Fine Literature & Modern Firsts

CLEMENS, Samuel Langhorne ("Mark Twain") (1835–1910). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. 8vo (216 x 171 mm). Lithographic frontispiece by E. W. Kemble with tissue–guard, photographic portrait frontispiece of the bust of Mark Twain by Karl Gerhardt (BAL state 1), in–text illustrations throughout. Original publisher’s green gilt–decorated pictorial cloth (few minor spots of rubbing to gilt on spine, extreme spine ends gently frayed, corners lightly rubbed, hinges tender); morocco–backed folding box. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, EARLY STATE, with the following issue points: the title leaf is either in the second or third state (first state only noted in the prospectus; no copy has ever been seen or reported); first state portrait frontispiece; first state of p. 13 with "Him and Another Man" plate incorrectly listed as being on p. 88; first state of p. 57 with "was" for “saw”; third state of pagination on p. 155; with final blank 23–8. AN ATTRACTIVE COPY. BAL 3415; Grolier, 100 American, 87; Johnson, pp. 43–50.