THE TRAGEDY OF PUDD'NHEAD WILSON, AND THE COMEDY OF THOSE EXTRAORDINARY TWINS

Hartford: American Publishing Co, 1894. First edition, first issue with the book bulking to 1 1/8”, State A of the frontispiece with Twain’s signature measuring 1 7/16” wide. Titlepage in red and black, with delightful illustrations in the margins to nearly every page. 8vo, publisher’s original rust-colored cloth decorated extensively in gilt and black on the upper cover and spine. 432pp. A lovely copy with only a bit of wear to the spine tips. A VERY HANDSOME AND PLEASING COPY OF THE FIRST ISSUE OF TWAIN’S BITING YET COMEDIC COMMENTARY ON SLAVERY AND THE ROLE OF RACE IN AMERICAN SOCIETY. It is a short novel featuring the brilliantly crafted character Roxanna, a mulatto slave who suffers dire consequences after switching her infant son with her master’s baby, and the clever Pudd’nhead Wilson, an ostracized small-town lawyer. Twain’s darkly comic masterpiece is a provocative exploration of slavery and miscegenation. In the words of Langstone Hughes, “Mark Twain, in his presentation of Negroes as human beings, stands head and shoulders above the other Southern writers of his times.”
Included in the publication is Those Extraordinary Twins, the slapstick and irrelevant story that evolved into ‘Pudd’nhead Wilson’. By including it the publisher provided us with a fascinating view of the author’s process.