Is My The Squatter and the Don a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Confirmed from the text of the book itself, against three separate copies/transcriptions
• The title page reads: "THE SQUATTER AND THE DON. A NOVEL DESCRIPTIVE OF CONTEMPORARY OCCURRENCES IN CALIFORNIA. BY C. LOYAL. SAN FRANCISCO: 1885." — with NO publisher imprint on the title page
• The copyright page reads: "Copyright, 1885
• San Francisco, Cal
• All Rights Reserved." 421 pp, 20 cm
• LCCN 06022255

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. 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.
3. Verify this is the UK true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. 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.
5. 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?

San Francisco 1885 is the true first and the only nineteenth-century edition — the earliest Californio novel written and published in English, and the first fictional narrative in English from the perspective of the conquered Mexican population of California. No UK edition and no Spanish-language predecessor, so no precedence question arises. The census's "privately printed" characterisation is BORNE OUT by the title page, which names no publisher; scholarship records that the work was copyrighted by "C. Loyal" and then associated with the San Francisco house of Samuel Carson & Co. in the same year, which is why catalogues assign the Carson imprint in brackets. Both descriptions are defensible; the title page is the authority. The pseudonym "C. Loyal" stands for "Ciudadano Leal" (Loyal Citizen), a conventional nineteenth-century Mexican letter-closing.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No nineteenth-century book-club or reprint issue documented. The modern recovery editions are the trap and are what most copies offered as this title actually are: Arte Público Press (Houston), first issued 1994 with a second edition in 1997, edited and introduced by Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita in the "Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage" series (352-page trade paperback, ISBN 9781558851856), plus numerous print-on-demand "annotated" editions. Any ISBN, any named editor, trade-paperback format, or a 352-page collation (versus the original's 421 pp) identifies a modern reprint rather than the 1885 first.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Squatter and the Don a first edition?

A first edition of The Squatter and the Don by María Amparo Ruiz de Burton (as "C. Loyal") (Privately printed, San Francisco — no publisher named on the title page; catalogued as "[S. Carson & Co.]") is identified by: Confirmed from the text of the book itself, against three separate copies/transcriptions.

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. San Francisco 1885 is the true first and the only nineteenth-century edition — the earliest Californio novel written and published in English, and the first fictional narrative in English from the perspective of the conquered Mexican population of California.

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

No nineteenth-century book-club or reprint issue documented. The modern recovery editions are the trap and are what most copies offered as this title actually are: Arte Público Press (Houston), first issued 1994 with a second edition in 1997, edited and introduced by Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita in the "Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage" series (352-page trade paperback, ISBN 9781558851856), plus numerous print-on-demand "annotated" editions. Any ISBN, any named editor, trade-p

I have a first edition of The Squatter and the Don — 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.