The Mysterious Stranger

Twain, Mark

Published by Harper, New York, 1922

Twain, Mark (pseudonym of Samuel Clemens). The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories. New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1922. First edition. Octavo, pp. [1-8] [1-2] 3-323 [324] [325-328: publisher's ads]. Original red decorative cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold. Illustrated with an inserted plate at the frontis, a half-tone with atmospheric depiction of a wizard in front of this castle. Spine lettering tarnished and spine cloth just a touch faded, else a sharp, very good or nearly fine copy. #1815. $25. In addition to the title novella (a garbled text, unfortunately -- see below for more information), this collection gathers several other fantasies including "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" and "My Platonic Sweetheart" as well "A Horse's Tale," "A Fable," "Hunting the Deceitful Turkey," and one of Twain's brightest gems, "The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm." The version of "The Mysterious Stranger" printed here was pasted together from various sources by his executor, Albert Bigelow Paine, while keeping the reader in the dark about his editorial surgery. A scholarly edition of the three different texts left behind by Twain can be found in Mark Twain's Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (1969). Sholom J. Kahn produced a study of the work's textual problems in Mark Twain's Mysterious Stranger: A Study Of The Manuscript Texts (1978). For the completist, this Paine rendering does constitute, in effect, a fourth version and is not entirely without interest in light of the weightiness of the story. Reginald 14362. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1614. Seller Inventory # 1815

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Mysterious Stranger
Publisher: Harper, New York
Publication Date: 1922
Binding: Hardback
Condition: Very Good
Edition: First Edition.