Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
TWAIN, MARK. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Chatto & Windus, London, 1884.
Price: US$900.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Red cloth lettered and decorated in gilt and black. This is the 2nd state of the first edition with ads dated May 1886. Inscription dated Christmas 1885 to half title. Wear to edges, scuffing on endpaper o/w very nice copy of the American classic. Size: Small Octavo
Seller: Contact Editions, ABAC, ILAB, Toronto, ON, Canada
Price: US$1604.08 + shipping
Description: [Literary classic] FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo, pp.xvi; 438 [34]. Catalogue dated October 1884. With 174 wood-cut illustrations by Kemble. Publisher's red cloth with gilt titles and black decoration to spine and upper. Publisher's brown foliate endpapers. A few reading marks within, discreet rubber stamped name to half title, faint erasure to reverse side of f.e.p., spine toned, frayed/chipped to spine ends, acceptable wear to covers. Very good. Following the classic 'boy's own' adventures of the promising young gent Tom Sawyer, Twain here attempts a more mature, somewhat darker picture of a less privileged American childhood on the mighty Mississippi. Regarded by many as a cornerstone of American literature, it confronts issues such as slavery in a sympathetic yet humorously sardonic tone which belonged to Twain alone. BAL 3414. Listed in The Observer's All-Time 100 Best Novels [2003]. BMC No.261, pp.90-93.
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
Price: US$1847.68 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 19.5cm x 12.5cm. xvi, 438 pages, 32 advertisements, black and white illustrations. Publisher's red cloth. The first UK edition published prior to the US edition with the first issue advertisements dated October 1884. BAL 3414. The stapled sequence. Recased with some cloth added at the head and tail of the slightly chipped spineback. Minor chipping to fore-edge of front free endpaper. Frontispiece tissue guard tanned. Minor foxing. Shipped Weight: .66 kilos.
Seller: Book Merchant Jenkins, ANZAAB / ILAB, Woolloongabba, QLD, Australia
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 438+[52 ad] pages with frontispiece and numerous illustrations. Small octavo (7 /2" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's red cloth with gilt lettering to spine and cover and black decorative figures to cover and spine. First edition, first state with the publisher's ads dated 1884, precedes the American edition which was released in February 1885 and the British edition was released in December 1884. The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River. Set in a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist about 20 years before the work was published, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing satire on entrenched attitudes, particularly racism. Perennially popular with readers, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has also been the continued object of study by literary critics since its publication. The book was widely criticized upon release because of its extensive use of coarse language. Throughout the 20th century, and despite arguments that the protagonist and the tenor of the book are anti-racist, criticism of the book continued due to both its perceived use of racial stereotypes and its frequent use of the racial slur. Twain initially conceived of the work as a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer that would follow Huckleberry Finn through adulthood. Beginning with a few pages he had removed from the earlier novel, Twain began work on a manuscript he originally titled Huckleberry Finn's Autobiography. Twain worked on the manuscript off and on for the next several years, ultimately abandoning his original plan of following Huck's development into adulthood. He appeared to have lost interest in the manuscript while it was in progress, and set it aside for several years. After making a trip down the Hudson River, Twain returned to his work on the novel. Upon completion, the novel's title closely paralleled its predecessor's: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade). Condition: Spine age darkened, touch of rubbing to corners, some wear and age darkening to front issue guard, end papers renewed, closed tear to signature pages 369-384 probably during original binding process else a very good copy.
Seller: The Book Collector, Inc. ABAA, ILAB, Fort Worth, TX, U.S.A.
Price: US$2245.71 + shipping
Description: [Literary classic] FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo, pp.xvi; 438; [2], blank. With 174 wood-cut illustrations by Kemble. Exquisitely bound by Frost of Bath in full scarlet polished calf with full gilt back, twin title labels, marbled endpapers, inner gilt dentelles, all edges gilt, original decorative cloth covers preserved at rear, bound without adverts. Internally very clean, discreet owners stamp in purple ink to half-title, binding very fine. A beautiful copy housed in a fleece-lined cloth slip-case. Following the classic 'boy's own' adventures of the promising young gent Tom Sawyer, Twain here attempts a more mature, somewhat darker picture of a less privileged American childhood on the mighty Mississippi. Regarded by many as a corner-stone of American literature, it confronts issues such as slavery in a sympathetic yet humorously sardonic tone which belonged to Twain alone. BAL 3414. Listed in The Observer's All-Time 100 Best Novels [2003]. BMC No.261, pp.90-93.
