Is My Copy of The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin (Mariner imprint), Boston, 2008, ISBN 978-0-618-96880-0, number line ending in 1 for the first printing
• A 392-page career-spanning collection of the comic strip with a new cartoonist's introduction

How Houghton Mifflin Harcourt marked a first edition

• Merger-lineage window (Hurd & Houghton 1864 → Houghton, Osgood & Co. 1878–1880 → Houghton, Mifflin & Co. from 1880): still no 'First Edition' wording; identify by title-page date matching the copyright date, by the…
• Clarion Books (a Houghton Mifflin children's/YA imprint from 1979 through the HMH era): follows the parent house's number-line convention — a full descending line whose lowest digit is 1 marks the first printing…

Full Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 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 indicia — a first-printing single issue carries no later-printing line; a collected edition is “first thus,” not the true first.
4. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

Format & printing

This title first appeared as a single issue / periodical, not a trade book. The true first is the first-printing single issue; later trade paperbacks or hardcover collections are “first thus.” Check the indicia (the small-print publication block) for a printing statement.

Is this the true first?

The strips were first self-syndicated and earlier gathered in Firebrand Books collections (1980s into the 2000s), which are the true first appearances; this 2008 Houghton Mifflin volume is the first edition of this best-of compilation, a first thus. The US Houghton Mifflin edition (November 2008) precedes the UK Jonathan Cape edition (ISBN 978-0-224-08706-3, December 2008), so the US printing is the true first of this collection.P-001209

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book club edition.P-001210

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For a first edition?

A first edition of The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is identified by: Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin (Mariner imprint), Boston, 2008, ISBN 978-0-618-96880-0, number line ending in 1 for the first printing.

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

Check the copyright page. For a single issue, the indicia shows the printing. The strips were first self-syndicated and earlier gathered in Firebrand Books collections (1980s into the 2000s), which are the true first appearances; this 2008 Houghton Mifflin volume is the first edition of this best-of compilation, a first thus.

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

No book club edition.

I have a first edition of The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and decode the printing with the free First Edition Checker. Clearing out books? I take them as a free donation and make sure collectible copies are identified, not discarded: free pickup in the Albuquerque metro (scheduled by route), the 24/7 drop box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE, or donor-paid mail-in from anywhere in the US. Questions? Call or text 505-250-3804.

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.