TWAIN, Mark. [Samuel L. Clemens].

A Tramp Abroad.

"WE WENT SLIPPING SILENTLY ALONG, BETWEEN THE GREEN AND FRAGRANT BANKS, WITH A SENSE OF PLEASURE AND CONTENTMENT THAT GREW AND GREW": FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE OF MARK TWAIN'S A TRAMP ABROAD

Hartford, Conn: American Publishing Company, 1880.

$1,100.00

In Stock Item Number: RRB-149768

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First edition, first printing of Twain's classic fictionalized account of his walking tour of central and southern Europe, with the frontispiece in the first state and misprints (p. 37, line 7 up, “fee” for “feel,” p. 46, line 11, “2oo” for “200,” p. 414, line 9 up, “spirting” for “spurting,” p. 465, line 4, “stuck” for “stick"). Octavo, bound in full modern calf with morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, gilt ruling to the spine in five compartments within raised bands, gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, marbled endpapers, first state tissue-guarded frontispiece portrait of Twain with the engravers imprint and "Moses" caption, with three hundred and twenty-eight illustrations by Walter Francis Brown, True W. Williams, Benjamin Henry Day and William Wallace Denslow. BAL 3386. In near fine condition.

A mixture of autobiography and fictional events, Twain's Tramp Abroad details a journey by the author, with his friend Harris (a character created for the book, and based on his closest friend, Joseph Twichell), through central and southern Europe. While the stated goal of the journey is to walk most of the way, the men find themselves using other forms of transport as they traverse the continent. The book is the fourth of Mark Twain's six travel books published during his lifetime and is often thought to be an unofficial sequel to the first one, The Innocents Abroad (1869). “Besides his accounts of Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy, Twain includes local folklore (some of which he made up) and slips in several sketches that have little or nothing to do with Europe, including one of his most famous comic tales, ‘Jim Baker’s Bluejay Yarn” (MacDonnell, 42). The book contains 328 illustrations, which contribute to the humor in the book, four done by Twain himself, "without outside help."