ROUGHING IT

1872. [in the publisher's leather binding] Fully Illustrated by Eminent Artists. (Issued by Subscription Only, and Not for Sale in Bookstores...) Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [etc. -- but including New Orleans and excluding Boston], 1872. 1 page undated ads. Original three-quarter brown morocco with paneled spine, with brown cloth sides, and with marbled page edges and endpapers.

First American Edition, usual mixed issue, of this very early Twain title -- his fourth major book. In July 1861, as the Civil War was getting underway, Twain headed out west as private secretary to his brother Orion, who had just been appointed Secretary (truncated) of Nevada Territory; Twain's "account of the continental crossing with Orion is a full-throated celebration of a golden era, of travel, youth, adventure, and America's last frontier" [Kaplan]. According to Blanck, the first issue is identifiable by the proper presence of two words in lines 20-21 on p. 242 (here, as is often the case, one of the two words is lacking due to type slippage); this copy does have ads on p. [592] (no precedence certain). MacDonnell goes on to identify three other cases of type slippage (on pages xi, 19 and 123); here, only the third is unworn. More importantly, MacDonnell also identifies two cases of actual word substitution (on pages 156 and 330): in this copy, both have the earlier reading. The publisher's imprint of this copy is atypical (Blanck notes that there are variations): on the fifth line, in place of "George M. Smith & Co., Boston, Mass.", this copy reads J.W. Goodspeed, New Orleans, LA." It is bound in the publisher's three-quarter brown morocco -- one of four bindings offered (at various prices) to subscribers. The volume is tight and very good-plus (some rubbing at the extremities). MacDonnell pp 35-36; Blanck 3337; McBride p. 18. In our experience, it is quite difficult to find desirable copies of the first three of Twain's books that were issued in this hefty, oversized format (THE INNOCENTS ABROAD in 1869, this title in 1872, and THE GILDED AGE in 1873); it is not that hard to find the fourth and last (A TRAMP ABROAD in 1879). Provenance: the front pastedown bears the German-language bookplate of Gustav Siegle, and a front flyleaf bears his small inkstamp with "Stuttgart". Siegle (1840-1905) was a German chemist and entrepreneur who founded the paint factory G. Siegle & Co.; in 1873 he merged it into the company BASF (founded eight years earlier) -- which today is the largest (in sales) chemical company in the world. From 1887 to 1898, Siegle was elected to represent the Stuttgart area in the German Reichstag. (Inventory #: 15600)