THE FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR CHECK
New York: United States Book Company, Successors to John W. Lovell Co,mpany, 1890. First State of First Hardcover Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. pp. [iv], 339. Illustrated with frontis engraving of Uncle Jacob. Brown cloth with dark red and black highlights to front board, in a design with a beehive and a caduceus. Book worn and faded, with spine lean. Corners nudged, with bottom corners showing. Hinges showing. Lacks brown front free endpaper. Previous owner's private library stucker ("Library of J.O. Sprague, Syracuse, N.Y. and written in pencil, "Marcellus, N.Y." 3 in. open tear at hinge of pages 1/2; large corner missing from brown rear free endpaper.
"The rare first state with the black 'Porter & Coates' imprint at the bottom of the spine, with a slightly wider black strip over-printed to obliterate the name" (Gardner, in his BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ALGER states "I know of only one copy (my own) of the first state. The Library of Congress keeps the second state (the Lovell imprint on the spine) in its rare book vault."
Our copy is in fair condition, with the tell of "Porter and Coates" intentionally obscured by the publisher's black strip. Publisher John Lovell's intention was to cover up Porter and Coates" makes it nigh impossible to read the letters beneath, and I suppose the new owners "United States Book Company" hadn't yet gotten around to changing anything. Fair Only. Item #86896
A (11/23) note from a member of the Horatio Alger Collecting Society: "The first edition, first issue, of this story in book form is a paperback book in the United States Book Company’s Leather-Clad Tales series, published in 1890. It is #23 in the series. It has a stiff, gold pictorial paper cover." Our copy is the first HARDCOVER appearance of this title.
Price: $1,800.00