Twain Mark Guy Cardwell Wrote (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: As New. 1st Edition. CLASSIC: COMPELLING: AS-NEW LOA First Edition hardcover (Orig. 1982) Third Printing (c 1985), NEW slipcase w/ double-ruled borders & LOA-logo on front panel & w/ sharp NEW edges & corners, NEW blue Brillianta fabric over boards cover w/ excellent NEW edges & corners, titles & Library of America colophon handsomely gold-stamped on spine, IMMACULATE smooth-cut text-block exterior, IMPECCABLE white-on-blue patterned end-papers on heavy stock, PRISTINE interior printed in remarkably clear 10-point Linotron Galliard on SUPERB acid-free Olin Nyalite archival paper * 5.0" x 8.12" x 1.48", 0.68 kg, 1084 pp; w/ slipcase: 5.36" x 8.46" x 1.54", 0.81 kg, 1084 pp. * CONTENTS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1), Life on the Mississippi (217), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (617), Pudd'nhead Wilson (913), Chronology (1057), Note on the Texts (1065), Notes (1071) * ABOUT THE BOOK: Mark Twain is perhaps the most widely read & enjoyed of all our national writers. This LOA collection presents his best-known works, together for the first time in one volume. 'Tom Sawyer' "is simply a hymn", said its author, "put into prose form to give it a worldly air", a book where nostalgia is so strong that it dissolves the tensions & perplexities that assert themselves in the later works. Twain began 'Huckleberry Finn' the same year 'Tom Sawyer' was published, but he was unable to complete it for several more. It was during this period of uncertainty that Twain made a pilgrimage to the scenes of his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri, a trip that led eventually to 'Life on the Mississippi'. The river in Twain's descriptions is a bewitching mixture of beauty & power, seductive calms & treacherous shoals, pleasure & terror, an image of the societies it touches & transports. Each of these works is filled w/ comic & melodramatic adventure, w/ horseplay & poetic evocations of scenery, & w/ characters who have become central to American mythology (not only Tom Sawyer Huck Finn, but also Roxy, the mulatto slave in 'Puddn?head Wilson', one of the most telling portraits of a woman in American fiction. W/ each book there is evidence of a growing bafflement & despair, until w/ 'Puddn?head Wilson', high jinks & games, far from disguising the terrible cost of slavery, become instead its macabre evidence. Through each of 4 works, too, runs the Mississippi, the river that T. S. Eliot, echoing Twain, was to call the "strong brown god." For Twain, the river represented the complex & often contradictory possibilities in his own & his nation's life. The Mississippi marks the place where civilization, moving west w/ its comforts & proprieties, discovers & contends w/ the rough realities, violence, chicaneries, & promise of freedom on the frontier. It is the place, too, where the currents Mark Twain learned to navigate as a pilot (an experience recounted in 'Life on the Mississippi') move inexorably into the Deep South, so that the innocence of joyful play & boyhood along its shores eventually confronts the grim reality of slavery. ABOUT THE EDITOR: Guy Cardwell (1906?2005) was emeritus professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, & was the author of numerous books & articles about Mark Twain. * THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an award-winning, nonprofit program dedicated to publishing America's best & most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as "the most important book-publishing project in the nation's history" (Newsweek), this acclaimed series is restoring America's literary heritage in "the finest-looking, longest-lasting edition ever made" (New Republic). * SHIPPING: MNEMOSYNE carefully wraps, labels & custom-packages this fine book for FREE domestic shipment via USPS MEDIA MAIL or USPS PRIORITY MAIL for a nominal additional fee & via efficient USPS FIRST CLASS MAIL to all international shipments at our posted rates.

Hardcover. Condition: New. 1st Edition. CLASSIC: COMPELLING: NEW LOA First Edition hardcover (Orig. 1982) Fourth Printing (c 1988), NEW slipcase w/ double-ruled borders & LOA-logo on front panel & w/ sharp NEW edges & corners, NEW blue Brillianta fabric over boards cover w/ excellent NEW edges & corners, titles & Library of America colophon handsomely gold-stamped on spine, IMMACULATE smooth-cut text-block exterior, IMPECCABLE white-on-blue patterned end-papers on heavy stock, PRISTINE interior printed in remarkably clear 10-point Linotron Galliard on SUPERB acid-free Olin Nyalite archival paper * 5.0" x 8.12" x 1.48", 0.68 kg, 1084 pp; w/ slipcase: 5.36" x 8.46" x 1.54", 0.81 kg, 1084 pp. * CONTENTS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1), Life on the Mississippi (217), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (617), Pudd'nhead Wilson (913), Chronology (1057), Note on the Texts (1065), Notes (1071) * ABOUT THE BOOK: Mark Twain is perhaps the most widely read & enjoyed of all our national writers. This LOA collection presents his best-known works, together for the first time in one volume. 'Tom Sawyer' "is simply a hymn", said its author, "put into prose form to give it a worldly air", a book where nostalgia is so strong that it dissolves the tensions & perplexities that assert themselves in the later works. Twain began 'Huckleberry Finn' the same year 'Tom Sawyer' was published, but he was unable to complete it for several more. It was during this period of uncertainty that Twain made a pilgrimage to the scenes of his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri, a trip that led eventually to 'Life on the Mississippi'. The river in Twain's descriptions is a bewitching mixture of beauty & power, seductive calms & treacherous shoals, pleasure & terror, an image of the societies it touches & transports. Each of these works is filled w/ comic & melodramatic adventure, w/ horseplay & poetic evocations of scenery, & w/ characters who have become central to American mythology (not only Tom Sawyer Huck Finn, but also Roxy, the mulatto slave in 'Puddn?head Wilson', one of the most telling portraits of a woman in American fiction. W/ each book there is evidence of a growing bafflement & despair, until w/ 'Puddn?head Wilson', high jinks & games, far from disguising the terrible cost of slavery, become instead its macabre evidence. Through each of 4 works, too, runs the Mississippi, the river that T. S. Eliot, echoing Twain, was to call the "strong brown god." For Twain, the river represented the complex & often contradictory possibilities in his own & his nation's life. The Mississippi marks the place where civilization, moving west w/ its comforts & proprieties, discovers & contends w/ the rough realities, violence, chicaneries, & promise of freedom on the frontier. It is the place, too, where the currents Mark Twain learned to navigate as a pilot (an experience recounted in 'Life on the Mississippi') move inexorably into the Deep South, so that the innocence of joyful play & boyhood along its shores eventually confronts the grim reality of slavery. ABOUT THE EDITOR: Guy Cardwell (1906?2005) was emeritus professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, & was the author of numerous books & articles about Mark Twain. * THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an award-winning, nonprofit program dedicated to publishing America's best & most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as "the most important book-publishing project in the nation's history" (Newsweek), this acclaimed series is restoring America's literary heritage in "the finest-looking, longest-lasting edition ever made" (New Republic). * SHIPPING: MNEMOSYNE carefully wraps, labels & custom-packages this fine book for FREE domestic shipment via USPS MEDIA MAIL or USPS PRIORITY MAIL for a nominal additional fee & via efficient USPS FIRST CLASS MAIL to all international shipments at our posted rates.