A First-Class Fool: Mark Twain and Humor
Title
A First-Class Fool: Mark Twain and Humor
Collection Items
Beadle’s Dime Book of Fun, No 3
This volume from publisher Erastus Beadles’s series of small, inexpensive books—called dime novels for their 10¢ price tags—includes an early printing of “Jim Smiley’s Frog,” an abbreviated version of the story that would become famous as “The…
Final page from an autograph letter signed (“Mark”) to publisher Elisha Bliss, Jr. Buffalo, N.Y
Charles Webb’s 1867 publication of The Jumping Frog was an instant popular success, but Webb’s publishing operation struggled financially, and Clemens accused him of cheating him out of royalties for the book. In this letter on Clemens’s personalized…
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches
A year after the story appeared in the New York Saturday Press, Charles Webb published this first book edition of Mark Twain’s jumping frog story. The book, which lists Webb’s own pseudonym John Paul as the editor, quickly sold out, as did early…
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches
This pirated edition of The Jumping Frog—the first to be published in the United Kingdom—introduces Mark Twain to British audiences by quoting the New York Saturday Review: “The CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG may be heartily recommended to any one who is…
The Jumping Frog; In English, then in French, then Clawed Back into a Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil
Frustrated by the poor quality of unauthorized translations of his works, Twain chose a particularly inelegant French translation of The Jumping Frog and “retranslated” it back into English in order to show how the unskilled adaptation removed the…
Mark Twain’s Sketches, Number One
This pamphlet represents Twain’s first attempt to publish his sketches as an inexpensive serial series. He used “The Jumping Frog” as an advertising hook, as seen by the cover illustration of a frog smoking a cigar. The series ultimately failed, and…
The Jumping Frog [with] The Private Printing of The “Jumping Frog” Story: An Afterword by Samuel Clemens
![The Jumping Frog [with] The Private Printing of The “Jumping Frog” Story: An Afterword by Samuel Clemens](https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/15145/archive/square_thumbnails/b20eef4f530a7b899d88455546185a60.jpg?Expires=1787788800&Signature=UBRCnrEyQqfxEBOleifikpCjMTG-QSbgsNRMX0gN31SD1HiJmksNvvGRAopjtd1%7EsseOaFPL7PI6At377IZV2QUrooxRbzjSl%7EPEXf6YSBXn8wQv%7E5UpVXmVKJ5PeXRUKpvons-xXSf7fAPjtzjxPY7G%7EmNTyhXqw%7EmH1ulu7pTkjeHyZMkgo74GsPQQpNQ5xHdiM6LYY179Nm1CIOXJCFCI1qfXsTJIL1x90Fsa9QhYn4v6yIjwmCp5m%7EYE1a4CC7bOENaHXPmIsOR-fw8B9sVnWkBGqyPpLgQBR-dNqK7OtC-A3dmlkIkHEcYbcWgW7dJ8i7hmDWOQOSJnuEaEcA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM)
Twain’s jumping frog story remains popular to the present day, as represented by this modern fine press edition featuring illustrations by Alan James Robinson and an elegant binding by Daniel E. Kelm.
Carte-de-visite photograph of Mark Twain
A young Twain is captured here by preeminent New York photographer Jeremiah Gurney, who founded the first national organization of photographers: the American Daguerre Association.
Vanity Fair, volume 3
The January 26, 1861, issue of Vanity Fair includes a sketch titled “The North Star,” which features a character named Mark Twain, possibly the original source of Clemens’s iconic pen name. This humor magazine, edited by Clemens’s friend Charles…
Phunny Phellows: Mark Twain, Josh Billings, Rbt. Burdette, Artemus Ward, and others
The group of humorists known as the “Phunny Phellows” produced broad and folksy humor that often depended on comic misspellings and malapropisms. Twain resented being associated with these authors, whose work often lacked his sharper satirical aims.
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