# Is "Great River signed first" by Paul Horgan a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Great River signed first by Paul Horgan (Rinehart & Company, 1954) is identified by: Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History was published in two volumes by Rinehart & Company, Inc., New York, in 1954 (Volume One: Indians and Spain; Volume Two: Mexico and the United States), issued together in a publisher's slipcase. The US Rinehart & Company two-volume set (1954) is the true first edition.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History was published in two volumes by Rinehart & Company, Inc., New York, in 1954 (Volume One: Indians and Spain
- Volume Two: Mexico and the United States), issued together in a publisher's slipcase
- The first edition is bound in black cloth boards with gilt spine lettering and blue endpapers, and carries the Rinehart colophon (the circled R device) on the title and copyright pages
- There is no printer's number line, so the copyright-page wording is the sole textual identifier and should be read carefully; a first printing shows a clean 1954 copyright with no later-printing or subsequent-impression notice
- A separate signed limited issue of 1,000 copies, signed by Horgan at a limitation leaf, exists apart from the trade printing
- The work won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for History and the Bancroft Prize
- Publisher imprint reads Rinehart & Company

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Paul Horgan |
| Publisher | Rinehart & Company |
| Year | 1954 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History was published in two volumes by Rinehart & Company, Inc., New York, in 1954 (Volume… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History was published in two volumes by Rinehart & Company, Inc., New York, in 1954 (Volume One: Indians and Spain; Volume Two: Mexico and the United States), issued together in a publisher's slipcase. The first edition is bound in black cloth boards with gilt spine lettering and blue endpapers, and carries the Rinehart colophon (the circled R device) on the title and copyright pages. There is no printer's number line, so the copyright-page wording is the sole textual identifier and should be read carefully; a first printing shows a clean 1954 copyright with no later-printing or subsequent-impression notice. A separate signed limited issue of 1,000 copies, signed by Horgan at a limitation leaf, exists apart from the trade printing. The work won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for History and the Bancroft Prize.

## Is this the true first?
The US Rinehart & Company two-volume set (1954) is the true first edition. Note: the base record listed the publisher as Farrar Straus; the verified first-edition publisher is Rinehart & Company, Inc.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Book-club editions and later printings reprint the text but are not the first edition and are far less collectible. Because there is no number line, the copyright-page wording is the sole textual identifier — read it carefully. A book-club set typically lacks the slipcase, may show a blind-stamped dot on the rear board, and carries a book-club notation on the copyright page. Use the points above to be certain — see book-club edition vs. first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Great River signed first* by Paul Horgan a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/great-river-signed-first
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.