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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