THE WRITINGS OF MARK TWAIN

Hartford, Conn: American Publishing Company, 1899-1900. No. 200 OF 512 COPIES OF THE AUTOGRAPH EDITION SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. 219 x 156 mm. (8 5/8 x 6 1/8"). 22 volumes (three additional volumes were subsequently published: see below)..
FINE RECENT GREEN MOROCCO, HANDSOMELY GILT, BY COURTLAND BENSON, covers with elegant floral border, raised bands, spines very ornately gilt with intricate scrolling fleuron cornerpieces and lovely large floral centerpiece, top edges gilt, other edges untrimmed, 12 volumes UNOPENED. With 118 etchings and photogravures, as called for, all with lettered tissue guards. Printed on paper watermarked "Clemens." With 19 additional autographs, including those of Brander Mathews and Charles Dudley Warner (see below), and those of various illustrators of the works. BAL 3456. ◆Four volumes with a faint stain on a page or two each, but AN EXTRAORDINARILY HANDSOME SET IN VERY FINE CONDITION, the leaves remarkably clean, fresh, and bright, and most of the volumes obviously unread.

This item offers the collector a rare opportunity to acquire all of the major Twain texts, the author's autograph, and an especially attractive set on the shelf, more than half of the volumes of which have never been opened. The quintessential American writer, Samuel L. Clemens (1835-1910), known better to the world as "Mark Twain," took what Day describes as "the authentic American idiom and 'just folks' American attitude" to produce works of lasting literary significance which are also memorably amusing. Enormously popular and highly respected, he had the rare gift of writing novels that combine profound commentary on social ills with captivating story-telling and humor that ranged from touching to outrageous. Our set was sold only to subscribers by the American Publishing Company, and is complete in 22 volumes as originally issued (three later volumes, issued and sold separately in 1903 and 1907, are not included). The original bindings for this edition are very seldom seen. For various reasons (financial pressure, strong demand for leather at the time, shortcuts taken in the production process), bindings were issued that did not stand up well to time and use. As a consequence, most sets of this edition have either been rebound or are completely falling apart. A key attraction of this set is, of course, the double signature of Clemens and Twain, but our set also contains the signatures of Brander Mathews, who wrote the biographical essay, and Charles Dudley Warner, who co-wrote "The Gilded Age," as well as those of several illustrators of these works. All of Twain's best-loved novels are present, as well as a collection of essays, some of which appear here for the first time. The handsome period-style bindings here are the work of Courtland Benson, one of the two or three most outstanding bookbinders in North America, both in terms of his structural restoration and his retrospective bindings..