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“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, 1884 First Edition, Early Issue

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We sold this item at auction for $1,792
 in May 2019.

This first American edition of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is an early issue, mixed state, housed in a folding cloth case within a quarter green morocco slipcase.

This book was consigned to auction by the family of Kenneth R. Andrews, author “Nook Farm: Mark Twain’s Hartford Circle”; Andrews completed his Ph.D. dissertation on Mark Twain in 1948.

“Huckleberry Finn” includes all the issue points which identify it as a first edition, first issue, mixed state, such as:

  • Mark Twain Bust: Cloth is visible in this version of the photo
  • Date discrepancy: Copyright states 1884, while the title page states 1885
  • Table of Contents: “Huck Decided to Leave” – later changed to “Huck Decides to Leave”
  • Table of Illustrations: “Him and another Man” listed as being on page 88
  • Page 57: First issue error reads “with the was” instead of “with the saw”
  • Page 161: the first edition copy is missing the signature “11” at the bottom of the page
  • Page 143: In the illustration of Colonel Grangerford, the “l” is missing from the word “Col.”
  • Page 143: The word “body” has a broken b (missing the top of the letter) that was fixed in later editions
  • ​​​​​​​Page 155: The page number at the top right was printed without its final “5”, which was hand-stamped in later, with the final “5” slightly larger than the other characters

If you’re interested in selling a Mark Twain first edition or collection of first edition books at auction with us, check out our first edition consignment page for more information.

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