Browse classic works by American literature great, Mark Twain. Discover signed, rare, and first editions of titles Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Jumping Frog, and more.

Mark Twain

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, second state of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=mark%20twain&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twain</a>'s The Prince and the Pauper.<ul><li>Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens] (American).&nbsp;</li><li>The Prince and the Pauper: A Tale for Young People of All Ages.</li><li>Boston: James R. Osgood, 1882.</li><li>With 192 illustrations.</li><li>Franklin Press imprint on verso of title page, corrected text on pages 124, 263, &amp; 362.</li><li>Bound in the publisher's deluxe binding of half tan calf, gilt lettered red and black leather spine labels, marbled pastedowns, endpapers, and edges.</li></ul> The Prince and the Pauper, set in 1537, was the first of Clemens's historical novels and was inspired by Charlotte Yonge's Little Duke (1854), which Clemens found in his sister-in-law's library at Quarry Farm.

The Prince and the Pauper

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Type=Fine%2520Bindings%2520and%2520Sets" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Finely bound</a> Memorial Edition each, having inserted a page of original manuscript material in the author's own hand, by arrangement with the estate of Samuel L. Clemens (<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings&amp;query=Mark%20Twain&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mark Twain</a>) with manuscript notes for his last will and testament; limited to 90 copies.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 37 volumes.</li><li>Mark Twain [Samuel L.&nbsp;Clemens] (American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Harper &amp; Brothers,&nbsp;1929.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Signed by Harper &amp; Brothers, no. 25 of 90 copies.</li><li>Bound in three-quarters blue morocco gilt, by STIKEMAN, top edge gilt.</li></ul> The Memorial Edition, issued in ninety copies, with a leaf of manuscript, was printed at the same time as the Stormfield Edition. This set is finely bound by Stikeman and includes a spectacular manuscript memorandum from the pen of Samuel Clemens encapsulating the concerns of his later years. On a sheet of notepaper of The Grosvenor Fifth Avenue &amp; Tenth Street, undated (circa 1909?) he writes a list of tasks: Go to 44 Wall &amp; finish willHaircut at 26Rogers ask about will &amp; answer Skinner by telephoneSafe Dep. &amp; leave stock &amp; make list [underscored twice]Harpers, sign the books &amp; leave MSgo to 44 Wall He has struck through several items on the list, and written a draft of a letter to his daughter Jean (1880-1909):Jean Dear, I’ve been to the Harpers and told them to send you the Martyrdom of an Empress. Lovingly, Father On the other side, Clemens has written a listing of his shares, with associated costs, including 100 shares of Borden’s Cond. Milk and Union Pacific preferred, 200 shares of U.S. Steel preferred, and stocks and bonds in Am. Mec. Cash. There are also notes on his holdings in English Plasmon and the Bandar Log Press. The list is headed "[Preserve this.]” and marked below: “Last Will &amp; Testament.”“The above are in my box in the Produce Exchange Safe Deposit.” “Rogers” is Henry Huttleston Rogers (1840-1909), oil and railroad tycoon and Clemens’ great friend and benefactor for a decade and a half. Rogers had secured the Clemens copyrights for Livy in the failure of Charles L. Webster and Co. in 1894. Rogers gave Clemens sound financial advice (but Clemens was still prone to enthusiasms and speculations).

Memorial Edition of The Writings Of Mark Twain

A first printing copy of the classic American children's book about an orphan boy growing up on the banks of the Mississippi River in Missouri.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>Hartford, Connecticut: The American Publishing Company, 1876.&nbsp;</li><li>Bound in original blue pictorial cloth elaborately stamped in black and gilt on spine and front board, peach endpapers, triple fly leaves on laid paper.&nbsp;</li></ul> While Twain is best known today as the author of canonical children's books like this one and its sequel, Huck Finn, before Tom Sawyer he was actually famous instead as a travel writer and humorist lecturer. Tom Sawyer was Twain's first novel entirely composed by him (an earlier novel, The Gilded Age, was co-authored with his friend Charles Dudley Warner). While it did eventually achieve bestseller status, its initial reception was modest, with a first printing of only 5,000 copies. Today, its reputation has made it a highly sought rarity in the first printing, as here, and copies in great condition are scarce. Twain bibliographer Kevin MacDonnell summarizes it thus: "This was a true boy's book, and surviving copies are proof of how rough on books little boys can be."

