# Is "The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line" by Charles W. Chesnutt a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line by Charles W. Chesnutt (Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1899) is identified by: First edition, first printing, published November 27, 1899.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing, published November 27, 1899
- Bound in publisher's pale red (rose) cloth stamped in red and lettered in gilt, with a frontispiece and three additional full-page illustrations by Clyde O. De Land
- The collection gathers nine short stories, including the title story (first serialized in the Atlantic Monthly, July 1898) and 'The Sheriff's Children' (first published in The Independent, November 7, 1889), brought together in book form for the first time under this title
- Publisher imprint reads Houghton, Mifflin and Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Charles W. Chesnutt |
| Publisher | Houghton, Mifflin and Company |
| Year | 1899 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing, published November 27, 1899 |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing, published November 27, 1899. Bound in publisher's pale red (rose) cloth stamped in red and lettered in gilt, with a frontispiece and three additional full-page illustrations by Clyde O. De Land. The collection gathers nine short stories, including the title story (first serialized in the Atlantic Monthly, July 1898) and 'The Sheriff's Children' (first published in The Independent, November 7, 1889), brought together in book form for the first time under this title.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line* by Charles W. Chesnutt a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-wife-of-his-youth-and-other-stories-of-the-color-line
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.