[Item #4444] My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms with: Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work. William Dean Howells, Charles Carrington, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling.
My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms with: Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work
My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms with: Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work
My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms with: Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work
My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms with: Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work
My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms with: Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work
My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms with: Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work
My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms with: Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work
My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms with: Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work

My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms with: Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work

New York, NY; London, England: Harper & Brothers; MacMillan & Co. Ltd., 1910; 1955. First Editions. Hardcovers. Two venerable critical biographies of the lives & works of the canonical American humorist & writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens a/k/a Mark Twain (1835-1910); & the great British author Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936): (1) My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms by William Dean Howells (1837-1920), a close friend of Twain & himself a very prolific "Dean of American Letters." At the end of the first chapter of "Part First- Memories," Howells writes: "He (Twain) was a youth to the end of his days, the heart of a boy with the head of a sage; the heart of a good boy, or a bad boy, but always a willful boy, and wilfulest to show himself out at every time for just the boy he was." (pg. 5) Hardcover in blue-green cloth with gilt & colored lettering on front cover & spine, first edition, first printing "Published September, 1910" as stated on copyright page. With frontispiece portraits of Twain & Howells protected by an attached & still quite intact semitransparent onionskin sheet between them, & several illustrations throughout including the two esteemed writers sitting together in 1908. McBride, pg. 445. Without extremely scarce original dust jacket. Written & published only months after Twain's death earlier that year, this classic biography was written in fresh grief by a particularly knowledgeable & appreciative literary colleague. (2) Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work by Charles Carrington (1897-1990), the great British scholar & historian, a decorated veteran of World War I. Carrington's biography of Kipling is among the earliest & still most acclaimed. At the end of his Prologue, Carrington writes: "Rudyard Kipling's power lies in his ability to evoke love or hate, or love and hate together, in almost every reader; his loves are still innumerable, and often as blinded by emotion as the haters. What was the message that struck so deeply into the hearts of those who first heard it in 1890? What sort of man was it who did so much to form the characters of all that generation...? What was the secret of his strength?" (pg. xxii) With frontispiece portrait captioned "...The Last Photograph, Aged 68," several more images & map among chapters. Hardcover in red cloth with gilt lettering on spine, first-ever British edition of 1955. Without dust jacket. A classic, comprehensive work of biographical & critical scholarship. Outstanding collectible biographies of two towering figures in American, British & world literature. (1) in relatively good-to-near-fine unrestored condition with mild rubbing, moderate spotting incl. several areas of fading to front, back covers & spine; mild-to-moderate wear to edges & corners of same esp. lower edges & corners; light rubbing, browning & occasional small spot-stains to side & lower edges of text block; moderate rubbing, light scratching & fading to gilt upper edge of same. Interior very fine with only mild browning to paste-downs & endpapers; tiny bumps at mostly upper corners of page leaves. (2) also relatively good-to-near-fine with moderate rubbing, spotting & scratching to front, back covers & spine; fading esp. to spine incl. gilt & margins of blank front cover; very light wear to edges & corners; fading esp. to upper edges & corners; light rubbing, browning & sparse spotting to edges of text block. Interior fine with moderate browning to paste-downs & esp. endpapers; small crease & small-to-tiny bump-folds to first few page leaves; slight crease-opening of binding between pgs. 280-81 (still well-attached), otherwise binding & all leaves completely intact & tight. An extra handling fee will be added for shipping due to the weight of this bundle. Good- Near Fine. [Item #4444]

Price: $120.00