Details
[CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE]. KEMBLE, E.W. An original pen & ink drawing of Huck Finn for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), 205 x 161mm. (8 1/8 x 6 3/8in.), on slightly tan heavy card stock, slight marginal soiling, four pinholes (three marginal, one near image), remnants of mounting on verso, signed (initials), labeled by Kemble at the bottom margin in pencil: "Chap 28. 'There! Royal Nonesuch, Brickville,'" with three other editorial pencil notes at bottom. In very good condition.
The drawing is for the illustration captioned "How to Find Them" that appears on page 242 (in Chapter XXVII) of the first American edition, picturing Huck Finn giving his "Royal Nonesuch, Brickville" note to Miss Mary Jane. "'If I get away, I sha'n't be here,' I says, 'to prove these rapscallions (the "King" and the "Duke") ain't your uncles, and I couldn't do it if I was here. I could swear they was beats and bummers, that's all...Well, there's others can do that better than what I can...I'll tell you how to find them. Gimme a pencil and a piece of paper. There -- "Royal Nonesuch, Bricksville" [the spelling of the town in the text]. Put it away, and don't lose it. When the court wants to find out something about these two, let them send up to Bricksville and say they've got the men that played the Royal Nonesuch, and ask for some witnesses...'" (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, New York, 1885, p. 242).
The drawing is for the illustration captioned "How to Find Them" that appears on page 242 (in Chapter XXVII) of the first American edition, picturing Huck Finn giving his "Royal Nonesuch, Brickville" note to Miss Mary Jane. "'If I get away, I sha'n't be here,' I says, 'to prove these rapscallions (the "King" and the "Duke") ain't your uncles, and I couldn't do it if I was here. I could swear they was beats and bummers, that's all...Well, there's others can do that better than what I can...I'll tell you how to find them. Gimme a pencil and a piece of paper. There -- "Royal Nonesuch, Bricksville" [the spelling of the town in the text]. Put it away, and don't lose it. When the court wants to find out something about these two, let them send up to Bricksville and say they've got the men that played the Royal Nonesuch, and ask for some witnesses...'" (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, New York, 1885, p. 242).