Th. Nast's Illustrated Almanac for 1872

[Mark Twain (contributor)]. Thomas Nast. Th: Nast's Illustrated Almanac for 1872. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1871. First edition. Octavo (7.875 x 5.5 inches; 200 x 140 mm.)). 64, [10, ads], [1 (page [75] in BAL)]-3 ("Popular Novels"), [3, ads] pages. Full-page frontispiece, illustrated title-page and numerous ("over 130") in-text illustrations by Thomas Nast. Publisher's perfect binding in the original brown illustrated wrappers; Harper's advertisements printed on the inner wrappers. Rear joint split with the rear wrapper and final leaf detached; backstrip partially perished, mostly in the bottom half, with the title written in manuscript ink; wrapper edges somewhat chipped at the corners with minor paper loss, including one affecting the bottom corner of the illustration on the rear wrapper (removing a couple letters from Nast's name); few other trivial nicks, mostly along the joints and fore-edge; paper stamp affixed in the upper margin (with a small bruise where it seems there was an attempted removal at an earlier date). Pages with a couple very minor stains along the fore-edge; a few leaves with a very soft fold down the center; some occasional negligible discoloration in the margins; pages still quite supple. Good.

Contains Mark Twain's "Advice to Little Girls," which first appeared in The Celebrated Jumping Frog five years prior, and the first book appearance of "The Late Benjamin Franklin," previously published in The Piccadilly Annual and later collected in Mark Twain's Sketches. BAL 3332. (#10082). $250.00