MARK TWAIN’S (BURLESQUE) AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND FIRST ROMANCE

First Edition, BAL’s Second State with ad on verso of the title-page. Illustrated throughout. 12mo, original terra-cotta cloth lettered in gilt on the upper cover, additionally decorated in blind on both the upper and lower covers. 47pp. A nice copy of this early work, the cloth in very good order, a bit of rubbing at the tips, internally a small closed tear on the free-fly.

Edizione: one of mark twain’s earliest books, his third, and a completely fictional “biography” and account of his ancestry. it is a work loaded with irony and satire and composed of two stories which first appeared in the express and in twain’s memoranda contributions to the galaxy. the illustrations, which are anonymous, are of particular interest. they have no relationship to the text of the book but appear rather to be cartoons illustrating the children’s poem “the house that jack built”. their purpose was actually to lampoon the erie railroad scandal and its participants, jay gould, john t. hoffman and jim fisk.<br> two years after the initial publication twain bought all of the printing plates and had them destroyed.