# Is "The Wigwam and the Cabin: First Series" by William Gilmore Simms a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Wigwam and the Cabin: First Series by William Gilmore Simms (Wiley and Putnam, 1845) is identified by: First edition, published October 1845 by Wiley and Putnam, New York (161 Broadway), as Volume 12 of the firm's 'Library of Choice Reading' series -- a fact recorded on the binding and useful for confirming series placement.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, published October 1845 by Wiley and Putnam, New York (161 Broadway), as Volume 12 of the firm's 'Library of Choice Reading' series -- a fact recorded on the binding and useful for confirming series placement
- Collates [10], 233, [1], x pp., bound in publisher's black morocco-backed cloth with the spine lettered in gilt
- A companion Second Series volume of new stories was issued the same year under the same imprint; the two series are collected separately and should not be conflated when assessing completeness of a set
- Publisher imprint reads Wiley and Putnam
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | William Gilmore Simms |
| Publisher | Wiley and Putnam |
| Year | 1845 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, published October 1845 by Wiley and Putnam, New York (161 Broadway), as Volume 12 of the firm's 'Library of Choice Reading'… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, published October 1845 by Wiley and Putnam, New York (161 Broadway), as Volume 12 of the firm's 'Library of Choice Reading' series -- a fact recorded on the binding and useful for confirming series placement. Collates [10], 233, [1], x pp., bound in publisher's black morocco-backed cloth with the spine lettered in gilt. A companion Second Series volume of new stories was issued the same year under the same imprint; the two series are collected separately and should not be conflated when assessing completeness of a set.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later reprintings combining both series into a single volume, or including these stories in collected 'Simms's Works' sets from the 1850s onward, use different bindings and pagination from the original 1845 Wiley and Putnam Library of Choice Reading issue.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Wigwam and the Cabin: First Series* by William Gilmore Simms a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-wigwam-and-the-cabin-first-series
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.