Creator
Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens)
Title
Mark Twain’s Complete Works
Coverage
Toronto
Publisher
John Ross Robertson
Date
[1882]
Description
This crudely printed volume collects several of the unauthorized editions of Twain’s works issued by Canadian publisher John Ross Robertson. Robertson used various legal means to circumvent international copyright: for this volume, he printed the sheets in the United States, imported them to Canada for binding, and then exported the completed books back over the border for American sale. This elaborate scheme violated the spirit of copyright, but was entirely legal at the time, and the books— boldly marketed as “Robertson’s Cheap Series”— were sold at a fraction of the price of the authorized editions. This volume, containing Robertson’s editions of Innocents Abroad, A Tramp Abroad, and a variety of Sketches, represents the earliest attempt to gather together a version of Twain’s complete works.