Books

First edition, first issue, with the plates in first states: the frontispiece with the fine underlying lines almost vertical, and the second frontispiece with the caption reading "Moses". This title, Twain's third travel book, was sold by subscription only, the publisher forbidding sale of copies to retail bookstores. Readers have generally appreciated A Tramp Abroad more for its comic value than its travel narrative. "Modern editions, however, have ignored the book's original illustrations - which are an integral part of its humour" (Rasmussen, p. 489). Twain himself contributed some drawings, promising in an interview "that need not frighten anybody, for I shall draw only a few" (LeMaster and Wilson, p.743). Octavo (210 x 139 mm). Finely bound in brown morocco by Bayntun c.1980, spine with raised bands, compartments lettered and elaborately tooled in gilt, French fillet to covers, gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, edges gilt. Engraved portrait frontispiece with tissue-guard, 2 plates, numerous illustrations, many full-page. A fine copy. BAL 3386; Johnson, pp. 30-31. J. R. LeMaster & James D. Wilson, The Mark Twain Encyclopedia, 1993; R. Kent Rasmussen, Mark Twain A to Z, 1996.