Mark Twain

A first edition, first printing copy of Huckleberry Finn, in the publisher's full sheep binding.

• Mark Twain (American).
• New York: Charles Webster, 1885 [1884]. 
• 366 pages.
• Illustrated by E.W. Kemble with 174 black and white drawings. 
• Bound in original full sheep, leather labels on spine in black and red, housed in custom half goatskin box.

Twain often had ambitious plans for the publication of his books, as well as the ability to execute them through his own publishing firm, Charles L. Webster and Company, run by his nephew-in-law. Anticipating brisk Christmas season sales, they planned four bindings for this informal sequel to Tom Sawyer: one in green pictorial cloth (the most common); one in blue pictorial cloth (to match Tom Sawyer); and two deluxe bindings, half morocco (goatskin) and sheep. Of the four bindings, the fewest copies were bound in sheep, estimated at around 2500 copies—though "they rarely survive in numbers proportional to the number that were originally bound" (Mac Donnell). The sheep copies were also among the earliest bound: most of the presentation copies from Twain are found in sheep. Because sheepskin notoriously takes wear more easily than other binding leathers like goat and calf, it is exceptionally difficult to find nice copies.