TWAIN, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade)

[Clemens, Samuel] Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade). New York: Charles L. Webster and  Company, 1885.

Small 4to.; illustrated throughout with black-and-white line drawings; black-and-white photogravure portrait frontispiece with facsimile signature; edges tanned; original library sheep binding; spine restored with original gilt-stamped red and black morocco labels; shelf and usage wear, with light soiling.

First American edition, first issue, second state with frontispiece portrait of Twain, in scarce sheep leather and morocco binding.

Twain's eagerly anticipated sequel to the Adventures of Tom Sawyer was received from the bindery in November of 1884, and public distribution began early the following year. There were two states of the first printing: one containing just the charming black-and-white line illustrations of E. W. Kemble, and a second including an additional photogravure frontispiece portrait of Twain—featuring an image of a Karl Gerhardt bust of the author created separately by the Heliotype Printing Company—which was apparently inserted randomly into copies, their placement varying.   

Three substantive changes were introduced after the first printing, none of which are present in this copy: the misprint "Decided" was corrected to "Decides" on p. 9; the erroneous page reference "88" was changed to "87" on p. 13; and the misprint "with the was" was corrected to "with the saw" on p. 57.

Two weeks before publication, the publisher Webster announced there would be 20,000 copies in cloth, another 2,500 in sheep (this copy), and just 500 copies in half morocco. While the last is the least common of the three bindings, the sheep leather is itself exceedingly scarce.