Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

Author: Mark Twain (PSUED Samuel Langhorne Clemens) [1835-1910]

Year: 1897

Publisher: American Publishing Company

Place: Hartford

Description:

712 pages with photographic frontispiece of the author, numerous illustrations through out. Royal Octavo (9 1/4" x 6 1/4") bound in original publisher's blue cloth with colored pictorial vignette of an elephant in gilt on front cover, spine decorated and lettered in gilt, title lettered in green and black. Points title page Hartford imprint only, page 161 signature mark "11" present; flyleaf on back only (BAL 3451; Johnson 65; McBride 194) First edition, First state.

This heavy tome was the result of Twain's famous lecture tour around the world in order to earn enough money to pay off the debts of his bankruptcy. His last travel book, it is also his most serious, and he relates the narrative as himself, with few of the stories, comic sketches and discursive passages that peppered his four earlier travel books. The serious tone in some ways makes this his best travel narrative. The English edition was published under the title More Tramps Abroad and contains thousands of words not included in this American text, as well as other differences on construction. This was the last of the subscription books Twain published and his last book to be published by the American Publishing Company.

Condition:

Spine heal rubbed through, frontispiece detached, rubbing to extremities, corners bumped else good to very good.