[Mark Twain (contributor)]. A. R. Spofford and Rufus E. Shapley (editors). The Library of Wit and Humor. 1885[-1886]. First edition.

Library of Wit and Humor

Regular price $125.00 Sale

[Mark Twain (contributor)]. A. R. Spofford and Rufus E. Shapley (editors). The Library of Wit and Humor. Prose and Poetry Selected from the Literature of All Times and Nations. Philadelphia: Gebbie & Co, Publishers, 1885[-1886]. First edition, mixed early printings, third and forth volumes dated 1885 (earliest we saw), the first volume is also dated 1885, but that was initially published a year earlier, the second volume is undated (should be 1884) and the fifth is dated 1886 (should be 1885). Five volumes. Octavo (9.125 x 6.125 inches; 230 x 155 mm.). Variously paginated, text in two columns. Illustrated plates inserted throughout. Contemporary half light brown polished calf over marbled paper covered boards, spine in six compartments with five raised bands, compartments stamped in gilt with two gilt-lettered labels; marbled page edges and endpapers; double flyleaves. Spines very slightly askew; boards lightly rubbed; edges and joints slightly worn with a couple trivial nicks. Plates foxed along the edges with light marginal foxing throughout. Very good. Collects three short Mark Twain stories: "Jumping Frog," "Story of the Bad Little Boy" and "Scriptural Panoramist" with two excerpts from The Gilded Age. (#10184).