Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Twain, Mark. A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. Chatto & Windus, London, 1889.
Price: US$51.23 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Size: 12mo <7 3/4". xvi + 526pp. Hinges cracked. Spine cocked and faded. Split to base of front joint. Previous owner's inscription in ink. Edges browned. Covers marked. Corners bumped. Illustrator: Dan Beard. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilogram. Category: Science Fiction & Fantasy; Fiction. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 39078.
Seller: Dreadnought Books, Bristol, United Kingdom
Twain, Mark. A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. Chatto & Windus, London, 1889.
Price: US$95.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: 8vo. Hardcover. Red cloth with gilt lettering & extensive b&w pictorial design on covers. 1st English edition. 1st state ads. 525pp. + 32pp. of ads dated "Oct.". B&w illustrations. Covers quite edge-worn
Seller: Kevin T. Ransom- Bookseller, Amherst, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$121.68 + shipping
Condition: Poor
Description: A historical novel based on the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. With 220 illustrations by Dan Beard. Chatto & Windus, London 1889. illus xvi + 526 + 32pp adverts (dated June 1889) hb embossed pict gilt red cloth, spine discoloured, frayed & split, bumped, rear cover semi-detached & rear hinge split, pages browned, part corner of pre-title page missing, previous owner’s signature dated Feb 1890, poor copy
Seller: Occultique, Northampton, United Kingdom
Price: US$160.11 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Time-travel satire. First Edn., 1889; full red cloth; titling/illus. (knight upon dragon) blocked in gilt (very bright)/black full to front board; titling/illus. (magician) blocked in gilt (bright)/black full to spine; publisher';s monogram blocked in black to rear board; brown foliate pattern printed to endpapers; xvi+525+[1]+[ii]pp. + 32pp. publisher's catalogue (dated October, 1889); illus. bw. drawings. Slightly faded spine very lightly worn at top and crushed at tail, but complete/robust/clean; small beverage stains to rear board, but boards robust/bright/quite crisp; page edges slightly tanned/moderately foxed; small scuff to paper surface of front paste-down endpaper near top corner neatly (almost imperceptibly) repaired; moderate foxing to preliminaries and final pages of catalogue, but text fresh, pages generally clean/crisp/very bright. Binding firm, all complete/intact. A weighty tome at approx. 1075g (packaged), hence overseas customers are welcome to contact us prior to ordering to ascertain additional shipping charges incurred. No inscriptions. G+ PRICE INCLUDES UK SPECIAL DELIVERY POSTAGE & PACKING.
Seller: Robert Wright, trading as 'The Bookman', Norwich, United Kingdom
Twain, Mark. A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. Chatto & Windus, London, 1889.
Price: US$175.00 + shipping
Description: First UK edition of this comic masterpiece in the original decorative cloth binding. Red cloth lettered in gilt and ilustrated in black. 528pp + 32pp catalogue at rear dated Jan. 1890. The 10,000 copies of the first printing were bound up in several batches. Publication was on December 6th 1889. Light wear along lower spine edge and at tail but a good, sound copy.
Seller: Dr Jeremy Parrott, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$185.73 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First English Edition. Title Page Dated 1889. Well illustrated with 220 B&W Full-Page and In-Text illustrations by Dan Beard. Frontis illus. protected by tissue guard. Red cloth cover illustrated with a Knight, a Dragon and a chain of Dancing figures in Silhouette. Bright Gilt Title above. Gilt Letteringand Black illus. of Merlin on spine. Publisher's Colophon on back. 525 p.pages + 32 page Publisher's Catalogue. 7 3/4" Tall. Cloth worn at tips of 2 corners. A few nicks at spine ends. Name on fly-leaf Dated 1890, and small penciled note on the edition. No other inscriptions.
