Charles Dickens | Barnaby Rudge, 1842, first American edition, presentation copy inscribed by Dickens to Morris

Charles Dickens

Barnaby Rudge. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1842 [1841]

8vo (247 x 152mm.), FIRST AMERICAN BOOK EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY DICKENS TO GEORGE MORRIS on vignette title ("George Morris from Charles Dickens New York. First June 1842"), engraved title, frontispiece and 14 engravings after Cattermole, H.K. Browne and Sibson by J. Yaeger, numerous other illustrations throughout the text, double-columns, original dark-brown cloth, decorated in blind on upper and lower covers, spine with title and vignette illustration in gilt, collector's green cloth case and quarter green morocco slipcase, offsetting to frontispiece and engraved vignette title, browning, first gatherings slightly loose, bumped

INSCRIBED BY DICKENS ON HIS FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA.

For a note on George Morris, see lot 37. The first American book edition of Barnaby Rudge was published on 20 December 1841, with the title page postdated 1842. It had been serialized in 19 parts by Lea and Blanchard between 12 March and 18 December 1841.

LITERATURE:

Smith First American editions p.184

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby's, 24 November 1927, sold for £157; [purchased by:] Comte Alain de Suzannet (acquisition recorded by autograph addition in margin of his 1934 Lausanne catalogue), bookplate; sale of his collection, Sotheby's, 22 November 1971, lot 62