# Is "The Land That Time Forgot" by Edgar Rice Burroughs a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs (A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1924) is identified by: The true first is Chicago, A. US original.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co., 1924, issued 14 June 1924
- Copyright page of the first printing reads 'Published June, 1924'
- Collation: octavo, [1-8] 1-422 [423-424: blank], final leaf blank, with FOUR inserted sepia plates by J. Allen St
- Binding is original green cloth; sources conflict on the stamping — L. W. Currey records the front and spine panels stamped in black, while other ABA dealer descriptions of the same edition report the titles to spine and front in blue
- Because that conflict is unresolved, treat the green cloth plus the 'Published June, 1924' statement and the four-plate count as the working points and do NOT use stamping colour to reject a copy
- First printing 10,000 copies
- Publisher imprint reads A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Edgar Rice Burroughs |
| Publisher | A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago |
| Year | 1924 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co., 1924, issued 14 June 1924 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The true first is Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co., 1924, issued 14 June 1924. Copyright page of the first printing reads 'Published June, 1924'. Collation: octavo, [1-8] 1-422 [423-424: blank], final leaf blank, with FOUR inserted sepia plates by J. Allen St. John. Binding is original green cloth; sources conflict on the stamping — L. W. Currey records the front and spine panels stamped in black, while other ABA dealer descriptions of the same edition report the titles to spine and front in blue. Because that conflict is unresolved, treat the green cloth plus the 'Published June, 1924' statement and the four-plate count as the working points and do NOT use stamping colour to reject a copy. First printing 10,000 copies. Jacket painting by St. John.

## Is this the true first?
US original. The McClurg 1924 volume is an omnibus and is the first book appearance of all three Caspak novellas — 'The Land That Time Forgot', 'The People That Time Forgot' and 'Out of Time's Abyss' — which had appeared separately in Blue Book for August, October and December 1918. The census note of a 'three-part magazine text 1918' is confirmed. A first UK edition from Methuen is claimed for 1925 by the census but could NOT be confirmed against any independent source in this pass; do not publish the Methuen year as fact.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Grosset & Dunlap reprinted in 1925 using the same 422-page text and the St. John jacket, but with only THREE interior plates against the McClurg first's four — plate count plus the G&D imprint is the tell. A second, subtler trap: Ace Books split the omnibus into three separate paperback volumes in 1963, so a volume titled 'The Land That Time Forgot' containing a single novella is a 'first thus' at best and never the 1924 first. No book-club issue is documented.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Land That Time Forgot* by Edgar Rice Burroughs a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-land-that-time-forgot
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.