Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

New York: Charles L. Webster and Company,, 1885. All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn" - Ernest Hemingway First US edition, first printing, of one of the great classics of both American and children's literature, an exceptional, bright copy. This copy has the relevant first printing points: at p. 9 the misprint "Decided" for "Decides", at p. 13 the erroneous page reference "88" for the plate "Him and Another Man", and at p. 57, line 23, the misprint "with the was" for "with the saw". These are the only points to distinguish between the first two printings; other textual variants between copies are due to the use of multiple plates and have no relevance for priority. This copy has the first state frontispiece with the table cloth visible and unsigned on the finished edge of the bust, the second state title leaf with altered copyright page (as always save for advance copies; here integral, also found as a cancel - copies already sewn had a leaf cancelled, those unsewn with the gathering replaced), and pages 283/4 with the later state emended illustration of Uncle Silas (as always with cloth copies; here integral, also found as a cancel, ditto as before). These points do not have bearing on priority of issue, nor does the binding (other copies being bound in leather, and in blue cloth), with the whole of the first and second printings issued on the same day in February 1885. The UK edition was published first, for copyright reasons, in December 1884. Square octavo. Photogravure frontispiece of Karl Gerhardt's portrait bust of Clemens, 173 text illustrations after E. W. Kemble. Original green pictorial cloth blocked in black and gilt, spine and front cover in lettered in gilt and black. Housed in a custom green morocco-entry slipcase and cloth jacket. Leather bookplate of George Staehle to front pastedown, pencilled ownership signature dated 1898 to front free endpaper. Other than very minor peripheral wear a bright, fresh, and square copy, cloth and contents clean, joints and hinges intact. BAL 3415; Grolier, 100 American, 87; Johnson, pp. 43-50; Kevin MacDonnell, "Huck Finn among the Issue-Mongers", Firsts; The Book Collector's Magazine, Volume 8, Number 9 (September 1998), pp. 28-35.