TWAIN, Mark.

£4,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

What Is Man? First edition, limited issue, number 143 of 250 copies; a presentation copy, inscribed beneath the limitation by Twain's friend and literary executor, "John S[andborn] Phillips from A[lbert] B[igelow] Paine". This copy is in the second issue as usual, with page 131 a cancel. The recipient was the publisher and co-founder of McClure's Magazine, which published work by Twain, including diary excerpts later collected in Following the Equator (1897).What Is Man is a summary of Twain's personal philosophy, refined over a quarter of a century. "Every thought in [What Is Man] has been thought (and accepted as unassailable truth) by millions upon millions of men - and concealed, kept private. Why did they not speak out? Because they dreaded (and could not bear) the disapproval of the people around them. Why have not I published? The same reason has restrained me, I think. I can find no other". Twain published it anonymously and gave copies to close personal friends. On his death in 1910, Paine is believed to have taken over the remaining copies to distribute.

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