# Is "Martin Eden" by Jack London a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Martin Eden by Jack London (The Macmillan Company, 1909) is identified by: The first printing is identified by the copyright-page statement 'Set up and electrotyped. US Macmillan (New York), September 1909, is the true first — this is not in doubt and is corroborated across dealer and bibliographic sources.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing is identified by the copyright-page statement 'Set up and electrotyped
- Published September, 1909,' with no subsequent-printing statement beneath it — this is the standard Macmillan (US) formula of the period and is the decisive point
- Collation is [vi], 411 pp., followed by ten pages of publisher's advertisements at the rear; the ads must be present
- The binding is publisher's blue cloth, lettered in gilt on the spine and front cover with decorative stamping to the front cover (dealers describe the decoration's colour inconsistently as grey or green, so treat colour of the stamping as unreliable)
- Offsetting from the frontispiece onto the title page is normal and expected in genuine first printings and is not evidence against a copy
- The jacket is very rarely found, and most surviving copies are jacketless; where a jacket is present it should be a priced jacket with the price at the flap
- Publisher imprint reads The Macmillan Company

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Jack London |
| Publisher | The Macmillan Company |
| Year | 1909 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first printing is identified by the copyright-page statement 'Set up and electrotyped |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The first printing is identified by the copyright-page statement 'Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1909,' with no subsequent-printing statement beneath it — this is the standard Macmillan (US) formula of the period and is the decisive point. Collation is [vi], 411 pp., followed by ten pages of publisher's advertisements at the rear; the ads must be present. The binding is publisher's blue cloth, lettered in gilt on the spine and front cover with decorative stamping to the front cover (dealers describe the decoration's colour inconsistently as grey or green, so treat colour of the stamping as unreliable). Offsetting from the frontispiece onto the title page is normal and expected in genuine first printings and is not evidence against a copy. The jacket is very rarely found, and most surviving copies are jacketless; where a jacket is present it should be a priced jacket with the price at the flap. Bibliographic references: BAL 11912; Woodbridge & Tweney 66.

## Is this the true first?
US Macmillan (New York), September 1909, is the true first — this is not in doubt and is corroborated across dealer and bibliographic sources. The census claim of a Heinemann (London) 1910 British edition could NOT be independently confirmed: no dealer listing, bibliography, or catalogue record consulted dates a Heinemann Martin Eden to 1910, though Heinemann does appear among the title's publishers and was London's British publisher before Mills & Boon (which took him on only from about 1911-12, so Mills & Boon is not the 1910 British publisher). The British edition and its date are therefore left unstated rather than asserted; the US precedence is unaffected. First serialised in The Pacific Monthly, September 1908 to September 1909, so the book is the first appearance in book form, not the first appearance of the text.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No contemporaneous book-club issue is documented — the title predates the modern American book clubs (Book-of-the-Month Club began in 1926). The practical traps are later Macmillan printings and reprint-house editions: any copyright page carrying a printing statement beneath the 'Published September, 1909' line is a later printing, and Grosset & Dunlap and similar reprint editions retain the 1909 date on the title page while lacking the Macmillan copyright formula and the rear advertisements.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Martin Eden* by Jack London a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/martin-eden
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.