8vo. Folding colored frontispiece (very occasional spotting). Original green cloth stamped in black (front hinge starting, spine leaning, contemporary ink markings at top portions of inner board and front free endpaper).

FIRST EDITION, AMERICAN ISSUE, bound in New York City and lacking publisher's ads at rear with the following misprints: "Bamamgwato"" on p. 10, line 14; "to let twins to live" on p. 122, line 27; "wrod"" in place of "word" in the fifth line of footnote on p. 307. King Solomon's Mines was initially published in London with a first print run of 2,000 copies. The first 1,500 were printed there, with the sheets comprising the last 500 shipped to New York, to be bound and sold, lacking the 8 pp. of ads in the London edition. The first "official" American edition was not published until the following year. Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Rider's novel was one of the first English adventure novels set in Africa. Cassell embarked on a promotional blitz for the work, with billboards and posters posted all around London advertising it as "The Most Amazing Book Ever Written." Since its publication, the adventurer Allan Quartermain has become Rider's most iconic creation, appearing in numerous film, radio, and television adaptations. McKay, 4; Sadleir 1089; Wolff 2863.