Seller: Bay Books, Penzance, United Kingdom
Price: US$192.13 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Mark Twain. A Yankee in the court of King Arthur . First U.K. hardback printing . Chatto & Windus 1889. Good only pictorial boards. Worn and few marks. Spine beginning to lift at top. Contents good . Usual page browning . No previous owner names. Front and back hinges beginning to crack but still holding. Book is cocked and shakey but again still holding binding. True first edition with 220 illustrations by Dan Beard. Still has tissue on frontispiece . Not a great copy but still rare first edition of this classic book.
Seller: BRITOBOOKS, isle of man, United Kingdom
Price: US$202.81 + shipping
Description: xvi, 525, [2] pp, publisher's red cloth and lettered in gilt.Front hinge loose. 19 cm. With 220 illustrations by Dan. Beard.
Seller: Meiwes, Stuttgart, Germany
Twain, Mark. A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. Chatto & Windus, London, 1889.
Price: US$240.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: October, 1889 ads. BAL 3429.
Seller: John R. Sanderson, Bookseller , Stockbridge, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$336.23 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Please email for Photographs or further information. Good - Adverts in rear state Oct 1889. Original red pictorial cloth stamped in black, lettered in gilt in spine. Spine a little faded, spine cover present but coming off. Corners bumped. Edges spotted. Please see photos as part of condition report 1889 1st Edition Oct 1889, UK Edition A YANKEE AT THE COURT OF KING ARTHUR By Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced", and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature". Illustrated By: Dan Beard & Hal Hurst Format: Hardcover, Language: English Dust Jacket: No Jacket, Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket Published By: Chatto and Windus, London octavo (8vo 6 × 9 152 × 229),Pages 290 ISBN: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an 1889 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The book was originally titled A Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Some early editions are titled A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. In the book, a Yankee engineer from Connecticut named Hank Morgan receives a severe blow to the head and is somehow transported in time and space to England during the reign of King Arthur. After some initial confusion and his capture by one of Arthur's knights, Hank realizes that he is actually in the past, and he uses his knowledge to make people believe that he is a powerful magician. He becomes a rival of Merlin, who appears to be little more than a fraud, and gains the trust of King Arthur. Hank attempts to modernize the past in order to make people's lives better. Hank is disgusted by how the Barons treat the commoners, and tries to implement democratic reforms, but in the end he is unable to prevent the death of Arthur. Hank declares England a republic, but the Catholic Church - growing fearful of his power - issues an interdict against him. Twain wrote the book as a burlesque of Romantic notions of chivalry after being inspired by a dream in which he was a knight himself, severely inconvenienced by the weight and cumbersome nature of his armor. It is a satire of feudalism and monarchy that also celebrates homespun ingenuity and democratic values while questioning the for-profit ideals of capitalism and outcomes of the Industrial Revolution. At one point in the book, Twain even defends the French Revolution.[2] It is among several works by Twain and his contemporaries that mark the transition from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era of socioeconomic discourse. It is often cited as a formative example of the fledgling time travel genre. Previous owner stamp Dr. E. W. F. Stiven (Surgeon), of Manor Lodge, Harrow-on-the-Hill. SKU: BTETM0002122 Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 2Kg
Seller: Books That Expand The Mind, Margate, KENT, United Kingdom
Twain, Mark. A YANKEE AT THE COURT OF KING ARTHUR. Chatto & Windus, 1889.
Price: US$348.00 + shipping
Description: A YANKEE AT THE COURT OF KING ARTHUR, Chatto & Windus, 1889, first edition, some wear to the extremities of the somewhat faded spine and fore edge corner tips, a bit of foxing to the verso of the f.e.p. and adjoining page, else a good to very good copy in the publishers black stamped pictorial cloth with gold-gilt lettering to the front cover and spine. Profusely illustrated by Dan Beard with drawings within almost 40% of the text block. This copy has a 32 page publishers catalogue dated June, 1889 at the rear.
Seller: THE FINE BOOKS COMPANY / A.B.A.A / 1979, ROCHESTER, MI, U.S.A.
