Portrait Authors

[Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens)]. Portrait Authors. Worcester: West & Lee, [circa 1874]. Original card game deck. (4.875 x 2.625 inches; 98 x 65 mm.). 64 cards, printed one side with the West & Lee monogram on the card-backs. Letterpress folding instruction sheet. 32 cards with illustrated portraits, the other half with biographical sketches. Original publisher's green paper-covered pull-off-top box with illustrated paper label; lacking the box lid. Box rubbed; edges worn and partially split in the top (one edge completely another partially sewn together at an early date; old interior tape mends. Cards with only routine wear and soiling, as expected. Instruction sheet wrinkled and lightly soiled, splitting at the folds. Very good cards in an incomplete box. Four authors in eight fields (biographers, historians, journalists, moral and religious, novelists, poets, story writers and humorists (Twain)). Includes cards for many other prominent 19th century authors (Collins, Dickens and Hawthorne among them). Patented September 2, 1873. (#10311).