# Is "My Antonia" by Willa Cather a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of My Antonia by Willa Cather (Houghton Mifflin, 1918) is identified by: First edition, first printing with the W.T. US Houghton Mifflin (1918) is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing with the W.T. Benda illustrations PRINTED ON COATED/GLOSSY paper and tipped/inserted as plates (first issue); a later state has the illustrations on the regular text paper
- The title page reads 'My Antonia' with the diacritic; copyright 1918
- Bound in tan cloth, dark-stamped, with the first-issue jacket priced accordingly
- Publisher imprint reads Houghton Mifflin
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Willa Cather |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
| Year | 1918 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing with the W.T. Benda illustrations PRINTED ON COATED/GLOSSY paper and tipped/inserted as plates (first issue)… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing with the W.T. Benda illustrations PRINTED ON COATED/GLOSSY paper and tipped/inserted as plates (first issue); a later state has the illustrations on the regular text paper. The title page reads 'My Antonia' with the diacritic; copyright 1918. Bound in tan cloth, dark-stamped, with the first-issue jacket priced accordingly.

## Is this the true first?
US Houghton Mifflin (1918) is the true first. The decisive precedence point is the FIRST-ISSUE Benda illustrations printed on glossy coated stock (later issue prints them on plain paper). UK Heinemann edition follows.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition of the first; later Houghton printings move the illustrations to plain paper and/or reduce/remove plates. The glossy-plate Benda illustrations are the key to the earliest issue.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *My Antonia* by Willa Cather a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/my-antonia
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.