Adventures of Tom Sawyer

First printing, state A, of the continuing travels of Tom Sawyer, with authorial responsibility assigned to "Huck Finn, edited by Mark Twain."<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Charles L. Webster &amp; Company,&nbsp;1894.</li><li>Illustrated with half-tone plates by Dan Beard.</li><li>Bound in original tan pictorial cloth.</li></ul>

Tom Sawyer Abroad

A first-edition copy of Mark Twain's A Curious Dream and Other Sketches.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>London:&nbsp;George Routledge and Sons,&nbsp;1872.</li><li>150 pages.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Spine tan with black lettering,</li><li>Housed in modern cloth slipcase with chemise, light brown with gilt lettering on black spine label.</li></ul>

A Curious Dream and Other Sketches

Mark Twain | Thomas F. Madigan

A deluxe edition of the book Word Shadows of the Great: The Lure of Autograph Collecting, which includes a handwritten manuscript leaf from Mark Twain's A Speech in Praise of Women.<ul><li>Thomas F. Madigan (American).</li><li>New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1930.</li><li>Numbered 298 of 300 copies.</li><li>Twain's manuscript leaf is written in ink on paper and is matted within the book.</li><li>Bound in original Japan vellum spine and boards and slipcase, with original glassine.</li><li>Accompanied by two typed letters, signed, from Madigan to a New York collector.</li></ul> It is well known that Mark Twain was extraordinarily devoted to his wife and daughters, and this is a remarkable testimony to his great love of women throughout history and literature. Only one other leaf of this manuscript is known to have survived.

Word Shadows of the Great with A Speech in Praise of Women Manuscript Leaf 

A single leaf from Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner's work The Gilded Age.<ul><li>Single manuscript leaf, taken from a set.</li><li>Written in Mark Twain's hand.</li><li>This page is from chapter 34.</li><li>Removed from binding.</li><li>Embossed stamp at top left.</li></ul> Written by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age was hatched over the dinner table when Clemens and Warner were challenged by their wives to write a work that would be better than those they were busy complaining about. Clemens wrote the first eleven chapters, based on members of his family including his father and mother, while Warner wrote the next twelve chapters, purely fictionally. The remaining chapters were generally written by one or the other, while the resolution was written in tandem.

The Gilded Age Manuscript Leaf

A first edition, illustrated copy of Mark Twain's A True Story, and the Recent Carnival of Crime.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1877.</li><li>92 pages</li><li>Illustrated, including 4 full-page illustrations.</li><li>Bound in the original green cloth, upper cover blocked in black and lettered in gilt.</li></ul> The first part of this work, A True Story, was first published in The Atlantic in November 1874. The story is a retelling of the experiences of Mary Ann Cord (renamed “Aunt Rachel” in the story), the African-American cook at Clemens' sister-in-law’s farm in Elmira, New York. Born into slavery in Virginia, she recounts the horror of her husband and seven children being taken away from her at a slave auction. She is sold to a North Carolina plantation, but when freed by Union forces during the Civil War, she stays and works as a cook for a regiment of Union soldiers. When the regiment is joined by a colored regiment, she is shocked to be reunited with her youngest son who had been a fugitive slave prior to the war. Written in dialect later made famous by Twain in Huck Finn, A True Story also appeared within Twain's Sketches New and Old (1875). This edition, issued with another story in which Clemens recounts being visited by his own conscience in the form of a dwarf, was issued as part of Osgood's Vest Pocket Series.

A True Story, and the Recent Carnival of Crime

A first-edition copy of Mark Twain's Punch, Brothers, Punch! And Other Sketches.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>New York: Slote, Woodman &amp; Co, 1878.</li><li>140 pages.</li><li>Small octavo.</li><li>Includes the following: “Punch, Brother, Punch;” “Speech on the Weather...;” “Rogers;” “Map of Paris (with Map);” “Random Notes of an Idle Excursion;” “Speech at a Dinner of the Knights of St. Patrick;” “An Encounter with an Interviewer;” “The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence, etc.;” “The Canvasser’s Tale.”</li><li>Green cloth stamped in black and gilt, signed George Kirby Holmes on flyleaf.</li></ul>

Punch, Brothers, Punch! And Other Sketches

A first-edition copy of Mark Twain's&nbsp;Punch, Brothers, Punch! And Other Sketches.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>New York: Slote, Woodman &amp; Co, 1878.</li><li>Small octavo.</li><li>Bound in the original red coated pictorial paper wrappers with spine reading “Mark Twain's Sketches," "Price, 25 Cents."</li></ul>

A finely bound, first edition and first issue copy of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>Illustrated by F. T. Merrill.&nbsp;</li><li>The Prince and the Pauper, A Tale for Young People of All Ages.</li><li>Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882.</li><li>411 pages.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>Franklin imprint on the copyright page.</li><li>Bound in publisher's half morocco over marbled covered boards with matching marbled endpapers and marbled edges.</li></ul>

