A TRAMP ABROAD by Twain, Mark - 1880

1880. Illustrated by W. Fr. Brown, True Williams, B. Day and other artists -- with also three or four pictures made by the author of this book, without outside help; in all Three Hundred and Twenty-Eight Illustrations. (Sold by Subscription Only.) Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, 1880. Original full sheep with black leather spine label. First Edition of this volume of humorous sketches, observations and digressions occasioned by the Clemens family's trip to Europe from Spring 1878 until Autumn 1879. Their travels took them primarily through Germany and Switzerland, with final stops in France and Italy. This copy has the engraved frontispiece in the first and much-less-common state, captioned "Moses" rather than "Titian's Moses." The binding of this copy is full sheep (what the publisher termed the "library" binding) -- one of four general types of original binding available to subscribers (the others being cloth, three-quarter morocco and full morocco). Condition is very good (front free endpaper excised, joints chafed). Though A TRAMP ABROAD is not a scarce book, copies with the first state frontispiece in other than the usual cloth binding are uncommon. Blanck 3386; Johnson pp 33-35; McBride pp 60-61.