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: London: Chatto & Windus, 1889. First UK Edition, later state with catalog dated October 1889. Octavo. 525, [ii], 32 pp. publisher's catalog. Black and white illustrations. Publisher's red cloth stamped in black and gilt; decorative endpapers. Boards edgeworn with a couple short tears to top of spine; corners bumped; spine soiled; light discoloration along fore-edges. Moderate lean to boards but binding is sound. Light foxing to endpapers and edges of text block but interior else unmarked. Very Good. [BAL 3429].
Seller: Capitol Hill Books, ABAA, Washington, DC, U.S.A.
Twain, Mark. A Yankee At The Court of King Arthur. Chatto & Windus, London, 1889.
Price: US$550.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 1889 Chatto & Windus First edition, First printing with 220 Illustrations by Dan Beard( a founder of the Boy Scouts) A TRUE First edition, preceding the American edition by a few days. In GOOD condition with original red cloth boards & pictorial decorations. Alas it is missing the spine cover The tissue-guarded frontispiece is present as well as the Publisher's Catalog inserted at the rear dated June, 1889 AN Exceedingly RARE Book
Seller: Bren-Books, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: Square octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-xv [xvi] 17-575 [576: blank] [577-578: ads], flyleaves at front and rear, 220 illustrations by Dan Beard, original pictorial olive-green cloth, front panel stamped in black, blue-gray, and gold, spine panel stamped in gold, blue-gray endpapers with floral pattern printed in gold. First edition. Second state without small S-like ornament between "THE" and "KING" in caption on page [59]. The U.S. edition was to have been published 10 December 1889, but copies were apparently released earlier (DLC deposit copy recorded 5 December 1889). The Chatto & Windus edition was published 6 December 1889 as per the author's instructions. Twain's "best and most influential work of SF ." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 1247. "The classic 'dark' epoch collision projected backward in time . the first (and still among the best) of all the 'new maps of hell.'" - Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, pp. 39-40. Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 1-45; (1987) 1-25; (1995) 1-25; and (2004) II-1152. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 2-152. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 2210. Clareson, Science-Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 757. Lewis, Utopian Literature, pp. 190-91. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 215. Roemer, The Obsolete Necessity: America in Utopian Writings, 1888-1900, p. 187. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 80. Survey of Science Fiction Literature I, pp. 428-32. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 196. Reginald 14357. BAL 3429. Wright (III) 1090. Hint of rubbing to cloth at lower spine end and corner tips, a bright, nearly fine copy of this attractive book. A superior copy with tight inner hinges (today uncommon thus). (#138056)
Seller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB, Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: The present work, along with many other popular novels of the time, was sold by subscription. Salespeople went door-to-door with dummy copies so buyers could select the binding variant they wished to order. The half morocco binding of the present work was the luxury option offered by these sellers, and is rarely found in this condition due to the softness of the morocco. A Connecticut Yankee in King ArthurÕs Court is a satire of monarchism that grapples with capitalism, technological advancement, and challenges to democratic ideals in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. It is also cited, along with the work of H.G. Wells and Edward Bellamy, as an early example of the time travel subgenre in science fiction. Octavo. [i]-[xvi], 17-575, [2 ads] pp. Illustrated throughout. PublisherÕs half morocco variant binding. Marbled edges and endpapers. Slight marginal toning. Two-inch open tear to one plate (p. 199), not touching the illustration. A clean, attractive, near-fine copy, rarely found in this condition. First American edition, published four days after the London (Chatto & Windus) edition. The Chatto & Windus edition was published as A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. Without the fly-title that is sometimes printed on p. [i]; both forms of the book were published simultaneously. Blanck notes that only the earliest state of the book included a Òsmall, S-like ornamentÓ between the words in the caption ÒTHE KINGÓ on p. [59]. This copy does not have the ornamen BA 3429.
Seller: Michael R. Thompson Books, A.B.A.A., Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.