Mark Twain or Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Over 21,000 results)

Condition: New. Libro nuevo, sellado, fisico, original. Enviamos a todos el mundo por USPS, Fedex y DHL. 100% garantia en su compra. Sealed, new. Unopened. 100%guarentee. We ship worldwide.

Morocco. Condition: Very Good. Forty-three leaves, written on rectos only (but for two leaves which are written on both recto and verso) in purple and black ink, with numerous mansucript insertions and deletions, all in the author's hand. The leaves have been tipped onto stubs and bound circa 1915 by Bradstreet in full red straight-grain morocco with marbled endpapers, along with a frontispiece engraving of Twain, and a custom title-page reading "Mark Twain/Nicodemus Dodge/Chapter XXIII./A Tramp Abroad./Original Autograph Manuscript." The corresponding pages from a copy of the first edition have been bound in at the end along with a custom half-title. Two stages of composition are apparent. The first draft of the manuscript was written on blank paper in purple ink, the pages numbered 1039-1062,1067-1073, and 1087-1095. There was a later revision in black ink, with the pages renumbered in pencil or ink as follows; 780-799, 780(2)-785(2),785 1/2,789(2)-795(2), and 805-813. Expert restoration to the blank margins of the final leaf. A couple of other closed tears have been repaired, just touching a letter or two. Occasional smudging and fingerprinting throughout, else this important manuscript is in very good or better condition in a fine binding with only minor rubbing to the spine ends. The subject of the chapter is, in large part, a reminiscence from Twain's days as a printer's apprentice. Nicodemus Dodge, a seeming yokel from out of town, is hired at the printer's shop where the young Sam Clemens is working. The locals hope to make Nicodemus the butt of their jokes only to find [as Twain notes in a phrase that was ultimately deleted], that they "had fished for a sardine and caught a whale." With the bookplates of William Harris Arnold, the composer Jerome Kern, and the playwright Waring P. Jones. Twain never bothered to reclaim the manuscript for A Tramp Abroad following the book's publication. When the American Publishing Company was dissolved, three or four years after Twain's death, the manuscript was broken into chapters and dispersed. Most, like the present example, were bound by Bradstreet in red or blue morocco. It used to be that these complete manuscript chapters were not considered uncommon but, according to Robert Hirst of the Mark Twain Papers at Berkeley's Bancroft Library, they continue to disappear from the market as they find their way into institutions. With Berkeley's lump purchase of four chapters in 2001, only 16 of the original 56 chapters and appendices remained in private hands [Bancroftiana: Newsletter of the Friends of the Bancroft Library, Volume 118, Spring 2001].

Early printing of Twain's masterpiece, inscribed by Mark Twain. Octavo, bound in half buckram by Roycroft with paper labels to the spine, tissue-guarded frontispiece photogravure plate of Gerhardt's bust of Clemens, one hundred and seventy-four illustrations by E. W. Kemble. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, "To Mr. Garth W. Cate: TakingÂtheÂpledge will not make bad liquor good, but it will improve it. Truly Yours, Mark Twain, Nov. 25/06." With a lengthy letter of provenance dated October 14, 1964 and signed by the recipient which reads in part, "Dear Mr. Jacobs, If I had been younger and could have carried out a study of some of Mark Twain's motives and acts, I never would have parted with my cherished old copy of the first printing of Huckleberry Finn. This was the first book given to me by my father. In 1906-1907 I was a lecture manager for Elbert Hubbard, the Sage of East Aurora, whose quasi-socialist group The Roycrofters was quite famous as an arts and crafts enter at East Aurora, New York. By that time the HUCK FINN was loose in its covers. Elbert Hubbard saw the book on my desk when I brought it in to have it rebound in the Roycroft Bindery. Said he, "No author could resist seeing such a well worn volume testifying to the delight it had given many readers. Why don't you send it down to Mark Twain and ask him to inscribed it. I'll sign and send Mark a few of my own books along with it, thus salting the mine for you." So I sent HUCK back to its spiritual father, and when it returned I was somewhat shocked, having been sent to a temperance Sunday School by a whiskey fearing mother, to find that he had inscribed it "To Mr. Garth W. Cate - Taking the pledge will not make bad liquor good, but will improve it." (Incidentally it was several years after that before I took my first drink. I am an abstainer today). Later on I was to marry a Christian Science practitioner, and when she saw this inscription she exclaimed: Why, that is the most immoral thing I ever saw! How could a great author send such a sentiment to a young man?" A careful search of Mark Twain's writings revealed that he had a deep-seated lifetime aversion for pledges, especially when they had been obtained under pressure from those of an older generation. It seems when Mark was a boy in his early teens, his mother and aunt talked and pressured him into signing a pledge not to touch alcohol in any from. Later he was to refer to this as "A ball and chain clanking behind him down the years of time." He hated such restrictions, especially when thrust upon him while immature." In very good condition. With the original publisherâ s decorated green cloth cover bound in and three rare portraits of Twain tipped in. With two further letters of provenance and several period Twain-related clippings adhered to several pages. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceptional presentation copy with noted provenance. Written over an eight-year period, Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was controversial from the outset, attacked by critics for its crudeness, coarseness and vulgarity. Upon issue of the American edition in 1885, several libraries, including the Concord and Brooklyn Public Libraries, banned it from their shelves. Twain later remarked to his editor, "Apparently, the Concord library has condemned Huck as 'trash and only suitable for the slums.' This will sell us another twenty-five thousand copies for sure!" The book nevertheless emerged as one of the defining novels of American literature, prompting Hemingway to declare: "All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain. It's the best book we've had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing since.".

