Is My The Knave of Hearts (text by Louise Saunders) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The true first edition is the 1925 Charles Scribner's Sons issue, a large royal quarto (approx
• 13 the printed price x 11 the printed price in / 352 x 292 mm) bound in publisher's black cloth with a full-size mounted color pictorial label (Parrish's cover painting) laid onto the front board, and color-pictorial (illustrated) endpapers
• Dealer consensus (Bauman, and multiple ABAA sellers) describes the color content as 14 full-page color plates plus 9 in-text color vignettes (about 23 printed color images), drawn from the 26 Parrish paintings executed for the book -- 26 is the figure cited by Parrish biographer Coy Ludwig for the total number of paintings, so it counts artworks, not discrete printed plates
• Plates are printed in rich color on heavy coated paper
• Complete copies were housed in a glassine wrapper inside a publisher's box; the glassine and box are almost always absent, and their presence is a strong completeness point
• Identification only, no values

How Charles Scribner's Sons marked a first edition

• Pre-1930: Scribner seal/device plus month-and-year of publication on copyright page; first printings either carry matching dates on title page and copyright page or show no later printings noted.

Full Charles Scribner's Sons 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. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
4. Verify this is the UK 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?

Precedence: the 1925 Charles Scribner's Sons black-cloth royal quarto is the true first edition, first printing. Unusually for a golden-age gift-book illustrator, Scribner did NOT issue a separate signed/numbered deluxe or large-paper limited state -- the prized first is simply the ordinary 1925 trade edition, made scarce by its fragile mounted cover label, glassine, and box rather than by a limitation. There is no UK-first complication: this is a US-originated title with Scribner as sole first publisher. Louise Saunders (wife of Scribner editor Maxwell Perkins, and Parrish's Cornish, NH neighbor) is the text author; the book is collected for Parrish as illustrator.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Chief trap: the spiral / wire-comb-bound softcover version in color pictorial wrappers (issued by the Artists and Writers Guild, the predecessor to Little Golden Books) is a LATER reprint, NOT the 1925 Scribner first. It carries only the "Copyright 1925 by Charles Scribner's Sons" line, so it is routinely misdated 1925, but it was actually issued roughly a decade later (mid-1930s); sources disagree on the imprint location (Racine, WI is commonly cited, but at least one source places it in Poughkeepsie, NY), so treat the location as uncertain. Genuine firsts are the oversized black-cloth hardcover with the full-size mounted color cover label and pictorial endpapers; later reprints (including the softcover and modern facsimile-style printings) typically show reduced plate quality and lack the mounted label, glassine, and box. No book-club issue of note. Because there is no limited edition, any copy described as a "signed limited" is either an owner-signed trade copy or misdescribed.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Knave of Hearts (text by Louise Saunders) a first edition?

A first edition of The Knave of Hearts (text by Louise Saunders) by Maxfield Parrish (Charles Scribner's Sons) is identified by: The true first edition is the 1925 Charles Scribner's Sons issue, a large royal quarto (approx.

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

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. Precedence: the 1925 Charles Scribner's Sons black-cloth royal quarto is the true first edition, first printing.

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

Chief trap: the spiral / wire-comb-bound softcover version in color pictorial wrappers (issued by the Artists and Writers Guild, the predecessor to Little Golden Books) is a LATER reprint, NOT the 1925 Scribner first. It carries only the "Copyright 1925 by Charles Scribner's Sons" line, so it is routinely misdated 1925, but it was actually issued roughly a decade later (mid-1930s); sources disagree on the imprint location (Racine, WI is commonly cited, but at least one source places it in Poughk

I have a first edition of The Knave of Hearts (text by Louise Saunders) — 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.