TWAIN, Mark. [Samuel L. Clemens].
A Dog's Tale.
"Let us save the to-morrows for work": First edition of Mark Twain's A Dog's Tale; inscribed by him with an aphorism
New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1904.
$15,000.00
Out of Stock
Item Number: RRB-133019
* Custom Clamshell Boxes are hand made by the Harcourt Bindery upon request and take approximately 60 days to complete
First edition of Twain’s “powerful indictment of cruelty to animals." Octavo, original pictorial cloth, illustrated with four color plates by W.T. Smedley including tissue-guarded frontispiece. BAL 3483. Uniquely signed by Mark Twain on the pastedown, "Let us save the to-morrows for work. Mark Twain." In fine condition. Housed in a custom silk slipcase.
"My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian." So begins Mark Twain's short story, both sentimental and polemical, about animal welfare. "First published in the Christmas issue of Harper's Monthly Magazine (December 1903), A Dog's Tale… was written largely to please daughter Jean, who had been outspoken in support of anti-vivisectionist causes… Written in the tradition of Aesop's fables, A Dog's Tale… remains a powerful indictment of cruelty to animals," as well as a scathing attack on such targets as misleading language, the institution of slavery and science exercised without compassion (LeMaster & Wilson, 223-24). It is also "a tribute to Mark Twain's mother, who—like the narrator's mother—reputedly sent Mark Twain into the world with an oath to behave properly" (Rasmussen, 113-14). It was "apparently printed from the plates of Harper's Magazine" (BAL 3479), where it was first published. Harper & Brothers published the first (separate) American edition in September of that year (BAL 3483).
A Dog's Tale.
$15,000.00
Out of Stock
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