Riders of the Purple Sage

US Harper & Brothers (1912) is the true first — the archetypal Western novel. The decisive point is the copyright page reading "Published January, 1912" with NO letter code and no boxed Zane Grey title-list. Caution on the Harper code: month comes first, year second, so "A-M" = January 1912 and "M-M" = DECEMBER 1912 — the latter a later 1912 printing, never the first. Jacketed first printings are exceptionally rare.