If you pull a hardcover off the Southwestern history shelf in an Albuquerque estate library and the ISBN starts with 0-8263, you are holding a book published by the University of New Mexico Press. UNM Press is the single most important academic publisher in New Mexico and the foundational institutional voice for Southwest studies in the United States. Since 1929 it has operated continuously from the UNM campus in Albuquerque, building a catalog that now exceeds 1,200 titles in print and spans archaeology, anthropology, Native American studies, Chicano and Hispano literature, Latin American studies, Western American history, environmental writing, and regional poetry. No serious collection of Southwestern books lacks UNM Press titles. This page is the definitive collector's reference for identifying, evaluating, and understanding UNM Press first editions from every era of the press's history. If you have UNM Press books or any other Southwestern volumes to donate or sell, NMLP accepts any condition and any quantity through my free Albuquerque-area pickup service.
I handle UNM Press titles through NMLP intake more than any other single publisher. They surface in every estate library, every university-professor downsizing, every retiree migration from Albuquerque. The press's catalog overlaps almost every other collecting area covered on this site — Hispano literature, Native American writing, archaeology, colonial history, environmental studies, poetry. Knowing UNM Press conventions means knowing how to identify first editions across half the Southwestern canon.
Last verified May 2026 · Original research by Josh Eldred
Press History by Era
1929–1950: Founding and the First Books
On June 1, 1929, the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico unanimously approved the establishment of the University of New Mexico Press. The initial mandate was modest — printing and distributing pamphlets, reports, and journals for the university community. The press did not begin as the ambitious publisher of regional scholarship it would become; the Regents envisioned a campus printing service.
On July 15, 1930, Paul A. F. Walter Jr., a Stanford-educated scholar and son of Santa Fe newspaperman Paul A. F. Walter Sr., became the first director of UNM Press. Walter simultaneously served as assistant director of the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Research in Santa Fe. Under Walter's direction the press began publishing the New Mexico Quarterly and the New Mexico Historical Review, two periodicals that would become foundational to Southwest literary and historical scholarship.
Fred E. Harvey succeeded Walter as director in 1933, and under Harvey the press published its first hardcover, bound full-length book: New Mexico History and Civics by Lansing Bloom and Thomas Donnelly, released in September 1933. This was the first book actually published, advertised, cataloged, and distributed as a UNM Press title. From that point the press began building its regional trade-book catalog alongside its academic-journal operations.
The most consequential early project was the Coronado Historical Series, launched in connection with the 1940 four-hundredth anniversary of the Coronado expedition to New Mexico. A statewide commission established the Coronado Historical Fund with federal and state moneys, and UNM Press produced a ten-volume series of colonial New Mexico histories by scholars including Herbert E. Bolton, George P. Hammond, and France V. Scholes. The Coronado Historical Series remains one of the most collected UNM Press series among specialists in colonial Southwestern history.
In 1937, UNM Press joined the organization now known as the Association of University Presses, signaling its maturation from a campus print shop into a recognized academic publisher. The press also began building the imprint relationships with New Mexico authors and historians that would define its identity for the next nine decades.
1950–1970: Growth and Landmark Titles
The 1950s brought professionalization and expanded ambition. Roland Dickey became director in 1956 and oversaw a period of design-conscious publishing that elevated the press's visual identity. Dickey redesigned the New Mexico Quarterly and revived its reputation for typographic handsomeness before departing in 1966 for the University of Wisconsin Press. Roger Shugg, recently retired from the University of Chicago Press, succeeded him in 1967.
The 1960s produced two of the press's most enduring titles. Marc Simmons published The Spanish Government in Colonial New Mexico with UNM Press in 1968, launching a prolific association that would eventually yield more than forty books on New Mexico history. And in 1969, N. Scott Momaday published The Way to Rainy Mountain with UNM Press — a genre-defying blend of Kiowa oral tradition, historical commentary, and personal memoir, illustrated by his father Al Momaday. It remains the single most collected UNM Press title.
Erna Fergusson's earlier works, originally published by Knopf and other houses, entered the UNM Press catalog through reprints and revised editions during this period. Dancing Gods was republished by UNM Press in 1957, and New Mexico: A Pageant of Three Peoples received a second edition through the press in 1973. The pattern of absorbing regionally significant backlist from other publishers became a long-term UNM Press strategy.
