Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old.
TWAIN, Mark. [Samuel L. Clemens].
Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old.
First edition, first issue of Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old
Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, 1875.
$2,250.00
In Stock
Item Number: 150673
First edition, first issue of Twain’s classic collection of short stories with the footnote on page 119 repeated on page 120 and the erratum inserted on page 299 denying Mark Twain’s authorship of the 11-line skit From Hospital Days (BAL 3364). Octavo, original publisher’s blue cloth elaborately stamped in gilt, illustrated with frontispiece and numerous in-text illustrations by True Williams. In near fine condition. A very sharp example.
A collection of short comic pieces, Mark Twain’s Sketches New and Old brought together many of Twain’s early sketches, essays, and brief narratives originally published in newspapers and magazines. The volume included travel anecdotes, frontier humor, satirical observations, and burlesques of social manners, politics, and religion, showcasing Twain’s developing narrative voice and his use of exaggeration and irony. Several sketches drew on his experiences in the American West, while others relied on parody and mock-serious argument to expose hypocrisy and pretension. Taken together, the collection illustrated the range of Twain’s short-form writing and the foundations of the comic style that later defined his major works.
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