# Is "How the Other Half Lives" by Jacob Riis a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1890) is identified by: Title page and copyright page both carry the date 1890, and the copyright page credits "Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, New York" as printer.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Title page and copyright page both carry the date 1890, and the copyright page credits "Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, New York" as printer
- Octavo, recorded in original blue cloth and also in a half-blue-cloth-and-pictorial-paper-boards binding, with no priority established between the two
- Illustrated with a frontispiece and more than 45 further illustrations mixing 18 halftone reproductions of Riis's own photographs with numerous line engravings, described by dealers as among the first extensive uses of halftone photographic reproduction in an American trade book
- Publisher imprint reads Charles Scribner's Sons
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Jacob Riis |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
| Year | 1890 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Title page and copyright page both carry the date 1890, and the copyright page credits "Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, New York"… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Title page and copyright page both carry the date 1890, and the copyright page credits "Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, New York" as printer. Octavo, recorded in original blue cloth and also in a half-blue-cloth-and-pictorial-paper-boards binding, with no priority established between the two. Illustrated with a frontispiece and more than 45 further illustrations mixing 18 halftone reproductions of Riis's own photographs with numerous line engravings, described by dealers as among the first extensive uses of halftone photographic reproduction in an American trade book.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The book grew out of a February 1889 Scribner's Magazine article; that periodical piece is not the book. Later Scribner's reprintings and 20th-century trade paperbacks are re-set and dated, and lack the "Trow's Printing and Bookbinding" credit line on the copyright page.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *How the Other Half Lives* by Jacob Riis a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/how-the-other-half-lives
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.