Fine Books & Manuscripts

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 tiny specks near Huck’s foot on upper cover, tiny spots of rubbing at extreme ends and corners, a small touch of rubbing to gilt on spine, else all gilt intact and fine), custom aniline folding box embossed with a silhouette of Huck Finn. Provenance: Henry A. Hall (neat signature dated 1885 of front free endpaper). 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. A NEAR PRISTINE COPY with the original glossy finish and gilt intact and without any wear to the inner hinges. The finest well–preserved copy on the market without the usual faults seen with this title. BAL 3415; Grolier, 100 American, 87; Johnson, pp. 43–50.