"The Black Crook": Extremely Rare 1866 Edition in Pictorial Wraps. [Charles Barras] "The Black Crook, A Most Wonderful History". Philadelphia, Barclay & Company [1866], 8vo [6" x 9"], original color pictorial wrappers, pp. 29-148 (complete), four full color illustrations of the play. Front wrapper detached, but soiled with vertical split on left side, worn and chipped with minor loss. Rear wrapper detached, torn with minor loss. Some damp staining to title page and first few pages. Text good along with the color illustrations. "The Black Crook" is generally acknowledged as the first modern Broadway musical. This item is the story on which the play was based. The last copy at auction sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries in 1938 for $35 (during the Great Depression) where the cataloger described it as "excessively rare."