The Innocents Abroad, Or The New Pilgrims’ Progress.

TWAIN, Mark .

Item Number: 14002

Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1876.

First edition, later printing of the author’s second book. Octavo, original publishers cloth. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Chas Warren Stoddard from his friend Mark Twain Hartford Oct. 1877.” The recipient was Charles Stoddard, a fellow American writer who grew up on the East Coast but settled in San Francisco in 1859, and was there when Twain arrived there. Stoddard like Twain was a world traveler, beginning in 1873 he embarked on a five year world tour as a correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, and beginning in 1880 he became co-editor with Bret Hart of the Overland Monthly, which had published some of Twain’s earliest writings. In near fine condition with light wear to the spine ends. Tipped in is a 1924 catalog description of this copy. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Signed books by Twain are fairly uncommon, association copies inscribed to friends and associates are more so.

Innocents Abroad chronicles what Twain called his "Great Pleasure Excursion" on board the chartered vessel Quaker City through Europe and the Holy Land with a group of American travelers in 1867. It was the best-selling of Twain's works during his lifetime, as well as being one of the best-selling travel books of all time.