First Edition. "TWAIN, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1876. Square octavo, publisher's three-quarter brown morocco, peach endpapers. Housed in a custom chemise and half morocco clamshell box. $69,000.First American edition, first state of one of the great masterpieces of American literature and a true touchstone of American childhood, in the exceptionally rare publisher's morocco binding. An essential addition to any Mark Twain collection. Only 200 copies were issued in the publisher's three-quarter morocco binding."The first novel Mark Twain wrote without a co-author, Tom Sawyer is also his most clearly autobiographical novel Enlivened by extraordinary and melodramatic events, it is otherwise a realistic depiction of the experiences, people and places that Mark Twain knew as a child" (Rasmussen, 459). Originally published in England (without illustrations), Tom Sawyer arrived at a momentous point in American history: Custer had recently lost the battle at Little Big Horn and America was celebrating its centennial. "Publication of Tom Sawyer was little noticed The book has, however, proved to be one of the most durable works in American literature. By the time of Twain's death, it was his top-selling book. It has been in print continuously since 1876, and has outsold all other Mark Twain works" (Rasmussen, 459). "This was a true boy's book, and surviving copies are proof of how rough little boy's can be on books" (MacDonnell, 40). Also issued in cloth and sheep, only 200 copies were issued in this three-quarter morocco binding. First printing, first state, which "can be quickly distinguished by the fact that the half-title and frontispiece are printed on separate leaves they are printed on the same leaf in the later printings and the entire text is printed on wove paper" (MacDonnell, 40). Also with "THE" on half title in 10-point rather than 14-point type, peach endpapers, preliminary matter paginated [I]-XVI and two blank flyleaves of laid paper at front "copies have been noted with two, three and four fly-leaves present no positive point of issue can be made" (Johnson, 28). BAL 3369. Johnson, 27-30. MacDonnell, 39-40. MacBride, 40. Scattered light soiling, as usual. Small marginal closed tear to page 91, not affecting text. Front inner paper hinge split, binding sound. A nearly fine copy in extraordinary condition, highly desirable in the original publisher's morocco. A centerpiece of any collection celebrating Mark Twain or, indeed, American literature.".

First English edition of the rarest of Mark Twain's works: the only novel he wrote with a collaborator and the book that gave the era its name in history. Octavo, three volumes, original publishers green cloth, gilt titles to the spine, illustrated. The only multi-volume work Clemens produced, except for the two-volume Tramp Abroad (London, 1880), the first English edition of The Gilded Age is the rarest of Mark Twain's major works and the most difficult to obtain. Its rarity is due largely to its format, three volume sets were quite expensive and were produced almost solely for circulating libraries during the Reconstruction era, and so, the books were vigorously read by many readers, generally rebound, and most were pulped in paper drives during the Second World War. In 1873, Samuel Clemens had written only four other major books - The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography, and Roughing It. A relatively unknown American author in London at the time, the English edition would have necessarily been small, no more than a few hundred. From the library of noted collector Frederic R. Kirkland. Kirkland formed a well-known collection of Americana and American and British literature, much of which was sold in 1962. In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco folding chemise slipcase. Exceptionally rare, with one other copy traced in auction records and only the Yale set listed in the Bibliography of American Literature. The first major American novel to satirize the political milieu of Washington, D.C. and the wild speculation schemes that exploded across the nation in the years that followed the Civil War, The Gilded Age gave this remarkable era its name. Twain and good friend and neighbor Charles Warner borrowed the term from William Shakespeare's King John (1595): "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily. is wasteful and ridiculous excess." Another interpretation of the title, of course, is the contrast between an ideal "Golden Age" and a less worthy "Gilded Age", as gilding is only a thin layer of gold over baser metal, so the title now takes on a pejorative meaning as to the novel's time, events and people. Although more than a century has passed since its publication, the novel's satirical observations of political and social life in Washington, D.C. are still pertinent and the work has appeared in more than 100 editions since its original publication. BAL 3359.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First Edition, First Printing SIGNED by Mark Twain on a laid in card. This First Printing book has all the First Issue points; printed on wove paper, with the half-title and frontispiece printed on separate leaves. Note: First Edition, second issue books are printed on laid paper with the frontispiece printed on same page of half-title page. The binding is tight, and the boards are crisp with some wear to the panels. The pages are clean with minor wear to the edges. There is no writing, marks or bookplates in the book. Overall, a lovely copy SIGNED by the author. Includes a custom acetate dustjacket to protect the book. We buy SIGNED Mark Twain First Editions. Signed by Author(s).

8vo (140 x 224 mm). 3 ff., written in pencil on one side only, on cream-coloured Keystone Linen pad paper. Stored in a brown full morocco presentation portfolio with a reproduction portrait photograph of Mark Twain facing the MS leaves, individually inserted in cellophane sleeves bound at the left edge. Three leaves from Clemens s manuscript notes for a never-performed stage version of "Tom Sawyer" completed in early 1884, featuring sketches for the dramatic scene in which Tom, Huck and Becky encounter Injun Joe in the cave. The notes read, in part: "Enter Tom & Huck. Find bag. 'No use now - got to starve.' Tom says 'No.' Examine - money all there. Discover girls asleep. Wake them. Talk. We'll save you. Gives them his crust & some bats [.] Devilish face of Joe peeks out - will hive those boys - steals behind boys. Girls see him & scream. Boys jump up & stand paralyzed. Then they jump for the rock & the dodging begins for life & death, the girls looking over. (Maybe Tom trips him.) 'Now, Huck.' They fly - Joe pursues, the girls scream [.]". - As early as 1875, Clemens had asked his friend William Dean Howells to dramatize the then still-unpublished "Adventures of Tom Sawyer". Howells refused, but Clemens pressed ahead, composed a synopsis of his own to secure copyright and subsequently wrote at least some of the play. While these plans ultimately fell through, in 1883 the author once more attempted to translate his book into a stage success. This time, he managed to complete a dramatic version, and the play was duly copyrighted on 1 February 1884. Although Clemens "was so pleased with this piece of work that even before he had finished it he was pondering on the cast which might properly perform it and trying to dictate terms", the great theatre manager Augustin Daly did not take long to reject the chance to stage "Tom Sawyer", and after this "one hears no more about the author's attempting to dramatize his novel": clearly, Clemens reluctantly came to the conclusion that "his novel just could not be dramatized" (Blair, pp. 250-252). - These are three out of a total of 26 pages of working notes for the play, constituting the last three of a ten-page group termed "C" by their editor, Walter Blair. At the time of Blair's editorial work, the notes were dispersed among several libraries: all but one of this ten-page group (C1-3 and C5-10) were then among the Mark Twain Papers at Bancroft Library, UCA, Berkeley (while C4 rests in Yale University Library). The three pages at hand form a sub-unit that provides a later plan for Act IV, in which Tom and Becky, lost in the cave, encounter Injun Joe. - First page slightly browned along the edges and horizontal fold; folds and paper very lightly frayed. A fine survival of American literature in the author's own hand. - Published in: Mark Twain / Walter Blair (ed.), Hannibal, Huck, and Tom (Berkeley, UCA Press, 1969), pp. 393-395 (fols. C8-C10).