1970–1990: Expansion into Native American Studies and Chicano Literature
Luther Wilson arrived as director in the fall of 1980 after serving as editor-in-chief and assistant director at the University of Oklahoma Press. Wilson's tenure, spanning fifteen years, represented the most expansive period in the press's history. Under Wilson the catalog grew from roughly fifty to eighty new titles per year, and UNM Press established itself as a national leader in Native American studies, Chicano literature, and environmental history of the American West.
The press launched the Paso Por Aquí Series on the Nuevomexicano Literary Heritage, dedicated to recovering Hispanic literary works published before 1960 and publishing new fiction and poetry that preserved the Nuevomexicano tradition. Sabine Ulibarrí's Tierra Amarilla: Stories of New Mexico / Cuentos de Nuevo Mexico became a centerpiece of the series — first published in Spanish in 1964, the bilingual UNM Press edition entered the Paso Por Aquí catalog and has remained in print as a foundational text of New Mexico Hispano literature.
In 1985, William deBuys published Enchantment and Exploitation: The Life and Hard Times of a New Mexico Mountain Range with UNM Press. This environmental history of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains won the 1986 Southwest Book Award and became a standard text in New Mexico environmental studies. The first edition in dust jacket is among the most sought UNM Press titles from this era.
Fray Angélico Chávez's My Penitente Land: Reflections on Spanish New Mexico (1974) and later The Short Stories of Fray Angelico Chavez (edited by Genaro M. Padilla, 2003) extended the press's commitment to New Mexico's Hispano literary tradition. Momaday continued publishing with UNM Press through this period, including In the Presence of the Sun: Stories and Poems, 1961–1991 (1992).
1990–Present: Digital Era and Continued Relevance
Elizabeth Hadas succeeded Luther Wilson as director and guided the press through the disruptions of the digital publishing era. The press maintained its commitment to regional scholarship while adapting to new distribution models and the shifting economics of university-press publishing. Today UNM Press ranks within the top third of publishing houses in the Association of University Presses and is the fourth-largest university press west of the Rocky Mountains in new title output.
The press reissued Jack Schaefer's backlist beginning around 2016, bringing more than a dozen of his Western novels, essays, and short-story collections back into print as new UNM Press editions. Max Evans, whose work spans the mid-century New Mexico ranching and rodeo world, has thirteen titles in the current UNM Press catalog. The Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series established a home for contemporary Western and Border poetry. The Diálogos Series in Latin American Studies extended the press's reach beyond the domestic Southwest into hemispheric scholarship.
Rudolfo Anaya, whose Bless Me, Ultima was originally published by Quinto Sol Publications in Berkeley in 1972, published many later titles through UNM Press over his long career as a UNM English professor. The distinction matters for collectors: the Quinto Sol first edition of Bless Me, Ultima is the collectible edition, covered on the dedicated Anaya collecting page. The later UNM Press Anaya titles have their own collector interest, particularly signed copies from his long tenure in Albuquerque.
Key Series and Subject Areas
UNM Press organizes much of its catalog into named series, each with its own editorial identity and collector profile. The major series that matter for collectors:
Coronado Historical Series
Ten volumes of colonial New Mexico history published beginning in 1940 to commemorate the four-hundredth anniversary of the Coronado expedition. Authors include Herbert E. Bolton, George P. Hammond, and France V. Scholes. These are the rarest and most consistently collected UNM Press titles. First editions in dust jacket are scarce. The series connects directly to the archaeology and colonial history collecting areas.
Histories of the American Frontier
A long-running series on Western American history covering topics from the Mexican frontier to the Indian wars to western urbanization. David J. Weber's The Mexican Frontier, 1821–1846: The American Southwest Under Mexico is one of the most collected titles in the series. Ray Allen Billington's America's Frontier Heritage is another landmark entry. The series connects to the broader Western Americana collecting tradition.
Paso Por Aquí Series on the Nuevomexicano Literary Heritage
Recovery of Hispanic literary works and new fiction preserving the Nuevomexicano tradition. Ulibarrí's Tierra Amarilla is the anchor title. The series overlaps substantially with the Hispano literature collecting pillar on this site. Bilingual editions are the norm.
Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series
Contemporary poetry engaging the American West and the U.S.–Mexico border as place and metaphor. Print runs are typically small. First editions in this series hold well among poetry collectors, particularly signed copies.
Diálogos Series in Latin American Studies
Scholarly monographs on Latin America and the border region. These are primarily academic-market titles with smaller collector followings, though individual volumes by prominent scholars can carry meaningful secondary-market interest.
