Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

First edition, first issue of Mark Twain’s masterpiece with all of the agreed upon first issue points and including the extraordinary “bulging fly” illustration. Octavo, bound in contemporary three quarter brown morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine, patterned endpapers, with 174 illustrations by Edward W. Kemble. Copies of Huckleberry Finn were assembled haphazardly by the printer and there has yet to be agreement among bibliographers as to the priority of many points. This copy has all of the commonly identified first state points, including the rare “curved fly” illustration, found only in prospectuses and a small number of publisher’s leather-bound copies. In the mischievous tradition of graffitti, he made “what was originally a pleasant scene… into a flagrant case of indecent exposure” (Kaplan 263). The sabotage was discovered while the book was at press and the offending plate was replaced, the corrected plate being slightly altered. BAL 3415. McBride, 93. Grolier American 100: 87. MacDonnell, 31. Page 9 with “Decided” remaining uncorrected (to “Decides”); page 13, illustration captioned “Him and another Man” listed as on page 88; page 57, 11th line from bottom reads “with the was,” instead of “with the saw.” Other points of bibliographical interest included in this copy are the frontispiece portrait without the cloth table cover under the bust, bearing the Heliotype Printing Co. imprint; copyright page dated 1884; page 143 with “l” missing from “Col.” at top of illustration and with broken “b” in “body” on line seven; page 155 with dropped final “5”; page 161, no signature mark “11”. As to issue points resulting from damaged plates (e.g. the dropped “5” on p 155), MacDonnell concludes, “they are of no significance in determining the sequence of the printing of the sheets. All of these occur at random in relation to each other within copies of the first printing, a strong indicator of the use of multiple plates, and possibly mixed sheets within the collating process” (“Huck Finn” Firsts Magazine). In very good condition. Inner hinges reinforced, marginal paper repairs to several leaves, extensive to first page of Chapter 1, none affecting text. A rare first state copy of this classic of American literature.