Is My The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition: Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1896, in an edition of 3,000 copies — Little, Brown doubted the book and required Farmer to pay for the printing herself, which is why she retained the copyright
• Points: title page dated 1896 with the Little, Brown, and Company Boston imprint; collation xxx + 567 pp., followed by roughly twenty pages of publisher's advertisements and terminal blanks; original publisher's cloth
• There is NO printing statement, edition statement or number line — the 1896 title-page date and the 567-page collation are the only discriminators the sources document, and the two 1897 reprints and the annual reprints that followed carry their own later title-page dates
• Collation is the practical test: the 1904 reprinting runs to about 666 pp. plus twenty pages of ads, so any copy exceeding 567 pages of text is not the first
• Original cloth is scarce; many surviving copies have been rebound, and a rebound copy cannot be authenticated by binding

How Little, Brown and Company marked a first edition

• Pre-1930s (founded Boston 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown): there is NO first-edition statement in this era. Establish a first printing NEGATIVELY — confirm the date on the title page matches the copyright/…
• Time Inc. / Time Warner corporate era (Time Inc. bought L,B 1968; Time Warner Book Group from 1989; editorial/HQ moved from Boston to New York in 2001): the number-line-must-contain-1 rule holds throughout. Imprint on th…

Full Little, Brown and Company first-edition guide →

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
4. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
6. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

US only — the book was not published in Britain and there is no original-language question, so the 1896 Little, Brown Boston printing is the unambiguous true first. RETITLING / FIRST-THUS TRAPS: a revised edition appeared in 1906; the 8th edition (1946) was retitled Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book; the 11th edition (1965) became simply The Fannie Farmer Cookbook; Marion Cunningham revised the 12th and 13th editions (13th, 1990, reissued 1996 for the centenary, Knopf). Thirteen editions ran 1896-1990, the text growing from 567 to 874 pages — none of the retitlings is a first of this book.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No contemporary book-club issue is documented. The reprint tells that matter are the facsimiles, which are common and are routinely offered as the 1896 book: the Weathervane/Crown "The Original Boston Cooking School Cook Book, 1896," the Ottenheimer issue, and the Dover 1997 "The Original 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" (ISBN 0-486-29697-5), an unabridged republication. All reproduce the 1896 title page, so the tell is the modern binding, modern paper, and the publisher's own imprint and ISBN on the verso — an 1896 title page inside a perfect-bound or modern cased volume is a facsimile.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book a first edition?

A first edition of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer (Little, Brown and Company) is identified by: Census claim confirmed.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). US only — the book was not published in Britain and there is no original-language question, so the 1896 Little, Brown Boston printing is the unambiguous true first.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No contemporary book-club issue is documented. The reprint tells that matter are the facsimiles, which are common and are routinely offered as the 1896 book: the Weathervane/Crown "The Original Boston Cooking School Cook Book, 1896," the Ottenheimer issue, and the Dover 1997 "The Original 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" (ISBN 0-486-29697-5), an unabridged republication. All reproduce the 1896 title page, so the tell is the modern binding, modern paper, and the publisher's own imprint and I

I have a first edition of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.