Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old by Twain, Mark - 1875

Hartford, Connecticut: The American Publishing Company, 1875. Edge and corner worn, scuffed and scratched, corners are bumped and rubbed, shelf worn, front board is split and detached, small portion of the head and tail of the spine are missing, former owner's inscription and a date in ink on the ffep, rear hinge is cracked, overall still a nice rare first edition! Extremely scarce and hard-to-find! Leather bound with gilt on black lettering on the spine. 320 very clean unmarked and uncreased historical pages nicely enhanced by black and white illustrations! Very very rare first edition / first printing! "i have scattered through this volume a mass of matter which has never been in print before, (such as 'Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls,' the 'Jumping Frog restored to the English tongue after martyrdom in the French,' the 'Membranous Croup' sketch, and many others which I need not specify): not doing this in order to make an advertisement of it, but because these things seemed instructive." ---- from the Preface by Mark Twain (Hartford, 1875).. First Edition / First Printing. Leather Bound. Poor/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Hardcover.