3 Stephen Crane first editions are documented on this shelf, from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (A Story of New York) (1893) to The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War (1895) across 3 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Stephen Crane 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.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Stephen Crane copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (A Story of New York) — 1893 · Self-publishedCrane's first book, privately printed at his own expense in 1893 under the pseudonym 'Johnston Smith,' in an edition of about 1,100 copies, most of which Crane destroyed when they failed to sell. Original mustard/pale-yellow printed wrappers (extremely fragile and rare). Two title-page states are recorded in BAL: (1) title in upper- and lower-case lettering, and (2) title in all capitals. Unexpurgated text. Fewer…. US true first, 1893, self-published as by 'Johnston Smith.' The 1896 D. Appleton edition, issued under Crane's own name, is heavily bowdlerized and is a distinct, far more common later edition, not the first. The 1896 Appleton 'Maggie' (Crane's name, expurgated) is the common reprint mistaken for the first; the genuine first is the 1893 yellow-wrappered 'Johnston Smith' issue with the original unexpurgated text.
- The Black Riders and Other Lines — 1895 · Copeland and Day, BostonThe title page is set in small capitals and reads "THE BLACK RIDERS AND OTHER LINES BY STEPHEN CRANE" over "BOSTON COPELAND AND DAY MDCCCXCV" — the Roman-numeral date MDCCCXCV is the first point, and the Act-of-Congress notice on the verso is likewise dated MDCCCXCV. The entire text is set in small capitals, the poems untitled and numbered in Roman numerals, and the volume is dedicated to Hamlin Garland;…. American origin: Copeland and Day, Boston, 1895 is the true first and precedes any London appearance. The census note that a "UK Heinemann issue followed 1896" requires correction — the 1896 book is not a separate British first but a joint imprint of the American publisher: the Google-digitized copy's title page reads "BOSTON COPELAND AND DAY MDCCCXCVI / LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN," it carries a stated "THIRD…. No book-club issue exists for an 1895 Copeland and Day title. The reprint tells are on the title page: a date of MDCCCXCVI, the added "LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN" line, or a "THIRD EDITION" statement all mark the 1896 printing rather than the first. Further reprints to know include the c.1905 "Privately reprinted by courtesy of Small, Maynard" Boston/Cambridge printing, the Folcroft Library Editions reprint, and….
- The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War — 1895 · D. Appleton & Co.US first edition, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1895 (BAL 4071), in tan/buff cloth. First-issue points: the title page is dated 1895; the type on page 225 is UNBROKEN (the word 'congratulated' at the foot of the page shows clean, undamaged type — later states show broken/battered type); and the rear advertisements begin with three Gilbert Parker titles and end with a Christian Reid title. The Red Badge itself is…. The US Appleton edition is the true first (1895); the London Heinemann edition followed. The 1895 Appleton text is the first published text (shorter than the longer manuscript version later reconstructed). Later Appleton printings show broken type on page 225 and altered rear-advertisement states; reprints lack the 1895 tan cloth and the first-state advertisements (Gilbert Parker to Christian Reid).
More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: Steven Millhauser, Susan Sontag, T. H. White, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Theodore Dreiser, Theodore Roethke.
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