Talk:Betty Zane

Publication Date for the Grosset edition of Betty Zane
The DATE shown for this Grosset Louis Grant illustrated edition is the copyright date. The true first edition of Zane Grey's Betty Zane was 1903 from Charles Francis Publishing. I do not believe that Grosset published their reprint edition until 1914. Most of the Grosset editions have a Zane Grey ad page at the back: most copies have The Light of Western Stars listed first on the ad page, and we know that the Grosset 1st edition K-P was first published oct./Nov. 1915 per the ZGWS. Also, the 1st Grosset edition of Zane'Grey's Heritage of Desert, published by Grosset in 1913 per the dust jacket, has an ad on the back titled "Recent Issues" which lists Betty Zane in the left column about mid-way down the page. Perhaps someone can add to this discussion? Dating the Grosset editions of Betty Zane is a problem that has bedeviled collectors for years. I have a copy of The Heritage of The Desert with the same dust jacket as above, listing Grosset's Betty Zane on the back. However, my book has notations from a previous owner as follows, "L.G.P Montreal Nov. 1st, 1912"; further the dust jacket on my copy of Betty Zane also indicates at the rear "Recent Issues" which lists Betty Zane in the left column about mid-way down the page. Consider also that the Betty Zane Grosset reprint was published without use of the letter coding system applied later by Grosset, borrowed from Harper Publishing. Grosset may have initiated the coding system with Riders of the Purple Sage which became so popular and went through so many editions with both Harper & Brothers and with Grosset and Dunlap. The earliest Grosset Zane Grey book with a code is Riders of the Purple Sage edition, L-N, coding which translates as December 1913. I think all this supports a likely Grosset publication date of 1913 for Betty Zane, although early 1914 might be possible. Grosset never applied the coding system to their Betty Zane reprints to my knowledge even though they continued publishing the book every few few years up into the 1960s. However, by 1914 Grosset published Desert Gold with the code F-O: June 1914, which the ZGWS considers a Grosset first edition. The internal ad pages of the earliest copies of Betty Zane do not even show ads promoting any Zane Grey books at all. If someone could obtain production or sales dates for the four Louis F. Grant interior illustrations or the cameo, that might help us date the Grosset Betty Zane with more certainty.