Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World.

TWAIN, Mark. [Samuel Clemens].

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World.

“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't": First Edition of Mark Twain's Following the Equator

Hartford: The American Publishing Company, 1897.

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First edition, first issue of the author's pointed social critique of British Imperialism with the signature mark "11" on page 161. Octavo, original cloth with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling to the spine, pictorial onlay decorated in gilt to the front panel, tissue-guarded frontispiece portrait of Twain, illustrated by Dan Beard, A. B. Frost, B. W. Clinedisnt, and Frederick Dielman among others. From the library of William Safire, with his bibliographical clippings laid in. William Safire was an important American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He joined Nixon’s campaign for the 1960 Presidential race, and supported him again in 1968. After Nixon’s 1968 victory, Safire served as a speechwriter for him and Spiro Agnew. He authored several political columns in addition to his weekly column “On Language” in The New York Times Magazine from 1979 until the month of his death and authored two books on grammar and linguistics: The New Language of Politics (1968) and what Zimmer called Safire’s “magnum opus,” Safire’s Political Dictionary. Safire later served as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board from 1995 to 2004 and in 2006 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. In near fine condition.

Mark Twain toured the British Empire in 1895, during which time he began concocting a travelogue about the experience that was published in 1897. Twain’s narrative spans the globe, from Australia to Hawaii. Full of tall-tales and real-life criticisms of imperialist arrogance, it is written with Twain’s characteristic wit and enthusiasm for a good, entertaining story. Following the Equator was Twain’s last travel book, and “also his most serious… He relates the narrative as himself… The serious tone in some ways makes this is best travel narrative” (MacDonnell, 53).