SALESMAN’S DUMMY FOR MARK TWAIN’S TRAMP ABROAD
TWAIN, Mark. A Tramp Abroad [Salesman’s Dummy]. Hartford, Connecticut: American Publishing Company, 1879. Slim octavo, original gilt- and blind-stamped brown cloth.
Original salesman’s dummy for A Tramp Abroad, with engraved frontispiece portrait, select illustrations and excerpts, and samples of the gilt-decorated cloth spine and morocco swatch affixed to front pastedown, and a sample of publisher’s calf affixed to rear pastedown.
In A Tramp Abroad, “besides his accounts of Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy, Twain includes local folklore (some of which he made up) and slips in several sketches that have little or nothing to do with Europe, including one of his most famous comic tales, ‘Jim Baker’s Bluejay Yarn” (MacDonnell, 42). Twain called the work “a gossipy volume… written by one loafer for a brother loafer to read” (LeMaster & Wilson, 743). Salesman’s dummies (also called salesman’s samples or prospectuses) were meant to be taken door-to-door to show potential subscribers. The front cover of the dummy is identical to the published book, while the text consists of several sections of the book (primarily those pages with some of the book’s many illustrations). The book was offered in full cloth with a sprinkled edge or gilt edge, in a library-style leather binding, or in half morocco or half calf. At the rear of the volume is a page of reviews, a full-page advertisement, ten leaves of ruled paper intended to be filled with orders (with the headings: “Subscribers’ Names,” “Residences,” and “Style of Binding”), and the publisher’s two-page current “Catalogue of Books.” The frontispiece portrait is the preferred first state (with the underlying lines in the left hand lapel vertical rather than slanted), and the wood-engraving of Moses is also the first state (bearing the caption “Moses,” rather than “Titian’s Moses”). See BAL 3386. Johnson, 35. McBride, 60.
Text fine, with only a few marks of handling, light rubbing to extremities of original cloth. A near-fine copy.