A Tramp Abroad.

First edition, first state of Twain's humorous and semi-autobiographical work of travel literature with the frontispiece captioned "Moses " opposite the portrait of Twain. BAL 3386. Octavo, bound in three quarter morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, top edge gilt, with three hundred and twenty-eight illustrations by Walter Francis Brown, True W. Williams, Benjamin Henry Day and William Wallace Denslow. From the library of William Safire with his bookplate to the pastedown. William Safire was an important American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He joined Nixon’s campaign for the 1960 Presidential race, and 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 very good condition.