I have been in the rare and antiquarian book business for over forty years; my family has been in the rare books business since 1876. Rare books are in my blood.
Life on the Mississippi
Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1883. Item #06557
“Mark Twain in Flames”
A Landmark of American Literature - First Edition, First State
TWAIN, Mark (Samuel L. Clemens). Life on the Mississippi. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1883.
First edition, first state, with the tailpiece on p. 441 depicting “Mark Twain in flames” and the caption on p. 443 reading “The St. Louis Hotel.”
Octavo (8 5/8 x 5 5/8 inches; 219 x 140 mm.). [2, blank], 624, [2, blank] pp. Frontispiece and 315 black-and-white illustrations. A small piece (1 5/8 x 1/4 inch) torn from lower blank margin (not affecting text).
Rebound ca. 1940 in full blue cloth, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, marbled edges, yellow coated endpapers. “From the library of C. Howard Collet (name in manuscript on armorial bookplate, possibly read as ‘Colket’), dated May 24th, 1883.”
One of Twain’s greatest works, Life on the Mississippi combines memoir, travel writing, and social history into a richly textured portrait of the river that shaped both his life and his literary identity. Drawing on his early years as a steamboat pilot, Twain reconstructs the vanished world of the antebellum Mississippi while contrasting it with the altered landscape of the post–Civil War era.
The book is notable for its extraordinary illustrative program, with more than 300 images integrated throughout the text - an ambitious and visually engaging production that reflects the scale and importance of the work.
Note: It was common practice to retain bookplates to preserve the books historical identity.
Although rebound, the volume remains an excellent and fully intact example of one of Twain’s most important books - arguably his most personal work outside of Huckleberry Finn, and a cornerstone of American literary autobiography.
BAL 3411; Queen's Quorum, p. 45.
Price: $450.00