Edna Ferber's So Big

Like most Pulitzer Prize book collectors I had always assumed that the first edition of Edna Ferber's So Big was an orange book and that it did not state "first edition" or "first printing". The common wisdom on this book was that the first edition could be identified by the lack of additional printing statements. This made some sense because I had seen copies where sixteenth printing was stated, so it would seem that copies without a printing statement were first printings. The books dealers I spoke with all confirmed that the first edition was identified by the lack of a printing statement, and eBay and AbeBooks were filled with offerings for “first editions” with the “required” lack of printing statement.

But there was just one problem with this. Other books published by the same publisher (Doubleday) in the same year So Big was published had first edition statements on their copyright page. So it seemed a bit odd that So Big would not have a similar statement. So I always suspected that perhaps the edition I owned (one without a printing or edition statement) was not the true first edition.

Well it turns out that my suspicion was right. Not only is “First Edition” stated on the true first edition of So Big, but it also turns out that the true first edition was published with blue boards rather than the orange boards that later printings were bound with. Photos of the first edition can be found here:

First edition of So Big by Edna Feber

Although I now know what the first edition book looks like, I still have yet to come across a first edition dust jacket. So the search continues.