Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Robert Bigelow Paine. The Boys Life of Mark Twain. Harper Brothers, New York, 1929.
Price: US$9.95 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Harper's Modern Classic. Book is black fabric cover with red label/lettering on front and spine.Spine is tight with slight tilt to right.Edges are clean. One corner is bumped, all straight. Pages are tight, no tears/folds/writing. Name written on outside bottom page edge, does not show in interior. Great little book.
Seller: Six Maples Books, Martinsburg, WV, U.S.A.
Price: US$15.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Good ; No jacket. 1929 Harper & Brothers. Volume 1 only of 4-volume biography of Clemens by Paine. Volume 30 of The Stormfield Edition of The Writings of Mark Twain. This was a limited edition of 1024 sets of 37 volumes. Limitation not stated in this volume; originally stated and numbered in first volume of the whole set. Hardcover has blue cloth-covered boards with gold spine and cover lettering; gilt ruled borders. Top page edges gilt. Deckle fore and bottom edges. Tissued frontispiece. Tissued black and white plates. Binding cracked at frontispiece page; webbing visible, but pages not loose. Hinges NOT cracked. Corners and spine ends bumped and rubbed, with minor fraying at tips. Covers have moderate edge wear and surface rubbing. Spine slightly faded. Pages lightly and uniformly tanned but still supple. A 10-page section has a soft crease at the top corner. Pages clean and unmarked. 396 pages. No dust jacket. Carefully packed, shipped in a box.
Seller: SmarterRat Books, Chagrin Falls, OH, U.S.A.
Price: US$375.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 37 volumes, complete as issued. Copy #416 of 1024 numbered sets (the entire edition). A good set in the original navy blue cloth stamped in gilt, top edges gilt (cloth has spotting and wear; the first volume of Paine's 'Biography' has light splash stains; 'Tom Sawyer' hsa some puppy-chewing to top of spine). Illustrated with gravures throughout. A LARGE, HEAVY SET. NOT SUITABLE FOR EXPEDITED OR INTERNATIONAL DELIVERY. ADDITIONAL SHIPPING CHARGES WILL APPLY.
Seller: Arundel Books, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
Mark Twain. The Writings of Mark Twain - Stormfield Edition. Harper & Brothers, NY-London, 1929.
Price: US$895.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: This set is #839 of 1,024, we have 31 of 37 volumes, missing Vol. 2 13 18 20 21and 23, all volumes have a frontis and plates, former owner bookplates are in front of all vol. on front endpaper pastedown, many pages are uncut, the majority of volumes are in very good condition with only 2 having some cover soil and one having soil remnant on rear cover from something damp on it, a very nice, partial, 31 of 37 volumes, set of this famous American writer's works and also containing his biography, letters, and his own autobiography.
Seller: Yesterday's Books, Richmond, IN, U.S.A.
Price: US$1046.96 + shipping
Description: 8vo. 37 vols. (155 x 225 mm). With more than 100 plates and portraits (etched and intaglio). Original full navy blue cloth with gilt-stamped covers and spines; top edge gilt. Without the dust jackets. Rare and handsome set of this famous American writer's works, also containing his biography, letters, and his own autobiography. The third uniform edition named after one of Mark Twain's residences: Stormfield, in Redding, Connecticut, was home to Samuel Clemens from June 1908 until his death in April 1910. Volume 22 is titled "In Defense of Harriet Shelley" (retitled from "Literary Essays"). This is number 164 of 1024 numbered copies. - Minor rubbing to spines, gilt edges partially shaved, spine of vol. 17 with faint scratch mark. Minor worming to endpapers of nine vols., somewhat stronger to vol. 3 and partially affecting the inner margin of the first 10 and last 5 leaves. In all very appealingly preserved.
Seller: Antiquariat INLIBRIS Gilhofer Nfg. GmbH, Vienna, A, Austria
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: New York: Harper & Brothers: 1929. 37 volumes. Octavos. Hardcover lacking dust jackets. Limited edition, with 1024 copies of this set printed; this is number 79. Blue boards with gilt lettering and design. Top edge gilt. Some pages uncut. Most copies in very good condition; a few are good, and a couple are near fine. Overall a rare and handsome set.
Seller: Bad Animal, Santa Cruz, CA, U.S.A.
Twain, Mark. The Writings of Mark Twain. Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1929.
Price: US$4950.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: The Memorial Edition in 36 (of 37) volumes, lacking volume 19, Tom Sawyer Abroad. One of only 90 sets, including a sheet of original manuscript in volume one. This piece with a group of notes on Pope Pius XII in the early thirteenth century, possibly background for A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Bound in three-quarter maroon morocco over light red cloth. Spines with raised bands and simple gilt devices in compartments. Light rubbing and some shallow chipping to extreme spine tips, else a very good, attractive set.
Seller: The Literary Lion,Ltd., Thousand Oaks, CA, U.S.A.
Twain, Mark. The Writings of Mark Twain (in 37 vols). Harper & Brothers, New York, 1929.
