TWAIN, Mark

Is Shakespeare Dead?

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1909. Item #06555

“Is Shakespeare Dead?”- Twain Takes Sides
First State of Twain’s Most Curious Literary Heresy

TWAIN, Mark. Is Shakespeare Dead? From My Autobiography. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1909.

First edition, first state (without the inserted leaves referring to George Greenwood).

Octavo (8 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches; 208 x 132 mm.). [viii], 148, [1], [4, blank] pp. Frontispiece portraits of Shakespeare and Bacon inserted.

Publisher’s green cloth, front cover and spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, others uncut. Neat ink inscription on front free endpaper dated July 1909. Minimal wear to spine extremities, otherwise a fine copy, bright and well preserved.

A fascinating and provocative late work by Twain, in which he enters the long-running debate over the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays - firmly aligning himself with the Baconian theory, which attributes the works to Francis Bacon rather than William Shakespeare.

Written in Twain’s characteristically conversational and ironic tone, the book blends literary criticism, satire, and autobiography. While often humorous, it also reveals a more skeptical and contrarian side of Twain, as he marshals arguments - sometimes serious, sometimes playfully absurd - against the traditional attribution.

This is the true first state, preceding the insertion of additional leaves referencing George Greenwood, one of the leading proponents of the anti-Stratfordian position. Copies without these inserts represent the earliest issue of the text as first published.

Though sometimes treated as a curiosity, Is Shakespeare Dead? offers genuine insight into Twain’s later intellectual preoccupations and his willingness to challenge even the most firmly established cultural assumptions.

A bright and attractive example of an increasingly collected late Twain work, notable for its controversial subject and first-state status.

Price: $350.00