ADVENTURES IN THE LAND OF THE BEHEMOTH. Boston: Henry L. Shepard & Co., (Successors to Shepard & Gill,), 1874. Octavo, pp. [1-2] 3-4 [5-6] 7-190 [191-192: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], fly leaves at front and rear, twenty inserted plates with illustrations by J. Ferat, original pictorial red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black and gold, slate coated endpapers. An unauthorized edition. A translation of AVENTURES DE TROIS RUSSES ET DE TROIS ANGLAIS DANS L'AFRIQUE AUSTRALE (1872). Shepard's edition was preceded by the authorized 1873 Scribner, Welford & Armstrong edition titled MERIDIANA: THE ADVENTURES OF THREE ENGLISHMEN AND THREE RUSSIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA ... (an edition made up from the sheets of the British edition published by Sampson Low in late 1872, but dated 1873 on the title page). Shepard's pirated edition was published the same day as Scribner's authorized new edition of MERIDIANA (their first edition to be printed in America). The texts of the Shepard and the Scribner translations differ considerably. Bleiler (1948), p. 273. Myers 39 (addenda, p. 2). Taves and Michaluk V009. Spine lean, cloth worn at spine ends and corner tips, several stains to cloth, an ex-lending library copy with the Richmond Library Association's "rules and regulations" label affixed to the front paste-down, their ink-stamp on the first page of the story, and the remnant of a checkout slip on the rear paste-down, tissue guard foxed, some soiling throughout, but a sound reading copy which was described by an earlier seller as a "remarkably bright copy, near fine, with very little wear but a little soil near the edges; the front and rear paste-downs bear old local library indications." So it goes ... (#164625).
Price: $250.00 save 40% $150.00
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