Barbara Guth Worlds of Wonder Science Series for Young Readers
Children's science titles focused on the natural Southwest. Collected more for institutional and school-library purposes than by first-edition collectors, but first printings in fine condition are uncommon.
First Edition Identification
Identifying UNM Press first editions requires understanding how the press's copyright-page conventions evolved over its nearly century-long history. The conventions are different from trade-publisher norms, and they changed meaningfully across eras. Here is the complete identification framework, organized by the elements you will encounter on the copyright page.
The ISBN Prefix: 978-0-8263
The University of New Mexico Press ISBN prefix is 978-0-8263 (or the older ten-digit equivalent, 0-8263). Any book with an ISBN beginning with this prefix was published by UNM Press. This is the fastest single identification tool when examining books from estate libraries where the dust jacket may be missing and the title-page imprint is worn or ambiguous. The ISBN system was adopted by American publishers in the early 1970s, so pre-1970 UNM Press titles will not carry ISBNs and must be identified by the publisher imprint on the title page and copyright page. For background on ISBN-based publisher identification across all regional presses, see the Publisher Identification hub.
Copyright Page Conventions by Era
Pre-1970 titles (1933–early 1970s): Like most academic presses of this period, UNM Press did not routinely include an explicit "First edition" or "First printing" statement on the copyright page. The standard practice was to note only subsequent printings or revised editions. If the copyright page of a pre-1970 UNM Press book carries only the copyright notice, the publisher imprint, and the Library of Congress catalog card number — with no mention of "Second printing," "Revised edition," or similar language — you are almost certainly looking at a first printing. This is the negative-evidence method: the absence of later-printing language is the identifier.
1970s transition: Through the 1970s, UNM Press began adopting the number line (printer's key) convention that was becoming standard across American publishing. During this transitional decade you will encounter both the older convention (no statement on first printings, later printings noted) and the newer number-line system on different titles from the same year. There is no clean cutoff date.
Post-1980 titles: From approximately 1980 onward, UNM Press used the number line consistently. The standard format is a descending or ascending sequence of numbers printed on the copyright page. The lowest number in the sequence indicates the printing number. If the numeral 1 is present in the line, the book is a first printing. If the lowest number is 2, the publisher has removed the 1 and the book is a second printing. Some UNM Press number lines also encode the year of printing alongside the impression number.
Edition Statements and What They Mean
UNM Press uses "edition" in the academic-press sense, which differs from trade-publisher usage. A "Second edition" or "Revised and expanded edition" at UNM Press indicates substantive changes to the text — new chapters, updated scholarship, additional illustrations. This is not the same as a "second printing," which is an unchanged reimpression of the same text. William deBuys's Enchantment and Exploitation, for example, received a revised and expanded edition with new chapters on climate change and child welfare — this is a genuinely new edition, not a reprint. For collectors, the first printing of the first edition is the target. Later printings of the first edition have secondary interest. Revised editions are separate collecting objects entirely.
Library of Congress Data
UNM Press titles routinely include Library of Congress catalog card numbers (LCCN) on pre-1970s books and Cataloging-in-Publication (CIP) data blocks on post-1970s titles. The CIP block provides the Library of Congress classification, subject headings, and the ISBN. While the CIP data does not directly indicate printing number, it does confirm the publisher and can help distinguish a UNM Press original edition from a reprint by another house. The CIP block is also useful for confirming the original publication date when examining a book whose dust jacket and title page are missing.
Binding and Cloth
UNM Press binding conventions followed the general trajectory of American academic publishing. Pre-1960 titles were typically bound in cloth-covered boards, often in earth tones (brown, tan, rust, dark green) that reflected the regional Southwestern aesthetic. Through the 1960s and 1970s the press used a mix of cloth and cloth-effect paper-covered boards. From the 1980s onward, most UNM Press hardcovers use Holliston-grade library cloth or equivalent. Simultaneous paperback editions became standard from approximately the mid-1970s onward; the hardcover first printing is the collector's target when both formats exist.
Dust Jackets
Dust jacket survival is a significant condition factor for UNM Press collecting. Academic books are disproportionately likely to enter institutional libraries, where dust jackets are routinely discarded. A UNM Press first edition from the 1940s through 1960s in the original dust jacket is meaningfully scarcer than the same title without the jacket. Pre-1960 UNM Press dust jackets tend toward conservative academic typography; post-1970 jackets increasingly feature photographic or illustrated covers. The dust jacket is essential for collector-grade evaluation of any UNM Press hardcover first edition.
