1917. [1 of 350 copies] Arranged with Comment by Albert Bigelow Paine. Two Volumes. Illustrated. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, (1917). Bound in contemporary dark green morocco and marbled boards, spines with raised bands and gilt-paneled compartments.

First Edition, first printing, one of 350 copies of the Limited issue -- of the first collected edition of Twain's correspondence, published seven years after his death. In seven more years, Paine would edit Mark Twain's autobiography. Any attempt to designate Mark Twain's place in the world's literary history would be presumptuous now. Yet I cannot help thinking that he will maintain his supremacy in the century that produced him. I think so because, of all the writers of that hundred years, his work was the most human... [from Paine's Preface]. As is proper for the first printing, the Harper date code on the copyright page is "L-R" (signifying "printed November 1917"). The trade edition was bound in either of two red cloth bindings -- one with plain top edge and with a cornhusk design on the cover (in the style of the Uniform Edition of Twain's Works), and the other (slightly taller) "Library" binding with top edge gilt and covers undecorated. (BAL has these reversed in their entry.) However, the publisher's original binding for this limited set (which has two additional plates) was tan boards, brown cloth spines with printed labels -- but this set was bound into this attractive morocco binding. Other than the spines being sunned to a brownish-green, this set is in fine condition, with the leaves still unopened. McBride p. 244; Blanck 3525. Provenance: bookplates of J. Ogden Armour (1863-1927), who became the head of the meatpacking empire upon the death of his father in 1901.

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Bookseller: Sumner & Stillman (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 14870
Title: MARK TWAIN'S LETTERS
Author: Twain, Mark
Book Condition: Used
Quantity Available: 1
Date Published: 1917
Keywords: Twain, Mark
Bookseller catalogs: Nonfiction;
Note: May be a multi-volume set and require additional postage.

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Sumner & Stillman

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About Sumner & Stillman

Founded in 1980, Sumner & Stillman is a small family business providing personal service in the buying and selling of literary first editions of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA) for over 30 years.

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Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Sunned: Damage done to a book cover or dust jacket caused by exposure to direct sunlight. Very strong fluorescent light can cause slight...
Fine: A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Marbled boards: ...
Raised Band(s): Raised bands refer to the ridges that protrude slightly from the spine on leather bound books. The bands are created in the...
Morocco: Morocco is a style of leather book binding that is usually made with goatskin, as it is durable and easy to dye. (see also...
Unopened: A state in which all or some of the pages of a book have not been separated from the adjacent pages, caused by a traditional...
Top Edge Gilt: Top edge gilt refers to the practice of applying gold or a gold-like finish to the top of the text block (the edges the pages...
Copyright page: The page in a book that describes the lineage of that book, typically including the book's author, publisher, date of...
Cloth: "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
New: A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
First Edition: In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Uniform Edition: A collection or series of individual volumes of an author's work bound to match with a uniform size and style. Especially common...
Leaves: Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...