The infamous & elusive true first American Edition of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain | Published 1885 in New York
First American edition, first issue. Corners bumped. The gilt to the spine and front board is brilliant and age has not harmed the interior at all but for minor foxing to the preliminary pages. Slight fraying to foot of spine.
An outstanding copy of one of the most influential American novels ever written. Comes with a protective custom clam shell case as pictured and is also protected with a removable mylar sleeve.
Publisher’s green-cloth copy with the following first issue points: Page (13): “Him and another Man” illustration listed as being on page 88 (it is on p. 87); Page 57, 11th line up: …with the was…”, “Decided” instead of the later “Decides” on p. [9]. The other issue points, of little consequence due to recent bibliographical scholarship, are: “1885” on copyright page which is on a conjugate leaf; Page 283, illustration shows trouser fly curved and is on a cancel; Page 155 has page number lacking the final “5”;Cloth visible under bust on portrait frontispiece. These points, with the exception of the copyright page, are first issues according to BAL 3415 (and BAL states that the copyright page point is virtually unobtainable). The novel was published first in Britain, ironic considering the profound influence of this, the greatest of the author’s works, on American literature.
T.S. Eliot wrote in 1950 that Twain “had joined the company of those rare authors who have discovered a new way of writing, valid not only for themselves, but for others.” Encomiums to this book are abundant but it is enough to say that no serious collection of American Literature can pretend to be compete without a copy.
“All modern American literature comes from one book-Huckleberry Finn.” – Ernest Hemingway