A finely bound, first American edition of Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>Illustrated by E.W. Kemble.&nbsp;</li><li>New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885.</li><li>366 pages.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Bound in publisher's deluxe Morocco binding, deluxe half brown morocco and marbled boards, gilt spine with raised bands, with marbled edges and endpapers.</li></ul> The first edition comprised 30,000 copies; the publisher Webster announced that 20,000 would be bound in green or blue cloth ($2.75), 2,500 in a sheepskin library binding ($3.25), and 500 in this deluxe half morocco binding ($4.25). The remaining copies were perhaps bound in the same proportion. In his "Huck Finn among the Issue-Mongers," Kevin MacDonnell has shown that there are only three points which distinguish the first printing from the second printing of 10,000 copies:"the plates were corrected to reflect three changes in the text: at page 13 the erroneous page reference '88' was changed to '87'; at page 57 the misprint 'with the was' was corrected to 'with the saw'; and at page 9 the misprint 'Decided' was corrected to 'Decides.'" Our copy exhibits all three first printing points. The Uncle Silas plate at page 283, which was defaced at some point during the printing, is here in the cancel state. As for the other points enumerated by Blanck and Johnson, they derived from corrections made to the electrotyped plates during the course of printing and do not indicate a priority of issue. Huckleberry Finn 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.”

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, First American Edition

First edition of Mark Twain's travel narrative Following the Equator, A Journey Around the World with numerous illustrations by the best artists of the period.<ul><li>Mark Twain [S.L.&nbsp;Clemens] (American).</li><li>Hartford, Connecticut: The American Publishing Company, 1897.</li><li>712 pages.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Hartford imprint on title page and the signature mark "11" at p. 161.</li><li>Bound in half-red Morocco and marbled covers with marbled endpapers, top edge gilt with gilt lettering and designs on spine.</li></ul>

Following The Equator, A Journey Around the World

American first edition, first issue of Mark Twain’s classic&nbsp;The Prince and the Pauper.<ul><li>Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens] (American).</li><li>Illustrations by Frank Merrill (American), John Harley (American), and L. S. Ipsen (Danish-American).</li><li>The Prince and the Pauper: A Tale for Young People of All Ages.</li><li>J.R. Osgood and Company: Boston, 1882.</li><li>411 pages.</li><li>192 illustrations.</li><li>Bound in new full green morocco, gilt edges and gilt decorations with facsimile signature of Mark Twain and Samuel Clemens, and the original cover and spine are bound into the rear of the book.</li></ul>

Rebound first edition, first printing of Twain's famed children's book.<ul><li>Mark Twain (American).</li><li>Hartford:&nbsp;The American Publishing Company,&nbsp;1876.&nbsp;</li><li>[I]–XVI, [17]–[275] pages.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Rebound in green cloth with gilt lettering on spine.</li></ul>

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

First American edition of Twain's The Prince and the Pauper: A Tale for Young People of All Ages.<ul><li>Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens]&nbsp;(American).</li><li>Boston:&nbsp;James R. Osgood &amp; Co,&nbsp;1882.</li><li>411 pages.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Includes 192 illustrations.</li><li>Bound in original green cloth gilt.</li><li>Housed in gilt-stamped slipcase.</li></ul>

Finely printed edition of the story that first brought Twain fame, exceptionally scarce with his signature on the front pastedown.<ul><li>Mark Twain [S.L.&nbsp;Clemens] (American).</li><li>Illustrated by F. Strothmann (American).</li><li>New York and London:&nbsp;Harper &amp; Brothers,&nbsp;1903.</li><li>[4], 66 pages.&nbsp;</li><li>Black and white frontispiece.</li><li>Signed by Twain in black ink on front pastedown.</li><li>Bound in original red pictorial cloth with frog design stamped in brown, white and green.</li></ul> Twain's first published works, as young as 16, were brief but hilarious retellings of events he had witnessed, a formula he would carry into his earliest professional work as a journalist out West. Invited by the famous comedian writer Artemus Ward to contribute a humorous story to one of his collections, Twain sent a piece across the country only to have it left out because it arrived too late. That piece, a riff on the well-known story in the West about a confidence man getting conned in a frog leaping contest, ended up in the newspaper New York Saturday Press instead – and took off. Newspapers across the country picked up the story and Twain became a literary sensation. In 1867, Twain published it as the leading story in his first book: in a run of only 1,000 copies, it sold out within 5 days. This early 20th-century edition is unusual and exceptionally desirable, signed by him.

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

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Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain, Thomas F. Madigan

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain