English as She Is Taught - Mark Twain - Bauman Rare Books

English as She Is Taught

Mark TWAIN

Item#: 76473 We're sorry, this item has been sold

English as She Is Taught

“EVERY SENTENCE AND THE NAME OF GOD MUST BEGIN WITH A CATERPILLAR”: TWAIN’S ENGLISH AS SHE IS TAUGHT, 1900

TWAIN, Mark. English as She Is Taught. With a Biographical Sketch of the Author by Matthew Irving Lans. Boston: Mutual Book Company, (1900). Slim octavo, original green cloth, uncut.

First complete American edition, second issue, of Twain’s humorous essay on the state of education and with examples of the egregious mistakes students make, with a biographical sketch of Twain.

“A Brooklyn schoolteacher named Caroline B. LeRow approached Mark Twain with a manuscript she had assembled from her pupils’ most outlandish answers to questions. She later published the manuscript as English as She Is Taught; meanwhile, Mark Twain wrote this 4,275-word essay with choice extracts from LeRow’s material and brief comments on the state of education. He gave the $250 that Century Magazine paid him for the article to LeRow and later extracted some of its contents in Chapter 61 of Following the Equator… Extracts include definitions such as assiduity being the ‘state of being an acid,’ an equestrian ‘one who asks questions,’ and a eucharist ‘one who plays euchre.’ Under the heading of grammar, one pupil defines gender as ‘the distinguishing nouns without regard to sex,’ while another asserts that ‘every sentence and name of God must begin with a caterpillar” (Rasmussen, 130). First published in an English edition in 1887 with LeRow listed as the author and “with a Commentary by Mark Twain”; an American edition without Twain’s commentary was also published in 1887. This edition is the first American edition to contain Twain’s commentary and was issued in both paper wrappers and a cloth binding, as here, no priority. This copy is second issue, with “five” spelled correctly on page 16, line 5. BAL 3465; see also BAL 3420. Johnson, 71-72. Contemporary owner signature, bookplate.

Interior fine; light rubbing to cloth extremities, spine toned. A near-fine copy.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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