3 Ambrose Bierce first editions are documented on this shelf, from Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891) to The Devil's Dictionary (1906) across 3 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Ambrose Bierce title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
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- Tales of Soldiers and Civilians — 1891 · E. L. G. Steele, San FranciscoFirst edition: San Francisco, E. L. G. Steele, 1891 — BAL 1109. The title page and copyright are dated 1891, but the book was actually issued in early 1892; Bierce's own prefatory note refers to the 1892 appearance, and the standard dating convention is 'dated 1891, issued 1892.' Octavo, collating pp. [1-8] 9-300 [301-304: blank], with a flyleaf before the title leaf, the penultimate leaf blank and the final leaf…. The census claim is confirmed: the American Steele issue (dated 1891, issued 1892) is the true first and precedes all other editions. The first English edition is separately collected: London, Chatto & Windus, 1892, retitled 'In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians' (vi, 244 pp.), bound in blue cloth — the first edition to carry the 'In the Midst of Life' title, and the true UK first. Both editions…. No contemporary book-club issue is documented. The principal trap is the New York, United States Book Company issue, printed from the first-edition plates and carrying the same E. L. G. Steele 1891 copyright on the copyright page — it is the second American edition and is regularly offered online as a 'first edition, first printing.' Check the foot of the title page: only 'E. L. G. Steele, San Francisco' is the….
- Can Such Things Be? — 1893 · The Cassell Publishing Company, New YorkFirst edition: New York, The Cassell Publishing Company, 1893. Octavo, collating pp. [i-ii] iii-iv [1] 2-320 (iv + 320), with flyleaves front and rear; twenty-four tales, including 'The Death of Halpin Frayser,' 'The Moonlit Road' and 'Moxon's Master.' There is no edition or printing statement and no number line; identification rests on the 1893 Cassell Publishing Company title-page imprint and the 320-page…. The census claim is confirmed: the American Cassell edition of 1893 is the true first and the reference text; no British or foreign-language edition precedes it, and no early UK first is separately collected against it. The 1903 Neale Publishing 'new and authorized edition' is a substantially different book — Bierce's author's note complains that tales had been reprinted without his assent, and the 1903 contents…. No contemporary book-club issue is documented. The traps are the 1903 Neale Publishing revised edition (Washington/New York imprint, different contents), the Neale Collected Works volumes of 1909-1912, and the 1918 Boni & Liveright and 1926 A. & C. Boni reprints, all of which are commonly listed simply as 'Can Such Things Be?' with an early-looking date. Any copy whose title page does not read 'The Cassell….
- The Devil's Dictionary — 1906 · Doubleday, Page & Company, New YorkThe true first of the text is The Cynic's Word Book: copyright filed 30 August 1906, published October 1906 by Doubleday, Page & Company, New York; BAL 1124; octavo, collating [vi], 233, [1] pp. (some cataloguers give vi, 234). BAL records the sheets in two states with NO priority established, so neither is 'the' first state: BAL State A has no printer's imprint on the copyright page, is issued without a…. Both editions named in the census claim are collected and the claim is correct. (1) The Cynic's Word Book, Doubleday, Page & Company, New York, 1906 — the first book form of the material, but only A-L; Bierce wanted the Devil's Dictionary title and the publisher refused it. (2) The Devil's Dictionary, The Neale Publishing Company, New York and Washington, 1911, being volume VII of The Collected Works of Ambrose…. The first widely available trade printing under the Devil's Dictionary title is Albert & Charles Boni, New York, 1925 (reissued 1926, 1935, 1944). It is the first reprint after Neale and is frequently mis-described as a first edition — it is not; it postdates the 1911 Neale Collected Works volume VII by fourteen years. Likewise the 1907 Arthur F. Bird (London) issue and all Cynic's Word Book copies with a….
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