Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone

Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] Two volumes: (i) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Hartford: The American Publishing Company, 1876 FIRST EDITION, 8vo (213 x 164 mm), second printing, issue A, frontispiece and 159 wood-engraved text illustrations by True Williams and others, half-title, 4 pages of publisher's advertisements at end, publisher's decorative blue cloth stamped in gilt and black, light peach endpapers, front free endpaper cut out, extremities bumped First American edition, second printing, issue B of text with points: printed on laid paper, versos of half-title and preface not blank, p. XII mispaginated XVI. (ii) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Comrade). New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885 FIRST EDITION, 8vo (215 x 167 mm), frontispiece and 173 text illustrations by E.W. Kemble, half title, photogravure plate of a portrait bust of Clemens by Karl Gerhardt (BAL state 2), publisher's pictorial green cloth, stamped in gilt and black, light peach endpapers, plain edges, housed in green cloth slipcase, very occasional spotting, hinges starting, binding slightly worn, boards marked First edition, early issue of one of the Great American Novels. First editions of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn present a welter of issue points, and copies are usually described as being "early" or "later" issues, as an absolute priority of issue has been impossible to establish. The points of this copy are as follows: frontispiece is "Heliotype," tipped in, cloth not visible on table; title-page is tipped in, dated 1885, with 1884 copyright on verso; p. 13, has "Him and another Man" listed at p. 88; p. 57 reads "with the was"; p. 59, has "le" for "let"; p. 143., has "Co" for "Col."; p. 155 set with larger font of second 5; p. 283, the leaf is a cancel and the engraving has been corrected. "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn." Ernest Hemingway, The Green Hills of Africa, 1935. The UK first edition of Huckleberry Finn was issued six months before this first American edition, in red cloth. The American edition was issued in green and blue cloth, with a small number bound in leather, in February 1885. Green cloth is most frequently seen. LITERATURE: (i) BAL 3369; Grolier, American 79; Johnson, p. 27; (ii) BAL 3415; Grolier, American 87; Johnson 43–50

View 1 of Lot 141: Mark Twain | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, 1876, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, New York, 1885, first editions

mark twain | the adventures of tom sawyer, hartford, 1876, and the adventures of huckleberry finn, new york, 1885, first editions

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 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

<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 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

An illustration from Mark Twain's classic novel The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, which has been signed by the artist.<ul><li>Worth Brehm (American, 1883-1928).</li><li>Signed on the lower left.</li><li>Charcoal on artist's board.</li><li>This work is presented matted and framed.</li></ul> A poignant depiction of the scene when Huck, out hunting on Jackson's Island, meets the runaway slave Jim. Huck stands at the left of the drawing, while Jim, at the foot of a large tree, kneels in supplication. The drama of the moment is enhanced by the artist's use of light, which, coming from behind Huck, falls on the tree, bringing the figure of Jim into sharp relief.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Illustration, Signed

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