EXTRACTS FROM ADAM'S DIARY.
Translated from the Original MS. Illustrated by F. Strothmann. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1904. Original red cloth pictorially decorated in grey, green, white and black.
First Separate Edition. Twain wrote a series of manuscripts, most not published during his lifetime, on the theme of Adam and Eve. Twain discarded the view that Adam and Eve should have been held accountable for sin, since they had no frame of reference and were born without moral awareness. [MacDonnell]
The first appearance of this tale had been over a decade earlier, in the multi-author THE NIAGARA BOOK: A Complete Souvenir of Niagara Falls... (Buffalo 1893); it was next collected in TOM SAWYER, DETECTIVE (London 1897). This is an amusingly-produced book, with a stone tablet shown on each left-hand page and its "translation" opposite. This copy is in near-fine condition, with only a little of the dulling and the letter-flaking that typically afflict the spine. McBride p. 214; Blanck 3480 and see 3437). Item #15547
Price: $175.00