Is My for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf a First Edition?

The points of issue

• CENSUS YEAR CORRECTED: the Shameless Hussy Press original is dated 1975, not 1976
• The true first is a slim chapbook of [28] pages in publisher's side-stapled pictorial red wrappers, illustrated by Wopo Hulup — illustrations that do not appear in any later edition
• The defining point of issue is that the author's first name is MISSPELLED on the front wrapper as "Ntosake" rather than "Ntozake"; this misspelling is independently recorded both by an ABAA dealer description and by Florida State University's CTRC exhibit catalogue record for its copy (which also notes the red cover with a purple rose)
• The pamphlet carries no edition or printing statement; identification rests on the Shameless Hussy Press imprint, the 1975 date, the wrappers, the Hulup illustrations, and the misspelled name
• Sources consulted document no distinct states or issues within the Shameless Hussy printing

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 UK 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?

True first: Shameless Hussy Press, San Lorenzo, California, 1975 — a small feminist-press chapbook in wrappers, which precedes the trade publication by two years. The census note is correct that the familiar Macmillan hardcover is a LATER edition routinely missold as the first, but the Macmillan is dated 1977 (New York, 64 pp., quarter blue cloth over yellow and orange paper boards, gilt spine lettering, jacket designed by Rubin Pfeffer, price present at the front flap). The Macmillan text is expanded: it adds a preface, absent from the Shameless Hussy chapbook, in which Shange recounts the opening at Minnie's Can-Do Club in Haight-Ashbury and the move to Broadway. There is no competing UK or original-language edition; the precedence question here is purely small-press-vs-trade, and the 1977 Macmillan is a genuine "first thus" (first hardcover, first with the preface), never the first edition.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

A Literary Guild book-club edition of the Macmillan text followed in October 1977 and is the reprint most often mistaken for the Macmillan first; check for the usual club tells (absence of a price at the jacket flap, blind-stamp or dot to the rear board, lighter bulk and lower-grade boards). No book-club or reprint issue exists of the 1975 Shameless Hussy chapbook itself.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf a first edition?

A first edition of for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange (Shameless Hussy Press, San Lorenzo, California) is identified by: CENSUS YEAR CORRECTED: the Shameless Hussy Press original is dated 1975, not 1976.

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. True first: Shameless Hussy Press, San Lorenzo, California, 1975 — a small feminist-press chapbook in wrappers, which precedes the trade publication by two years.

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

A Literary Guild book-club edition of the Macmillan text followed in October 1977 and is the reprint most often mistaken for the Macmillan first; check for the usual club tells (absence of a price at the jacket flap, blind-stamp or dot to the rear board, lighter bulk and lower-grade boards). No book-club or reprint issue exists of the 1975 Shameless Hussy chapbook itself.

I have a first edition of for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf — 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.