The Innocents Abroad, or the New Pilgrims' Progress[together with] the Publisher's Prospectus for The Innocents Abroad

Hartford: The American Publishing Company, 1871. First editions. Near Fine. First edition, first issue with all first issue points called for by BAL 3316. Missing page numbers in the Table of Contents on pages xvii-xviii; Last entry reads "Thankful Devotion-A Newspaper Valedictory"; No illustration on p. 129; P. 643 shows "Chapter XLI"; Text ends on p. 651 followed by five Pages of ads with "Personal History" on p. 654.

A Near Fine copy. Original publisher's brown cloth, stamped in gilt on spine. Front board stamped in gilt and ruled in blind. Back board stamped in blind. Brown coated endpapers. All edges speckled brown. Bottom corners rubbed. Top of spine with a small amount of fraying. Overall, a very bright, clean copy with no rubbing to gilt and better than usually encountered.

Publisher's prospectus also Near Fine. Full black cloth. Front board stamped in gilt and ruled in blind. Back board stamped in blind. Brown coated endpapers. Fold-out Bible advertisement with a large closed tear, professionally repaired. A bit of rubbing and soiling to binding. Some dampstaining along outer edges of second frontispiece and final two leaves. Two pages of order sheets with pencil and ink orders. Both volumes chemised and housed together in a double, quarter morocco slipcase. Previous owner's bookplate on chemise of each volume.

A common enough book, but quite scarce in this condition. The last truly Fine copy brought $10,000 at auction (Sotheby's Library of an English Bibliophile Part II, 2011). Twain's second book after Jumping Frog, a humorous narrative of his travels through Europe and Israel with a group of American tourists on board a retired Civil War vessel. The author's most popular book during his lifetime, outselling what modern scholars consider his major literary works Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.

BAL 3316. Johnson, Twain, p. 9. Near Fine.