CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE. The Stolen White Elephant etc. Boston: James R. Osgood 1882. 12mo, original pictorial tan cloth, ends of spine a little worn, a signature just starting, brown half morocco folding case. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, of this collection of 18 stories, sketches, and speeches, 12 pages of publisher's ads at rear dated Spring 1882, PRESENTATION COPY TO HIS NEPHEW AND FIRST BIOGRAPHER, inscribed by Clemens in pencil on front free endpaper: "To Mr. W.M. Clemens with Compts of The Author Hartford Feb 1883"; signature of the recipient Will M. Clemens on front paste-down and with his personal library location label on verso of front free endpaper. BAL 3404; Johnson/Clemens, pp. 38-39. The year before this presentation Will Clemens (1860-1931) wrote a 13-page sketch on Mark Twain which appeared in his Famous Funny Fellows: Brief Biographical Sketches of American Humorists. In 1892 he published the first full-length biographical and critical account of the author, Mark Twain: His Life and Work. Although the book was sympathetic, Twain didn't care for it and it strengthened his opposition to having biographical works published about him while he was still alive. Twain later came to view his nephew Will Clemens as a "troublesome cuss."

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CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE. The Stolen White Elephant etc. Boston: James R. Osgood 1882. 12mo, original pictorial tan cloth, ends of spine a little worn, a signature just starting, brown half morocco folding case. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, of this collection of 18 stories, sketches, and speeches, 12 pages of publisher's ads at rear dated Spring 1882, PRESENTATION COPY TO HIS NEPHEW AND FIRST BIOGRAPHER, inscribed by Clemens in pencil on front free endpaper: "To Mr. W.M. Clemens with Compts of The Author Hartford Feb 1883"; signature of the recipient Will M. Clemens on front paste-down and with his personal library location label on verso of front free endpaper. BAL 3404; Johnson/Clemens, pp. 38-39. The year before this presentation Will Clemens (1860-1931) wrote a 13-page sketch on Mark Twain which appeared in his Famous Funny Fellows: Brief Biographical Sketches of American Humorists. In 1892 he published the first full-length biographical and critical account of the author, Mark Twain: His Life and Work. Although the book was sympathetic, Twain didn't care for it and it strengthened his opposition to having biographical works published about him while he was still alive. Twain later came to view his nephew Will Clemens as a "troublesome cuss."