In Tom Sawyer Abroad, Huck explains the malapropism in the legend of this hand-drawn map: “[Tom] said an erronort was a person who sailed around in balloons; and said it was a mighty sight finer to be Tom Sawyer the Erronort than to be Tom Sawyer the…
Though dated in some respects, Dodge’s cultural survey of the peoples of the Great Plains and the Southwest remains a vital reference for study of the indigenous peoples of the region. This copy is Clemens’s own, which he studied and extensively…
Though dated in some respects, Dodge’s cultural survey of the peoples of the Great Plains and the Southwest remains a vital reference for study of the indigenous peoples of the region. This copy is Clemens’s own, which he studied and extensively…
At the conclusion of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom and Huck discuss a plan to “go for howling adventures amongst the Injuns,” and shortly after the novel’s publication, Clemens began work on a sequel detailing these escapades. He penned…
The publication of Huckleberry Finn was complicated by a controversial plate showing an illustration of the character Uncle Silas, wherein the engraver appeared to have added a crude addition to the groin area of Silas’s trousers. Webster required…
Twain’s first attempt at historical fiction, of which he notes, “It may have happened, it may not have happened: but it could have happened.” He presented this copy to Dr. Clarence C. Rice—Clemens’s personal physician who introduced the financially…
When Twain and Warner lamented the quality of the books their wives were reading, the women challenged them to write something better. The resulting collaboration is the book whose name lent itself to the era: The Gilded Age, a satire on post–Civil…
This later Twain novel is steeped in irony: its eponymous character, a lawyer, is dubbed a “Pudd’nhead” not because of his stupidity, but because the unsophisticated inhabitants of his frontier town misunderstand his cleverness. The main plot of the…
This later Twain novel is steeped in irony: its eponymous character, a lawyer, is dubbed a “Pudd’nhead” not because of his stupidity, but because the unsophisticated inhabitants of his frontier town misunderstand his cleverness. The main plot of the…
In Twain’s time-travel story, American engineer Hank Morgan finds himself transported to medieval Camelot, bringing progressive values to the age of chivalry. Twain presented this first edition copy to George L. Bell, a toolmaker who was involved in…