Twain, Mark; Clemens, Susy

The Washoe Giant in San Francisco with: Susy and Mark Twain

San Francisco, CA; New York, NY: George Fields; Harper & Row, 1938; 1965. First Editions. Hardcovers. Two collectible volumes by & relating to Samuel Langhorne Clemens a/k/a Mark Twain (1835-1910), the canonical American humorist & author: (1) The Washoe Giant in San Francisco: Heretofore Uncollected Sketches by Mark Twain, edited & with an introduction by Franklin Walker, illustrated by Lloyd Hoff. As stated on title page, this volume contains "...heretofore uncollected sketches by Mark Twain published in the Golden Era in the (eighteen-) sixties including Those Blasted Children, The Lick House Ball, The Kearny Street Ghost Story, Fitz Smythe's Horse, and thirty-four more items by the wild humorist of the pacific slope." Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, first (& presumably only) edition of 1938. A former library copy, though with less-than-usual such intrusive points (see condition below). A beautiful production (self?) published by Fields & printed by The Ward Ritchie Press of Los Angeles. McBride, pg. 278. (2) Susy and Mark Twain: Family Dialogues Arranged and Edited by Edith Colgate Salsbury, a sort of biography of Susy Clemens (1872-1896), Twain's beloved daughter who died tragically at the age of only twenty-four, leaving him devastated. Comprised of letters, diaries & other writings between Twain & his daughter, this fascinating & poignant volume is arranged with chapters for each year of Susy's brief life, & deeply demonstrates the closeness & mutual affinities between her & her famous father- Susy was indeed a chip off the old literary block. With an introduction by Frederick Anderson (editor of Twain's papers), & a section of vintage photographs. Hardcover, first edition as stated on copyright page, likely first printing with "H-P" printed thereon. Without dust jacket, therefore we're all but throwing this in, so to speak, with (1) above. McBride, pg. 328. Two very rewarding rarities for the Mark Twain collector-scholar. (1) book in fine condition with only mild rubbing & fading to thin edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; very slight loss of paper at lower left corner of back cover; cloth sticker affixed to lower spine with gilt hand-written library code letters & numbers (cloth almost exactly reproduces that of spine); very light rubbing & browning to edges of text block (side & lower edges of which are untrimmed as issued). Interior fine with former pre-library owner's bookplate affixed to blank front paste-down, on which is stamped "Withdrawn from/ May 27 2003/ USF Library"; slight browning to blank paste-downs & endpapers (esp. rear incl. two endpapers); all other page leaves virtually mint. Unrestored dust jacket near-fine with very light rubbing & mild scratching to front, back covers & spine; mild wear, tiny bumps, creases & chips at edges & corners of same & flaps incl. mostly slight loss of paper at small areas of same esp. spine-, upper & lower-cover edges; gilt library code hand-lettering & numbering at lower spine, only very slightly effecting printed title. (2) fine with mild rubbing, scratching & a touch of fading to brown-colored cloth front, back covers & spine; mild-to-moderate loss of gilt & esp. black lettering & graphics on spine; mild rubbing, browning & occasional spotting to edges of text block esp. upper edge (side edge untrimmed as issued). Interior very fine with only a few tiny spots at blank, light green-yellow-colored paste-downs & endpapers; otherwise virtually mint. Fine / Near Fine. [Item #4501]

Price: $60.00