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First Edition, First Printing with the half-title and frontispiece printed on separate leaves and printed on wove paper instead of laid paper. This FIRST ISSUE book is bound in the ORIGINAL Blue Cloth boards with light restoration to the spine. The binding is tight, with some wear to the edges. The pages are clean with some staining to a few pages. There is NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A wonderful copy of this TRUE FIRST EDITION with ALL the First Issue points. We buy Mark Twain First Editions.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Limited Edition. New York, Gabriel Wells, 1922-25 octavo, 37 volumes, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, others untrimmed, frontispiece portrait and numerous illustrations throughout the set. Printed on specially made all rag Old Enfold Paper which bears the watermark "Samuel L Clemens - Mark Twain". Pages nice and clean. Finely bound by the Chelsea Bindery, London, in burgundy morocco, titles and decorations to spine, raised bands, rule to boards, signature to front boards, inner dentelles. Signed by Mark Twain. An exceptional fine and clean set in a spectacular full morocco binding. The Definitive Edition. Limited to 1024 sets, this is number 390. Signed in 1906 SL Clemens/Mark Twain in anticipation of this ultimate edition, as explained by the publishers announcement. The set includes the extra two volumes of Autobiography. It was Mark Twain's most cherished desire that a definitive and complete edition of his entire literary output be published. Whit this end in view, shortly before his death, he autographed with his signature 1024 sheets which would be inserted in the first volume of such an edition of his work, when it might appear. These autographed sheets were so carefully and hermetically preserved that their very existence was lost sight of, until quite recently, when an inventory disclosed them. This fortuitous discovery made possible the fulfilment of Mark Twain's ambition, a project which ever since he passed away, has been increasingly demanded by the public-an absolute complete, comprehensive, and definitive edition of his writings, his full biographical data, ably edited, finely printed and illustrated, and autographed by Mark Twain's own hand- taken from the publishers advert for the set. A very fine set in a spectacular full morocco binding!. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First Edition, First Printing SIGNED by Mark Twain on a laid in signature. This First Edition book has the original boards that are in nice shape with light wear to the spine and panels. The binding is tight, and the panels are crisp with slight wear to the edges. The pages are clean, with no writing, marks or bookplates in the book. Overall, a beautiful copy of this TRUE FIRST EDITION SIGNED by the author. We buy Twain First Editions. Signed by Author(s).

First edition, second issue of the authorâ s second book, one of the best-selling travel books of all-time. Octavo, bound in three quarter morocco with gilt titles to the spine, marbled endpapers, all edges marbled, with two hundred and thirty-four illustrations. Association copy, inscribed by Mark Twain on the fly-leaf, "To Mrs. P. T. Barnum from Yours Truly Samuel L. Clemens Mark Twain Oct 1875." The recipient, Nancy Fish, was the second wife of American showman P. T. Barnum. Twain and Barnum were, by various accounts, friends, mutual admirers and rivals. After visiting Barnum's American Business Museum in New York City as a teenager, Twain criticized it as "one vast peanut stand" yet upon the opening of Barnum's Hippodrome in 1875, he remarked, â I hardly know which to wonder at mostâ "its stupendousness, or the pluck of the man who has dared to venture upon so vast an enterprise. I mean to come to see the show,â " but to me you are the biggest marvel connected with it.â He alluded to Barnum frequently in both his published works and private correspondence, and although he received many invitations from Barnum to dine in New York, he always declined. Barnum even proposed that the two collaborate on an anthology of "queer literature" based on letters he received from strangers hoping to join his circus, but Twain expressed little interest in the project. In 1867, Twain published â Barnumâ s First Speech in Congressâ , a satire of Reconstruction politics that painted Barnum as a ruthless exploiter of the performers he employed. Twain referred to the work as a â spiritual telegraphâ delivered â to [him] in advance from the spirit worldâ and was certain that Barnum would never be elected to high office. Barnum was married to Charity Hallett from 1829 until her death in 1873, and they had four children. In 1874, a few months after his wife's death, he married Nancy Fish, his friend's daughter who was 40 years his junior. They were married until 1891 when Barnum died of a stroke at his home. He was buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport, which he designed himself. In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An outstanding association copy.

