Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Collins, Wilkie. MAN AND WIFE. Harper & Brothers, 1870.
Price: US$25.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Harper & Brothers, 1870, First Edition, 8vo., 239 pages. Book bound in a brown cloth, frontis with additional illustrations, foxing, some damp staining to front endpages. Name and date on front endpage, edgewear, else good condition. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: Cape Cod Booksellers, Yarmouth, MA, U.S.A.
Collins, Wilkie. MAN AND WIFE. Harper & Bros.: NY, 1870.
Price: US$39.10 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Illus., 9.5 x 5.5", cloth, 239 double column pp, ink inscription, bookplate, some cover staining, spine sunned and bottom frayed, front inner hinge and textblock cracked, ads undated but FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Leather bookplate of Don M. Dickinson. Dickenson was a graduate of the University of Michigan's law school, partner in a Detroit law firm, major Democratic organizer in Michigan and the 34th U.S. Postmaster General. Dickinson was also a big supporter of Grover Cleveland who appointed him to this position during his first administration. Ink name and date of Dickinson's wife "Fannie L.P. Dickinson Detroit Sept. 19, 1/76"
Seller: John K King Used & Rare Books, Detroit, MI, U.S.A.
Price: US$61.99 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: This is an original , complete issue of 16 pages dated January 8, 1870 -- Vol. 14, No. 680 -- Illustrated with 8 wood cut engravings -- Covers and contents are tight, a couple of repaired small edge tears, nice condition -- The Front Cover has a full page engraving titled "Jack-In-The-Box", Pages 24 & 25 is a double page engraving by WINSLOW HOMER titled "1860--1870", Page 21 has an engraving titled "Arguing The Point", Also on Page 21 is a portion of the serialization of "Man And Wife" by Wilkie Collins -- Page 28 has a large engraving titled "The Late Edwin M. Stanton", Page 29 has a large engraving titled "Home From The Wars -- Many articles and editorials related to these engravings and other incidents of the time -- We have over 1,000 issues of Harper's Weekly Listed On Abebooks **** NOTE-- This issue has been stored in, and will be shipped in, an ACID FREE ARCHIVAL FOLDER with a Mylar Overlay. An Enhancement in Quality and Security when delivered to you, the paper may be removed for viewing and reading, it is shipped flat, never folded or rolled up ****
Seller: JB Company USA, HUMBOLDT, TN, U.S.A.
Collins, Wilkie. MAN AND WIFE. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1870.
Price: US$78.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 8vo, pebbled light brown cloth, a very good copy with gilt on spine still legible, 1st American Edition, 4pp of ads.(VVb1/3)
Seller: NUDEL BOOKS, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Collins, Wilkie.. Man and Wife.. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1870, 1870.
Price: US$90.00 + shipping
Description: New York: Harper & Brothers, 1870. First American edition. Original brown cloth, gilt, decorated in blind, illustrated, 239 pp., double colums, two leaves of ads. Cloth sunned in places, spine ends and bottom edges frayed. A Good, sound copy.
Seller: Up-Country Letters, Gardnerville, NV, U.S.A.
Collins, Wilkie. MAN AND WIFE.. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1870.
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 239pp.plus 4 pp of advertising at back of book, dated July 1870. Tear in pp. 10, 30, and 85, Numerous illustrations. End papers lightly foxed. Book has bumped, worn corners and spine ends; spine lightly faded, but holding tight. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: The Country Bookshop [Member VABA], Plainfield, VT, U.S.A.
Wilkie Collins. Man and Wife. Harper & Brothers. January 1870, 1870.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 1st U.S. Edition; some shelving marks to boards and light foxing to early and late pages; tight unmarked copy
Seller: Dunaway Books, St. Louis, MO, U.S.A.
Collins, Wilkie. Man and Wife. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1870.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Description: First American edition. Portrait frontispiece. Illustrated. (240) pp., (4) pp. ads. 1 vols. 8vo. WH/2/51/5 Original lavender pebbled cloth. Spine faded to brown, spine ends slightly frayed, else a nice copy Portrait frontispiece. Illustrated. (240) pp., (4) pp. ads. 1 vols. 8vo
Seller: The Old Mill Bookshop, HACKETTSTOWN, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$155.88 + shipping
Description: Illus. by W. Small, 8pp. ads (July 1870); some browning to text, a few pages with tears repaired with archival tape, without loss. Sl. later purple cloth; spine faded. Ownership inscription of Judith Holmes, 1930. See Parrish & Miller p80. Gasson refers to Man and Wife as Collins's first didactic novel, attacking the marriage laws and arguing for a Married Woman's Property Act, which was enacted in August 1870. The Chatto & Windus editions (from 1875) included 12 of Small's illustrations.
Seller: Jarndyce, The 19th Century Booksellers, London, United Kingdom
Collins, Wilkie. Man and Wife. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1870.
Price: US$165.00 + shipping
Description: Tall 8vo., (9),10-229pp., (4 pp. ads) Solid First American Edition published just after the British Edition in the same year. Publisher's original dark brown pebbled cloth with titles in gilt on spine. Frontis of the author, (lacking tissue guard). In-text illustrations by W. Small. Double-column text. Square and tight. Some minor toning to page edges and light scattered foxing. Wear to edges, spine ends and tips with loss of cloth. A few minor spots of discoloration. A handsome collectable copy at a good price. (Hubin p. 88).
