Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana

8vo. Engraved portrait of Twain by J.A.J. Wilcox [BAL state B, no priority], engraved frontispiece captioned ''Titian's Moses'' [BAL's second state], profusion of illustrations; advertisement for The Innocents Abroad on p.[632]. (Light spotting to frontispiece.) Original dark brown gilt-decorated cloth [BAL state B, no priority] (spine toned with fading, some gently rubbing or fraying to spine ends and fore-corners, some gentle cracking to inner hinges); folding case. Provenance: Isabel V. Lyon (1863-1958), Twain's secretary (presentation inscription); R.J. Rebman (penciled signature and note on front free endpaper).

FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY TWAIN TO HIS SECRETARY on the front free endpaper: "Truly yours, Mark Twain." With the additional inscription below, also in Twain's hand: "The property of Miss I.V. Lyon."

Isabel Van Kleek Lyons played a pivotal but controversial role in Twain’s later years, serving as his private secretary, household manager, and confidante after the death of his wife, Olivia, in 1904. Twain was deeply reliant on Lyons, once remarking, “Miss Lyon runs Clara, and Jean, and me, and the servants, and the housekeeping, and the house building, and the secretary work, and remains as extraordinarily as competent as ever.” Lyons, for her part, revered Twain, referring to him as “the King” in her diary, while Twain called her “The Lioness”. Their relationship grew so close that rumors of romantic intentions surfaced, though Twain, in later writings, fiercely denied any affection beyond professional reliance: “Miss Lyon compares with her [Livy] as a buzzard compares with a dove. (I say this with apologies to the buzzard.),” he wrote in a blistering private letter. Ultimately, Twain and his surviving daughter turned against Lyons amidst accusations of manipulation and theft, culminating in a lengthy, scathing 429-page manuscript Twain composed but suppressed during his lifetime, indicting her as “a liar, a forger, a thief, a hypocrite, a drunkard, a sneak, a humbug, a traitor, a conspirator”. The complexities of Lyons’s legacy, as the woman Twain claimed to know “most intimately in all the world — with the exception of his wife, Livy,” remain the subject of current debate.

A RARE AND SIGNIFICANT PRESENTATION COPY of Twain’s satire of European customs and manners. The narrative technique and style of this work is thought to have influenced Huckleberry Finn (which Twain was in fact in the middle of writing when he took the European adventure which inspired A Tramp Abroad). It sold over 60,000 copies in its first year of publication, and it remained Twain’s best-selling book until his death thirty years later. BAL 3386; Johnson, pp.33-35.