Mark Twain

A stunningly fine first edition of Mark Twain's enduring classic of boyhood, in the deluxe publisher's half morocco binding — at the time of publication the rarest and most expensive of the various publisher's bindings.

• Mark Twain [S.L. Clemens] (American).
• Illustrated by E.W. Kemble.
• New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885.
• 366 pp. 1 vols. Square 8vo.
• First American edition. 
• Publisher's deluxe half brown morocco and marbled boards, gilt spine with raised bands, marbled edges and endpapers.
• Fine in publisher's deluxe morocco binding.
• Fine in a custom brown morocco slipcase and chemise.

The first edition comprised 30,000 copies; the publisher Webster announced that 20,000 would be bound in green or blue cloth ($2.75), 2,500 in a sheepskin library binding ($3.25) and 500 in this deluxe half morocco binding ($4.25). The remaining copies were perhaps bound in the same proportion. 

In his "Huck Finn among the Issue-Mongers," Kevin MacDonnell has shown that there are only three points which distinguish the first printing from the second printing of 10,000 copies: 

"the plates were corrected to reflect three changes in the text: at page 13 the erroneous page reference '88' was changed to '87'; at page 57 the misprint 'with the was' was corrected to 'with the saw'; and at page 9 the misprint 'Decided' was corrected to 'Decides.'" Our copy exhibits all three first printing points. The Uncle Silas plate at page 283, which was defaced at some point during the printing, is here in its first state. As for the other points enumerated by Blanck and Johnson, they derived from corrections made to the electrotyped plates during the course of printing and do not indicate a priority of issue.

Huckleberry Finn prompted Hemingway to state: “All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain. It’s the best book we’ve had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing since.”

BAL 3415.

Grolier American 87.