First Edition Points and Criteria for The Optimist's Daughter

Year Published: 1972
Author Last Name: Welty
Author First Name: Eudora
Publisher: Random House
Original Price: $5.95
Pages: 180

FIRST EDITION is stated on the copyright page below the full Random House number line "9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2". Boards are cream-colored cloth with gold lettering. Back of dust jacket has reviews for Losing Battles.

There were 300 limited copies of the first edition. These copies had dark-red cloth bindings and were issued in a slipcase with a signed, numbered page. The limited editions were part of the first edition printing, and as such they had the same copyright page as the other first editions, including the full random house number line and FIRST EDITION statement.

The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.


This is the first trade edition dust jacket.


The copyright pages in the first trade and the first limited editions are identical. Notice how the ISBN are listed for both editions.


This is the front dust jacket flap for the first trade edition of The Optimist's Daughter.


This is the back of the dust jacket on the first trade edition of The Optimist's Daughter.


This is the first trade edition boards for The Optimist's Daughter.


This is the back dust jacket flap for the first trade edition of The Optimist's Daughter.


This is the title page for the first trade edition of The Optimist's Daughter.


The first trade edition of The Optimist's Daughter has brown top stain.


This is a photo of the limited first edition of The Optimist's Daughter. It was limited to 300 copies. It was signed by the author, and numbered on a special page.


The limited copies of the first edition had dark-red cloth bindings and were issued in a slipcase.


Autograph: Signature of Eudora Welty.

Other first edition points for books by Eudora Welty include: Delta Wedding, The Golden Apples.