First edition, first issue with four pages of adverts dated 5G-783. Contains textual points, 'rain' for 'vain' on page 40 and 'worse' for 'worst' on page 197. The 7 is missing in page 127 and the 8 present in page 83. Original russet cloth lettered in gilt on the spine. Frontispiece map printed in three colours. A very good copy indeed with bright gilt and clean cloth showing just a couple of inconspicuous marks and light wear to the extremities. Occasional light foxing throughout and a neat superficial repair to the rear hinge. An unusually well preserved copy.

A children's classic and widely regarded as the best maritime adventure story, whose influence is writ large across adventure fiction throughout the twentieth century. It had is origins in a hand drawn map and a story woven around it to entertain some children in 1881. The initial draft, then entitled 'The Sea Cook', caught the eye of James Henderson editor of Young Folks who agreed to serialise the work. It was there that the title was changed to Treasure Island. The serial met with little reaction, but upon being published in book form, it was an instant success.
"Treasure Island established itself as a classic, drawing plaudits from the widest range of literary sensibilities. In 1890 W.B. Yeats wrote to tell [Stevenson] that the book was the only one in which his seafaring grandfather had ever taken any pleasure and that he reread it on his deathbed with infinite satisfaction. Jack London, in so many ways RLS's true spiritual heir, declared: 'His Treasure Island will be a classic to go down with Robinson Crusoe, Through the Looking Glass and The Jungle Books'" (Frank McLynn - Robert Louis Stevenson).

PROVENANCE: Sarah Catherine Augusta Hibbert (1840-1931) of Broadgate House N. Devon, husband to Colonel Hugh Hibbert, credited with inventing an improvised grenade used in the Crimean War, the precusor to the modern hand grenade, and grandmother to Henry Williamson's wife, Ida. Hibbert was the dedicatee of Williamson's The Village Book.

Prideaux 11

Stock ID: 46740