New York: Charles L. Webster & Co., 1892. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. 8vo. Very good. Wear to exterior includes bumping to spine ends and corners, chipping to cloth at head of spine, minor rubbing, and minor browning to spine. Lacks top corner of front free end paper. Moderate foxing to end papers, light foxing to first and last few pages, and a few spots of foxing to margins throughout. Text remains clean and bright.
The American Claimant is an 1892 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. This comedy of mistaken identities is a classic tale of “greener grass”. According to Twain himself, “No weather will be found in this book. This is an attempt to pull a book through without weather.” This would be the first American fictional work to attempt to employ this method.
Including the frontispiece, this example has 24 line-drawings by Dan Beard. This would be the second Twain novel to be illustrated by Beard, the first one being A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court (1889). Twain was so enamored by Beards artistry, that he gave him creative freedom to interpret the text as he pleased. LIT/080323