# Is "Up from Slavery: An Autobiography" by Booker T. Washington a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington (Doubleday, Page & Company, 1901) is identified by: New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1901. US precedence; the census claim of Doubleday, Page (New York), 1901 is correct.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1901
- The first edition is an octavo of x, 330 pp., bound in the publisher's ribbed maroon (burgundy) cloth stamped in gilt, with a gilt top edge, and carries a tipped-in photogravure frontispiece portrait of Washington with facsimile signature facing the title page
- The copyright page reads "Copyright, 1900, 1901, by Booker T. Washington" — the double date reflects the book's prior serial appearance in The Outlook, which Washington acknowledges in his own preface
- There is no printing statement or number line; the 1901 Doubleday, Page New York imprint, the collation, the cloth and the tipped-in frontispiece are what carry the identification
- Two title-page states are recorded: one with the line "Author of 'The Future of the American Negro'" beneath Washington's name, and one without it
- The state lacking that line is the scarcer in the trade and is sometimes called the "first state," but Bauman Rare Books states plainly that no priority has been established — treat the two states as unranked, not as first and second issue, and do not claim precedence for either
- Publisher imprint reads Doubleday, Page & Company

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Booker T. Washington |
| Publisher | Doubleday, Page & Company |
| Year | 1901 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1901 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1901. The first edition is an octavo of x, 330 pp., bound in the publisher's ribbed maroon (burgundy) cloth stamped in gilt, with a gilt top edge, and carries a tipped-in photogravure frontispiece portrait of Washington with facsimile signature facing the title page. The copyright page reads "Copyright, 1900, 1901, by Booker T. Washington" — the double date reflects the book's prior serial appearance in The Outlook, which Washington acknowledges in his own preface. There is no printing statement or number line; the 1901 Doubleday, Page New York imprint, the collation, the cloth and the tipped-in frontispiece are what carry the identification. Two title-page states are recorded: one with the line "Author of 'The Future of the American Negro'" beneath Washington's name, and one without it. The state lacking that line is the scarcer in the trade and is sometimes called the "first state," but Bauman Rare Books states plainly that no priority has been established — treat the two states as unranked, not as first and second issue, and do not claim precedence for either. Sources also conflict on the jacket: Bauman describes the book as issued without one (standard for the period), while Burnside Rare Books has handled a first edition in an original, very scarce jacket carrying a "Second Edition" plug at the foot of the front panel. Because of that conflict, presence or absence of a jacket should not be used as an edition point for this title.

## Is this the true first?
US precedence; the census claim of Doubleday, Page (New York), 1901 is correct. The 1901 Doubleday, Page issue is the true first book edition — the text had already run serially in The Outlook, so the book is the first appearance in book form rather than the first appearance of the text. Do not confuse it with Washington's earlier and separate autobiography, The Story of My Life and Work (J. L. Nichols, 1900), a subscription-published book with a different text. No competing first-edition claim from another country is asserted here: I could not corroborate a named 1901 London edition against two independent authorities, so none is stated.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1901 Doubleday, Page edition in the sources consulted. Later Doubleday, Page and Doubleday, Doran printings reset or reissue the text; note that Doubleday imprints reading "Garden City, New York" reflect the firm's later address and therefore postdate the 1901 New York first. The many modern "first thus" reprints — Norton Critical, Dover Thrift, Penguin, Library of America — carry their own imprints and are not the 1901 edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Up from Slavery: An Autobiography* by Booker T. Washington a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/up-from-slavery-an-autobiography
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.