THE STOLEN WHITE ELEPHANT
by Twain, Mark
- Used
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Yarmouth, Maine, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
1882. London: Chatto & Windus, 1882. 32 pp ads dated May 1882. Original red cloth pictorially decorated in black.
First Edition of this collection of tales, which preceded the American edition by about a week (Blanck) or by four days (Johnson). The title tale is Mark Twain's jab at detectives, both in the real world and emerging in the literary world: a white elephant, gift from the King of Siam to the Queen of England, is stolen in (of all places) Jersey City, where the British agent transporting it had stopped to give it a break from travel. Detectives were clearly, and humorously, unprepared for this eventuality. This copy has the ads in the first state -- May 1882 (as opposed to July or October; the book was actually published on June 8th). According to Johnson (but curiously not noted by Blanck), this book appears in two states: this earlier state has a half-title verso list of books that does NOT include this title, and it has a printer's imprint both on the title verso and on p. 285; we have had a copy with July ads where this title IS included on the half-title list, and there are no printer imprints. This book typically has two condition problems: faded spine and loose gatherings (because 1882 was in the middle of the ill-conceived British experiment in binding books with staples rather than with string). This copy does have minor wear at the spine ends, but there is very little fading -- and there is zero loosening of the leaves (though one can see some occasional staple rust, as usual). There is no foxing on the leaves, and the original patterned endpapers are clean and intact. Blanck 3403; Johnson p. 39.
First Edition of this collection of tales, which preceded the American edition by about a week (Blanck) or by four days (Johnson). The title tale is Mark Twain's jab at detectives, both in the real world and emerging in the literary world: a white elephant, gift from the King of Siam to the Queen of England, is stolen in (of all places) Jersey City, where the British agent transporting it had stopped to give it a break from travel. Detectives were clearly, and humorously, unprepared for this eventuality. This copy has the ads in the first state -- May 1882 (as opposed to July or October; the book was actually published on June 8th). According to Johnson (but curiously not noted by Blanck), this book appears in two states: this earlier state has a half-title verso list of books that does NOT include this title, and it has a printer's imprint both on the title verso and on p. 285; we have had a copy with July ads where this title IS included on the half-title list, and there are no printer imprints. This book typically has two condition problems: faded spine and loose gatherings (because 1882 was in the middle of the ill-conceived British experiment in binding books with staples rather than with string). This copy does have minor wear at the spine ends, but there is very little fading -- and there is zero loosening of the leaves (though one can see some occasional staple rust, as usual). There is no foxing on the leaves, and the original patterned endpapers are clean and intact. Blanck 3403; Johnson p. 39.
Synopsis
The Stolen White Elephant by Mark Twain
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Details
- Bookseller
- Sumner & Stillman (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 15024
- Title
- THE STOLEN WHITE ELEPHANT
- Author
- Twain, Mark
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Date Published
- 1882
- Bookseller catalogs
- Fiction (19th Century);
Terms of Sale
Sumner & Stillman
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Sumner & Stillman
Biblio member since 2009
Yarmouth, Maine
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.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First State
- used in book collecting to refer to a book from the earliest run of a first edition, generally distinguished by a change in some...
- Gatherings
- A term used in bookbinding, where a gathering of sheets is folded at the middle, then bound into the binding together. The...
- 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...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Verso
- The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
- 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...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...