“ALL MODERN LITERATURE COMES FROM ONE BOOK? IT’S THE BEST BOOK WE’VE HAD”: AN EXTRAORDINARY AMERICAN RARITY,MARK TWAIN’S OWN PERSONAL COPY OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN,IN VERY RARE PUBLISHER’S SHEEP, FULL FIRST ISSUE, WITH THE ORIGINAL STATE OF PAGE 283

TWAIN, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade). New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885. Octavo, original full sheep gilt rebacked with original spine laid down, raised bands, red and black spine labels. Housed in custom clamshell box.

First edition, full first issue, of “the most praised and most condemned 19th-century American work of fiction” (Legacies of Genius, 47). Mark Twain’s own personal copy, signed by him on the pastedown, bound in extremely rare full publisher’s sheep, with the “original state” of Kemble’s illustration on page 283. One of the earliest known copies to be printed.

Written over an eight-year period, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was blasted by critics from the moment of publication, attacked for its "blood-curdling humor," immorality, coarseness and profanity. It nevertheless emerged as one of the defining novels of American literature, prompting Ernest Hemingway to declare: "All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain. It's the best book we've had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing since." This copy has all of the commonly identified first issue points (see list below). Leaf containing pages 283-84 is the rare conjugate (Kemble's illustration is version with "curved" pant-fly, prior to defacement), described by BAL as the "original state, seen only in prospectuses and the leather bound copies" (see also Johnson, 48; MacDonnell, 32-33). The illustration on page 283 became a point of issue after an engraver, whose identity was never discovered, "made a last-minute addition to the printing plate of Kemble's picture of old Silas Phelps. In the mischievous tradition of graffiti he drew in a male sex organ, and what was originally a pleasant scene shared by an appreciative Aunt Sally asking, 'Who do you reckon it is?' suddenly became 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 in the area of Silas Phelps' trousers fly. Not many, even of the sheep-bound copies, contain the first state of the plate prior to defacement. This copy is one of the few that the binder had completed before the fateful discovery. Most of the remaining sheets designated for sheep bindings would have been corrected before they went to the bindery. Hence this is one of the earliest copies of Huck to be printed. First issue points: 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." Debate continues over the priority of other points of issue and state. This copy contains the following points of bibliographical interest: frontispiece portrait with cloth table cover under the bust and bears the imprint of the Heliotype Printing Co.; 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 without the final "5"; page 161, no signature mark "11." BAL 3415. Johnson, 43-50. MacDonnell, 29-35. McBride, 93. Grolier American 87. This is one of Twain's few personal copies of Huckleberry Finn. It is signed "Mark Twain" on the front pastedown endpaper—the most common location, of course, for marks of ownership. Twain signed his books as often "Mark Twain" as he did "S.L. Clemens" (see Anderson catalogue). Books from his private library were sold on two separate occasions: by Anderson Auctions on February 7-8, 1911 (with no listing of a Huckleberry Finn), and the books still in family hands, by E.F. Whitman on April 10, 1951. Three copies from Twain's library were in the possession of Twain's biographer, Albert Bigelow Paine, to whom in 1910 Twain had lent a considerable number of items, which "had various fates after Paine finished consulting them" (Gribben, 912-17). This particular copy was purchased by A.S.W. Rosenbach in 1933 from "Mrs. Collier," presumably the widow of Robert J. Collier, Twain's friend and editor of Collier's magazine—"Mrs. Sally," as Twain liked to call her (Paine, 244). It appeared in Rosenbach's Catalogue Number 26, item 25, and came to dealer John F. Fleming among his purchases at the sale of Rosenbach's stock. Laid in is a letter of transmittal and provenance from Fleming to career diplomat and esteemed collector of children's books Norman Armour Jr., who bought the book in 1957. It had remained in the Armour family for years.

Armour actually had a remote connection with Twain. As a child, Armour's father met Twain when the humorist paid a visit to the Armours' home. "It was snowing, and young Norman asked his mother for money to buy an expensive Flexible Flyer sled. Mrs. Armour pointedly remarked that when Mr. Clemens was a boy he probably built his own sled. Mr. Clemens' left eyelid lowered slowly in my direction (he was always on the side of the young, you know) and he spoke very deliberately, very slowly. 'Yes Ma'am, I suppose we did, and I advise no boy of this generation to slide down a hill on such a contraption.' He then commenced a detailed description of such an adventure, describing the rapid disintegration of the sled, piece by piece. 'First one runner decides it has found a better route to the bottom. Then the other follows its lead, and finally the boards themselves assert their independence, until the unlucky carpenter finds himself sliding racily down the hill on little more than the skin God gave him.' Whereupon my Mother handed over the money and I went off to buy my sled; but I didn't buy a Flexible Flyer. No, I bought a cheaper sled and used the rest of the money to buy my first copies of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn" (Norman Armour, Historical Society of Princeton).

Interior fine. Signature bold. Only most minor rubbing to corners of original sheep. An extraordinary copy with the ultimate provenance.