not a later reprint. CAUTION — the trade cloth is described inconsistently across dealer catalogues: some ABAA-level descriptions give beige/tan cloth with maroon lettering and a purple top-stain, others give gray cloth with rust lettering and a gray-stained top edge, both catalogued as first printings. Because the binding evidence conflicts and no bibliography reconciling the variants was located, cloth colour must not be used as a standalone point; rely on the copyright-page statement.

## Is this the true first?
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 edition. The census claim that the US issue precedes the same-year Heinemann is consistent with everything located and is the standard trade understanding, but no source consulted documents the Heinemann release at month level, so US priority is asserted on publisher-of-origin grounds rather than on a dated bibliographic record. Do not confuse either with the 1931 Grosset & Dunlap photoplay reprint, which is a "first thus" trap.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
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 artwork with a "Photoplay Edition" or cast credit. Later Doubleday, Doran printings of the sizeable 1930 trade run are identified simply by the missing "First Edition" line. No Book-of-the-Month or other book-club issue of the 1930 first appearance was documented in the sources consulted; Cimarron was the best-selling novel of 1930 in the trade edition itself, so blind-stamp/dot book-club tells are not the usual failure mode here — the Grosset & Dunlap reprint is.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Cimarron* by Edna Ferber a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/cimarron
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.