First Editions, First State, Fine Copy usually sells for between 12-15,000.
Jocelyn
On 9/6/09 11:14 AM, "Richard Talbot" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hello Hal,
>
> How much? The collector's value should be determined by Keven or some idiot
> with a fat check book. Below is a collector's summary as written by Kevin.
>
> My copy is a green cloth first edition, first state, and my wife won't tell
> me what she paid, but I'm going to guess it to be around $3,500.
>
> The true value of any Mark Twain book comes in its reading. There is an
> abiding pleasure that comes each time I sit with one of these old volumes in
> my lap. The musty aroma of the 125-year-old text rises up to meet my nose
> and as always, I run my fingertips over the smooth, slick glassy surface of
> the polished paper. Scanning the text these dots of ink transform themselves
> into letters, words and sentences that bring people and places and things
> alive with meaning once more. What you hold in your hands becomes
> literature, and to relive-whenever I want-- the angst of Huck as he battles
> his conscience as his nearly-failed deliberate deception of nigger Jim's
> presence nearby in the skiff plays out once more; to be there as he is
> questioned by bounty hunters searching up and down the river-well, it's
> thrilling. That's all there is to say, it's thrilling. That is the highest
> and truest value of any one of my books.
>
> In this simple act, I am able to bestow upon Twain the author and Clemens
> the man the thing that I suspect he longed for; recognition and
> near-immortality. And upon myself I bestow regality, as no other than man
> can read and be transported by this complex act.
>
>
>
> From Kevin Mac Donnell:
>
> ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. New York: Charles L. Webster and Co., 1885.
> BAL 3415.
>
> Fine copies of the first printing in either of the leather bindings have
> increased in price enormously in the past two decades, fetching $6,000 and
> more. Fine copies in blue cloth run close behind, and fine copies in green
> cloth fetch $3,500. In the second printing, those prices fall by half. In
> very good condition, prices run about two-thirds of those for fine copies.
> Shabby copies of this book can easily be found, and sell for a few hundred
> dollars. What makes the hunt for a collectible copy of this book interesting
> is the differences of opinion about the market value of the various states
> of the sheets and frontispiece. Generally, the earlier states fetch slightly
> higher prices, but most prudent collectors have studied BAL and are not
> swayed by issue-mongers with a book to sell.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Harold Bush" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2009 8:37 AM
> Subject: Re: which edition of AHF?
>
>
>> just out of curiosity -- how much $$ IS it worth these days??
>>
>>
>> regarding records -- AH yes! vinyl! how quaint. "That's All Right"--
>> anyone besides me ever been to Sun Records in Memphis? it's about the
>> size
>> of a small Dairy Queen! what a place! followed by pulled pork at Central
>> Barbeque.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
>> Professor of English
>> Saint Louis University
>> St. Louis, MO 63108
>> 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
>> <www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/ENG/faculty/hbush.html>
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