1871 Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance

Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Publishers' Original Binding

The first edition, second issue, with the advertisement for Ball, Black & Co., to the verso of the title page.

Bound in the publisher's original green cloth.

An entertaining work comprised of two short stories: "A Burlesque Autobiography" and "First Romance". While being referred to as autobiographical, these tales present wholly fictional characters, who are supposedly part of Twain's ancestry.

Illustrated with vignette engravings throughout.

The work of American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who wrote under his well-known pseudonym Mark Twain. Known for his humorist works, Twain was celebrated as one of the greatest American writers, being labelled by William Faulkner as "the father of American literature".

Deemed by the author as not one of his personal favourites, Twain bought all the printing plates of this book and destroyed them, two years after publication.

With an additional page of advertisements to the rear, as well as a newspaper cutting of Twain and one of his other poems.

Ink and pencil inscriptions from previous owners to the front endpaper, including that of E. O. Austin, likely to be Edward Oramel Austin, who was a settler and founder of Austin, Pennsylvania.