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
Price: US$2245.71 + shipping
Description: [Literary classic] FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo, pp.xvi; 438 [34]. Catalogue dated October 1884. With 174 wood-cut illustrations by Kemble. Publisher's red cloth with gilt titles and black decoration to spine and upper. Publisher's brown foliate endpapers. Presented in a black quarter morocco clamshell box, with gilt titles to spine, matching cloth over sides, and a fleece lining. Contents shaken within case, with some minor repairs to inside paper joints. Blind W.H. Smith & Son stamps to frontis and title page; a purple monogram stamp also to half-title. Occasional light thumbing and marking, otherwise a clean copy. Light wear only to boards, with toning to spine, and wear to head and tail. Very good. Following the classic 'boy's own' adventures of the promising young gent Tom Sawyer, Twain here attempts a more mature, somewhat darker picture of a less privileged American childhood on the mighty Mississippi. Regarded by many as a cornerstone of American literature, it confronts issues such as slavery in a sympathetic yet humorously sardonic tone which belonged to Twain alone.
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
Mark Twain [Samuel L. Clemens]. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Chatto & Windus,, London:, 1884.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: First Issue Very good+ in its original, staple bound, decorated red cloth covered boards with gilt text stamped on the spine together with with a black illustration of Huck climbing through a window and with gilt text stamped on the front board with silhouettes of five boys and an elderly lady about to whack Huck with her umbrella. A 12mo of 7 1/4 by 4 7/8 inches with printed end sheets. The cloth at the head and heel of the spine rubbed and lightly worn. The cloth on the spine is slightly darkened. The cloth at the tips of the boards is worn and rubbed. The hinges and joints remain tight and strong. The contents are bright and free of damage and foxing or tanning. This is the very unusual and uncommon copy of a staple bound version of the first, true edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which was first published in England about four months before the first American edition was offer for sale. 438 pages of text followed by 32 pages of ads by the publisher dated October of 1884. Illustrated with 174 line drawings from engravings by E. W. Kemble. (BAL, 3414; McBride, p113)
Seller: Town's End Books, ABAA, Deep River, CT, U.S.A.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: Decorated red cloth. Preceding the American edition by four months. With 174 illustrations by E.W. Kemble. BAL 3414: Sequence B with the gatherings saddle-stitched with wire staples as opposed to sewn. BAL assigns no priority to the sequences. With the publisher's catalogue insert at rear dated October 1884, per BAL. Typical sunning to spine with mild fraying to head and neat cloth repair to heel. Minor spotting to covers. Near Fine
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
Twain, Mark. THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. Chatto & Windus, 1884.
Price: US$3084.62 + shipping
Description: *** THE TRUE FIRST EDITION ***THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Chatto & Windus, 1884, first edition, lower corner tips gently bumped, slight soil to small area of rear cover, spine ever so slightly tanned, else a tight vg+/near fine copy in the publishers pictorially stamped cloth with unbroken hinges. Illustrated. The true first edition of this classic work (preceding the American edition), and arguably among the top two or three masterpieces of 19th century American literature.
Seller: THE FINE BOOKS COMPANY / A.B.A.A / 1979, ROCHESTER, MI, U.S.A.
Price: US$3208.16 + shipping
Description: [Literature] FIRST UK EDITION, ASSOCIATION COPY, being novelist Sir Walter Besant's copy, a friend of the author and an early public champion of this book. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.xvi; 438; [34]. With 174 wood-cut illustrations by Kemble. Pictorial red cloth boards, brown floral endpapers, later adverts dated January 1885. Illustrated bookplate to pastedown "Walter Besant, M.A." An enthusiastically read copy with some leaves roughly/poorly opened, one of which (p.383) has a resulting chip/loss. Flyleaf with some abrasion caused by clumsy offset adhesive from bookplate, cloth neatly repaired to spine. Although used, this is a copy of great significance. Walter Besant was a prolific and successful novelist of the late-Victorian period. Like Charles Dickens, many of his books concerned life in London, poverty and social hardship. He was founder and first chairman of The Society of Authors and was acknowledged by Rudyard Kipling as an influence. Knighted for services to literature in 1895, he was also treasurer of the 'Atlantic Union', an association seeking to improve social relations between Britons and Americans. In 1898 Besant published a lengthy essay in Munsay's Magazine, praising this Huckleberry Finn and reckoning his choice might be 'perhaps unexpected' since it was not (at that time) 'one of the acknowledged masterpieces, or a book that had been reviewed over and over again'. Mark Twain was "delighted when Sir Walter Besant, the British novelist, critic, historian and philanthropist nominated Twain 'his favourite novelist' and Huck Finn as Twain's best book" (Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities, Yale). Twain wrote to 'Dear Sir Walter' from Vienna stating the article "makes me very proud - I have just read it in Munsey's for February" and elaborating how Besant had effectively conveyed what writers do not realise in their own work; "Thank you for compacting into words an unarticulated feeling. we often see in pictures and books things which an artist and author did not themselves know they had put there". Their mutual respect culminated in a friendship, and in June 1899 a dinner was held in Twain's honour at the Author's Club, London. After a cordial introduction from Besant, Twain gave an address in which he spoke of their personal friendship and also of friendship between England and America. Bloom; Mark Twain (2009). ALS, Feb.22, Samuel L Clemens [held at New York Public Library's Berg Collection].
