8vo. 1p. publisher's advertisement at front. (Very minor occasional marginal soiling, a few corners creased.) Original red beveled cloth with gilt frog device stamped at the lower left corner of upper cover, blind impression of the frog on lower cover, gilt-lettered on front cover and spine (sunning to spine and ends worn, few minor stains to covers, fore-corners rubbed).

FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHOR'S RARE FIRST BOOK, FIRST ISSUE, with the leaf of ads and unbroken type on pages 21, 66, and 198. Queen notes that Twain's first book is the "first important foreshadowing of crime-in-the-ascendancy in the short story... This acknowledged classic of legend and folklore is an early example of the confidence game in fiction. If this statement surprises you, reread Mark Twain's tale of trickery and ask yourself: When the slick stranger filled Jim Smiley's frog, Dan'l Webster, full of quail-shot, wasn't he really playing a clever skin game?" (Queen's Quorum, 7). BAL 3310; Johnson, pp.3-9; McBride 2; Seven Gables First Books 58; Zamorano 80, 17.