Literature - 19 - Bauman Rare Books A “Sensitive Portrait of Black Families in The Civil War Era”: Scarce First Edition Of Twain’s A True Story, And The Recent Carnival Of Crime, 1877 15. TWAIN, Mark. A True Story, and the Recent Carnival of Crime. Boston, 1877. 16mo, original black- and gilt-stamped red cloth, custom chemise and half morocco slipcase. $9800. First edition, in first-state binding (with JRO & Co Monogram on front cover). “ATrue Story…”was the first of Twain’s works accepted for publication by the Atlantic Monthly (November 1874) and remained one of his favorites. “One of Twain’s finest dialect tales… ‘A True Story’ has won praise for its faithful rendering of dialect, which Twain edited painstakingly, its sensitive portrait of black families in the Civil War era, including the role of black soldiers in the Union army, and its anticipation of Huckleberry Finn’s narrative techniques and themes” (Le Master and Wilson, 751-2). “[I]n the surprisingly autobiographical [‘Recent Carnival of Crime’] Twain gave his first strong fictional image of a man divided against himself… [It] is the seminal and comic fictional expression of what grew to become Twain’s most dark and dominant theme” (ibid, 278). This is the first book form appearance of “The Recent Carnival of Crime”; “A True Story” had been included in Sketches, New and Old (1875). BAL 3373. Bookplate of noted Americana collector Benjamin DeForest Curtiss. Interior fine, very minor wear to cloth extremities. A nearly fine copy.
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