"First edition" is an unfortunately abbreviated bookseller term. The full version is "First printing of the first edition".

When asking "Is this the first edition?" it is often easy to determine the negative, and can be difficult to determine the affirmative.

Wikipedia has turned into a decent online resource in that many collectors with expertise have shared their knowledge about authors and their works. In many cases there are photos of the first edition with sufficient information to identify.

In this case there is no page for the specific book, but there is a page for the author, which shows that the first edition of the book was in fact published by Grossett & Dunlap. Many of G&D's books were reprints from other publishers, where they bought the plates and used them without alteration, so that the binding was the only part of the book that showed the G&D name.

Unfortunately, even their original titles are poorly identified as to printing, so sorting them out often requires specific knowledge concerning the color and decoration of the boards, and in many cases the definitive information is found in the dust jacket.

In this case your book is lacking the dust jacket. For a book such as this, the dust jacket represents 80-90% of the value, so no joy there. For many G&D books, there is no way to determine the exact printing without the dust jacket.

Second, the book does appear to have condition issues: bumped and frayed corners, frayed spine ends, soiling, etc.

Given these factors, the value is pretty minimal.

Third, the boards themselves indicate either a later printing or a library rebind.

Fourth, the age of the copyright puts it in the public domain, so there is no scarcity of new copies available, and there are multiple electronic editions also.

If you want to continue your research, take a sharper photo of the book and several of the interior (title and copyright pages), describe the book including measurements, the number of pages, and any ads in the back, and re-post your question on the Bookseller's Board.

Google and Wikipedia are not substitutes for education or intelligence. —cornercube, 2009