Early printing of Twainâ s first semi-autobiographical work of travel literature, essentially a prequel to The Innocents Abroad. Octavo, bound in three quarter morocco with gilt titles to the spine, fully illustrated by eminent artists with wood engravings throughout. Association copy, inscribed by Mark Twain on the fly-leaf, "For Mrs. P. T. Barnum with kindest wishes of Samuel L. Clemens Oct. 1875." The recipient, Nancy Fish, was the second wife of American showman P. T. Barnum. Twain and Barnum were, by various accounts, friends, mutual admirers and rivals. After visiting Barnumâ s American Business Museum in New York City as a teenager, Twain criticized it as â one vast peanut standâ yet upon the opening of Barnumâ s Hippodrome in 1875, he remarked, â I hardly know which to wonder at mostâ "its stupendousness, or the pluck of the man who has dared to venture upon so vast an enterprise. I mean to come to see the show,â " but to me you are the biggest marvel connected with it.â He alluded to Barnum frequently in both his published works and private correspondence, and although he received many invitations from Barnum to dine in New York, he always declined. Barnum even proposed that the two collaborate on an anthology of â queer literatureâ based on letters he received from strangers hoping to join his circus, but Twain expressed little interest in the project. In 1867, Twain published â Barnumâ s First Speech in Congressâ , a satire of Reconstruction politics that painted Barnum as a ruthless exploiter of the performers he employed. Twain referred to the work as a â spiritual telegraphâ delivered â to [him] in advance from the spirit worldâ and was certain that Barnum would never be elected to high office. Barnum was married to Charity Hallett from 1829 until her death in 1873, and they had four children. In 1874, a few months after his wifeâ s death, he married Nancy Fish, his friendâ s daughter who was 40 years his junior. They were married until 1891 when Barnum died of a stroke at his home. He was buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport, which he designed himself. In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An outstanding association copy. Dedicated to Twain's mining companion Calvin H. Higbie, Roughing It follows the travels of young Mark Twain through the Wild West during the years 1861â "1867. After a brief stint as a Confederate cavalry militiaman, Twain joined his brother Orion on a stagecoach journey west. The book also chronicles many of Twain's other early adventures including a visit to Salt Lake City, gold and silver prospecting, real-estate speculation, a journey to Hawaii, and his beginnings as a writer.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Original half dark brown morocco gilt. Portrait frontispiece with sculptor s name on the shoulder, State 3 of title but no priority acknowledged, State 1 of p. [13], p. 57 and p. 155, without 11 signature on p. 161, and the original first state of the illustration on p. 283. Light wear. Near fine. First American edition, in publisher s morocco with the rare first state of the illustration on p. 283. While gathering advance subscriptions to Huckleberry Finn, traveling salesmen offered not only copies in cloth bindings but also deluxe leather bound copies such as the present example. The first copies printed were sent off to be put in those time-consuming bindings. Soon thereafter, as printing progressed, an unknown individual defaced the plate on p. 283 with an engraving of a penis at Uncle Silas s crotch. Thousands of copies were printed before the altered plate was discovered. Each of those offending leaves was cut out and replaced with leaf featuring the re-engraved illustration. This new illustration eliminated even the innocent hint of curvature (as was found in the first copies printed) and replaced Silas s fly with a straight line. As the defacement occurred only after the advance sheets were shipped to be bound in leather, the plate in its first state only exists in the earliest copies in publisher s leather bindings. This is a handsome copy of the first state of this American classic reflecting an infamous epiode in American publishing history.

The Writings. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1929. Memorial Edition, one of 90 numbered copies (this copy being number 55). Thirty-seven octavo volumes. Title-pages in blue and black. With inserted portrait frontispieces. Publisher's three quarter brown morocco over polished brown cloth boards. Spines decoratively stamped in gilt, tooled in compartments with two raised bands, top edges gilt, others uncut. The first twelve volumes are a slightly lighter color than the rest. A magnificent set of this fine and rare edition of Twain, complete with the Biography (volumes 30-33) and Letters (volumes 34 & 35) edited by Paine, and the Autobiography (volumes 36 & 37). With a letter and manuscript page tipped-in volume I. [With:] TWAIN, Mark (1835-1910). Autograph Letter Signed "S.L. Clemens" and initialed "SLC." Kaltenleutgeben: July 26, [18]98 (Twain and his family had a villa in this Austrian town in 1898). Written in black ink. Two twelvemo pages on one octavo leaf, second half of leaf with paper repairs (not interfering with text), usual fold lines, red ink marking on first page, not interfering with text. "Dear CA[?]W: Please send me [crossed-out word] your new Stevenson book, for Mrs. Clemens - cheap edition. I mean the book about - about- I think it's poetry. ("Black & White?") And I'd like to have the cheap edition of "Spiritual Tales" (is that it?)[superscript: "Except vol. 1 - I have that] by Mrs. or Miss Macleod. [superscript: "Edinburgh"] They are located in the isle of Iona, I think. Sincerely Yours S.L. Clemens [flourish] OVER Why don't you have Bliss [five words crossed out] send you some Ameri-can copies of my last book? Wouldn't the illustrations sell there? Or would the title [crossed-out word] interfere awkwardly? SLC" [With:] TWAIN, Mark. One page manuscript [N.p., n.d., ca. 1880]. One octavo leaf, verso only, entitled "Readings." Written in blue ink. Seventeen lines of short titles for stories or sketches to be read at one of Twain's public readings. Fine. HBS 67709. $29,500.

First US edition, first printing, of one of the great classics of both American and children's literature, an exceptional, bright copy. This copy has the relevant first printing points: at p. 9 the misprint "Decided" for "Decides", at p. 13 the erroneous page reference "88" for the plate "Him and Another Man", and at p. 57, line 23, the misprint "with the was" for "with the saw". These are the only points to distinguish between the first two printings; other textual variants between copies are due to the use of multiple plates and have no relevance for priority. This copy has the first state frontispiece with the table cloth visible and unsigned on the finished edge of the bust, the second state title leaf with altered copyright page (as always save for advance copies; here integral, also found as a cancel - copies already sewn had a leaf cancelled, those unsewn with the gathering replaced), and pages 283/4 with the later state emended illustration of Uncle Silas (as always with cloth copies; here integral, also found as a cancel, ditto as before). These points do not have bearing on priority of issue, nor does the binding (other copies being bound in leather, and in blue cloth), with the whole of the first and second printings issued on the same day in February 1885. The UK edition was published first, for copyright reasons, in December 1884. BAL 3415; Grolier, 100 American, 87; Johnson, pp. 43-50; Kevin MacDonnell, "Huck Finn among the Issue-Mongers", Firsts; The Book Collector's Magazine, Volume 8, Number 9 (September 1998), pp. 28-35. Square octavo. Original green pictorial cloth blocked in black and gilt, spine and front cover in lettered in gilt and black. Housed in a custom green morocco-entry slipcase and cloth jacket. Photogravure frontispiece of Karl Gerhardt's portrait bust of Clemens, 173 text illustrations after E. W. Kemble. Leather bookplate of George Staehle to front pastedown, pencilled ownership signature dated 1898 to front free endpaper. Other than very minor peripheral wear a bright, fresh, and square copy, cloth and contents clean, joints and hinges intact.

