THE BLACK ARROW. A Tale of the Two Roses by Stevenson, Robert Louis - 1888

1888. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1888. 8 pp undated ads. Original printed yellow wrappers.

First Edition, published about six weeks before the London edition. Unlike the English one, the American edition is illustrated (twelve plates); it was also issued, at a higher price, in red cloth (no precedence). Stevenson wrote this entire novel in the Spring of 1883, for serial appearance in "Young Folks" (where TREASURE ISLAND had then just appeared). He wrote not only rapidly but also carelessly: proofreaders had to alert him to inconsistencies in his plot and characters. Stevenson derided the work as "tushery"; neither he nor his British publisher considered it worth publishing in book form. However, in 1887 the American publisher McClure sought it out for American serialization, which prompted Scribner's to publish it in book form, which in turn prompted Stevenson's publisher Cassell in London. This is a remarkably near-fine copy, which for these fragile wrappers is amazing (spine paper slightly darkened, but very little of the edge-wear and soil which typically afflict this yellow paper). In our experience the American edition is scarcer than the English one, even on this side of the Atlantic -- especially in the yellow wrapper binding. Beinecke 480; Princeton 40 (copy 3). Housed in a handsome morocco-backed slipcase with inner chemise.