# Is "Tarzan of the Apes" by Edgar Rice Burroughs a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (A. C. McClurg, 1914) is identified by: True first book edition: A. The magazine appearance (All-Story, October 1912) is the first text appearance; the 1914 A.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first book edition: A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1914 (the text first appeared serially in All-Story magazine, October 1912)
- First-state points: on the copyright page (verso of the title leaf) the printer's imprint 'W. F. Hall Printing Company / Chicago' is set in TWO LINES of Old English (gothic/black-letter) type; and the first-state binding is WITHOUT the acorn device at the foot of the spine
- Publisher's crimson cloth
- (Roughly the first ~5,000 of about 10,000 McClurg first-edition copies are first state.)
- Publisher imprint reads A. C. McClurg
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Edgar Rice Burroughs |
| Publisher | A. C. McClurg |
| Year | 1914 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first book edition: A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1914 (the text first appeared serially in All-Story magazine, October 1912) |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
True first book edition: A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1914 (the text first appeared serially in All-Story magazine, October 1912). First-state points: on the copyright page (verso of the title leaf) the printer's imprint 'W. F. Hall Printing Company / Chicago' is set in TWO LINES of Old English (gothic/black-letter) type; and the first-state binding is WITHOUT the acorn device at the foot of the spine. Publisher's crimson cloth. (Roughly the first ~5,000 of about 10,000 McClurg first-edition copies are first state.)

## Is this the true first?
The magazine appearance (All-Story, October 1912) is the first text appearance; the 1914 A. C. McClurg hardcover is the first book edition and the collector's true first. Grosset & Dunlap reprints and all later paperbacks are reprints, not firsts.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Do NOT treat the acorn device as a first-state point -- it is the opposite. First state has the two-line 'W. F. Hall Printing Company / Chicago' imprint on the copyright page and NO acorn on the spine; the acorn device at the foot of the spine marks the SECOND and later states. Grosset & Dunlap reprints lack the two-line W. F. Hall imprint altogether. Confirm the W. F. Hall imprint set in Old English type, then verify the spine has no acorn.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Tarzan of the Apes* by Edgar Rice Burroughs a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/tarzan-of-the-apes
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.