"First Edition" is stated by itself, on its own line, on the very bottom of copyright page. Binding is blue cloth with a gold design that stencils the title and author name on the front. The first printing dust jacket is extremely scarce. Although we have never seen one, we do know that it was bright orange and carried a price of $2.00. We have included photos of the twelfth printing dust jacket, which was printing in the same year as the first printing. We believe this dust jacket likely resembles the original first printing.
Two states of the first edition have been discovered, but no priority has been established. On the title page of State 1, the "Y" in DOUBLEDAY is directly below the "T" in GARDEN CITY. On the title page of State 2, the "Y" in DOUBLEDAY is directly below the "TY" in GARDEN CITY. Refer to the photo for a comparison.
Note: The early printings with orange boards and no printing statements are sometimes sold as first editions without specifying that they are later printings.
So Big book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
To find the market value for this book, click on the pre-filled eBay, AbeBooks, or Biblio links to the right and look for comparable listings that have all of these first edition points.
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 | This is the twelfth printing of the first edition of So Big. It was printed in the same year as the first printing of the first edition. |
 | On the true first edition of So Big, "First Edition" is stated on the copyright page. |
 | This twelfth printing dust jacket carries a $2.00 price on the bottom front flap. The first printing also carries a $2.00 price, and we believe that its front flap looks the same as this one. |
 | This is the back of the twelfth printing dust jacket. The first printing likely had different reviews. |
 | The true first edition of So Big has blue boards.
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 | The book on the top of this photo has a State 1 title page where the "Y" in "DOUBLEDAY" is directly below the "T" in "GARDEN CITY". The book on the bottom of this photo has a State 2 title page where the "Y" in "DOUBLEDAY" is directly below the "TY" in "GARDEN CITY". |
 | This is the back flap from the twelfth printing of the first edition dust jacket. |
 | The true first printing of the first edition of So Big has blue boards like the one on the left. Early printings are the same size and have the front board and spine design, but they have orange boards like the one on the right. |
 | The Grosset and Dunlap reprint edition is on the left and the twelfth printing of the Doubleday first edition is on the right. The true first edition might have elements of both books. |
 | This Doubleday advertisement from 1924 features the same art work that is found on the Grosset and Dunlap dust jacket. This suggests that the same art work probably appeared on the original Doubleday dust jacket and Grosset and Dunlap borrowed it for their dust jacket. Other advertisements from 1924 tell us that the dust jacket was orange and carried a price of $2.00. |
