Selling Frank Waters Books in Albuquerque

The 1942 Farrar & Rinehart The Man Who Killed the Deer first edition

This is the single most important first edition in the entire Frank Waters bibliography. It's the novel that cemented his reputation as the dean of Southwest regionalism — a story about a young Taos Pueblo man, Martiniano, caught between tribal law and federal jurisdiction, navigating identity in the 1930s. The book was controversial on publication and it's been continuously reprinted for over eighty years in multiple editions, so the shelf is thick with reprints, reissues, and later paperback editions. Distinguishing the 1942 Farrar & Rinehart hardcover first from later Swallow Press reissues and paperback reprints is the critical identification task.

Here's the 6-point check I run when a hardcover The Man Who Killed the Deer comes across the sort table:

1. Imprint. Farrar & Rinehart on the title page. Not Swallow Press, not Ohio University Press, not a later publisher — Farrar & Rinehart was the original New York trade publisher. The colophon on the title page is the anchor identification point.
2. Copyright page. Should state 1942 with no later-printing notation and no "Book Club Edition" language. Book club editions either omit the copyright year or add explicit book-club notation. The copyright page is the legal truth; check it carefully.
3. Original dust jacket. The first-edition jacket carries Taos Pueblo imagery or a deer motif with hand-lettered type — earthy desert tones, artwork reflective of the novel's setting and cultural context. The jacket price should be visible on the front flap, unclipped. Clipped jackets reduce desirability but are still legitimate first editions.
4. Jacket flap price intact. A priced, unclipped jacket is the strongest single signal. The 1942 price will be low. Clipped jackets were common on gifts; an unclipped price is a condition premium.
5. Trim and binding. The first edition is a full-trim hardcover in cloth binding. Compare side-by-side with any later reprints you can find — Book club editions are often noticeably smaller or lighter. Swallow Press reissues have a different binding style and colophon.
6. No later-publisher language. Check the jacket back, the endpapers, and the colophon. If Swallow Press, Ohio University Press, or any later imprint appears, you have a reissue, not a 1942 first. The Farrar & Rinehart imprint must appear on the title page.

Masked Gods: Navaho and Pueblo Ceremonialism (1950, UNM Press)

Waters's deep-dive scholarly investigation of Navajo and Pueblo ceremonial systems, published by University of New Mexico Press in 1950. This is the book that positioned him as both a regionalist novelist and a serious student of indigenous cosmology and ritual. The UNM Press hardcover first edition is a quiet but diagnostically important piece — it signals an ABQ or academic reader who engaged with Waters at an intellectual depth beyond the popular novels.

First-edition identification is straightforward:

• UNM Press imprint. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1950 on the title page.
• Copyright page. 1950 with no later-printing language. Some UNM Press academic books were issued as paperback originals; if this one is hardcover, the full-trim cloth binding is standard for UNM academic monographs of that era.
• Dust jacket. If present, intact, and unclipped — a valuable signal that the book was collected and preserved rather than reading-worn.

A Waters estate shelf that includes Masked Gods alongside The Man Who Killed the Deer and Book of the Hopi tells you the reader was serious about Waters — moving from novel to ceremonialism scholarship to photographic documentation. Don't undervalue this piece.

The Swallow Press era — 1960s-1980s Denver reissues and the Ohio University Press absorption

Alan Swallow's Denver-based Swallow Press became Waters's primary mid-career publisher, reissuing most of his 1960s-1980s works. After Swallow's death in 1966, his list merged into Ohio University Press, which continued the reissue cycle through the present day. Critical distinction: Swallow Press and Ohio University Press editions are not first editions. They're reading-copy reprints of works originally published elsewhere.

Swallow Press Waters titles include:

• Pike's Peak (1971) — omnibus edition of the trilogy
• Pumpkin Seed Point (1969) — Hopi companion volume to Book of the Hopi
• To Possess the Land: A Biography of Arthur Rochford Manby (1973)
• Mexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth World of Consciousness (1975)
• Mountain Dialogues (1981)

Swallow and Ohio University Press imprints signal reissue, not original publication. When you see a Waters book with a Swallow or Ohio U Press colophon, check the copyright page carefully — it will usually note the original publication details above the reissue line. Reading copies, not collectible firsts. An estate pile of Swallow Press Waters is common; first-edition Farrar & Rinehart or Viking Waters is rare.

Signature authentication — Moby Dickens era, Taos venues, closed pool

Frank Waters signed books regularly at Moby Dickens Bookshop in Taos (1984-2018), at Collected Works in Santa Fe, and at various Taos literary venues from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. He died on June 3, 1995, at age ninety-two — which closed the signing pool thirty-one years ago. Unlike Nichols or Anaya, who continued active signings through the 2010s and 2020s, Waters was not a sustained public-figure signer. His signings were more localized to Taos and northern New Mexico literary circles. Signed copies exist, especially from Moby Dickens events and Taos Pueblo-connected readings. An inscribed copy from the 1980s or early 1990s with Taos venue context is the authentic pattern.

What authentic Frank Waters signatures look like

• Blue or black ballpoint or felt-tip ink. Always ink.
• "Frank Waters" — flowing signature with modest flourish. Sometimes paired with "Taos" and a date line, especially at Moby Dickens signings where the bookshop requested dates.
• Typically short inscription — one to three sentences — rather than the long paragraph-length inscriptions Nichols favored. Waters's style was more restrained.
• On the half-title page, the title page, or occasionally on the front free endpaper.

Three fake-type warnings

• Facsimile signatures in later reprints. Some posthumous Swallow Press or Ohio University Press reissues were produced with printed signature facsimiles. Under magnification, printed signatures show uniform ink density; real pen strokes vary in pressure and absorption.
• Tipped-in signed bookplate. A signed Frank Waters bookplate pasted into a book is a real signature on a plate, not a directly signed book. Less valuable than a direct signature; should be disclosed as such.
• Outright forgery. Waters's signature is compact and looping; forgers have attempted to replicate it. The most reliable authentication for any high-value claimed-signed first edition is expert examination or direct provenance from a documented Moby Dickens or Taos event.