Mark Twain

First edition, illustrated copy of Twain's seminal work.

• Mark Twain [S.L. Clemens] (American).
• Illustrated by E.W. Kemble.
• New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885.
• 366 pp.
• Square 8vo.
• First American edition, mixed state. 
• Inscribed by previous owner.
• Publisher's gilt- and black-stamped green pictorial cloth.

The first edition of Twain's enduring classic of boyhood, the book that prompted Hemingway to state: “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.”

With BAL issue points as follows: title-page is a cancel (BAL 2); page [13]; the illustration captioned "Him and another Man" is listed as appearing on p. 88 (BAL 1); page 57, eleventh line from the bottom reads - "...with the was..." (BAL 1); page 283, the leaf is a cancel, with the corrected engraving of Silas Phelp's trousers (BAL 3); page 155, final five larger than the first and extending beneath the line (BAL 3); page 161 has no signature mark; final leaf is a blank; portrait frontispiece, imprint of Helioype Printing Co, the scarf is not visible, and sculptor's name visible on shoulder (BAL 2).

BAL 3415.

Grolier American 87.