Mark Twain — Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
 
First American Edition, First Printing, Probable First State ~ New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, New York. Illustrated with 174 engravings by Edward W. Kemble. A distinguished and bibliographically rich example of Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, widely regarded as the cornerstone of American literature. This copy bears all the hallmarks of the first printing and aligns with the first state issue points that collector's prize.
 
📘 Edition Highlights
•  Copyright page dated 1884 • Inserted first state photogravure frontispiece of Karl Gerhardt’s bust of Twain, with visible cloth, facsimile signature, and Heliotype Printing Co. imprint. • First state textual points • Page 9: “decided” for “decides” • Page 13: “Him and Another Man” plate mislabeled as p. 88 • Page 57: contains the phrase "with the was" on the eleventh line from the bottom.
 
Additional bibliographic points and curiosities:
Page 143: “Col.” missing the “l” in caption & has the broken “b” in “body” on line seven.
Page 155: Hand Stamped “5” in page number using a different font
Page 161: Missing signature mark “11”
 Corrected engraving of Uncle Silas on page 283.
 
📚 Binding & Condition
8vo (7 x 8.75 in), 366 pp.~ Bound in publisher’s original green gilt-decorated cloth.
•  Gilt to spine and front board remains bright
•  Moderate edgewear, rubbed corners, chipped spine ends, a few dogeared page corners
•  Frontispiece tissue guard absent, and small tear along the right edge of the Kemble  Frontis.
•  Textblock shows occasional minor stains, notable finger smudge on pp. 11–12
•  Hinges a bit loose. Signature at p.355 coming loose along the upper edge.
 
🖋️ Provenance
From the library of Frank and Isadore Munson, with a tasteful ex-libris label on the front pastedown. Includes a Christmas 1885 inscription in ink on the front flyleaf—an evocative touch linking this copy to its original era.