# Is "Lyrics of Lowly Life" by Paul Laurence Dunbar a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Lyrics of Lowly Life by Paul Laurence Dunbar (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1896) is identified by: The first edition, cataloged as BAL 4918, collates xx, 208 pages and was published by Dodd, Mead and Company of New York in 1896 with an introduction by William Dean Howells.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first edition, cataloged as BAL 4918, collates xx, 208 pages and was published by Dodd, Mead and Company of New York in 1896 with an introduction by William Dean Howells
- It is bound in dark emerald-green cloth, gilt-stamped on the spine and upper cover in a design signed with the cipher 'AM' for its designer, Alice C. Morse, with untrimmed edges and a gilt top edge
- The volume carries a tissue-guarded frontispiece portrait of Dunbar and draws together poems from Oak and Ivy and Majors and Minors alongside new work, marking Dunbar's first collection from a major New York trade house
- Publisher imprint reads Dodd, Mead and Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Paul Laurence Dunbar |
| Publisher | Dodd, Mead and Company |
| Year | 1896 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first edition, cataloged as BAL 4918, collates xx, 208 pages and was published by Dodd, Mead and Company of New York in 1896 with an… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The first edition, cataloged as BAL 4918, collates xx, 208 pages and was published by Dodd, Mead and Company of New York in 1896 with an introduction by William Dean Howells. It is bound in dark emerald-green cloth, gilt-stamped on the spine and upper cover in a design signed with the cipher 'AM' for its designer, Alice C. Morse, with untrimmed edges and a gilt top edge. The volume carries a tissue-guarded frontispiece portrait of Dunbar and draws together poems from Oak and Ivy and Majors and Minors alongside new work, marking Dunbar's first collection from a major New York trade house.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later Dodd, Mead printings and the many 20th-century reprints of Lyrics of Lowly Life lose the untrimmed-edge, gilt-top-only state and the Alice Morse binding design; a copy trimmed flush on all three edges is not the first printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Lyrics of Lowly Life* by Paul Laurence Dunbar a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/lyrics-of-lowly-life
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.