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.
