SKETCHES BY MARK TWAIN.
[Chicago]: Belford & Co., 1880/81. Later edition. Maroon cloth, gilt stamped titles to upper panel and spine. viii,9-319,[1] pp. Front hinge slightly cracked, erratically printed, yet a very good copy of this pirated edition, the subject of a lawsuit regarding non-copyrighted material by the author; without a dust jacket.
Some background: Sketches by Mark Twain published by Belford & Company, 1880. Smaller in size and unillustrated (with the exception of end pieces for each story) was issued without permission from Samuel Clemens and contained much of the same material as the book issued by American Publishing Company in 1875. Clemens sued Belford and his partner James Clarke. The Complaint, filed November 2, 1882, quoted in part:
“8. And that the defendants in their said book so published by them placed upon the page next succeeding the leaf whereon the title-page is printed, a preface in these words:
‘I have scattered through this volume a mass of matter which has never been in print before (such as “Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls,” the “Jumping Frog Restored to the English Tongue after Martyrdom in the French,” the “Membranous Croup” sketch, and many others which I need not specify): not doing this in order to make an advertisement of it, but because these things seemed instructive. MARK TWAIN.’
9. And your orator never gave any authority, leave or license to the defendants to print or publish any such preface, or any of the representations therein contained or substantially the same as those therein contained, in any form or matter." Item #640
Price: $75.00