108 130
RARE DELUXE ISSUE
251
●
TWAIN, MARK.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Lithographic frontispiece
and text illustrations by E.W. Kemble, photographic portrait frontispiece of the bust of
Mark Twain by Karl Gerhardt. Small 4to, original dark brown
1
/
2
morocco gilt, marbled
boards and edges, rebacked with the original spine laid-down, scattered shallow abrasions
to covers, spine and corners a bit rubbed, but a good, square copy; few areas of light foxing
to first few leaves else very clean internally.
NewYork: Charles L.Webster, 1885
[6,000/9,000]
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION
.
SCARCE ISSUE
,
ONE OF APPROXIMATELY
500
COPIES IN THE RARE
PUBLISHER
’
S DELUXE BINDING
.
Early issue points include: frontispiece portrait state 2 (tablecloth
not visible); p. [13] state 1 (“Him and another man”); p.57 state 1 (“was” for “saw” line 23); p.
155 state 1 (with the final “5” lacking); p. 283 state 4 (vertical line on trousers); and with
“Decided” on p. [9].
“The relative rarity of the cloth and leather bindings is clear. Less than two weeks before publication,
Webster announced that he was binding 20,000 copies in cloth, another 2,500 in sheep, and 500
copies in three-quarter leather.The remaining 7,000 copies of the first printing were probably bound
up in similar proportions. Leather copies dried out, cracked apart, and have survived in even fewer
numbers than the original production numbers would promise” (MacDonnell, 35). BAL 3415; Peter
Parley to Penrod, pp. 75-76.