A Christmas Carol. by DICKENS, Charles - 1844: In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.

Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1844. Original cloth Second US edition, once widely accepted as the first American appearance of Dickens's classic Christmas tale, but that credential since placed by Walter Smith as instead the New York edition, published by Harper and Brothers. The New York edition was published on 24th January 1844, while this Carey & Hart edition did not appear until 19th April, according to Smith. At any rate a remarkably fresh copy from the early months of the book's appearance in America. Duodecimo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, covers decorated in blind. Housed in a custom blue half morocco box, spine lettered in gilt, blue pebbled cloth sides. Frontispiece (Mr. Fezziwig's Ball), and 3 plates hand-coloured by P.S. Duval after John Leech, and 4 woodcut plates after Leech, half-title printed in blue, title page printed in red and blue. Blindstamp of American Antiquarian Society, and their duplicate discard blindstamp, to title page. Exceedingly light rubbing to cloth, but bright and fresh, binding tight and square. A particularly fine copy. Gimbel A80; Walter Smith, Charles Dickens, A Bibliography of His First American Editions: The Christmas Books and Selected Secondary Works, 2019, p. 32.