# Is "Rubyfruit Jungle" by Rita Mae Brown a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown (Daughters, Inc., 1973) is identified by: The true first is the Daughters, Inc. US small-press original; there is no UK or foreign-language precedence question.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the Daughters, Inc. issue of 1973, a paperback original in color pictorial wrappers (approx
- 217-218 pp.); there was no simultaneous clothbound issue, and the rear wrapper carries blurbs by Jill Johnston and Gloria Steinem
- A first printing shows the Daughters, Inc. imprint with no later-printing statement on the copyright page; because the press ran the book through several printings (it sold roughly 70,000 copies before the Bantam deal), later Daughters printings will state the printing
- Caution: some databases (e.g., biblio) label the 1973 Daughters book 'hardcover,' but this is an ISBN-cataloging artifact — examined copies are in wrappers, and the first genuine hardcover was the 1988 Bantam 15th-anniversary edition
- Publisher imprint reads Daughters, Inc.
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Rita Mae Brown |
| Publisher | Daughters, Inc. |
| Year | 1973 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is the Daughters, Inc. issue of 1973, a paperback original in color pictorial wrappers (approx |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The true first is the Daughters, Inc. issue of 1973, a paperback original in color pictorial wrappers (approx. 217-218 pp.); there was no simultaneous clothbound issue, and the rear wrapper carries blurbs by Jill Johnston and Gloria Steinem. A first printing shows the Daughters, Inc. imprint with no later-printing statement on the copyright page; because the press ran the book through several printings (it sold roughly 70,000 copies before the Bantam deal), later Daughters printings will state the printing. Caution: some databases (e.g., biblio) label the 1973 Daughters book 'hardcover,' but this is an ISBN-cataloging artifact — examined copies are in wrappers, and the first genuine hardcover was the 1988 Bantam 15th-anniversary edition.

## Is this the true first?
US small-press original; there is no UK or foreign-language precedence question. The Daughters, Inc. 1973 wrappered edition is both the true first and the collected first; the 1977 Bantam mass-market paperback that made the book famous is a reprint, not a first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Bantam bought paperback rights in 1977 and issued the mass-market edition (reprint). First hardcover was Bantam's 1988 15th-anniversary edition; the 2017 Easton Press leather printing is a later collectible reprint. None of these are the first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Rubyfruit Jungle* by Rita Mae Brown a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/rubyfruit-jungle
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.