# Is "Life Among the Apaches" by John C. Cremony a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Life Among the Apaches by John C. Cremony (A. Roman & Company, 1868) is identified by: Roman & Co., 1868, octavo, collating 322 pages, printed at the Commercial Herald Office and copyrighted by John H.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- San Francisco: A. Roman & Co., 1868, octavo, collating 322 pages, printed at the Commercial Herald Office and copyrighted by John H. Carmany & Co. in the U.S. District Court for the District of California
- First-edition copies are bound in the publisher's green cloth, blind-embossed on the front and back boards with gilt lettering confined to the spine, and illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of Cremony and twenty text illustrations by William Harrison Bryant
- Cremony served as a Spanish-language interpreter for the U.S. Boundary Commission and later as an officer with the California Column in New Mexico Territory, with extended personal dealings with Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, and other Apache leaders during the 1850s-the printed price, and his book remains a primary firsthand source still cited by historians of the Apache wars
- Publisher imprint reads A. Roman & Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | John C. Cremony |
| Publisher | A. Roman & Company |
| Year | 1868 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | San Francisco: A. Roman & Co., 1868, octavo, collating 322 pages, printed at the Commercial Herald Office and copyrighted by John H.… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
San Francisco: A. Roman & Co., 1868, octavo, collating 322 pages, printed at the Commercial Herald Office and copyrighted by John H. Carmany & Co. in the U.S. District Court for the District of California. First-edition copies are bound in the publisher's green cloth, blind-embossed on the front and back boards with gilt lettering confined to the spine, and illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of Cremony and twenty text illustrations by William Harrison Bryant. Cremony served as a Spanish-language interpreter for the U.S. Boundary Commission and later as an officer with the California Column in New Mexico Territory, with extended personal dealings with Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, and other Apache leaders during the 1850s-the printed price, and his book remains a primary firsthand source still cited by historians of the Apache wars.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The 1868 A. Roman & Co. printing was not reprinted until Arizona Silhouettes issued a limited facsimile of 750 numbered copies in 1951, followed by a first trade hardback edition in 1954 that reproduces the same text; either modern reprint is readily distinguished from the scarce 1868 original by its different binding and publisher's imprint.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Life Among the Apaches* by John C. Cremony a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/life-among-the-apaches
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.