Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade) by Twain, Mark (Samuel L. Clemens) - 1885

New York: Charles L. Webster and Co, 1885. First Edition. Octavo. This copy is the earliest state of the first edition with the March 1885 dates called for in Blanck. It has a small biofolium letter from E.W. Kemble, the illustrator dated March 18, 1930 to a Mr. Wilson of Cannondale, Connecticut who had inquired about the controversial obscene image on p.283. He goes on to say that Webster (the publisher) had all these pages removed (or at least most all) though he states some were in the hands of collectors and valued highly as rare editions though the best scholars state that the image was found only on some of the salesman's prospective copies. The offending image was not of a curved fly but an actual penis. This had been doubted previously but Merle Johnson found one in the collection of Willard S. Morse of Santa Monica and convinced him to make a photographic copy which he limited to 100 copies (McBride, p. 103) of which our copy has one laid in at page 283. In addition, our copy has all the unique issue points present as called for in Blanck such as the earliest owner inscriptions are dated March 1885 as is the case in this copy. It was owned by Lewis Campbell Millikin, an 11 year old boy who graduated from Harvard in 1896 and passed away at age 32. The following textual points are present: the title-page and page 283 are cancels (earliest states for cloth copies); all first printing points as called for in Blanck who notes that the frontispiece portrait is in the first state of three though not a priority, since it is an insert, printed separately from the sheets and added at the time of binding. BAL 3415. The best description of the issue on the suppressed plate is in Blair, Mark Twain and Huck Finn, p. 364-368. Bound in green pictorial cloth accented in black, occasional spots of foxing, one corner bumped, some wear through to corners, Housed in a morocco backed slip case with folding chemise. Provenance: Sold in the early 1980's through the Antiquarian Shop by the late George Chamberlain whose description notes the previous owner had purchased this copy from Sotheby-Park Benet (before it became solely owned by Sotheby's).