Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain – 1885 | First Printing in Original Green Cloth

Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was first published in 1885 and has been the source of literary and social controversy ever since. By many metrics, “Huck Finn” is one of, if not the most popular American novels and this particular example is of the utmost rarity: this example features the “missing 5” edition point, only found in the very earliest of print runs.

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade)
• Author(s): Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)
• Illustrator(s): Edward Windsor Kemble
• Publisher: New York, Charles L. Webster and Company
• Edition: First American Edition, First Printing, 1885.
  • title leaf is conjugate, with the copyright notice dated 1884
  • frontispiece – portrait has imprint of Heliotype Printing Co
  • p. 9 – “Huck Decided” (later corrected to “Huck decides”)
  • p.13 – p. 88 illustration captioned “Him and Another man” – first state point (should be p.87)
  • p. 57, 11th line from bottom – “with the was” (uncorrected)
  • p. 143 – “l” missing from “Col.”
  • p. 155 – final ‘5’ lacking completely (exceedingly rare find)
  • p. 161, no signature mark
  • p. 283 – a cancel; engraving redone fly on Silas Phelp’s pants a straight vertical line
• Format: Octavo, single volume
• Binding: Publisher’s original green cloth
• Size:  8.75 in x 7 in (22 cm x 18 cm)
• Collation: 366 pp
• Illustrations: Numerous in-text illustrations; frontispiece portrait with Heliotype imprint, tablecloth not visible
• Contents Include:
  • Full original text
  • Illustrations by E. W. Kemble throughout
  • Notice, explanatory, and prefatory sections
• Provenance: provenance
• Reference(s): BAL 3415; Grolier 100 American, no. 87

Condition:

Bound in green cloth with black stamping and gilt titling to spine and upper cover. Wear consistent with age is visible on the edges and corners. Spine and prelims pulling from the text block. Pages clean with only a few showing foxing at all.

Why Collect This?

• Earliest printing confirmed through all first and early state points – including the “missing 5”
• Original publishers cloth binding intact
• Referenced by both BAL and Grolier

Item Number: #28939