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
Price: US$3368.57 + shipping
Description: Frontispiece, illustrations A few light marks to covers, spine slightly sunned, extremities a touch bruised and just a little foxing, but a very nice copy Original red cloth, illustrated in black and lettered in gilt First Edition, First State with 32 pages of advertisements dated October 1884.
Seller: Bertram Rota Ltd, Kintbury, United Kingdom
Twain, Mark [Samuel L. Clemens]. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Chatto & Windus, London, 1884.
Price: US$6500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: True first edition, preceding the US edition by approximately four months. A Nearly Fine copy in the original red cloth stamped in gilt and black. Slight fading to the spine, short tear to the contents (leaf xiii-xiv) professionally repaired, otherwise an excellent copy overall. With the correct, first issue ads, dated October 1884. Housed in a custom clamshell box. Recounting the adventures of Huckleberry Finn as he flees his own abusive father and aids Jim in his escape from slavery, Twain's novel has been praised for its "distinctly American voice," putting at its center two common people who find an uncommon friendship. "Today perhaps the novel's greatest significance lies in its conception of childhood, as a time of risk, discovery, and adventure. Huck is no innocent: He lies, steals, smokes, swears, and skips school. He accepts no authority, not from his father or the Widow Douglas or anyone else. And it is the twin images of a perilous, harrowing odyssey of adventure and perfect freedom from all restraints that so many readers find entrancing" (Mintz). A metaphor for a young and rebellious nation, as well as its individualist inhabitants, Huckleberry Finn defies genre by being simultaneously an adventure story, a road novel, a coming of age tale, an expression of nostalgia for the expansive natural spaces lost to industrialization, and an exploration of race and class. Listed on the American Scholar 100 Best American Novels and one of the 100 Best Novels Written in English. BAL 3415. MacDonnell, 31. Near Fine.
Seller: Whitmore Rare Books, Inc. -- ABAA, ILAB, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$16000.00 + shipping
Description: 26 lines, in pencil, on both sides of a single sheet. 1 vols. 22.5 x 14 cm. (9 x 5-1â2 in.). Clemens Promises Chatto 'Early Sheets' of Huck Finn. Important letter from Samuel Clemens to his British publisher Andrew Chatto at Chatto & Windus -two brief pages dense with early instructions regarding international aspects of the forthcoming publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Hartford Apl 1/84 Dear Mr. Chatto: Good - that settles Hughes! Now you can settle Tauchnitz - I enclose him. Chas L. Webster (my nephew by marriage and future publisher) will write to you about this time. I will send him your present letter so that he may take note of the early sheets suggestion. We can easily send the early sheets if we don't forget it, for we shall have this book in type & printed many months before we issue it. I shall secure Canadian copyright. Truly Yours, S.L. Clemens Chatto had begun corresponding with Clemens in March 1884 concerning Huckleberry Finn, and matters concerning translation and foreign publication, with a request for early sheets. William L. Hughes, in Paris proposed to put out French translations of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and Chatto had vouched for him. Twain also instructs Chatto to make arrangements with Tauchnitz, the famed Leipzig publisher of continental editions of English-language authors, for an authorized edition. The letter also introduces his nephew Charles L. Webster to Chatto. "Charley", as Clemens called him, undertook the logistical work connected with publication of Huck Finn. Chatto had requested early proof sheets so that he could begin typesetting, with the aim of publishing British editions simultaneously with the New York edition. "Charley" did not forget, and "advance sheets" were sent to Chatto by Webster on 19 September 1884. It was only in November, when the defaced plate was discovered, that the intended publication schedule came apart. The Chatto & Windus edition (London) and Dawson Brothers (Montreal) edition were published on 10 December as foreseen. Clemens was in Toronto on publication day to establish legal domicile for these editions and Webster applied for foreign copyright in the author's name. The Tauchnitz (Leipzig) edition was published in printed wrappers dated January 1885. Production issues connected with replacing the offending page resulted in publication of the Charles L. Webster (New York) edition being delayed until 18 February 1885. This is one of only two known letters from Clemens to Chatto discussing Huck Finn (a note dated 3 March 1884 informed Chatto that "I am keeping Huck Finn back till next fall"). Webster, as Clemens' publisher, handled subsequent correspondence (transcripts of several related letters accompany this letter). This letter serves to indicate that Clemens' intention, from the beginning, was for the British edition to be derived from the American printing of the book. Provenance: Paul Bonner (Sale in Feb, 15, 1934 lot 71); James S. Copley Library. Mark Twain Project ID UCCL 11941. For the publishing history, see Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (2003), eds. Fischer, Salamo & Blair, p. 740; BAL 3414, 3415; Walter Blair, Mark Twain and Huck Finn (1960) Fine condition, in cloth folder 26 lines, in pencil, on both sides of a single sheet. 1 vols. 22.5 x 14 cm. (9 x 5-1â2 in.)
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.