Hardcover vs. Simultaneous Paper
When UNM Press issued simultaneous hardcover and paperback editions (standard from the mid-1970s forward), the hardcover first printing is the collector's edition. The paperback carries the same ISBN prefix but a different ISBN. Both may be first printings, but the hardcover in dust jacket is the format that collectors seek. On pre-1970s titles where only a hardcover was issued, the question does not arise.
The Most Collected UNM Press Titles
The following titles represent the core of UNM Press first-edition collecting. I have organized them by collecting tier. No dollar amounts — tier language reflects relative demand and scarcity within the UNM Press catalog.
Top Tier
- N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969) — The single most collected UNM Press title. First hardcover printing with the original dust jacket featuring Al Momaday's illustrations. Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for House Made of Dawn (Harper & Row, 1969) the same year this book appeared, which drove immediate and lasting demand. Signed copies are the apex of UNM Press collectibility. The book has sold over 200,000 copies across all printings. See the Native American literature collecting pillar for broader context.
- Coronado Historical Series volumes (1940s) — The ten-volume colonial history series. Individual volumes by Bolton, Hammond, and Scholes in first printing with dust jackets are scarce. Complete sets are rare. These are specialist-collector items with strong institutional demand.
- Marc Simmons, The Spanish Government in Colonial New Mexico (1968) — Simmons's first major book and the foundation of a forty-plus-book bibliography with UNM Press. First edition in dust jacket. Simmons is covered in depth on the dedicated Simmons collecting page.
Upper-Middle Tier
- William deBuys, Enchantment and Exploitation (1985) — Environmental history of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Winner of the 1986 Southwest Book Award. First edition in dust jacket. Covered in depth on the dedicated deBuys page.
- Marc Simmons, New Mexico: An Interpretive History (1977) — Bicentennial commission title. The standard one-volume history of New Mexico for decades.
- David J. Weber, The Mexican Frontier, 1821–1846 (1982) — Landmark Histories of the American Frontier series entry. First edition in dust jacket.
- Ross Calvin, Sky Determines (UNM Press revised edition, 1948) — The original 1934 first edition was published by Macmillan. The UNM Press revised edition is the collected edition in the regional canon. Not a true first edition, but the edition most encountered and most sought in the UNM Press context.
- N. Scott Momaday, In the Presence of the Sun (1992) and Again the Far Morning (2011) — Later Momaday poetry collections through UNM Press. Signed copies carry the Momaday premium.
Solid Collecting Tier
- Sabine Ulibarrí, Tierra Amarilla (UNM Press bilingual edition, 1993) — Paso Por Aquí Series cornerstone. Ulibarrí (1919–2003) was a UNM professor; signed copies from his Albuquerque years exist but are uncommon. See the Ulibarrí collecting page.
- Fray Angélico Chávez, My Penitente Land (1974) — Reflections on Spanish New Mexico. Chávez (1910–1996) is a closed signature pool.
- Erna Fergusson, Dancing Gods (UNM Press edition, 1957) and Mexican Cookbook (UNM Press edition, 1945) — Fergusson (1888–1964) brought national authority on the Southwest. These are UNM Press reprint editions of titles originally published elsewhere, but they are the editions most commonly found and collected in the regional context.
- Jack Schaefer, Shane and other UNM Press reissues (2016–2017) — The UNM Press reissue editions of Schaefer's Western novels. These are new editions, not first editions in the traditional sense, but they represent the current in-print versions and first printings carry modest collector interest, particularly signed by the Schaefer estate collaborators.
- Max Evans, various titles — Thirteen UNM Press titles spanning novels, essays, and memoir. Evans (1924–2020) is a closed signature pool. First printings in dust jacket.
- Paul Horgan, Far from Cibola (UNM Press edition, 1974) — Originally published by Harper & Brothers in 1938. The UNM Press edition is a reprint, not a true first, but it is the edition most commonly found in New Mexico estate libraries.
Condition and Grading Notes
UNM Press books present specific condition challenges that differ from trade-publisher titles. The primary issue is institutional provenance. Because UNM Press is an academic publisher, a disproportionate percentage of its print runs enter university and public libraries. Ex-library copies are extremely common, particularly for pre-1990 titles. Ex-library indicators include spine labels, pocket remnants, date-due stamps, perforated pages, security strips, and — most damagingly — library rebinding that replaces the original cloth boards and destroys the dust jacket.
