Clemens, Samuel Langhorne | The Definitive Edition of Mark Twain's Writings, double-signed as Clemens and Twain

The Passion of American Collectors: Property of Barbara and Ira Lipman

Clemens, Samuel Langhorne

The Writings of Mark Twain, New York: Gabriel Wells, 1922–1925

37 volumes, 8vo (218 x 114 mm). Title-pages printed in red and black with engraved vignette of a steamboat, frontispieces and numerous plates with red-captioned tissue-guards; a few leaves roughly opened. Original three-quarter blue crushed morocco over moiré-patterned blue cloth by Stikeman, spines gilt in four compartments, top edges gilt, others uncut; spine of vol. 1 with a couple of gouges, some rubbing and occasional repair to spine extremities, a number of corners bumped.

The Definitive Edition, copy 128 of 1024 sets, with the double signature of the author on the front flyleaf of the first volume ("S. L. Clemens | Mark Twain") and an attestation signed by Albert Bigelow Paine, Clemens's biographer and literary executor, that the flyleaves were signed in 1906 in anticipation of a definitive edition. The final eight volumes comprise Paine's biography of Clemens, his selection of letters by the author, and his heavily expurgated edition of Clemens's Autobiography.

REFERENCE

BAL 3691