A Tramp Abroad.

TWAIN, Mark. [Samuel L. Clemens].

$975.00

Item Number: 144227

Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, 1880.

First edition of Twain’s classic fictionalized account of his walking tour of central and southern Europe, early issue with the portrait in BAL state B (no priority), frontispiece in the first state (captioned “Moses”), state A of the text block (no priority), and the cover stamping in state A. Octavo. 631, [1, ad] pages. Octavo, original publisher’s pictorial gilt-stamped brown cloth, with 328 illustrations by Walter Francis Brown, True Williams, W.W. Denslow. BAL 3386. In very good condition.

A mixture of autobiography and fictional events, Twain's Tramp Abroad details a journey by the author, with his friend Harris (a character created for the book, and based on his closest friend, Joseph Twichell), through central and southern Europe. While the stated goal of the journey is to walk most of the way, the men find themselves using other forms of transport as they traverse the continent. The book is the fourth of Mark Twain's six travel books published during his lifetime and is often thought to be an unofficial sequel to the first one, The Innocents Abroad (1869). “Besides his accounts of Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy, Twain includes local folklore (some of which he made up) and slips in several sketches that have little or nothing to do with Europe, including one of his most famous comic tales, ‘Jim Baker’s Bluejay Yarn” (MacDonnell, 42). The book contains 328 illustrations, which contribute to the humor in the book, four done by Twain himself, "without outside help."