On this day in 1885, Jared Lukas of Lafayette, Ind. travels one hundred and seven miles by horse-drawn carriage to Chicago, Ill. to purchase a copy of Mark Twain's recently published, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, only to be told by the bookseller that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has only been published in Europe, and will be unavailable in the United States until Feb. 18. He buys some "naughty" French postcards instead.



Return to This Day in History