The electronic spectroscopy of anthracene trapped in liquid helium nanodroplets has been studied in the spectral region of the S, So transition using both laser-induced fluorescence and molecular beam depletion spectroscopy with mass spectrometric detection. The absorption band has been located at 27 625.9 cm(-1), red-shifted by 61.4 cm(-1) from the respective gas phase transition. It consists of two well separated maxima and a long tail to the blue side which is essentially assigned to the phonon wing. The origin of the band structure is discussed in this Letter. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.