The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins

by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens)

with marginal illustrations 

First edition.  Hartford CT:  American Publishing Company, 1894  

Hardback is overall in VERY GOOD+ condition.

• Brown cloth covers are mostly clean, with gilt text and decoration in black ink.  Boards show a little edgewear.  Corners of bottom board are bumped.  See photos.  
• Spine has gilt text and is bright with firm ends.
• Binding is strong.  
• Pastedowns and feps have some marginal toning, cataloguer's mark.  
• Frontispiece is present and has intact tissue guard.
• Illustrations, in the page margins, are bright and clear.  
• Interior is gently age-toned, more so at the margins.  Inside pages are free of writing and intentional marks.
• PS2025.1119

432 pages. 5.25 x 8.75 inches

First edition, first issue meeting all pertinent points:  integral title page, text block bulk of 1 1/8", frontispiece autograph, tissue-guard.  Publisher's bright brown cloth boards richly decorated in black ink with gilt titles to top board and spine.  Interior pages are illustrated in the margins.  A handsome copy, Very Good Plus. 

This satirical novel by Mark Twain (1835-1910) first appeared in serial form in The Century Magazine.  Its central intrigue revolves around two boys—one, born into slavery, with 1/32 black ancestry; the other, white, born to be the master of the house.  The two boys, who look similar, are switched at infancy, and each grows into the other's social role.  Twain's satire humorously and pointedly lambastes everything from small-town politics and religious beliefs to slavery and racism. 

The American Publishing Company supplied the copious pictures subscription buyers expected with a technique that had never before been used for a Mark Twain text: "marginal illustrations."  The illustrators were F.M. Senior and C.H. Warren; the publisher's decision to move all the illustration to the margins had the effect of shrinking the characters to cartoon-size and robbing them of the nuance which characterizes the text.  

Please see photos. More photos available upon request.

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