ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, THE by Twain, Mark [Clemens, S. L.]

Twain, Mark [Clemens, S. L.] THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1876. First edition, second printing, issue A (no sequence). Original blue decorated cloth, gilt. Foot of spine with small snag mended, else a rather nice copy with only the mildest rubbing at spine tips and corners. The first printing (5,000 copies) was published the same day as the second printing (also 5,000 copies). The official publication date is unknown, but copies were being distributed (if not actually offered for sale) by December 20, 1876, and we have handled one copy inscribed in the first week of December, several days before the first 100 copies were delivered from the bindery (yes, before...). Those first 100 copies were delivered from the bindery to the publisher on December 8, 1876, and by January 8, 1877, a total of 9,879 copies had been bound. "For once, the natural rights of the small boy were set forth by a great writer who remembered his own childhood, when he had indeed inveigled some boys into whitewashing a fence for him, given pain-killer to his cat, teased his brother unmercifully, and continually sharpened his wits in devising ways of escaping punishment .... [this book] let fresh air into the minds of parents who had shut the door on their own childhood ..." --Grolier American Hundred. Peter Parley to Penrod, p. 43. BAL 3369. Grolier American Hundred 79.