Matted and framed. Condition: Very Good. First edition. LONG HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT SIGNED LETTER WRITTEN BY S.L. CLEMENS (A.K.A. MARK TWAIN). The impact of the Paige typesetting machine on Mark Twain's life cannot be overstated. Awed by the prospect of the biggest revolution in textual history since the Gutenburg Press, Twain held faith in the machine's potential despite many warning signs, notably persistent breakdowns of Paige's machine and the advent of Linotype. Why did Twain refuse to let go of this dream? "[P]erhaps, in the end, the Paige typesetting machine was simply the best tall tale he'd ever heard," writes critic Ron Powers, arguing that the financial decline in Twain's life resulting from his misjudged investment of his own wealth and his wife Olivia's inheritance (along with a series of personal tragedies including the loss of his wife and two of his daughters in the decade following 1895) correspond directly with a diminution in his characteristic wit and levity (Powers,Mark Twain: A Life, p. 437). And thus the Paige typesetting machine's ultimate failure marks a solemn turning point in Twain's life, a turning point witnessed by this very letter. By 1895, Samuel L. Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) was reckoning with a series of unfortunate financial investments made within the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In July of that year, he began a world-wide series of paid engagements and lectures to pay off his debts, during which he would circumnavigate the globe in the span of a year. This letter, penned in Vancouver on August 19 1895 during the first leg of the journey, details intimately one such failed investment-and provides a unique look into how Clemens was responding to these difficulties in real-time and on a personal level. The Paige Compositor, a new typesetting machine, was invented by James W. Paige by 1888. However, it would soon be outmoded by the more reliable and cost-efficient Linotype machine-but not before receiving significant investment (nearly $300,000, approximately $6 million today) from Clemens. Clemens held a lifelong fascination with technological innovation, and even worked as a printer-typesetter before his stint piloting riverboats (the occupation which inspired his now famous pen-name). But the vision he had for this particular invention and the faith he placed in the Paige Manufacturing Company proved to be another contributing factor to his financial woes-in addition to the bankruptcy of his publishing house, Charles L. Webster & Co., in 1894. "I was utterly amazed," writes Clemens, "when they returned my royalties and coolly progressed to gobble my stock," charting the perceived mismanagement of his stakes in the Paige Manufacturing Company following its collapse (and witnessing perhaps the first time the word "gobble" has been applied to stock trading). Clemens is seen fighting for power and agency over what he sees as bureaucratic manipulation. "The word shall does not occur. I am wholly free," he avers to McCullough, as he attempts to turn the tables against the company by arguing, in the same legalistic jargon, that it is in fact he who can "compel the other party" to respect his decisions. "They can compel me to nothing." With Clemens invoking the "powerful help" of Henry Huttleston Rogers, head of the Standard Oil Company who supported the Clemens family personally and financially, the recipient of this letter is another of the allies whom Clemens came to rely upon in his later years. The 'John' to whom the letter is addressed could feasibly be John Hay, US ambassador and writer who become a close friend of Clemens' in their later years. Abstaining from public office between 1881 and 1897, Hay, with his years of diplomatic and legalistic experience, would have been well positioned to act on Clemens' call to "bring suit" and consult with Rogers should they have deemed that Clemens' indeed had been swindled. Twain's precise complaint as expressed in this letter is not referenced in the swathes of Twain scholarship and its outcome.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Original red cloth. Two gatherings a little loose. Minor wear. A very good copy. Half morocco case. First edition of the iconic American Boy s Book. Twain s first novel written without a co-author, Tom Sawyer proved to be one of the most durable works in American literature. By the time of Twain s death, it was his top-selling book. It had been in print continuously since 1876, and has outsold all other Mark Twain works (Rasmussen). Tom Sawyer was the first printed story of a boy in which the hero was recognizable as a boy throughout the whole narrative until Tom Sawyer was written, nearly all the boys of fiction were adults with a lisp, or saintly infants, or mischievous eccentrics in the work of Dickens there were hints of boys that were boys; but Tom was the first full blown boy in all fiction the book is a landmark (Booth Tarkington). This novel of a boy growing up along the Mississippi River is set in a town called St. Petersburg, inspired by Samuel Clemens s hometown of Hannibal, Missouri. The author may have been named Tom after a San Francisco fireman whom he met in June 1863. The real Tom Sawyer was a local hero, famous for rescuing ninety passengers after a shipwreck in 1853. The two were friendly during the author s years in California, often drinking and gambling together. Twain referred to the real Tom Sawyer in Roughing It, but in later years he claimed that he himself was the model for Tom and that Sawyer was not the real name of any person I ever knew, so far as I can remember (see Smithsonian, October 2012). This first edition was issued in England on June 9, 1876, preceding the American edition by six months. It proved to be his most popular work in his lifetime: by the time Mark Twain died, it was his top selling book (Rasmussen, 458). The true first edition of Tom Sawyer is among the most difficult of the great 19th-century American novels to obtain in collector s condition.

