This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/16/2023
STEVENSON, Robert Louis (1850–1894). Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1886.
8vo. Half–title; 4 pp. publisher’s ads at end. Original gilt–lettered olive cloth, top edge gilt (tiny spots of rubbing at extreme ends and corners, spine ever so slightly skewed, else fine).
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, cloth issue, preceding the English edition by only four days. Published on 5 January 1886 in an edition of 1250 copies in cloth and 3000 copies in paper wrappers, this copy is the rarer of the two. “Published as a ‘shilling shocker,’ a form at that time in fashion, it became instantly popular; was quoted from a thousand pulpits; was translated into German, French and Danish; and the names of its two chief characters have passed into the common stock of proverbial allusion” (DNB). Bleiler, Science Fiction 1532; Clute and Nicholls, p. 1165; McKay 346; Prideaux 17 (English edition).