The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches
by Twain, Mark
$65,000 · Offered by Biblio
First edition
New York: C.H. Webb, 1867. First Edition. 12mo (176 × 123mm), pp. [4], 198, [2]. His first book, first printing (only 1,000 copies), first binding (approximately the first 100 copies of the 1,000). Original brown cloth, one of seven colors with no established priority (green is the most common, accounting for more than half the edition). Early owner's name to the top blank margin of the title page, tiny nick to the front free endpaper; otherwise fine, crisp, and dazzling beyond reasonable expectation. B.A.L. 3310. Full morocco case. Identifying the first printing is straightforward. Published in May 1867 at $1.25, all copies share four distinguishing points: a single ad leaf on yellow paper inserted before the title, an unbroken "1" in the folio on page 21, an unbroken "e" in "life" in the last line of page 66, and an unbroken "i" in "this" in the last line of page 198. The first binding is equally unmistakable. It has the gilt-stamped frog centered on the front cover and oriented vertically (nose up), with the blind-stamped frog in the same position on the back cover. After Twain, Webb, and the on-site manager examined the first copies bound, the frog was promptly moved to the lower left corner and angled at 45°; a design preference to which all concerned agreed. Once repositioned, the frog remained in the corner throughout Webb's editions; this was not a random or alternating arrangement, as the second binding of the first printing, and all copies of the later printings, ha
- Publisher: C.H. Webb
- Year: 1867
- Edition: First Edition
- Printing: first
- Binding: unknown
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