Rubaiyat of a Persian Kitten

by TWAIN Mark HERFORD Oliver

$16,500 · Offered by Biblio

First edition · Signed

1904. Signed. HERFORD, Oliver. The Rubaiyat of a Persian Kitten. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1904. Small octavo, original printed gray boards rebacked, original spine laid down. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $16,500.First edition, presentation copy from Mark Twain to his daughter, boldly inscribed by Twain on the front pastedown, ÒClara Clemens from one of her principal friendsÑher father.ÓHerford's playful satire of the The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, beautifully illustrated by him, follows the adventures of a Persian kitten in search of milk who encounters a series of calamities (""And that Inverted Bowl of Skyblue Delf/ That helpless lies upon the Pantry ShelfÑ/ Lift not your eyes to It for help, for It/ Is quite as empty as you are yourself""). Herford, English-born cartoonist, illustrator, poet, author and wit, was a regular contributor to such magazines as Harper's Weekly and Punch. He evidently was acquainted with Twain, as he had given a copy of his first book, Artful Anticks, to the family and had inscribed it to Twain or perhaps to Clara ""in memory of Dec. 25th 1901"" and in it drew a small picture of a cat, which he identified as ""not a good cat but my own."" 1904, the year in which the Rubaiyat of a Persian Kitten appeared, was a difficult one for the Clemens family. Livy, who had never fully recovered from the tragic death of daughter Susy in 1897 of meningitis, died after a long illness in June. Clara attempted to run the household and to

• Year: 1904
• Edition: First Edition
• Binding: hardcover

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