Books

Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, successors to Carey & Co, 1839. First American edition, first state. First American edition with first state ad at front of first volume. [ii ads and publisher's notice], iv, [13-]14-224; iv [3]-196, [16 catalogue] pp. Bound in publisher's brown boards with red calico-texture quarter cloth, paper spine label. Very Good with repairs to joints and hinges, front board of Vol. 1 relaid onto spine, boards soiled, worn, and well-rubbed, light foxing, staining, and toning to contents. Despite repairs hinges a bit fragile. Vol. II dampstained prelims with some stains trailing off that; pages 41/42 horizontal split repaired with archival tape, repaired chip to pp. 99/100; small hole to 128/129; worming to inner margins of pp. 185-196 and first three leaves of ads at rear. Copy of Elvia A. Haines with her penciled inscriptions on paste downs and poem written on rear paste down of second volume. Smith Charles Dickens First American Editions pp. 84-87. The first…

Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy's Progress is Charles Dickens's second novel, and was first published as a serial from 1837 to 1839. The story centers on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the 'Artful Dodger', a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin.

First editions of 'Oliver Twist' can be identified by their three volumes published by Richard Bentley in 1838, featuring 24 steel-engraved plates by George Cruikshank and no mention of the author’s name on the title page. Subsequent editions after Dickens’s death may also include his name as the author.