219 x 156 mm. (8 5/8 x 6 1/8"). 22 volumes (three additional volumes were subsequently published: see below). FINE RECENT GREEN MOROCCO, HANDSOMELY GILT, BY COURTLAND BENSON, covers with elegant floral border, raised bands, spines very ornately gilt with intricate scrolling fleuron cornerpieces and lovely large floral centerpiece, top edges gilt, other edges untrimmed, 12 volumes UNOPENED. With 118 etchings and photogravures, as called for, all with lettered tissue guards. Printed on paper watermarked "Clemens." With 19 additional autographs, including those of Brander Mathews and Charles Dudley Warner (see below), and those of various illustrators of the works. BAL 3456. â Four volumes with a faint stain on a page or two each, but AN EXTRAORDINARILY HANDSOME SET IN VERY FINE CONDITION, the leaves remarkably clean, fresh, and bright, and most of the volumes obviously unread. This item offers the collector a rare opportunity to acquire all of the major Twain texts, the author's autograph, and an especially attractive set on the shelf, more than half of the volumes of which have never been opened. The quintessential American writer, Samuel L. Clemens (1835-1910), known better to the world as "Mark Twain," took what Day describes as "the authentic American idiom and 'just folks' American attitude" to produce works of lasting literary significance which are also memorably amusing. Enormously popular and highly respected, he had the rare gift of writing novels that combine profound commentary on social ills with captivating story-telling and humor that ranged from touching to outrageous. Our set was sold only to subscribers by the American Publishing Company, and is complete in 22 volumes as originally issued (three later volumes, issued and sold separately in 1903 and 1907, are not included). The original bindings for this edition are very seldom seen. For various reasons (financial pressure, strong demand for leather at the time, shortcuts taken in the production process), bindings were issued that did not stand up well to time and use. As a consequence, most sets of this edition have either been rebound or are completely falling apart. A key attraction of this set is, of course, the double signature of Clemens and Twain, but our set also contains the signatures of Brander Mathews, who wrote the biographical essay, and Charles Dudley Warner, who co-wrote "The Gilded Age," as well as those of several illustrators of these works. All of Twain's best-loved novels are present, as well as a collection of essays, some of which appear here for the first time. The handsome period-style bindings here are the work of Courtland Benson, one of the two or three most outstanding bookbinders in North America, both in terms of his structural restoration and his retrospective bindings. No. 200 OF 512 COPIES OF THE AUTOGRAPH EDITION SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. The very rare first edition in publisher's sheepskin, with the first issue point of the original drawing with the unaltered fly. Signed and dated by the author on a laid-in small card. Very good condition, front cover partially detached from spine. Previous owner's inscription on 2nd front free end paper. Housed in a handsome quarter-leather custom-make collector's clamshell case.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First Edition, First Issue printed on wove paper with the half title page printed on a separate leaf that is blank on the verso. The book is bound in the ORIGINAL publisher's blue cloth with light wear to the boards. The binding is tight with NO cocking or leaning. The pages are clean with NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A lovely UNRESTORED copy of this TRUE FIRST EDITION in collector's condition.

"(TWAIN, Mark) TAINE, Hippolyte. The Ancient Regime. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1876. Octavo, original green cloth. Housed in a custom half polished calf clamshell box. $25,000.Mark Twain's signed copy of Hippolyte Taine's The Ancient Regime, signed "Saml. L. Clemens, Hartford 1876" on the front flyleaf and annotated by him on the final text leaf, "Finished Jan 29th" and beneath that note, "Finished Sept. 10th," indicating that he read the book twice. With the bookplate prepared by Anderson Auction Company in 1911 stating "This book is from the Library of Samuel Longhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)" signed by Twain's literary executor and biographer Albert Bigelow Paine.Twain scholar Sherwood Cummings wrote of this book, "[Twain] not only referred to it during the next decade in his notebooks and correspondence, but borrowed liberally from it for material and incidents in both The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee." Moreover Twain scholar Stephen Railton (Professor at the University of Virginia) writes in his endnotes to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (New York, Barnes & Noble Classics, 2005): "As Hank implies here and more explicitly on page 256, 'le droit du siegneur' (the privilege of the lord) was to have sex with an untitled woman on her wedding night before her husband. The list of aristocratic abuses here is derived from matieral Twain originally found in Hippolyte Adolphe Taine's The Ancient Regime which was also a source for several other passages in the novel" (Endnote 13).Incidents, Customs and Social Structures Sourced by Mark Twain in The Ancient Regime and Appearing in The Prince and the PauperAncient Regime: Book Second, Chapter I, page 86: "Formerly, in the early times of feudalism, in the companionship and simplicity of the camp and the castle, the nobles served the king with their own hands, one providing for his house, another bringing a dish to his table, another disrobing him at night, and another looking after his falcons and horses."Chapter I, page 106: "Two pages remove his slippers; the Grand Master of the Wardrobe draws off his nightshirt by the right arm, and the first valet of the wardrobe by the left arms, and both of them hand it to an officer of the wardrobe, whilst a valet of the wardrobe fetches the shirt wrapped up in white taffeta."From The Prince and the Pauper, in Chapter 6: "Next the tired captive [the pauper 'King'] sat down and was going to take off his buskins, but another went down upon his knees and took the office from him."In Chapter 7: " Tom resignedly underwent the ordeal of being dressed for dinner. He found himself as finely clothed as before, but everything was different, everything changed, from his ruff to his stockings."In Chapter 14: "The weighty business of dressing began, and one courtier after another knelt and paid his court and offered to the little king his condolences upon his heavy loss, while the dressing proceeded. In the beginning, a shirt was taken up by the Chief Equerry in Waiting, who passed it to the First Lord of the Buckhounds, who passed it to the Second Gentleman of the Bedchamber, who passed it to the Head Ranger of Windsor Forest, who passed it to the Third Groom of the Stole, who passed it to the Chancellor Royal of the Duchy of Lancaster, who passed it to the Master of the Wardrobe who passed it to the First Lord of the Bedchamber, who took what was left of it and put it on Tom. Poor little wondering chap, it reminded him of passing buckets at a fire."In Ancient Regime, Book Second, Chapter II: "There are three sections of table service in all 383 officers of the table and 103 waiters at an expense of 2,177,771 livres."From The Prince and the Pauper, in Chapter 7: "He was presently conducted with much state to a spacious and ornate apartment, where a table was already set for one The room was half filled with noble servitors Tom had 384 servants besides these, but they were not all in that room "In Ancient Regime, Book Second, Chapter II, Part VI [footnote]: "M. de Conzie is surprised at four o'clock in the morning by a rival, an officer in the guards. 'Make no noise,' said he to him, 'my coat which is like yours will be brought to me and I will make a queue so that we shall be on the same footing.'"From The Prince and the Pauper, in Chapter 3: "The little Prince of Wales was garlanded with Tom's fluttering odds and ends, and the little Prince of Pauperdom was tricked out in the gaudy plumage of royalty. The two went and stood side by side before the great mirror, and lo, a miracle: there did not seem to have been any change made!" See Endnote 9 in the Barnes & Noble Classics edition: "It is through exchanging their clothes that King Edward and Tom Canty, in The Prince and the Pauper, switch places. Twain comes back to this motif again in Pudd'nhead Wilson in which a slave mother dresses her son in her master's baby's clothes, and vice versa, and so switches their identities."Incidents, Customs and Social Structures Sourced by Mark Twain in The Ancient Regime and Appearing in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's CourtIn Ancient Regime, Book One, Chapter I: "Le droit du Siegneur" (Privilege of the Lord) is discussed at length.From A Connecticut Yankee, Chapter XIII: Reference is made to le droit du seigneur in Twain's phrase, "if the freeman's daughter." Chapter XVII: Twain actually uses the term "Ancient Regime" in describing lax court morals. Chapter XVIII: "Twain makes a more explicit reference to le droit du seigneur, which was the 'privilege of the lord' to have sex with an untitled woman on her wedding night, before her husband. The list of aristocratic abuses here is derived from material Twain originally found in Hippolyte Taine's The Ancient Regime, which was also the source for several other passages in the novel." See note 13 in the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of A Connecticut Yankee. The Introduction and notes are written by Stephen Railton, professor of American Lit. Signed.