Dust jacket survival rates are lower for UNM Press titles than for comparable trade-publisher books from the same decades. Academic libraries discard jackets as a matter of policy. A UNM Press first edition from the 1960s or 1970s in the original unclipped dust jacket with no institutional markings is a genuinely uncommon object.
Binding quality is generally good. UNM Press used quality cloth through the mid-century decades, and the Holliston-grade library cloth adopted later holds up well. The most common binding defect in older UNM Press titles is sun fading to the spine cloth — the earth-toned cloths used in the 1940s through 1960s are susceptible to UV damage, particularly the rust and brown shades. Interior paper quality varies by decade; pre-1970 UNM Press titles used acid-content paper that can show foxing and toning, while post-1980 titles generally used acid-free stock.
For the NMLP authentication methodology, UNM Press titles are evaluated using the standard six-point first-edition framework with particular attention to the negative-evidence method on pre-1970 copyright pages and the number-line reading on post-1980 titles.
The Collecting Market
The UNM Press collecting market operates in three tiers, as with most academic-press first editions. No dollar amounts — the tiers describe relative demand, scarcity, and collector intensity.
Tier One: Trophy titles. The Momaday Way to Rainy Mountain first printing in dust jacket, particularly signed. The Coronado Historical Series volumes in first printing with jackets. Association copies inscribed by UNM authors to colleagues — a Simmons inscribed to a fellow historian, a Momaday inscribed to a UNM colleague, an Anaya presentation copy. These are the items that specialist Southwestern-book dealers and ABAA members seek actively. They trade through established antiquarian channels and institutional acquisition programs.
Tier Two: Solid collector demand. deBuys Enchantment and Exploitation in dust jacket. Simmons's major titles in first printing. Weber's frontier histories. Ulibarrí and Chávez titles, particularly signed. Momaday's later UNM Press poetry collections, signed. These trade through regional bookstores, online platforms, and specialist dealers. Condition matters significantly — non-ex-library copies with intact dust jackets command meaningful premiums over institutional copies.
Tier Three: Broad regional interest. The standard UNM Press catalog across all subject areas — the archaeology monographs, the anthropological studies, the history dissertations, the poetry chapbooks, the Southwestern nature writing. First printings have modest secondary-market value; signed copies or association copies elevate individual titles. This tier constitutes the bulk of UNM Press titles encountered through NMLP intake, and it forms the working backbone of any serious Southwestern reference library.
Signed copies deserve specific note. Because UNM Press authors are disproportionately UNM faculty or Albuquerque-based writers, signed and inscribed copies surface regularly in Albuquerque-area estate libraries. A UNM professor's personal library may contain presentation copies from colleagues across three decades of Southwest scholarship. These association copies — where the inscription connects the author to a known figure in the field — carry collector interest beyond the base value of the signed first edition. The closed signature pools page tracks which UNM Press authors are deceased and can no longer sign.
Common Misattributions
Several important Southwest titles are frequently assumed to be UNM Press publications but were actually published by other houses. Knowing the correct original publisher prevents misidentification during intake evaluation:
- Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima (1972) — Quinto Sol Publications, Berkeley. Not UNM Press. Anaya published later titles with UNM Press, but the collectible first edition of Ultima is Quinto Sol.
- Alfonso Ortiz, The Tewa World (1969) — University of Chicago Press. Ortiz was a UNM anthropology professor and San Juan Pueblo member, but his landmark study was published by Chicago, not UNM Press.
- Frank Waters, The Man Who Killed the Deer (1942) — University of Denver Press. Later editions appeared from Farrar & Rinehart and other houses, but not from UNM Press.
- Ross Calvin, Sky Determines (1934) — Macmillan. The 1948 revised edition is UNM Press, but the true first edition is Macmillan.
- N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn (1968) — Harper & Row. The Pulitzer-winning novel was not a UNM Press title. Momaday's UNM Press publications are The Way to Rainy Mountain, In the Presence of the Sun, In the Bear's House, and Again the Far Morning.
The Publisher Identification hub covers the full landscape of regional publishers and how to tell them apart. The collector's glossary defines terms used throughout this page. And the Top 50 Most Collectible New Mexico First Editions places the key UNM Press titles in context alongside the broader regional canon.
Cite This Guide
Eldred, J. (May 2026). University of New Mexico Press First Editions — A Collector's Authority Guide. New Mexico Literacy Project.
https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/unm-press-first-editions-collecting
Content is original research by Josh Eldred. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cite with attribution.