LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1883. First edition, second state.
Thick octavo. Publisher's brown cloth with gilt-decorated and embossed front board; greige endpapers. [2],624,[2] pp. Illustrated with 316 illustrations by John Harley, Edmund Henry Garrett, and A. B. Shute. Wear to the spine at crown and toe, and fore tips; a cracked and starting front hinge with inept glue repair, starting rear hinge, occasional smudges, a good+ copy.
First edition, second state. A virtual bonanza of literary forgeries in one volume: “Thank you / Mark Twain / S L Clemens” forged inscription to front pastedown; forged signature, place and date of the poet Eugene Field (1850 - 1895) on the front free endpaper; forged signature of “S. L. Clemens / (Mark Twain)” at conclusion of the text on page 624. If this was not enough to fool you, Eugene Field II adds his “statement of authentication” on the rear free endpaper: “This book came from the library of my father, Eugene Field. / Nov 9 – 1931 / Eugene Field II.” Whether this book was ever in the library of Eugene Field seems unlikely as it bears his forged signature but neither his real nor his forged bookplate. In the 1920s and 1930s, after burning through his father’s genuine estate, Eugene “Pinny” Field II teamed up with the Chicago bookseller Harry Dayton Sickles to “enlarge” the late poet’s library. In order to manufacture instant provenance for otherwise ordinary books, they reproduced Eugene Field Sr’s original bookplate (oddly, not present here), wrote signed inscriptions to Field Sr., signed his name, and “Chicago” and the date of either 1893 or 1895.
BAL 3411. Howes C480
.Price: $400.00