The Library of Stephen J. Farber

8vo (191 x 114 mm). Half-title; map frontispiece printed in 3 colors; 4pp. publisher's ads at end. (Occasional spotting, some toning.) Original sage-green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, black coated endpapers (recased, endpapers renewed). Provenance: The Daily Chronicle (institutional stamp).

FIRST EDITION in book form, one of 250 copies printed on 24 November 1883 (Beinecke/McKay, 240) with the following issue points: "dead man's chest" not capitalized on pp. 2 and 7; the "7" is stamped in on the pagination of p. 127; the full-stop is dropped from line 20 of p. 178, and 4pp. of publisher's ads at rear bearing printer's date 1083. Treasure Island was begun in the summer of 1881 at Stevenson's summer home at Castleton of Braemar while trying to keep his twelve year-old stepson amused during a rainy afternoon indoors, and was completed the following winter. In the interim period Stevenson read some completed chapters to his friend and publisher Dr. Alexander Japp, who negotiated their publication in Young Folks magazine under the title The Sea Cook while Stevenson worked to complete the story, at which time it was retitled Treasure Island and published in book form by Cassell & Company. It was Stevenson's first great critical and commercial success and has been the source of numerous radio, television, and film adaptations. Beinecke/McKay 240; Osborne 2:1030; Prideaux 11.