Is My The Log of a Cowboy a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First printing has 1903 on BOTH the title page and the copyright page and carries no impression statement
• Houghton Mifflin numbered later impressions of this title on the title page itself — copies stating, for example, "11th impression" on the title page are recorded in the trade — and the house rule for the period, on which three independent publisher guides agree, is that the year appears in Arabic numerals on the title page of first printings and is dropped or altered on subsequent printings
• Collation: 5 p.l. / [14], 387, [1] pp., octavo, with frontispiece and five plates plus a map, illustrated by E. Boyd Smith
• Bound in pictorial cloth — described as dark olive-green — with a cow/cowboy vignette stamped in several colors and gilt on the front board, titling lettered in black on front board and spine
• Sources conflict on the jacket: one ABAA-listed dealer records a copy in dust jacket while another states no jacket was issued, so no jacket point is asserted here
• Standard references: Herd 8, Six-Score 2, Dobie-Dykes 34, Campbell 2, Merrill Aristocrat

How Houghton, Mifflin and Company 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 earli…
• Late-19th to mid-20th century (c.1880s–1950s): the operative tell is the title page. Houghton Mifflin almost invariably printed the year of first publication, in Arabic numerals, on the title page of a first printing and…

Full Houghton, Mifflin 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. 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 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 Houghton, Mifflin and Company (Boston and New York), 1903, is the true first and the only collected first — the census claim is correct, and the pictorial cloth is confirmed. No 1903 UK edition is recorded. The University of Nebraska Press / Bison Books edition (Lincoln, 1964, also issued in London) and the Penguin Classics (2006) are "first thus" reprints with added introductions.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Grosset & Dunlap (New York) issued a reprint carrying the 1903 date and the same 387-page setting under the G&D imprint — the standard trap; identify by the imprint, not the date. Later Houghton Mifflin printings (1927 with the Riverside Press, 1955) state their impression number on the title page. The Palladium Press "Frontier Classics Library" full brown leather issue with raised bands and marbled endpapers (Birmingham, Alabama, 2007) is a modern subscription reprint, not a first.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Log of a Cowboy a first edition?

A first edition of The Log of a Cowboy by Andy Adams (Houghton, Mifflin and Company) is identified by: First printing has 1903 on BOTH the title page and the copyright page and carries no impression statement.

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. US Houghton, Mifflin and Company (Boston and New York), 1903, is the true first and the only collected first — the census claim is correct, and the pictorial cloth is confirmed.

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

Grosset & Dunlap (New York) issued a reprint carrying the 1903 date and the same 387-page setting under the G&D imprint — the standard trap; identify by the imprint, not the date. Later Houghton Mifflin printings (1927 with the Riverside Press, 1955) state their impression number on the title page. The Palladium Press "Frontier Classics Library" full brown leather issue with raised bands and marbled endpapers (Birmingham, Alabama, 2007) is a modern subscription reprint, not a first.

I have a first edition of The Log of a Cowboy — 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.