# Is "West from Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco 1915" by Laura Ingalls Wilder a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of West from Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco 1915 by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper & Row, 1974) is identified by: Harper & Row first edition, 1974. US Harper & Row first; a posthumously collected volume of Wilder's 1915 letters.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Harper & Row first edition, 1974
- Look for the Harper & Row imprint on the title page and the first-printing statement/complete number line on the copyright page, and an unclipped first-issue dust jacket
- Edited by Roger Lea MacBride, with a historical setting by Margot Patterson Doss; the letters were written by Wilder to Almanzo Wilder from the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco
- Publisher imprint reads Harper & Row
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Laura Ingalls Wilder |
| Publisher | Harper & Row |
| Year | 1974 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | Harper & Row first edition, 1974 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Harper & Row first edition, 1974. Look for the Harper & Row imprint on the title page and the first-printing statement/complete number line on the copyright page, and an unclipped first-issue dust jacket. Edited by Roger Lea MacBride, with a historical setting by Margot Patterson Doss; the letters were written by Wilder to Almanzo Wilder from the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.

## Is this the true first?
US Harper & Row first; a posthumously collected volume of Wilder's 1915 letters.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Book-club editions typically lack the printed price on the jacket flap and may show a blind stamp on the rear board; verify against the copyright-page printing statement rather than price alone.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *West from Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco 1915* by Laura Ingalls Wilder a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/west-from-home-letters-of-laura-ingalls-wilder-san-francisco
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-03.