THE TRAGEDY OF PUDD'NHEAD WILSON. And the comedy THOSE EXTRAORDINARY TWINS
by Twain, Mark
- Used
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Yarmouth, Maine, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
1894. With Marginal Illustrations. Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, 1894. Original terra-cotta cloth decorated in black.
First Edition, first printing, of "Those Extraordinary Twins," which had not yet been published in the U.K.; First American Edition, first printing, of "Pudd'nhead Wilson," which had appeared a few weeks earlier in Britain. PUDD'NHEAD is a fascinating antebellum tale about two babies (one white and one "slightly" black) switched shortly after birth, one of whom ultimately sells his own mother into slavery in order to pay off his gambling debts. This novel has come to be regarded, along with HUCKLEBERRY FINN, as one of Twain's strongest statements on the subjects of miscegenation and on the degenerative impact of slavery. (Twain spun off "Those Extraordinary Twins" from the PUDD'NHEAD manuscript, when he realized that his planned comedy had turned into a tragedy.) This copy is from the first printing, with the leaves bulking a scant 1-1/8 inches and with gatherings 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 & 8 unsigned. The printed Twain signature on the frontispiece measures 1-7/16" wide (no priority). It is a near-fine copy, with minor wear at the foot of the spine and occasional thumbing of some page margins; the original endpapers are clean and intact. McBride p. 170; Blanck 3442.
First Edition, first printing, of "Those Extraordinary Twins," which had not yet been published in the U.K.; First American Edition, first printing, of "Pudd'nhead Wilson," which had appeared a few weeks earlier in Britain. PUDD'NHEAD is a fascinating antebellum tale about two babies (one white and one "slightly" black) switched shortly after birth, one of whom ultimately sells his own mother into slavery in order to pay off his gambling debts. This novel has come to be regarded, along with HUCKLEBERRY FINN, as one of Twain's strongest statements on the subjects of miscegenation and on the degenerative impact of slavery. (Twain spun off "Those Extraordinary Twins" from the PUDD'NHEAD manuscript, when he realized that his planned comedy had turned into a tragedy.) This copy is from the first printing, with the leaves bulking a scant 1-1/8 inches and with gatherings 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 & 8 unsigned. The printed Twain signature on the frontispiece measures 1-7/16" wide (no priority). It is a near-fine copy, with minor wear at the foot of the spine and occasional thumbing of some page margins; the original endpapers are clean and intact. McBride p. 170; Blanck 3442.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Sumner & Stillman (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 15023
- Title
- THE TRAGEDY OF PUDD'NHEAD WILSON. And the comedy THOSE EXTRAORDINARY TWINS
- Author
- Twain, Mark
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Date Published
- 1894
- Keywords
- Slavery; Black; Johnson Highspot
- Bookseller catalogs
- Fiction (19th Century);
Terms of Sale
Sumner & Stillman
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Sumner & Stillman
Biblio member since 2009
Yarmouth, Maine
About Sumner & Stillman
Founded in 1980, Sumner & Stillman is a small family business providing personal service in the buying and selling of literary first editions of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA) for over 30 years.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Leaves
- Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Gatherings
- A term used in bookbinding, where a gathering of sheets is folded at the middle, then bound into the binding together. The...