Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
Boston: Osgood, 1873. First Edition. Hardcover. 1st edition in English, 1st printing, the American issue of it using Sampson Low’s London sheets with a cancelled Boston title page, and both issues were published late in 1872 preceding Smith’s 1873 edition. Blue cloth (one of 4? colors), soiled, worn, rubbed, and rebacked (original spine preserved and laid down), else good. This issue (Osgood not Smith, gilt jellyfish and “Sea” on the cover, “Seas” on the title page, and “The End” on page 303) stimulates the most consistently repeated misstatements about rarity in all of 19th century 1st editions. It was once, honestly, thought rare but now we know it isn’t. It isn’t even scarce, with 6, or more, copies consistently for sale. Sellers still connect that illusory rarity to a Nov. 1872 Boston fire that may, or may not, have burned some warehoused copies but imported sheets, needing only a cancel title page and cloth covers, would not be assumed to have laid in a warehouse very long. And even if most copies were fire victims, they are now seen so frequently that citations claiming an issue of only 50 to 100 copies are irrationally inaccurate and not even close to the truth, and sellers still citing those numbers know better. Or should. The book is just another, vanilla, Jules Verne in English, although it is a wonderful novel. Here is the first realistic price adjustment in 25 years. good. Item #834
Price:
$1,750.00