Price: US$5500.00 + shipping
Description: Stormfield Edition. Limited to 1,024 numbered sets. Thirty-seven octavo volumes. Original dark blue fine-bead cloth, gilt triple-rule border with the gilt stencil signature of Mark Twain on the front cover. Spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, others uncut. Title-pages printed in red and black. Photogravure frontispieces and plates (including portraits) after drawings, paintings, etc. by E.W. Kemble, Howard Pyle, Dan Beard, W.H.W. Bicknell, P. Newell, J.Allen St. John, A.B. Frost, and others. A Fine set in the original pale blue dust jackets with printed paper labels on the spine. The Stormfield edition of the Writings of Mark Twain, published in 1929, is identical in every way (with the exception of Twain's signature) to the Definitive Edition which had been published by Gabriel Wells in 1922. Even the limitation of these two sets were the same, both being limited to 1,024 numbered copies. The only difference between the two editions was the addition of an inserted 'signed leaf' in the first volume of the Definitive edition. Twain had signed these leaves in 1906 in anticipation of the edition but died but died twelve years before its publication in 1922. In fact the full cloth binding on the Stormfield edition is certainly superior to the quarter blue cloth over paper boards of the Definitive edition. The Stormfield edition was named after Mark Twain's final home "The Clemens family was itinerant from 1891 until well after Olivia's death in 1904, trying out a number of houses, none of which they found ultimately congenial. Fully out of debt, Clemens decided toward the end of his life to try and recover the feeling of stability that the Hartford home represented by building another house, this time in Redding, Connecticut, where he had purchased nearly 250 acres of land in 1906. In 1907, he commissioned John Mead Howells, son of William Dean Howells, to design the house, and allowed, or perhaps even encouraged, daughter Clara to participate in planning and overseeing construction. Built on the money he earned on "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven," he named the house "Stormfield" and lived there until his death in 1910. Clara sold the house many years after her father's death. When the house burned down, its owners built a near replica, which remains in private hands" (Camfield).
Seller: Whitmore Rare Books, Inc. -- ABAA, ILAB, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$18000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: This is the highly respected and most favored set of Twain's works. Bound in 37 volumes of 1/2 blue/green morocco with gilt decorated spines showing individual titles, volume numbers and "Memorial Edition" at foot, top edge gilt the rest untrimmed. Tipped into prelims of volume 1 is a folded manuscript page in Clemens hand on stationary with the letterhead from the "Victoria Hotel Fifth Ave. Broadway & 27th St. New York". The writings are individual whimsical sentences from some game (states pencil notation at top of page) that Clemens must have been playing during a stay in New York. This set is near fine with the smallest bit of chipping to the heads of volumes 15,16,25,33 (see photos), spines warmly sunning to brown and very mild shelf rub to bottom of boards and some corners. Interior very fresh with no bookplates, ownership signatures or annotations. This is number 15 of 90 sets and is signed by the publisher on the limitation page. A beautiful set of American observational literature, from a time when getting your point across did not mean giving up civility. Extra shipping will apply.
Seller: Charles Thomas Bookseller, Stratham, NH, U.S.A.
TWAIN, Mark. Writings [Memorial Edition]. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1929.
Price: US$29500.00 + shipping
Description: The Writings. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1929. Memorial Edition, one of 90 numbered copies (this copy being number 55). Thirty-seven octavo volumes. Title-pages in blue and black. With inserted portrait frontispieces. Publisher's three quarter brown morocco over polished brown cloth boards. Spines decoratively stamped in gilt, tooled in compartments with two raised bands, top edges gilt, others uncut. The first twelve volumes are a slightly lighter color than the rest. A magnificent set of this fine and rare edition of Twain, complete with the Biography (volumes 30-33) and Letters (volumes 34 & 35) edited by Paine, and the Autobiography (volumes 36 & 37). With a letter and manuscript page tipped-in volume I. [With:] TWAIN, Mark (1835-1910). Autograph Letter Signed "S.L. Clemens" and initialed "SLC." Kaltenleutgeben: July 26, [18]98 (Twain and his family had a villa in this Austrian town in 1898). Written in black ink. Two twelvemo pages on one octavo leaf, second half of leaf with paper repairs (not interfering with text), usual fold lines, red ink marking on first page, not interfering with text. "Dear CA[?]W: Please send me [crossed-out word] your new Stevenson book, for Mrs. Clemens - cheap edition. I mean the book about - about- I think it's poetry. ("Black & White?") And I'd like to have the cheap edition of "Spiritual Tales" (is that it?)[superscript: "Except vol. 1 - I have that] by Mrs. or Miss Macleod. [superscript: "Edinburgh"] They are located in the isle of Iona, I think. Sincerely Yours S.L. Clemens [flourish] OVER Why don't you have Bliss [five words crossed out] send you some Ameri-can copies of my last book? Wouldn't the illustrations sell there? Or would the title [crossed-out word] interfere awkwardly? SLC" [With:] TWAIN, Mark. One page manuscript [N.p., n.d., ca. 1880]. One octavo leaf, verso only, entitled "Readings." Written in blue ink. Seventeen lines of short titles for stories or sketches to be read at one of Twain's public readings. Fine. HBS 67709. $29,500.
Seller: Heritage Book Shop, ABAA, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.