Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Twain, Mark
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Near Fine
- Seller
-
Stevenson, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Original half dark brown morocco gilt. Portrait frontispiece with sculptor's name on the shoulder, State 3 of title but no priority acknowledged, State 1 of p. [13], p. 57 and p. 155, without 11 signature on p. 161, and the original first state of the illustration on p. 283. Light wear. Near fine.
First American edition, in publisher's morocco with the rare first state of the illustration on p. 283.
While gathering advance subscriptions to Huckleberry Finn, traveling salesmen offered not only copies in cloth bindings but also deluxe leather bound copies such as the present example. The first copies printed were sent off to be put in those time-consuming bindings.
Soon thereafter, as printing progressed, an unknown individual defaced the plate on p. 283 with an engraving of a penis at Uncle Silas's crotch. Thousands of copies were printed before the altered plate was discovered. Each of those offending leaves was cut out and replaced with leaf featuring the re-engraved illustration. This new illustration eliminated even the innocent hint of curvature (as was found in the first copies printed) and replaced Silas's fly with a straight line. As the defacement occurred only after the advance sheets were shipped to be bound in leather, the plate in its first state only exists in the earliest copies in publisher's leather bindings.
This is a handsome copy of the first state of this American classic reflecting an infamous epiode in American publishing history.
Synopsis
Commonly named among the Great American novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, is generally regarded as the sequel to his earlier novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; however, in Huckleberry Finn, Twain focused increasingly on the institution of slavery and the South. Narrated by Huckleberry “Huck” Finn in Southern antebellum vernacular, the novel gives vivid descriptions of people and daily life along the Mississippi River while following the adventure of Huck and a runaway slave, Jim, rafting their way to freedom.
Read More: Identifying first editions of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Details
- Bookseller
- 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 42820757
- Title
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Author
- Twain, Mark
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Charles L. Webster and Company
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1885
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
Terms of Sale
19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop
About 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Leaves
- Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Morocco
- Morocco is a style of leather book binding that is usually made with goatskin, as it is durable and easy to dye. (see also...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- First State
- used in book collecting to refer to a book from the earliest run of a first edition, generally distinguished by a change in some...
- Plate
- Full page illustration or photograph. Plates are printed separately from the text of the book, and bound in at production. I.e.,...
This Book’s Categories
- Bindings & Editions Leather
- Fiction & Literature Action & Adventure
- Fiction & Literature Fiction by Region American Fiction
- Fiction & Literature Classic Literature
- Fiction & Literature Individual Authors Mark Twain
- Fiction & Literature Literary Studies Literary Criticism
- Children & Juvenile Juvenile & Young Adult Juvenile Fiction & Literature Juvenile Classics