Condition: Near Fine. First American edition. A solid, Nearly Fine copy of the book, with no repairs or restoration. Spine gilt a bit dulled and slight rubbing at the spine ends and corners. Cloth generally fresh and bright and in excellent condition internally. Contemporary gift inscription on the front paste-down dated "May 18, 1885." With all three generally accepted first printing points and the frontis bust of Twain in the first state. A copy in Fine condition made $52,920 at Christies in 2023. Housed in custom quarter-leather clamshell over marbled boards. Recounting the adventures of Huckleberry Finn as he flees his own abusive father and aids Jim in his escape from slavery, Twain's novel has been praised for its "distinctly American voice," putting at its center two common people who find an uncommon friendship. "Today perhaps the novel's greatest significance lies in its conception of childhood, as a time of risk, discovery, and adventure. Huck is no innocent: He lies, steals, smokes, swears, and skips school. He accepts no authority, not from his father or the Widow Douglas or anyone else. And it is the twin images of a perilous, harrowing odyssey of adventure and perfect freedom from all restraints that so many readers find entrancing" (Mintz). A metaphor for a young and rebellious nation, as well as its individualist inhabitants, Huckleberry Finn defies genre by being simultaneously an adventure story, a road novel, a coming of age tale, an expression of nostalgia for the expansive natural spaces lost to industrialization, and an exploration of race and class. Listed on the American Scholar 100 Best American Novels and one of the 100 Best Novels Written in English. BAL 3415. MacDonnell, 31. Near Fine.

First edition, first issue, of Mark Twain's first book. "Copies were bound simultaneously in green, terra cotta, dark brown, lavender, blue deep purple, maroon and red cloth" (MacDonnell, "The Primary First Editions of Mark Twain", Firsts, Vol. 8, no. 7/8). This copy features the gilt stamp of the leaping frog positioned to the lower left of the front cover as usual (some copies have the gilt stamp of the leaping frog in the centre of the front cover, though no priority has been established between the two); it has all of the points of a first issue as delineated by BAL. "Mark Twain wrote his story of the jumping frog. at the invitation of Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne), his friend and the most popular American humorist of the day, to help fill out a volume of humorous sketches that Ward was editing. Fortuitously, and fortunately for Twain, the frog story arrived too late for inclusion in Ward's book; it was published instead as 'Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog' in the New York Saturday Press on 18 November 1865. It was soon reprinted in newspapers and comic periodicals throughout the nation, was pirated by Beadle's Dime Books, and was later collected with a new title in The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and other Sketches (1867). This humorous short story brought Twain his first popular acclaim and has proven to be his first literary masterpiece" (W. Craig Turner in The Mark Twain Encyclopaedia, 1993, pp. 133-5). BAL 3310. Small octavo. Original red cloth over bevelled boards, gilt lettered spine, front cover lettered in gilt with gilt stamp of jumping frog to lower left and blind to rear cover, brown coated endpapers. Housed in a custom black cloth slipcase. Single advert leaf on cream-yellow paper inserted between preliminary flyleaf and title. Bookseller's ticket to rear pastedown. Spine sometime cleaned, gilt retouched, a few marks to cloth, light wear to extremities, small superficial split to foot of front inner hinge, entirely sound, foxing to outer leaves, otherwise clean. A just about very good copy.

Hardback. Condition: Very Good Plus. FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE. First Edition, First State copy in the original green cloth of the Twain classic. All First State points: 1) Frontispiece of Twain with cloth visible under bust; 2) "Heliotype Printing Co." imprint; 3) P.9 (Contents): Chapter VI -- "Huck Decided"; "Him and Another Man" listed incorrectly on p.88 rather than p.87; P.57, 11 lines from bottom: "with the was" rather than "with the saw"; P.155: Final '5' off-balance; P.143: First word, the letter "L" missing from "Col". This unique spectacular First Edition copy is even more special as it was the copy of legendary actor James Cagney, and bears his bookplate. A much nicer, more presentable copy than usually seen. A much better than very good copy indeed. .

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Limited Edition. Twenty-five volumes; 5 ¾ in. x 8 ½ in. Volume One: The verso of the f.f.e.p. has the bookplate of William G. Mather (1857-1951), a Cleveland, Ohio-based industrialist and book collector. Bound in at this point is a tab reading "Original Autograph Manuscript Pages from The Gilded Age." There are two manuscript pages: the first in Twain's hand with some corrections and cross-outs; the second in the hand of Charles Dudley Warner, who was Twain's collaborator for "The Gilded Age." The verso of the half-title page in Volume One is the limitation page and states: "The Autograph Edition of Mark Twain's Works is limited to Five Hundred and Twelve Copies, of which this is No. 4 [signed]: S.L. Clemens (Mark Twain)." This is followed by (1) an engraved portrait of Twain; (2) title-page of the set; (3) the title-page for the work in Volume I ("Innocents Abroad") and (4) an essay entitled "Biographical Criticism" ( at pp. v-xxxiii), which is signed at the end by the author, Brander Matthews. All volumes are illustrated (some are photo-gravures); and some illustrations are signed. Presswork by The University Press, Cambridge. (1899-1907). Volume 10 of the set is the first volume of "The Gilded Age;" it has a limitation page reading the same as that in Volume I and is signed by Charles Dudley Warner (only). Bound in full, dark red-brown morocco leather by Pfister, with its stamp on the end-papers. With five raised bands on the spine gilt titling, and a gilt floral design on the spine and front covers, with doublures of green and dark red-brown morocco with a gilt design of floral sprays, gilt borders, gray silk end-papers; top-edges gilt. Some of the spine ends, outer hinges, or cover corners show light wear or rubbing to the leather; a few volumes show more wear. Very good +. Signed by Author(s).

