Fine Books and Manuscripts

Verne, Jules. Around the World in Eighty Days, 1873 edition. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1873. First fully illustrated American edition with the scarce 1873 imprint on title-page. Original green pictorial cloth stamped in gilt and black over beveled-edge boards, brown endpapers. Illustrated with 54 plates by A. de Neuville and L. Bennett including frontispiece with original tissue guard, plus one small intertextual illustration by Bennett and an integral full-page sketch of the “Saint Michael” drawn by Verne. 8vo. [2 blank pp.], [i-iii], iv, [v], vi-viii, [ix-xi], xii-xvi, [1], 2-315, [3 blank pp.]. Gentle rubbing at spine ends, two small white scuffs to rear board, occasional pale spotting to margins, frontise tissue guard foxed; tight and clean. One of the more superior copies we have seen at auction of a title that is unusual to find in such attractive condition. Rare. Taves & Michaluk V011; Myers 54. Scarce first illustrated American edition of this Verne classic. Published from the sheets of the illustrated British edition of 1873, the American edition suffered production flaws that caused easily cracked spines. Therefore, few copies are found in better than good condition. (Firsts Magazine July/August 1996).