Is My Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Issued June 9, 1860, as Beadle's Dime Novels No
• 1, the very first title in the pioneering Beadle dime-novel series
• Stephens received payment for reprint rights to a story she had originally serialized in The Ladies' Companion magazine in 1839
• First-issue copies are bound in plain, salmon-to-orange colored paper wrappers entirely without cover illustration -- the first 28 numbers in the Beadle series appeared this way before the publisher introduced illustrated wrapper art beginning with issue 29, at which point the earliest numbers (including Malaeska) were also reprinted with illustrated covers
• A first-issue copy is therefore identified by its plain, uni-color paper wrapper bearing text only, not artwork
• Format is roughly 6.5 by 4.25 inches, 128 pages

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Read the indicia — a first-printing single issue carries no later-printing line; a collected edition is “first thus,” not the true first.
3. Verify this is the world true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

Format & printing

This title first appeared as a single issue / periodical, not a trade book. The true first is the first-printing single issue; later trade paperbacks or hardcover collections are “first thus.” Check the indicia (the small-print publication block) for a printing statement.

Is this the true first?

The story's true first publication was as a magazine serial in The Ladies' Companion in February-April 1839, more than two decades before the 1860 Beadle dime-novel book printing; the 1860 Beadle issue is nonetheless what collectors mean by 'the first dime novel.'P-034390

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Any copy of Malaeska bearing an illustrated front-wrapper woodcut is a reprint from issue 29 onward (or later), not the true plain-wrapper first issue; Beadle also issued the title repeatedly in subsequent decades under revised series numbering and formats, all readily distinguished by their illustrated covers and later publisher's imprints.P-034391

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter a first edition?

A first edition of Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter by Ann S. Stephens (Irwin P. Beadle & Co.) is identified by: Issued June 9, 1860, as Beadle's Dime Novels No.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. For a single issue, the indicia shows the printing. The story's true first publication was as a magazine serial in The Ladies' Companion in February-April 1839, more than two decades before the 1860 Beadle dime-novel book printing; the 1860 Beadle issue is nonetheless what collectors mean by 'the first dime novel.'

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

Any copy of Malaeska bearing an illustrated front-wrapper woodcut is a reprint from issue 29 onward (or later), not the true plain-wrapper first issue; Beadle also issued the title repeatedly in subsequent decades under revised series numbering and formats, all readily distinguished by their illustrated covers and later publisher's imprints.

I have a first edition of Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.