ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Twain, Mark [Clemens, S. L.]

Twain, Mark [Clemens, S. L.] ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885. First edition, first printing, second state of frontispiece, and with the rare first state of the illustration at page 283 (found in the first state only in some copies in the leather bindings). Original full sheep, red and black double labels, gilt. Expertly rebacked, heavy foxing and stains in text, but a good copy in the rarest textaul state. The first printing of the first edition was 30,000 copies, of which 2,500 were in this sheep binding; but only some copies have the earliest state of page 283 (before the illustration was famously altered to look obscene). More than a century of bannings, scholarly debates, and subsequent masterpieces by other great writers have still not changed the fact that this is the great American novel. BAL 3415. Peter Parley to Penrod, pp. 75-6. Grolier American Hundred 87.