How to identify a first printing
- Follows the inherited Ticknor/Fields practice: no first-edition statement. Match the title-page date to the copyright date with no later printing noted.
- Dated rear advertisement/catalogue sections can aid printing priority within a title's issue.
- For the major Mark Twain titles (The Prince and the Pauper, 1882; Life on the Mississippi, 1883), priority is established by bibliographic points and states (text and illustration points) rather than any publisher edition statement; consult title-specific point references such as BAL.
Notable points & cautions
- James R. Osgood rose from clerk at Ticknor & Fields to partner; his firm is the direct continuation of that lineage.
- Merged with Hurd & Houghton's interests as Houghton, Osgood & Company (1878-1880), after which Houghton continued as Houghton, Mifflin & Co. (retaining the Ticknor and Fields backlist) and Osgood revived his own firm; the firm failed in 1885.
- Published Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper (1882) and Life on the Mississippi (1883), where priority is set by issue points; also Howells, Henry James, and Aldrich.
- Because the firm changed names twice, the imprint on the title page is itself a dating signal.
Imprints
First editions also appear under: James R. Osgood & Company (1871-1878), Houghton, Osgood & Company (1878-1880), James R. Osgood & Company (revived, 1880-1885). Each generally follows the house convention above.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my James R. Osgood & Company book is a first edition?
Check the copyright page. Follows the inherited Ticknor/Fields practice: no first-edition statement. Match the title-page date to the copyright date with no later printing noted. Dated rear advertisement/catalogue sections can aid printing priority within a title's issue.
Does James R. Osgood & Company use a number line?
Dated rear advertisement/catalogue sections can aid printing priority within a title's issue.
Is a book-club edition a James R. Osgood & Company first edition?
No. Book-club editions reprint the text but are not the true first edition. James R. Osgood rose from clerk at Ticknor & Fields to partner; his firm is the direct continuation of that lineage.
What era does this cover?
This covers James R. Osgood & Company (1871-1885; antiquarian). Conventions changed over time, so confirm the era of your copy.
James R. Osgood & Company titles with documented first-edition points
Each link opens that title’s specific points of issue — the exact marks that separate a true first printing from a later one.
- A Group of Noble Dames (Thomas Hardy, 1891)
- A Modern Instance (William Dean Howells, 1882)
- Deephaven (Sarah Orne Jewett, 1877)
- Dr. Sevier (George Washington Cable, 1885)
- Life on the Mississippi (Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens), 1883)
- Tales of the Argonauts, and Other Sketches (Bret Harte, 1875)
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy, 1891)
- The Peterkin Papers (Lucretia P. Hale, 1880)
- The Prince and the Pauper (Mark Twain, 1881)
- The Widow Lerouge (Émile Gaboriau, 1873)
More first-edition identification
- All Antiquarian (19th-Century) Houses →
- The Points of Issue Registry (all 870 publishers)
- Title-by-title: is my specific book a first edition?
- First-Edition Identification hub
- Bradbury & Evans
- Chapman & Hall
- Estes & Lauriat / Dana Estes & Company
- Fields, Osgood & Co.
- George Routledge (George Routledge & Sons)