# Is "The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid" by Pat F. Garrett a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid by Pat F. Garrett (New Mexican Printing and Publishing Company, 1882) is identified by: Santa Fe: New Mexican Printing and Publishing Co., 1882, collating [1]-7, 8-137 pages, with a pagination error as issued (page 121 is misnumbered "113"), a frontispiece portrait of Billy the Kid, five additional plates, and an errata slip tipped in.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Santa Fe: New Mexican Printing and Publishing Co., 1882, collating [1]-7, 8-137 pages, with a pagination error as issued (page 121 is misnumbered "113"), a frontispiece portrait of Billy the Kid, five additional plates, and an errata slip tipped in
- First-edition copies were issued in plain blue paper wrappers, though pictorial blue wrappers are also recorded; cloth-bound copies of the true first are essentially unknown
- Garrett, the Lincoln County sheriff who killed Billy the Kid, credited ghostwriter Marshall Ashmun "Ash" Upson with much of the earlier, more embellished chapters, while the later chapters describing the manhunt read in a plainer, first-person style attributed to Garrett himself
- Publisher imprint reads New Mexican Printing and Publishing Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Pat F. Garrett |
| Publisher | New Mexican Printing and Publishing Company |
| Year | 1882 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Santa Fe: New Mexican Printing and Publishing Co., 1882, collating [1]-7, 8-137 pages, with a pagination error as issued (page 121 is… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Santa Fe: New Mexican Printing and Publishing Co., 1882, collating [1]-7, 8-137 pages, with a pagination error as issued (page 121 is misnumbered "113"), a frontispiece portrait of Billy the Kid, five additional plates, and an errata slip tipped in. First-edition copies were issued in plain blue paper wrappers, though pictorial blue wrappers are also recorded; cloth-bound copies of the true first are essentially unknown. Garrett, the Lincoln County sheriff who killed Billy the Kid, credited ghostwriter Marshall Ashmun "Ash" Upson with much of the earlier, more embellished chapters, while the later chapters describing the manhunt read in a plainer, first-person style attributed to Garrett himself.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Because the 1882 Santa Fe printing sold poorly and few copies survive, most copies encountered today are 20th-century reprints or facsimiles, which reproduce the pagination error but are printed on modern paper in modern bindings rather than the original wrappers.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid* by Pat F. Garrett a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-authentic-life-of-billy-the-kid
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.