SPECIAL FEATURE
by Barbara Schmidt

A History of and Guide to
UNIFORM EDITIONS OF MARK TWAIN'S WORKS

"Whenever a Uniform and a De Luxe can be marketed, that's the time to do it; a delay of a year can be fatal, for a literary reputation is a most frail thing -- any trifling accident can kill it; and its market along with it."
- Samuel Clemens to Henry H. Rogers, 31 May 1898

Autographed Edition
_____

Table of Contents

Part One: Uniform Editions (1891-1920)

Chapter 1 - Early Attempts at Uniformity

Chapter 2 - Henry H. Rogers Takes Control

Chapter 3 - American Publishing Company Gets a Contract

Chapter 4 - 1899 - 1901: Eight American Publishing Company Editions and One New Harper Series

Chapter 5 - Advertising Wars (1901 - 02)

Chapter 6 - "Blood in their Eyes" (1903)

Chapter 7 - Mark Twain's Final Years (1904 - 1910) and a New Decade of Books

Chapter 8 - Harper and Brothers and the Mark Twain Ads (1909 - 1921)

Part Two: The First 25 Volumes (1899 - 1920)

Chapter 9 - Brief Overview of Volumes 1 and 2: The Innocents Abroad

Chapter 10 - Brief Overview of Volumes 3 and 4: A Tramp Abroad

Chapter 11 - Brief Overview of Volumes 5 and 6: Following the Equator

Chapter 12 - Brief Overview of Volumes 7 and 8: Roughing It

Chapter 13 - Brief Overview of Volume 9: Life on the Mississippi

Chapter 14 - Brief Overview of Volumes 10 and 11: The Gilded Age

Chapter 15 - Brief Overview of Volume 12: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Chapter 16 - Brief Overview of Volume 13: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 17 - Brief Overview of Volume 14: Pudd'nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins

Chapter 18 - Brief Overview of Volume 15: The Prince and the Pauper

Chapter 19 - Brief Overview of Volume 16: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Chapter 20 - Brief Overview of Volumes 17 and 18: Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

Chapter 21 - Brief Overview of Volume 19: Sketches, New and Old

Chapter 22 - Brief Overview of Volume 20: Tom Sawyer Abroad / Tom Sawyer Detective and Other Stories, Etc., Etc.

Chapter 23 - Brief Overview of Volume 21: The American Claimant and Other Stories and Sketches

Chapter 24 - Brief Overview of Volume 22: How to Tell a Story and Other Essays (1900) Retitled Literary Essays (1917)

Chapter 25 - Brief Overview of Volume 23: My Début as a Literary Person and Other Essays and Stories (1903) Retitled The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Essays and Stories (1904)

Chapter 26 - Brief Overview of Volume 24: The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories

Chapter 27 - Brief Overview of Volume 25: Christian Science with Notes Containing Corrections to Date

Part Three: Uniform Editions After 1920

Chapter 28 - P. F. Collier and Son Editions

Chapter 29 - Gabriel Wells Definitive Edition (1922 - 1925)

Chapter 30 - Harper and Brothers Mississippi Edition (1923 - 1929)

Chapter 31 - Harper and Brothers Stormfield Edition (1929)

Chapter 32 - Harper and Brothers Memorial Edition (1929)

Chapter 33 - Harper and Brothers Pictorial Hardcover or Gift Editions (1916 - 1935)

Chapter 34 - Harper and Brothers Authorized Edition and American Artists Edition (1937 - 1939)

Chapter 35 - Harper and Brothers Uniform Trade Edition (post 1923 - 1960s)

Chapter 36 - Greystone Definitive Edition (1967 - 1968)

Chapter 37 - Iowa-California Works Edition (1972 - 1988)

Chapter 38 - Mark Twain Library Edition (1982 - ongoing)

Chapter 39 - The Oxford Mark Twain (1996, 2009)

Chapter 40 - Easton Press Mark Twain Library (1998)

Chapter 41 - Library of America Mark Twain Editions (1982 - 2010)

 

 


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