Verne, Jules | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas—the exceptionally scarce first American edition

Verne, Jules

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1873 [1872]

8vo. Original pictorial orange-brown cloth, stamped and lettered in gilt and black; skillfully rebacked, a little cocked, light shelfwear with some exposure at corners. Clamshell box.

The significantly rare first American edition of Verne's marine masterpiece, one of only about 15 extant copies.

"The rarest milestone in the science fiction genre." (Arthur B. Edwards, "Collecting Jules Verne," Firsts, Vol. 6, no. 7/8, 1996). Bound from the same sheets as the British edition, which was published a few weeks earlier, it sold rapidly and was then reissued with a new cover design featuring Captain Nemo with a sextant. The jellyfish vignette is therefore exclusive to this elusive first edition, which also missed the final "S" in "Seas" in the title. "Most of the surviving copies [of the Osgood edition, as here] were... bound in green cloth, but single copies of blue, maroon and an odd salmon color exist" (Edwards). 

First serialized from 1869 to 1871, Vingt Mille Lieues sous les Mers was originally published in French. It was then translated into English, following Samson Low's acquisition of the English rights in 1870. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas was translated by Lewis Page Mercier who, in error, changed the line "Under the Seas" to "Under the Sea", a mistake which persists to this day. The first American edition by Osgood appeared in late 1872.

REFERENCE:

Taves & Michaluk V006; Myers, 56