The Gilded Age: A Novel.

by Twain, Mark and Charles Dudley Warner. [Samuel L. Clemens]

$65,000 · Offered by Biblio

First edition

London: George Routledge and Sons, 1874. First English edition of the rarest of Mark Twain's works: the only novel he wrote with a collaborator and the book that gave the era its name in history. Octavo, three volumes, original publishers green cloth, gilt titles to the spine, illustrated. The only multi-volume work Clemens produced, except for the two-volume Tramp Abroad (London, 1880), the first English edition of The Gilded Age is the rarest of Mark Twain's major works and the most difficult to obtain. Its rarity is due largely to its format, three volume sets were quite expensive and were produced almost solely for circulating libraries during the Reconstruction era, and so, the books were vigorously read by many readers, generally rebound, and most were pulped in paper drives during the Second World War. In 1873, Samuel Clemens had written only four other major books - The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography, and Roughing It. A relatively unknown American author in London at the time, the English edition would have necessarily been small, no more than a few hundred. From the library of noted collector Frederic R. Kirkland. Kirkland formed a well-known collection of Americana and American and British literature, much of which was sold in 1962. In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco folding chemise slipcase. Exceptionally rare, with one other copy traced in auction records and only the Y

• Publisher: George Routledge and Sons
• Year: 1874
• Edition: First Edition
• Binding: hardcover

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