# Is "Roughing It" by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Roughing It by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) (American Publishing Company, 1872) is identified by: Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1872, sold by subscription (BAL 3337).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1872, sold by subscription (BAL 3337)
- Dealers commonly cite these first-state points: on page 242, lines 20-21 read cleanly "premises -- said he / was occupying his"; page 156 has a capital "T" for "Trees" and reads "thirteenth" rather than the later-corrected "sixteenth"; page 330, line 23, has a capital "E" for "Eastern"; publisher's advertisements appear on page [592]; and on page xi the "M" of "My" is undamaged type
- As a subscription book sold door-to-door by agents, Roughing It was issued in multiple original cloth colors, none of which by itself indicates priority -- the textual points above, not the binding color, identify the earliest printed sheets
- Publisher imprint reads American Publishing Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) |
| Publisher | American Publishing Company |
| Year | 1872 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1872, sold by subscription (BAL 3337) |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1872, sold by subscription (BAL 3337). Dealers commonly cite these first-state points: on page 242, lines 20-21 read cleanly "premises -- said he / was occupying his"; page 156 has a capital "T" for "Trees" and reads "thirteenth" rather than the later-corrected "sixteenth"; page 330, line 23, has a capital "E" for "Eastern"; publisher's advertisements appear on page [592]; and on page xi the "M" of "My" is undamaged type. As a subscription book sold door-to-door by agents, Roughing It was issued in multiple original cloth colors, none of which by itself indicates priority -- the textual points above, not the binding color, identify the earliest printed sheets.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Because the American Publishing Company kept the original stereotype plates in use for years, later printings continued to carry the same 1872 copyright notice even when actually printed decades afterward; a copyright page reading "1872" does not by itself establish a first printing -- only the textual points above, not the copyright date or binding color, identify true first-state sheets.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Roughing It* by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/roughing-it
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.