Is My Fathers and Sons (Ottsy i deti) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First appearance: serially in Russkii Vestnik (The Russian Herald), Moscow, March 1862
• First separate book edition: Moscow, tip
• V. Grachiova (V. Grachov's press), 1862, 304 pp., octavo (approx
• 24 x 17 cm)
• The decisive textual point separating the book from the serial is the dedication to Vissarion Belinsky (1811–1848), Turgenev's late mentor, which is present in the separate edition and absent from the Russkii Vestnik serial
• Turgenev added it to signal the novel's democratic sympathies against critics who read Bazarov as a hostile caricature

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. 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.
3. Verify this is the American true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. 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.
5. 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?

CENSUS REFINED. The census names 'Russkii Vestnik, Moscow' as the true-first publisher; that is the journal of first serial appearance (March 1862), not the publisher of the first book. The first edition in book form is Moscow, tip. V. Grachiova, 1862 — both the serial and the separate edition are 1862, so the year stands, but the imprint does not. The census's headline claim is CONFIRMED: the first English-language edition is American, not British — Eugene Schuyler's translation, 'Fathers and Sons: A Novel,' by Ivan Sergheievitch Turgenef, New York: Leypoldt & Holt, 1867, 12mo, in publisher's original gilt-stamped green cloth, catalogued by ABAA dealers as the FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. It is also the first Turgenev translation to appear in the United States, and no British edition of the novel is recorded before it; the Schuyler translation was itself reissued in 1883. Turgenev privately doubted Schuyler's command of Russian and suspected he worked from the French, a charge later translators dispute. Constance Garnett's version, as 'Fathers and Children,' did not appear until 1895. Both the Moscow 1862 first and the New York 1867 first-in-English are collected.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue is documented for the 1862 Moscow first or the 1867 New York first-in-English. The reprint tells are on the English side: the 1883 reissue of the Schuyler translation, and the long line of later translations — Garnett 1895 ('Fathers and Children'), Hapgood (New York: Scribner's, 1903), Hogarth (London: Dent, 1921) — each of which is a 'first thus' for its own translation only and is regularly mis-offered as an early edition on the strength of the 1862 date printed in the front matter.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Fathers and Sons (Ottsy i deti) a first edition?

A first edition of Fathers and Sons (Ottsy i deti) by Ivan Turgenev (Tipografiya V. Grachova) is identified by: First appearance: serially in Russkii Vestnik (The Russian Herald), Moscow, March 1862.

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. CENSUS REFINED.

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

No book-club issue is documented for the 1862 Moscow first or the 1867 New York first-in-English. The reprint tells are on the English side: the 1883 reissue of the Schuyler translation, and the long line of later translations — Garnett 1895 ('Fathers and Children'), Hapgood (New York: Scribner's, 1903), Hogarth (London: Dent, 1921) — each of which is a 'first thus' for its own translation only and is regularly mis-offered as an early edition on the strength of the 1862 date printed in the front

I have a first edition of Fathers and Sons (Ottsy i deti) — 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.