# Is "Sister Carrie" by Theodore Dreiser a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1900) is identified by: True first: Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1900 — Dreiser's first book. CENSUS CLAIM CONFIRMED, with one caution on framing.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first: Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1900 — Dreiser's first book
- Bound in publisher's deep red cloth (buckram), the front board lettered and ruled in black and the spine lettered in black
- The title-page date matches the copyright date
- this correspondence is the basic point
- 1,008 copies were printed in November 1900; roughly 465 sold, about 129 went out as review copies, and the remaining 423 sheets/copies were turned over to a remainder house — perhaps fewer than 250 survive
- NO dust jacket has ever been recorded for the 1900 edition, so any copy offered in a jacket warrants close scrutiny
- Publisher imprint reads Doubleday, Page & Co., New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Theodore Dreiser |
| Publisher | Doubleday, Page & Co., New York |
| Year | 1900 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first: Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1900 — Dreiser's first book |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
True first: Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1900 — Dreiser's first book. Bound in publisher's deep red cloth (buckram), the front board lettered and ruled in black and the spine lettered in black. The title-page date matches the copyright date (1900); this correspondence is the basic point. 1,008 copies were printed in November 1900; roughly 465 sold, about 129 went out as review copies, and the remaining 423 sheets/copies were turned over to a remainder house — perhaps fewer than 250 survive. NO dust jacket has ever been recorded for the 1900 edition, so any copy offered in a jacket warrants close scrutiny. Standard bibliographic references: McDonald 1; Pizer A00-1; Johnson, High Spots of American Literature, p. 151.

## Is this the true first?
CENSUS CLAIM CONFIRMED, with one caution on framing. US Doubleday, Page (New York, 1900) is the true first. The first British edition is William Heinemann, London, 1901, issued as the sixth volume in Heinemann's short-lived 'The Dollar Library: A Monthly Series of American Fiction' — and it is an ABRIDGED text: Heinemann required the first 200 pages be condensed to roughly 80 to fit the series, and about 73 of the first 196 pages of the Doubleday, Page text were cut, work Dreiser did with Arthur Henry. Both editions are collected; the Heinemann is scarce (roughly 1,500-2,500 copies) but is textually a different, shortened book and is never the true first. CAUTION: the familiar 'Doubleday suppressed it' story is contested by scholars — the documented facts are that Doubleday printed 1,008 copies and declined to promote the book; state it that way rather than as active suppression.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club tells exist for an 1900 title. The reprint traps are the later reissues that brought the novel to a wider public: B. W. Dodge & Company, New York, 1907 (original maroon pictorial cloth embossed in orange and gilt), and Grosset & Dunlap, 1908, printed from the B. W. Dodge sheets and distinguished by the Grosset & Dunlap publisher's stamp at the foot of the spine and a colour frontispiece by Florence Montague. Neither is a first edition. Later Penn Press 'Pennsylvania Edition' restored-text printings are separate scholarly editions, not firsts.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Sister Carrie* by Theodore Dreiser a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/sister-carrie
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.