Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. B.W. Dodge and Company, New York, 1907.
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: First Dodge edition, with 1907 on the title and copyright page; second edition of the title, after the small run of the 1900 Doubleday, Page first edition. Bound in red cloth-covered boards with yellowish lettering and a small broken bowl image on the front board, and gold lettering on the spine; color frontispiece from a scene on page 493. Book is unmarked but quite worn, with wear to the boards and spine edges and about a half-inch of the cloth missing from both the top and bottom of the spine. Back hinge cracked but pages all intact. No dust jacket. Mylar protected.
Seller: Black Falcon Books, Wellesley, MA, U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore. SISTER CARRIE. B. W. Dodge & Company, New York, 1907.
Price: US$95.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 2nd Edition. 557 pages. Very good in red cloth. (097)
Seller: Colorado Pioneer Books, Centennial, CO, U.S.A.
Theodore Dreiser. Sister Carrie. B.W. Dodge & Company, New York, 1907.
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: This same year reprint of the first authorized edition follows the original 1900 limited issue and is itself scarce. Green cloth. Broken cup pressed in gilt on front cover. Color frontispiece. Good plus. Spine is slightly flaccid and boards bear some minor edgewear. Pages are tight and clean. 8vo. 550 pages. Dreiser's masterpiece and first novel. Exultantly praised by the likes of Sinclair Lewis and H. L. Mencken, it is on Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In Sister Carrie, Dreiser portrayed a changing society, writing about an 18 year old woman who flees rural life for the big city of Chicago and struggles with poverty, economic exploitation, complex relationships with men, and as a kept woman. For its libertine sexual morality it received resistance in publishing. The initial publisher Doubleday & McClure accepted the manuscript then declined to publish until relenting at the insistence of Dreiser and 1,008 copies were printed in 1900. Although often well received by critics, the publisher refused to promote it, and it sold less than 500 copies. All subsequent editions were censored until a scholarly edition released by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 1981. Sister Carrie was adapted for the 1952 twice-Oscar nominated film, Carrie, starring Jennifer Jones and Laurence Olivier. Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (1871 - 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school who was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930.
Seller: Hirschfeld Galleries, Saint Louis, MO, U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore. SISTER CARRIE. B. W. Dodge & Company, New York, 1907.
Price: US$115.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Second Printing. 557 pp. Light foxing on the endpapers, previous owner's name on ffep. Red cloth with gilt titles. Corners bumped, slightly faded spine with head and tail worn, small chip from spine, small stains. GOOD.
Seller: J. Wyatt Books, Ottawa, ON, Canada
DREISER, Theodore.. Sister Carrie.. B. W. Dodge & Co., New York, 1907.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Description: 557 pp. Color frontispiece. 8vo, publisher's red cloth. Canadian Edition, so stated on the title page, though the New York imprint of the second American edition is retained; "Tenth Thousand." Old ink ownership signature; slightly cocked; spine stained with light rubbing to extremities.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
Theodore Dreiser. Sister Carrie. Published by B. W. Dodge & Co., New York, 1907.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Original red and pink pictorial cloth, lacks rare dj, Good condition with wear on spine, and a few nicks to the front cover near the broken cup, gilt worn from the cup. Foxing on edges of text especially at the bottom. With the lovely color frontis by Florence Montague of Carrie. This rare 1st authorized edition follows the rare and censored 1st ed of 1900, which was censured and pulled after 500 copies were issued, the rest of the edition destroyed, only a few copies of the 1st issue remain in existence. This edition embraced over 1,000 copies and is still rare. This is the 1st authorized edition.
Seller: Ultra Premium Classics, Marstons Mills, MA, U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore.. Sister Carrie. B. W. Dodge & Co., New York, 1907.
Price: US$173.00 + shipping
Description: 557p., col. frontis. Good condition, spine faded & slightly slanted
Seller: J. Lawton, Booksellers, Readville, MA, U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. B.W. Dodge,, 1907.
Price: US$195.01 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: This is the second edition or first illustrated of Dreiser's first book. A good clean copy with all writing and decoration clear. Some fraying at the head of the spine, back hinge starting.
Seller: Kerkhoff Books DIV KSI, Warsaw, IN, U.S.A.
DREISER, Theodore. Sister Carrie. B.W. Dodge & Company, New York, 1907.
Price: US$275.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo (20cm.); original maroon pictorial cloth embossed in orange and gilt; [6],557pp.; color frontispiece. Spine a hint cocked, a few scratches to rear cover, else a Near Fine, attractive copy. Originally published in 1900.
Seller: Lorne Bair Rare Books, ABAA, Winchester, VA, U.S.A.
