# Is "To and Again (Freddy Goes to Florida)" by Walter R. Brooks a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of To and Again (Freddy Goes to Florida) by Walter R. Brooks (Alfred A. Knopf, 1927) is identified by: The first printing is identified by the ABSENCE of a printing statement. US-only true first: Alfred A.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing is identified by the ABSENCE of a printing statement
- Under Knopf's convention for the period (c
- 1915 through 1933-34), first printings carry no printing notice, while every subsequent printing is explicitly marked "Second Printing," "Third Printing," and so on on the copyright page — so a copyright page silent as to printing is the point, and any printing notice rules a copy out
- First editions of this era sometimes also carry a "Published [Month, Year]" line on the copyright page
- One documented special case to watch: a title reprinted ahead of its publication date can read "First and second printings before publication." Knopf's Borzoi colophon runs across the whole era and is not by itself a first-printing point
- Illustrations throughout are by Kurt Wiese
- Publisher imprint reads Alfred A. Knopf

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Walter R. Brooks |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Year | 1927 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | The first printing is identified by the ABSENCE of a printing statement |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The first printing is identified by the ABSENCE of a printing statement. Under Knopf's convention for the period (c. 1915 through 1933-34), first printings carry no printing notice, while every subsequent printing is explicitly marked "Second Printing," "Third Printing," and so on on the copyright page — so a copyright page silent as to printing is the point, and any printing notice rules a copy out. First editions of this era sometimes also carry a "Published [Month, Year]" line on the copyright page. One documented special case to watch: a title reprinted ahead of its publication date can read "First and second printings before publication." Knopf's Borzoi colophon runs across the whole era and is not by itself a first-printing point. Illustrations throughout are by Kurt Wiese. Note that this convention is publisher-level rather than title-specific — it is corroborated by two independent trade authorities (ILAB and the ABAA dealer reference Books Tell You Why) — but no title-specific text state, binding, or jacket point was located, so confirm binding and jacket against a Freddy-specific bibliography before certifying a copy.

## Is this the true first?
US-only true first: Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1927, under the ORIGINAL title "To and Again" — the first book of the Freddy the Pig series. Not a translation, and no UK-first question arises, so the 1927 Knopf issue is the only edition with a claim to being the true first. The retitling trap the census flags is real and is the single most important point: the book was reissued as "Freddy Goes to Florida" in 1949, so any copy bearing that title is a later edition and cannot be the 1927 first, whatever its copyright date states. Collect the 1927 "To and Again" only.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The title entered the public domain in 2024 and has since been reprinted by Friends of Freddy, Inc., the author society — those modern reprints are the newest trap. Any "Freddy Goes to Florida" printing from 1949 onward is a later issue, not a printing of the first. The "Freddy Anniversary Collection" omnibus and other modern Freddy revivals are reprints and carry no first-edition status.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *To and Again (Freddy Goes to Florida)* by Walter R. Brooks a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/to-and-again-freddy-goes-to-florida
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.