The Writings.

by TWAIN, Mark.

$57,566 · Offered by Biblio

First edition · Signed

Hartford: American Publishing Company,, 1899-1907. With manuscript leaves and original illustrations The Autograph Edition, number 128 of 512 copies signed by the author as both Twain and Clemens. This magnificent set is adorned with numerous original illustrations and features two tipped-in manuscript leaves from The Gilded Age, one by Twain, the other by his co-author Charles Dudley Warner. The volumes are also signed by Warner, many of the illustrators, and Brander Matthews, who provided the introduction. The Autograph Edition was the "principal" collected edition of Twain (Johnson, p. 77). It was sold to subscribers and offered in custom bindings, this set bound in an elaborate art nouveau style. The first 21 volumes were issued by the American Publishing Company in 1899. First editions of the anthologies How to Tell a Story (1900) and My Début as a Literary Person (1903) were then added as the next volumes. In 1903, Harper and Collins became the exclusive publishers for Twain. They issued The $30,000 Bequest (1907) and Christian Science (1907) as the final two volumes of the Autograph Edition, "as an accommodation to purchasers of earlier volumes with a view to making their sets uniform". 25 vols, octavo (210 x 140 mm). Publisher's deluxe purple morocco by the Ave Bindery, spines with raised bands, lettered and tooled in gilt with floral motif inlaid with red morocco, covers panelled with similar floral design, gilt floral turn-ins, red morocco doublures, red watered sil

• Year: 1899
• Edition: First Edition
• Binding: hardcover

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