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First Canadian Edition. Original decorated red cloth, near fine with gilt lettering bright on spine and cover. No writing or signatures. Color frontispiece. The title page state "Second Edition Tenth Thousand Canadian Edition." Printed from the plates of the 1900 edition with one alteratioj on p. 5, lines 3-22. Not in Pizer. While a handful of copies are listed for sale, none are in this nice condition.
Seller: sonalsorises, los angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Theodore Dreiser. Sister Carrie. B.W. Dodge and Co., New York, 1907.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Original red and pink pictorial cloth, lacks rare dj, else near fine, with the broken cup in gilt on front cover. With the lovely color frontis by Florence Montague of Carrie. This rare 1st authorized edition follows the rare and censored 1st ed of 1900, which was censured and pulled after 500 copies were issued, the rest of the edition destroyed, only a few copies of the 1st issue remain in existence. This edition embraced over 1,000 copies and is sitll rare. The subject was outrageous at the time, an 18 year country girl, comes to Chicago, the big city, and becomes a kept woman. Basis for the film starring Sir Lawrence Olivier in 1952. This is the 1st authorized edition. Lovely copy. only a hint of wear to the edges. Rare book
Seller: Hirschfeld Galleries, Saint Louis, MO, U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. B.W. Dodge, NY, 1907.
Price: US$650.00 + shipping
Description: The first printing of the second edition of this book; the very rare first edition of 1900 was surpressed due to its subject matter (a small town 18 year old moves to Chicago and becomes a kept woman) and it is estimated that only some 600 copies were released. This edition, the first edition to be sold in the U.S. and the first with an illustration, is bound in red buckram with front cover lettered and edged in orange, spine lettered in gilt and with gilt design of a broken bowl lower corner of the front cloth. Color frontispiece. A tight copy, with all gilt bright, a nearly imperceptible slit along the lower portion of the front gutter. On the first blank leaf there is a gift inscription dated 1912 from a pastor to a young woman upon her high school graduation and opposite this (on the verso of the front fly) there is a further notation by the recipient regarding the pastor and the date. The very rare first edition of 1900 was surpressed due to its subject matter (a small town 18 year old moves to Chicago and becomes a kept woman and later an actress). Only 1008 copies were printed after Dreiser insisted that Doubleday, McClure honor their contract to publish despite internal objections to it but they refused to advertise it and only 485 copies were sold. A totally unexpurgated editioin did not appear until 1981.
Seller: Old Book Shop of Bordentown (ABAA, ILAB), Bordentown, NJ, U.S.A.
DREISER, THEODORE.. Sister Carrie. New York: B.W. Dodge, 1907, 1907.
Price: US$875.00 + shipping
Description: Second edition. A typed label is tipped in at the title page, 'Advanced [sic] Copy. Completed Book Will Have Illustrations Printed in Color.' Clearly a trial or proof copy of some sort: frontispiece lacking (per note); printed on finer paper than the finished edition; the copyright page lacking the printing information found in the issued book and bound in terra cotta color cloth rather than red, with the stamping and decoration in white, rather than gold. Very good. With a copy of the published trade edition. All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.
Seller: Peter L. Stern & Co., Inc, Newton, MA, U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. B. W. Dodge & Company, New York, 1907.
Price: US$1200.00 + shipping
Description: 12mo. 557 pp. Color frontispiece. Inscribed by Theodore Dreiser. Cloth binding, gilt lettered spine with the broken cup in gilt on front cover, surface wear, upper hinge separated, else very good condition. (96883). Inscription: To Mr. & Mrs. E. G. Gibson with wishes and memories most pleasant. From Theodore Dreiser, New York, March 3rd 1909.
Seller: Bauer Rare Books, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
DREISER, Theodore.. Sister Carrie.. B. W. Dodge, New York, 1907.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Description: 557 pp. 8vo, publisher's decorated red cloth. Second edition. Hinges neatly repaired; some fading and wear to the extremities of the spine. A very good copy, and quite uncommon with Dreiser's inscription. Inscribed by Theodore Dreiser on the title page in 1924, to David Karsner, editor of Socialist Party newspaper The New York Call.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. B. W. Dodge & Company, New York, 1907.
Price: US$3500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Second edition. Signed by Theodore Dreiser on the front free endpaper and inscribed to a former owner. Bound in publisher's original maroon cloth stamped in gilt. Very Good with lean to spine. Cloth worn and soiled. Photograph of Dreiser mounted on front pastedown; ownership inscription and bookplate to front free endpaper, ownership inscription to p.557, and a brief typed biography of Dreiser tipped in at the rear free endpaper. Dreiser's first book, which many consider his finest work.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.