Condition: Very Good. First Edition. First edition, first issue with one page of publisher's preliminary ad leaf facing the title page and unbroken type on pages 21, 66 and 198. Bound in publisher's original pebbled red cloth with beveled edges, titles in gilt on upper board and spine, with frog stamped in gilt on the lower left corner of the upper board and in blind on the lower board. Very Good or better with shallow chipping to spine ends, soiling to cloth. Superficial crack with a possible glue repair to front inner hinge, bookseller tickets to front and rear endsheets, and small stains to rear free endpaper. The author's first published book.

Hardcover. Condition: Collectible: Very Good. First Edition. Publisher's original 1/2 leather, with page edges, pastedowns, and endpapers all marbled. One of just 500 copies printed (Raptis Rare Books, internet article, March 2014) and comes with a copy of the infamous "priapic plate", one of 100 proof copies made by Merle Johnson from an original leaf from an unbound copy found in the collection of Willard S. Morse.///LAID in is a hand written response, declining an invitation, on a folded Quarry Farm labeled note, dated "Sept. 17/03", and SIGNED, "S. L. Clemens". (Quarry Farm was the home of Susan Langdon Crane, sister of Mark Twain's wife Olivia, and often the summer residence of the Twains. Mark Twain wrote, at least in part, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn while at Quarry Farm). The note sheet was created with a fold to yield 4 writing surfaces although this message is confined solely to the letterhead panel; The note was then manually folded, horizontally. It was written 5 weeks prior to the Twain family leaving for Italy and was penned during the last summer they spent together at Quarry Farm, as Olivia died in Italy the following June. ///CONDITION OF THE NOTE: Very good-near fine, with a touch of toning, faint soiling, two miniscule specks on the letterhead panel, the faint horizontal crease, and light peeling on the rear panel where it had been affixed to some other surface. ///CONDITION OF THE BOOK: The spine and corners have been professionally restored (corners still showing the bumped tips) and the marbled surfaces have some scratches and nicks. Interior condition problems: 1.) The pastedown/endpaper hinges have been reinforced, 2.) the front endpaper has a 1/8"x 1/4" upper corner chip, 3.) there is scattered light foxing on the front and rear the preliminary pages, 4.) leaves 3-18 have areas of (food?) staining heaviest on page 17 with bleeding back to the copyright page and finally vanishing on page 36, 5.) the bottom corner of page 23-24 has a 1/2"x7/8" chip. 6.) the rest of the text has occasional soiling, some perimeter stains, a few tipped corners, one dog-eared page, and most pages have light perimeter toning. ///ISSUE POINTS: The tissue guarded front plate is second state with no cloth visible under the bust. The title/copyright leaf is integral (lack of uniform opinion on this point), "Him and another man" is incorrectly listed at page 88 (instead of page 87 where it appears), page 57 has "with the was" on line 11 from the bottom, page 143 is missing the "l" in "Col." (which is part of the illustration at the top line of the text) and has the broken "b"in "body" on line 7, the final 5 of page 155 is lacking (again, lacks consensus), the illustration on page 283 is bound in with the noticeable curve on the fly of Silas Phelp's trousers, and the final leaf is blank. ///CONDITION OF THE PROOF PLATE: The plate is lightly toned and there are some creases, and a small hole (1/8" x 1/16") on the right edge; repaired on the verso with a small piece of tape. ///OVERALL: in spite of the aforementioned flaws, this is a very good and quite scarce 130 year old volume. Several of these leather bound copies are in university and library collections, while others have surely been destroyed or lost, leaving precious few for private collections. Signed.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. Octavo. Original red cloth with border and cover design blocked in black and lettering in gilt, cream coated endpapers. Housed in a blue quarter morocco solander box. The true First edition, published on 9 June, thus preceding the first American edition that appeared in mid-December by some six months. Twain chose to have the book published first in London to ensure copyright and perhaps also because he was more highly esteemed in Britain than at home. Oxford conferred an honorary doctorate on Twain in 1907, three years before his death, an honor grander than any he ever received in America. BAL 3367.

Hardcover. First Edition. First Printing. Publisher's library binding of full sheep, the scarcest of the bindings for this title, here very skillfully rebacked retaining the original leather spine labels. With 174 illustrations by E. W. Kemble. BAL 3415. Earliest issue for four points of BAL's seven points and with McBride's point. Recent Twain scholarship convincingly establishes three changes from the printing plates of the first printing of 30,000 copies and later printings: 1) an erroneous page reference "88" on page 13 later changed to "87" (BAL's point 2); 2) the misprint "with the was" on page 57 later corrected to "with the saw" (BAL's point 3); and 3) the misprint "Decided" on page 9 later changed to "Decides" (not noted by BAL). This copy has all three first printing points as well as most of the earliest points for BAL, lacking only the conjugate title page and having the conjugate page 283 with the vertical fly and the frontispiece with the credit to Heliotype but without the scarf. Hinges tight. Internally a very clean copy and very unusual as such. Light wear to corners, faint tape stains to boards. Near Fine.

Hardcover. First Edition; First Printing. Very Good. Contains the three first printing points: "Huck Decided to Leave" on p. 9; "Him and another Man" listed on p. 87; and "with the was" on p. 57. Photogravure frontispiece of Karl Gerhardt's portrait bust of Clemens, illustrations after E. W. Kemble in the text throughout. Both hinges starting. Rubbing along panel edges. Bumping at panel corners and spine crown. Chipping at spine heel. Light staining on rear end page and both sides of FEP.