CLEMENS, SAMUEL L. | The Prince and the Pauper: A Tale for Young people of All Ages. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882

The Property of a Gentleman

CLEMENS, SAMUEL L. 

The Prince and the Pauper: A Tale for Young people of All Ages. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882

8vo (8 3/8 x 6 1/2 in.; 213 x 165 mm). Facsimile holograph and wood-engraved frontispiece, Franklin Press imprint on verso of title-page, numerous text illustrations, chapter vignettes; minor toning. Publisher's pictorial green cloth (BAL state A), stamped in gilt and black, plain endpapers and edges; slight rubbing to extremities. 

First American edition

The Prince and the Pauper—the first of Clemens's historical novels—exemplifies the author's later claim, "I have never written a book for boys; I write for grown-ups who have been boys." The story was inspired by Charlotte Yonge's Little Duke, which Clemens found in his sister-in-law's library at Quarry Farm.

REFERENCES

BAL 3402