This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/21/2024
[TWAIN, Mark, pseudonym of CLEMENS, Samuel Langhorne (1835-1910), ROOSEVELT, Theodore (1858-1919), CARNEGIE, Andrew (1835-1919) et al, contributors]. Liber Scriptorum. New York: De Vinne Press for The Authors Club, 1893. Thick folio. Approximately 12 ½ x 8 ½”. Title–page printed in red and black, woodcut ornaments in text. Original brown morocco decoratively stamped in gilt and black, gilt–lettered, top edge gilt, others uncut (some wear to binding, especially to joints and corners). Near fine. FIRST EDITION, LIMITED ISSUE, number 109 of 251 copies (30 of these were not bound but were sold as separate articles), SIGNED BY ALL 109 CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDING TWAIN, ROOSEVELT, AND CARNEGIE. LAID-IN IS THE RARE 4-PAGE PROSPECTUS IN DOUBLE COLUMNS LISTING ALL CONTRIBUTORS. Additionally laid-in is the original “Instructions.” sheet, presumably meant for the contributors to instruct them how to sign these books (toned, edgeworn). A lavish anthology containing stories, essays, and poems by contributors including THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE STORY “The Californian’s Tale” by Twain (BAL 3438; Johnson p. 127–128; McBride p. 418) that was later collected in the author’s anthology $30,000 Bequest (1906). Other stories include Theodore Roosevelt’s “A Shot at a Bull Elk” and Andrew Carnegie’s “Genius Illustrated from Burns”. This was the first book published for the Author’s Club that was first organized in 1882 for “the promotion of social intercourse among authors”. To raise funds for the purchase of a clubhouse, publication of this anthology was proposed, with each member contributing an original essay, story or poem. “Each author signed 251 copies of his entry, and the books were then bound. The book, published and printed by club member Theodore Low De Vinne, sold for $100 (roughly $3,200 in 2022). De Vinne donated the work at cost, and the club enjoyed a profit of $10,500 ($350,000 in 2022). By the time the book was finished and the profit realized, Andrew Carnegie had given the club a suite of rooms in his building at 57th and Seventh Avenue, and the publication proceeds were used to furnish the rooms” (Carnegie Mellon University). BAL 1283.