Red Badge of Courage by Crane, Stephen - 1895

New York: D. Appleton & Company. Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. 1895. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. A first edition, first issue of this classic Civil War novel, in its very rare original dust jacket, which is likely from a second printing. Housed in a custom red cloth clamshell box, with a red leather and gilt title label. The fragile dust jacket, now in mylar, has slight loss at the spine ends, corner chips and splits at the folds, sunning on the spine, light soil, and small edge dampstains on the rear. All corners are neatly clipped. Red and black imprint with slight wear on the spine title. The tan linen boards have light soil and very light edge wear, with red and black imprint. Text block edges and mauve endpapers have light soil, as do a few pages, including the title page. Uneven signatures with some associated toning on a few page fore edges. [i-iv], 1-233, [234] blank, [235-238] adverts. Issue points are the perfect type in the last line on page 225, "Gilbert Parker's Best Books" noted on page 235, and a yellow top edge, as called for. An exceptional copy in an extremely scarce dust jacket. BAL 4071. ; 7 1/2" x 5"; 233 pp .