# Is "The Wind" by Dorothy Scarborough a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Wind by Dorothy Scarborough (Harper & Brothers, 1925) is identified by: The first edition carries no author's name: the title page reads "Anonymous," Harper having withheld Scarborough's identity, and the name was made public only at the end of January 1926 — so every author-named printing is later, confirming the census claim as a clean identification point. US-only first: Harper & Brothers, New York, 1925 (the imprint also reads New York and London), and no separately-set UK edition precedes it in the records consulted.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first edition carries no author's name: the title page reads "Anonymous," Harper having withheld Scarborough's identity, and the name was made public only at the end of January 1926 — so every author-named printing is later, confirming the census claim as a clean identification point
- The first printing is further fixed by Harper's two-letter code on the copyright page, which on this book reads "H-Z": under the Harper system in use from 1912 to 1968 the first letter is the month and the second the year, so H = August and Z = 1925, a printing date consistent with autumn 1925 publication
- From 1922 Harper also stated "First Edition" on the copyright page of firsts, so the statement should be present alongside the code; verify both
- The original jacket is rare and is usually absent; where a jacket is present the price appears at the flap
- Publisher imprint reads Harper & Brothers
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Dorothy Scarborough |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers |
| Year | 1925 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first edition carries no author's name: the title page reads "Anonymous," Harper having withheld Scarborough's identity, and the name… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The first edition carries no author's name: the title page reads "Anonymous," Harper having withheld Scarborough's identity, and the name was made public only at the end of January 1926 — so every author-named printing is later, confirming the census claim as a clean identification point. The first printing is further fixed by Harper's two-letter code on the copyright page, which on this book reads "H-Z": under the Harper system in use from 1912 to 1968 the first letter is the month and the second the year, so H = August and Z = 1925, a printing date consistent with autumn 1925 publication. From 1922 Harper also stated "First Edition" on the copyright page of firsts, so the statement should be present alongside the code; verify both. The original jacket is rare and is usually absent; where a jacket is present the price appears at the flap.

## Is this the true first?
US-only first: Harper & Brothers, New York, 1925 (the imprint also reads New York and London), and no separately-set UK edition precedes it in the records consulted. Written in English, so there is no original-language precedence question. The only genuine precedence issue is anonymous-versus-named issue, and the anonymous 1925 Harper printing is the true first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The tell is the byline rather than any club marking: printings from the end of January 1926 onward bear Scarborough's name, and the Harper year code advances (Z = 1925 gives way to A = 1926), so a named copy is by definition not the first. The 1928 Victor Seastrom silent film starring Lillian Gish drove further reprints. The modern University of Texas Press reissue in the Barker Texas History Center Series is a "first thus." No book-club edition is documented in the sources consulted.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Wind* by Dorothy Scarborough a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-wind
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.