CLEMENS, Samuel Langhorne ("Mark Twain") (1835–1910) and Charles Dudley WARNER (1829–1900). The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Hartford and Chicago: American Publishing Company; F.G. Gilman & Co., 1873.
8vo (220 x 137 mm). Frontispiece, 20 plates (one fold–out), numerous in text illustrations, 2pp. publisher's advertisements at end. Modern calf–backed marbled boards, red and green leather lettering–pieces gilt, original sprinkled edges, stamp–signed by Starr Bookworks.
FIRST EDITION, early issue with the following issue points: Everybody's Friend in first state ads with "truex inde" at end; first state title–page dated to 1873 with "White" included in the list of illustrators and the electrotype's imprint verso; the earliest printing of the heading for chapter V on p. [vii] with "Eschol Sellers"; the final illustration on p. xiv is labeled "211"; no comma after "Hallelujah" on p. 246; a period after "Dr. Jackson" on p. 280, and first state of p.403 lacking the illustration which was later supplied (Johnson calls this “the real test of a first edition”); but with the corrected states of pp. 351–353.
INSERTED WITH 2 MANUSCRIPT PAGES BY BOTH TWAIN AND DUDLEY. The first being in Twain’s hand and is numbered 166 at the top (though this is actually page 72 in the book) and beginning “She spoke it like a princess. Mrs. Hawkins smiled proudly and kissed her over the girls eyes…”, approx. 177 words on verso and recto, numerous holographic emendations and corrections, tipped with the original printed slip that was originally issued with these manuscript pages in the “Autograph Edition” of Twain’s Works which the purchaser had the option of including at additional cost. The other leaf is in Dudley’s hand and is numbered 1446 at the top (this would later be changed as the page count of the text ends at p. 574). BAL 3357; Johnson pp. 17–22; McBride pp. 28–30.