# Is "Old Creole Days" by George Washington Cable a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Old Creole Days by George Washington Cable (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1879) is identified by: Cable's first book, collecting stories that had appeared in Scribner's Monthly plus one piece from Appleton's Journal.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Cable's first book, collecting stories that had appeared in Scribner's Monthly plus one piece from Appleton's Journal
- The true first state/first issue (BAL 2330) was issued without any publisher's advertisements bound in at the rear; later printings added ad leaves
- Collation is 229 pages
- Dealers have catalogued first-issue (no-ads) copies in more than one publisher's cloth color -- blue, brown, and mustard-yellow are all recorded, each decoratively stamped in black and gilt -- with no single color established as definitively earlier
- Publisher imprint reads Charles Scribner's Sons
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | George Washington Cable |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
| Year | 1879 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Cable's first book, collecting stories that had appeared in Scribner's Monthly plus one piece from Appleton's Journal |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Cable's first book, collecting stories that had appeared in Scribner's Monthly plus one piece from Appleton's Journal. The true first state/first issue (BAL 2330) was issued without any publisher's advertisements bound in at the rear; later printings added ad leaves. Collation is 229 pages. Dealers have catalogued first-issue (no-ads) copies in more than one publisher's cloth color -- blue, brown, and mustard-yellow are all recorded, each decoratively stamped in black and gilt -- with no single color established as definitively earlier.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Old Creole Days* by George Washington Cable a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/old-creole-days
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.