THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
- SIGNED
- New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885
New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION with mixed issue points (title page in BAL State 2; pp. 13 and 57 in State 2; p. 155 in State 3; p. 283 in State 3/4; leaf 283 blank). 221 x 165 mm. (8 5/8 x 6 1/2"). 366 pp.
Publisher's original pictorial green cloth. Housed in a very attractive modern clamshell box with green marbled paper boards and bottle-green buckram edges, backed in forest green morocco, attractively gilt. With portrait of the author in BAL's third state, and 174 illustrations by E. W. Kemble, including full-page frontispiece. With a laid-in facsimile printing of p. 283 in the second state with the (clearly erotic) suppressed illustration. BAL 3415. One opening with a thread-thin stain (an insect trail?) partially across and right at top edge, but AN UNSURPASSABLE COPY nevertheless.
This is Twain's most acclaimed novel, and to many the greatest American novel ever written, offered here in condition that even a long-lived person may never see again. Set on the Mississippi in the first half of the 19th century and told in the language of a young but perceptive narrator, the story is a classic rite of passage in which a teenage runaway must choose between the dictates of his own heart and the rules of his white society. Faced with turning in his friend Jim--who, as a slave is also on the run, after having overheard of his impending sale--Huck announces in a powerful soliloquy that he "will go to Hell" rather than betray his comrade. The first printing, in London, preceded this edition by three months, but the present New York printing is always the more highly sought after. Our copy has the following mixed issue points: cancel title page, with the copyright date of 1884 on verso; p. 13 with "Him and Another Man" listed on p. 87 (corrected from p. 88); the 11th line from the bottom of p. 57 reading "with the saw" (corrected from "with the was"); p. 155 with the final "5" of the page number in a larger type; and p. 283 with the re-engraved illustration showing the fly on Mr. Phelps' trousers as a vertical line (the laid-in facsimile of the suppressed state of the illustration shows very clearly why it had to be radically tailored). While one can always hope for a copy of "Huck" with all or most of the first issue points, finding a copy in genuinely fine condition--which is more and more difficult to do--is much the greater challenge. This copy is wonderfully preserved both inside and out, looking much as it must have at the time of purchase by its first owner in 1885. It is the finest copy we have ever seen..
Publisher's original pictorial green cloth. Housed in a very attractive modern clamshell box with green marbled paper boards and bottle-green buckram edges, backed in forest green morocco, attractively gilt. With portrait of the author in BAL's third state, and 174 illustrations by E. W. Kemble, including full-page frontispiece. With a laid-in facsimile printing of p. 283 in the second state with the (clearly erotic) suppressed illustration. BAL 3415. One opening with a thread-thin stain (an insect trail?) partially across and right at top edge, but AN UNSURPASSABLE COPY nevertheless.
This is Twain's most acclaimed novel, and to many the greatest American novel ever written, offered here in condition that even a long-lived person may never see again. Set on the Mississippi in the first half of the 19th century and told in the language of a young but perceptive narrator, the story is a classic rite of passage in which a teenage runaway must choose between the dictates of his own heart and the rules of his white society. Faced with turning in his friend Jim--who, as a slave is also on the run, after having overheard of his impending sale--Huck announces in a powerful soliloquy that he "will go to Hell" rather than betray his comrade. The first printing, in London, preceded this edition by three months, but the present New York printing is always the more highly sought after. Our copy has the following mixed issue points: cancel title page, with the copyright date of 1884 on verso; p. 13 with "Him and Another Man" listed on p. 87 (corrected from p. 88); the 11th line from the bottom of p. 57 reading "with the saw" (corrected from "with the was"); p. 155 with the final "5" of the page number in a larger type; and p. 283 with the re-engraved illustration showing the fly on Mr. Phelps' trousers as a vertical line (the laid-in facsimile of the suppressed state of the illustration shows very clearly why it had to be radically tailored). While one can always hope for a copy of "Huck" with all or most of the first issue points, finding a copy in genuinely fine condition--which is more and more difficult to do--is much the greater challenge. This copy is wonderfully preserved both inside and out, looking much as it must have at the time of purchase by its first owner in 1885. It is the finest copy we have ever seen..