I have been in the rare and antiquarian book business for over forty years; my family has been in the rare books business since 1876. Rare books are in my blood.
Prince and the Pauper, The
Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882. Item #06553
A Victorian Masterpiece of Childhood and Kingship
First American Edition in Bright Pictorial Gilt Cloth
TWAIN, Mark. The Prince and the Pauper. A Tale for Young People of All Ages. With one hundred and ninety-two illustrations. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882.
First American edition (with the Franklin Press imprint on the copyright page and second state with the text corrected on pp. 124, 263, and 362).
Octavo (8 5/16 x 6 1/2 inches; 211 x 166 mm.). 411, [5, blank] pp. With 192 wood-engraved text illustrations. Closed 2 1/4 inch tear to lower margins of pp. 329/330 & 337/338.
Original green cloth, pictorially stamped and lettered in gilt, decoratively stamped in black on front cover and spine (BAL Binding State B). All edges gilt. Minor rubbing to board edges and spine extremities, corners very slightly bumped, short (2-inch) split to lower front hinge.
A bright and entirely unrestored copy, the gilt fresh and the binding remarkably well preserved.
One of Twain’s most beloved and enduring works, The Prince and the Pauper represents his first full-length foray into historical fiction—a richly imagined tale set in Tudor England, exploring themes of identity, justice, and social inequality through the famous exchange of lives between Edward VI and a London beggar boy.
Published simultaneously in England and America in 1882, the work was issued in elaborate illustrated form, with nearly two hundred wood engravings that lend the narrative a vivid pictorial dimension. The American edition, produced by Osgood, is particularly desirable for its distinctive pictorial binding and high-quality production.
This copy conforms to the true first American edition, with all requisite textual corrections and the Franklin Press imprint, and is further distinguished by its BAL Binding State B, one of the primary binding variants encountered.
What sets this example apart is its state of preservation: copies of this title are frequently found worn or dulled, the gilt faded and the cloth handled. Here, by contrast, the volume remains crisp, bright, and untouched, preserving the full decorative impact intended by the publisher.
A striking and highly collectible example of one of Twain’s most famous works, in its original and visually compelling form.
BAL 3402. Johnson, Twain, pp. 39-41. McBride, p. 70. Peter Parley to Penrod, pp. 65-66. See Kevin MacDonnell, “The Primary First Editions of Mark Twain,” Firsts The Book Collector’s Magazine, Volume 8, Number 7/8(July/August 1998), pp. 44-45.
Price: $850.00