Seller: Brenner's Collectable Books ABAA, IOBA, Manasquan, NJ, U.S.A.
Collins, Wilkie. [Collins, Wilkie] Man and Wife. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1870.
Price: US$175.00 + shipping
Description: First American edition. Original brown cloth, gilt spine. July ads (earliest). Sl. stain endpapers, foxing, overall clean and tight gilt on spine bright. The first American issue has become quite scarce.
Seller: Nudelman Rare Books, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
Collins, Wilkie. MAN AND WIFE. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1870.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First U.S. Edition. Tall 8vo. 239 pp. Text is in double columns. Purple cloth. Frontispiece of author (with the facsimile inscription present) and 34 wood engravings. 4 pages of publisher's adverts at the back of the book. Covers and spine are faded and worn, and show damp-staining. There is wear to the corners and to the spine ends, including chipping. Interior hinges front and rear show soiling, and the front interior hinge shows a tear, but the cover is attached. Penciled notation on front free end-paper reads: "Christmas, 1870." Scattered foxing to some pages.
Seller: Peter Keisogloff Rare Books, Inc., Brecksville, OH, U.S.A.
COLLINS, Wilkie.. Man and Wife. With Illustrations.. New York: Harper, 1870., 1870.
Price: US$339.33 + shipping
Description: First U.S. edition. Tall 8vo., orig. green cloth, gilt title on spine, 239pp.double columns, (4)pp.ads. Lacks front free e/paper, cloth worn at extremities but certainly a very good copy. Parrish p.80 noting a wrapper issue and edition in purple cloth.
Seller: David Mason Books (ABAC), Toronto, ON, Canada
Collins, Wilkie. MAN AND WIFE. , 1870.
Price: US$375.00 + shipping
Description: With Illustrations. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1870. 4 pp ads dated July 1870. Original violet straight-grain-morocco cloth. First American (and first illustrated) Edition -- and possibly the first edition overall. The English threedecker -- considered to be the scarcest of all of Collins's UK firsts -- was published in 1870 by F.S. Ellis during the fortnight June 15-30 (priority between the UK edition and this US one is uncertain: first serialization was in Harper's Weekly, December 1869 - August 1870, followed by Cassell's Magazine in the UK a month later). This was a popular novel, praised for the excitement and cleverness of its plot, but it is particularly noteworthy for Collins's preoccupation with marriage law and its injustices. MAN AND WIFE was "Collins's first propaganda novel, in which he draws attention not only to such injustice in both Scottish and Irish marriage law, but also presses for the 'right of a married woman, in England, to possess her own property and keep her own earnings'" [Gasson]. (Collins never married -- didn't believe in the institution -- but split his time between two women: the widow Caroline Graves, whose daughter he provided for as his own, and Martha Rudd, 25 years his junior, with whom he had three children -- and with whom he was known as William Dawson!) The tale also includes a locked-room murder -- of a brutal man, by his abused wife. Included in this American edition are 34 illustrations in the text, plus a frontispiece portrait of Collins. Copies were issued in wrappers and in numerous colors and grains of cloth (no precedence); this copy is in violet cloth with a straight-morocco grain. Condition is near-fine, with very little wear or soil (atypically, no chipping of the spine ends); as usual with purple cloth, the spine has faded to a light brown. The original endpapers are intact (the front paste-down bears a bookplate), the leaves are free of foxing, and the spine gilt remains bright (though it doesn't "stand out" well against the light brown spine). Gasson pp 99-101; Parrish & Miller pp 80-81; Gasson (The Private Library, Summer 1980) pp 68-71.
Seller: Sumner & Stillman [ABAA], Yarmouth, ME, U.S.A.
Collins, Wilkie. Man and Wife. Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York, 1870.
Price: US$413.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 8vo. 239, [1], 3 and [1] (pages of publisher's advertisements) pp. Original brown cloth with gold lettering on the spine. Illustrated with several in-text drawings. Andrew Gasson, "Man and Wife" (accessed 7/27/2020). Parrish 80. The first American trade edition. Collins' novel attacks Irish and Scottish marriage laws, and their lack of protection for a married woman's earnings and property rights. The book also contains an early example of a "locked room murder plot". In its day critics praised the novel for its critique of competitive athletics (as demonstrated by the character Geoffrey), but critics were not pleased with Collins' progressive attitude towards marriage reform and a married woman's autonomy. A Very Good copy with a bit of chipping to the foot of the spine and softening to the corners; leaves are clean showing only two tiny tears (p. 26 and 48 respectively).
Seller: Evening Star Books, ABAA/ILAB, Madison, WI, U.S.A.
Wilkie Collins. MAN AND WIFE. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1870.
Price: US$449.95 + shipping
Description: Very Good in boards. Owner name on front pastedown. Both hinges cracked. Chipping at spine crown/heel.
Seller: Rare Book Cellar, Pomona, NY, U.S.A.