Description

First Edition. Small 8vo, publisher’s original brown cloth, decorated all over the front and spine in purple, the rear in blind, the upper cover also lettered in purple, the spine gilt lettered. 215 pp. A very near to fine copy, bright and fresh, the cloth still rich and unfaded with exceptionally little wear, internally very clean and completely free of foxing or spotting, the hinges firm and tight.

Edizione: very scarce in this condition. this is a collection of two novellas from one of the earliest american writers to emerge from the state of california. his witty, sometimes heart-rending tales of frontier california, earned him acclaim. later in life harte moved back east where andrew carnegie praised him as uniquely american: “a whispering pine of the sierras transplanted to fifth avenue! how could it grow? although it shows some faint signs of life, how sickly are the leaves! as for fruit, there is none. america had in bret harte its most distinctively national poet.”