# Is "Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter" by Ann S. Stephens a First Edition?

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

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- 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
- Correct publisher/imprint: Irwin P. Beadle & Co.

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ann S. Stephens |
| Publisher | Irwin P. Beadle & Co. |
| Year | 1860 |
| True first | world edition |
| Format | Comic / graphic novel |
| Key point | Issued June 9, 1860, as Beadle's Dime Novels No |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## 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.

## 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.'

## 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.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter* by Ann S. Stephens a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/malaeska-the-indian-wife-of-the-white-hunter
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.