VERNE, Jules. Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1873. 8o. Illustrated. Publisher's blue cloth gilt with gilt-stamped illustration of jellyfish on the upper cover and Captain Nemo on the spine (cocked, some wear to extremities, light rubbing to gilt). FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. This printing used the same sheets as the London first edition of the same year, but Osgood's manufacture was mysteriously curtailed and very few copies were ever circulated. This edition differs from the more common George M. Smith edition in the cover jellyfish vignette, the final 's' in 'Seas' lacking from the titles on the cover, and the mostly identical collation to the London edition. Arthur B. Edwards, author of "Collecting Jules Verne," (Firsts, vol. 6, no. 7/8, 1996) estimates that there are only about 15 copies of this edition extant and notes that it, "may, in fact, be the rarest milestone in the science fiction genre."