The Call of the Wild

The US Macmillan, New York, July 1903 edition is the true first, confirming the census claim; the William Heinemann, London, 1903 edition is the first English edition, illustrated with 17 plates by Charles Edward Hooper, and is separately collected. REFUTED: a claim recycled across several online listings holds that the Heinemann preceded Macmillan by a month and that the American first was "issued without illustrations." Both are false — the Macmillan first is dated July 1903 on its own copyright page and contains the color frontispiece and 10 tipped-in plates. Do not repeat that claim. The exact month of the Heinemann could not be settled from the sources consulted (some copies are dated 1904), so its precise position after the Macmillan is left open. Note also that the true first appearance in any form is the serialization in The Saturday Evening Post, 20 June to 18 July 1903, in five installments, which precedes the first book edition.