Is My The Story of Doctor Dolittle a First Edition?

The points of issue

• New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1920 — published 25 October 1920
• Octavo (approx
• 203 x 134 mm), collating [xii], 180 pp
• (one dealer census gives x, [2], 180)
• Bound in publisher's orange cloth, the front cover decoratively stamped and lettered in blue with a duplicate of the colour frontispiece laid on as a pictorial paste-on, spine lettered in blue; three-colour pictorial endpapers; inserted colour frontispiece with its original tissue guard; inserted black-and-white plates; and numerous line illustrations, many full-page, all by Lofting
• Sources conflict on the plate count — Sotheby's and several dealers record a frontispiece plus two further plates, while other descriptions specify three inserted black-and-white plates — so plate count must not be used as a decisive point until checked against the copy in hand

How Frederick A. Stokes Company marked a first edition

• 1881-1890 (White & Stokes; White, Stokes & Allen; Frederick A. Stokes & Brother): no first-edition statement. Date the book by the imprint name itself, which changed on a known schedule: 'White & Stokes' indicates 1881-1…

Full Frederick A. Stokes 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. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
4. Verify this is the American 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?

The census claim is confirmed and the reversal is real: although Lofting was English, the first edition is American — New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 25 October 1920 — and it precedes the first English edition, London: Jonathan Cape, by roughly two years. The Cape UK first is dated 1922 by dealer and library records (John Atkinson Books describes a 1922 Cape first edition, first printing of the inaugural Dolittle novel; the Internet Archive record and trade listings agree); Wikipedia gives 1924, which was not corroborated by any independent source and is treated here as an outlier, so 1922 is adopted. Both the Stokes 1920 and the Cape UK first are collected. The series trap the census flags is genuine: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (Stokes, 1922) is the Newbery Medal winner and is far more widely held, but it is the second book of the series — The Story of Doctor Dolittle (1920) is the series first and the scarcer book.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No 1920 book-club edition is documented. The reprint traps are Stokes's own later printings from the same plates, which retain the 1920 copyright notice — since the first carries no printing statement either, absence of a statement alone is not sufficient and the orange cloth, blue blocking, laid-on colour paste-on and three-colour pictorial endpapers must also agree. The second trap is the later Lippincott issues: an abebooks listing offers a 1948 Lippincott copy described as "the printed pricet Edition", and such copies are routinely mis-described on the strength of the surviving 1920 copyright date. Any Lippincott imprint rules out the 1920 Stokes first.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Story of Doctor Dolittle a first edition?

A first edition of The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Frederick A. Stokes Company) is identified by: New York: Frederick A.

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

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). The census claim is confirmed and the reversal is real: although Lofting was English, the first edition is American — New York: Frederick A.

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

No 1920 book-club edition is documented. The reprint traps are Stokes's own later printings from the same plates, which retain the 1920 copyright notice — since the first carries no printing statement either, absence of a statement alone is not sufficient and the orange cloth, blue blocking, laid-on colour paste-on and three-colour pictorial endpapers must also agree. The second trap is the later Lippincott issues: an abebooks listing offers a 1948 Lippincott copy described as "the printed price

I have a first edition of The Story of Doctor Dolittle — 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.