Treasure Island - UK 1st

First UK edition of Treasure Island  by Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)

A first edition, first printing, first state half-title, map frontispiece, 4pp. advertisements at end dated 5G-783, very light browning to half-title and margins, few chips or small portions of loss to margins, occasional light finger-soiling, original drab green cloth, spine with slight vertical pucker and ends little bumped, few small and light marks, light rubbing to spine ends and corners, very slight shelf-lean, preserved in cloth chemise and slip-case, [Beinecke 240; Prideaux 11], 8vo, Cassell & Company, Limited, 1883.

With the following first issue points: “dead man’s chest” not capitalised on pages 2 and 7; lacking “a” in line 6 page 63; numeral “7” missing in pagination on page 127; lacking full-stop after “opportunity” in line 20 page 178; “worse” for “worst” line 3 page 197. This copy also with broken “v” in “vain” on last line page 40.

The book was published on 14th November 1883, the first printing consisting of 2000 copies. There is some disagreement over the priority of the different cloth colours and publisher’s ads. According to Beinecke, the first 750 copies were bound up with the advertisements dated “5G-783” (July 1883), present here, but this copy in gold/grey cloth, rather than blue.