The Writings of Mark Twain.

TWAIN, Mark. [Samuel L. Clemens].

Item Number: 117290

Hartford: The American Publishing Company, 1899-1907.

The autograph edition of Twain’s selected writings. Octavo, 25 volumes bound in full crushed green morocco with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, elaborate gilt ruling and cornerpeices to the panels featuring central floral morocco inlays, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, red morrocco doublures with floral morocco inlays, blue watered silk endleaves and marbled endpapers, tissue-guarded frontispieces and pictorial title pages. One of five hundred and twelve numbered copies signed by Twain on the limitation leaf, this is number 484. Additionally signed by on the limitation leaf of Vol. 10 by Charles Dudley Warner, Twain’s collaborator on The Gilded Age, and by Branden Matthews at the conclusion of his introduction in Vol. 1. Volumes 23, 24, and 25, issued separately by Plimpton Press and Harper and Brothers, respectively, “as an accommodation to purchasers of earlier volumes with a view to making their sets uniform” (BAL 3456). In very good condition. A very nice set, desirable in full morocco.

Lauded by William Faulkner as “the father of American literature”, American writer, humorist, and publisher Mark Twain’s best-known works include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), the latter often called “The Great American Novel.” “To understand America, read Mark Twain. No matter what new craziness pops up in America, I find it described beforehand by him. He was never innocent, at home or abroad” (Garry Wills).