Lot Details
Lot 244
TWAIN, MARK (SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS) Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade)
. New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. First edition, first issue with the points listed below. Modern green morocco gilt with red lettering labels and raised bands, the original cloth bound-in at rear, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. 8 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches; frontispiece portrait, 366 pp. An attractive presentation but the spine toned, some rippling to endpapers and loosening of the hinges, the half-title toned and with a few minor chips to edges, a few spots throughout the text, the cloth covers at rear generally well preserved, with the booklabel of William Safire.
William Safire's copy of the first edition of Mark Twain's most celebrated work. Twain creativity with American English was celebrated by Safire, who in February 1988 titled an installment of his On Language column to the phrase "You Pays Yer Money" as employed by Twain in chapter 28 of Huckleberry Finn. Safire also wrote about Twain's use of language in his 1989 book Words of Wisdom.
This copy of Huckleberry Finn has all available issue points for the first clothbound edition of the published book: The title leaf is a cancel with an 1884 copyright (2nd state); Him and another man listed at p. 88 (1st state); p. 57 printed "with the was" (1st state); p. 283 is a cancel (3rd state); p. 155 with the final 5 lacking (1st state); p. 161 without signature mark; also with the new point of p. 9 with "Decided" for "Decides"; the frontispiece with the imprint of the Heliotype Printing Co. and the tablecloth clearly visible (1st state). BAL 3414.
C From the Collection of the late William Safire
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