THE TRAGEDY OF PUDD'NHEAD WILSON AND THE COMEDY OF THOSE EXTRAORDINARY TWINS
Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company, 1897. Second Edition. Though frequently and erroneously cited as the first fictional use of fingerprints as a method of identification (that would be Twain's "A Thumb-Print and What Came Of It" in Life on the Mississippi), Pudd'nhead Wilson "is nevertheless important because the entire plot revolves around Pudd'nhead's courtroom explanation of the uniqueness of a person's print" (Steinbruner & Penzler, p.90). A sharp copy of this Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone and Johnson's Highspot. Cf.BAL 3442; Wright III, 1102; Barzun & Taylor 3204. Item #5659
Octavo (23cm); rust brown cloth, with titling and decorations stamped in gilt and black on spine and front cover; tan endpapers; 432,[2]pp; illus. Crown gently nudged, touch of dust-soil to upper edge of textblock, with faint foxing to textblock and occasionally to margins; hinges sound; Near Fine.
Price: $450.00