Warner

Best.-Nr. 8443 — Hartford: American Publishing Company 1874. Hardcover. 8vo full sheep. 574 2 pp. Frontis. 1 folding plate numerous illus. Small early owner's ticket affixed to upper left corner of front paste-down. CONDITION: Very good moderately rubbed nick to upper right corner of title label at spine; a pleasing copy. First edition of Twain's first novel whose title forever branded the post-Civil War era and its greed here bound in full publisher's sheep in a very nice state of preservation. BAL describes a "genuine title page" dated 1873 but copies are found with title pages dated both 1873 and 1874 with the text in both early and late states. Moreover it is known that when the book was issued at Christmas in 1873 that the first sixty copies bound which were sent to reviewers were in wrappers and had title pages dated 1874. Additionally Charles Dudley Warner inscribed a copy to his mother on December 24th 1873 that has an 1874 title-page. The present example dated 1874 has all the textual first issue points except for the repetition of lines pp. 352-353 beginning "Let him keep it." which are here in the corrected state. REFERENCES: BAL 3357. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1874 unknown books