# Is "Hand and Ring" by Anna Katharine Green a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Hand and Ring by Anna Katharine Green (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1883) is identified by: Putnam's Sons, New York, in 1883, bound in green cloth stamped in black.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, in 1883, bound in green cloth stamped in black
- It is the third of Green's novels to feature detective Ebenezer Gryce, following The Leavenworth Case
- and A Strange Disappearance
- , and it is the book in which she introduces his recurring subordinates Caleb Sweetwater and Horace Byrd, both of whom return in later novels in the series
- Green herself later named it her personal favorite among her own novels
- The first edition carries the 1883 Putnam imprint on the title page
- Publisher imprint reads G. P. Putnam's Sons

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Anna Katharine Green |
| Publisher | G. P. Putnam's Sons |
| Year | 1883 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, in 1883, bound in green cloth stamped in black |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, in 1883, bound in green cloth stamped in black. It is the third of Green's novels to feature detective Ebenezer Gryce, following The Leavenworth Case (1878) and A Strange Disappearance (1880), and it is the book in which she introduces his recurring subordinates Caleb Sweetwater and Horace Byrd, both of whom return in later novels in the series. Green herself later named it her personal favorite among her own novels. The first edition carries the 1883 Putnam imprint on the title page.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later Putnam reprintings and cheap reprint-house issues (such as A. L. Burt) use different cloth colors and lack the black-stamped decoration of the 1883 first printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Hand and Ring* by Anna Katharine Green a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/hand-and-ring
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.