CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE [=MARK TWAIN]
The tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the comedy of those extraordinary twins. Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, 1894. First edition. Original publisher's cloth, brick red with stamping in gold and black. 8 3/4 inches (23 cm). Frontispiece, 432 pp., with marginal illustrations throughout. An unusually brilliant copy, with essentially no wear evident, internally extremely fresh.
BAL's first state, with the text-block bulking at 1 1/8 inches. This copy also has BAL's state A of the frontispiece, although the order between the two states BAL describes is arbitrary.
This is a contribution by Twain to the mystery genre. It contains a comparatively early and detailed mention of the use of fingerprints as a means of ascertaining identity (p. 287 et seq). BAL 3442.