"ALL MODERN AMERICAN LITERATURE COMES FROM ONE BOOK BY MARK TWAIN… IT'S THE BEST BOOK WE'VE HAD"

TWAIN, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade). New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885. Octavo, original gilt- and black-stamped pictorial green cloth, custom clamshell box.

First edition, first issue, of "the most praised and most condemned 19th-century American work of fiction" (Legacies of Genius, 47), with 174 illustrations by Edward Kemble.

Written over an eight-year period, Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn endured critical attacks from the moment of publication, standing accused of "blood-curdling humor," immorality, coarseness and profanity. The book nevertheless emerged as one of the defining novels of American literature, prompting Hemingway to declare: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain… [I]t's the best book we've had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since" (from The Green Hills of Africa). This copy has all of the commonly identified first-issue points (the printer assembled copies haphazardly; bibliographers do not yet agree as to the priority of many points). 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 bearing the Photo-Gravure Co. N.Y. imprint and with no cloth table cover under the bust; title leaf a cancel with copyright notice dated 1884; page 143 with "l" missing from "Col." level with line one near the top of the illustration, and broken "b" in "body" on line seven; page 155 with final "5" present in larger font; page 161 without signature mark "11;" page 283-84 a cancel (Kemble's illustration with straight pant-fly) as described by Johnson (page 48) and MacDonnell (pages 32-33). BAL 3415. Johnson, 43-50. MacDonnell, 29-35. McBride, 92. Grolier, 100 Influential American Books 87.

Interior generally clean and bright, area of offsetting to front pastedown and free endpaper, very small stain to lower edge of last few leaves. Only very minor expert restoration to corners and spine ends, gilt bright. A very beautiful copy.