Punch, Brothers, Punch! and Other Sketches.

TWAIN, Mark. [Samuel L. Clemens].

$500.00

Item Number: 137252

New York: Slote, Woodman & Co, 1898.

First edition, first issue with the author’s name in Roman type on the title page, “health offi. . could” on the 4th line from the bottom of page 91, and 13 lines of text on page 101. BAL 3378. Octavo, original publisher’s bright blue cloth with gilt titles to the spine, pale yellow endpapers. In very good condition with rubbing to the crown of the spine. Rare and desirable in the publisher’s variant blue cloth.

"To understand America, read Mark Twain. No matter what new craziness pops up in America, I find it described beforehand by him He was never innocent, at home or abroad" (Garry Wills). "High and fine literature is wine," Twain once wrote, "and mine is only water; but everybody likes water." Raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Samuel Clemens, of Mark Twain, was lauded in his obituary as the "greatest humorist this country has produced." His 1885 novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is often referred to as "The Great American Novel."