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[CLEMENS, Samuel Langhorne] TWAIN, Mark.
The Writings.
Publisher: London: Chatto and Windus, 1899–1903
Stock code: 50171
Price: £25,000 Currency Conversion
Limited edition, number 96 of 620 sets of the "Author's Edition de Luxe" signed "SL Clemens (Mark Twain)". In this set, volume I has three items of original autograph material bound in before the limitation leaf: (1) CLEMENS, Samuel L. Autograph manuscript, a page from the manuscript of The Gilded Age (1873), 1 page, 8vo (8 x 5 in.), in ink on lined stationery comprising 23 lines, with several deletions and word substitutions, paginated "1192" at top. The text recording a conversation between Colonel Sellers and Washington Hawkins in which they discuss the moral effects of fighting corruption and the expulsion of members of Congress; (2) WARNER, Charles Dudley. Autograph manuscript, a page from the manuscript of The Gilded Age, 1 page, 8vo, in ink on lined stationery comprising 19 lines, paginated "1156" at top. The text describing the failure of Mr. Bolton's mine in spite of Philip continuing to work throughout the autumn in hopes of discovering coal; (3) CLEMENS, Samuel L. Autograph letter signed "Mark" 11 March, to his publisher Elisha Bliss, in which he comments on how busy he is and recommends that Bliss talk over unspecified points with Warner in order to save him the trouble. The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (Hartford, 1873) was a collaborative attempt by Twain and Charles Dudley Warner to write a "contemporary" novel. The first novel either author attempted and their only collaboration, it was completed in the record time of three months: "With their plots staked out, Clemens and Warner began working like tunnel crews boring from opposite sides of the mountain... In general, as he [Twain] liked to say, he contributed the fact and Warner the fiction" (Justin Kaplan, Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, 1966, p. 160).
25 volumes, octavo (206 × 144 mm). Contemporary full ochre morocco, covers panelled in gilt to a geometric art-nouveau design, spine with four raised bands, compartments tooled in gilt, red morocco doublures with geometric designs in gilt at corners, red moiré silk free endpapers, top edges gilt, others uncut. Engraved titles, frontispieces and plates. Additional original manuscript material bound in to vol. I, as detailed below. Spines very lightly tanned, a superb set.
