Mark Twain, Gilded Age, Tale of To-Day, 1stEd. 1874 ill

"Gilded Age, A Tale of To-Day" by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, "Fully Illustrated from New Designs by Hoppin, Stephens, Williams, White, Etc., Etc." Published by American Publishing Company, Hartford, "Sold by Subscription Only", 1874. Mixed state of the first printing with a few errors already corrected. [BAL 3357].

Hard cover, original decorative publisher's gold and blind stamped cloth (shelf wear, spine repairs: see photos); 5.3/4" x 8.3/4"; stamp and ink inscription of Moses C. Murphey on the front endpaper, 574 pages + one page 'Appendix' + 4-page "Catalogue of Book"; 212 illustrations [28" long fold-out 'map' at the page 246 is a facsimile]; a little foxing, a little soiling, a few page corner folds, very good condition.

Twain's first novel, co-authored by his friend and neighbor Charles Dudley Warner. After the issue of this satirical novel "Gilded Age" become a description of the 'Post-Grant' era of American History: an age of corruption when crooked land speculators, ruthless bankers, and dishonest politicians voraciously took advantage of the nation's peacetime optimism. The novel tells an epic story of Colonel Sellers and the Hawkins family in their relentless and convoluted pursuit of wealth, and their concept of wealth as a worthy end in itself. Wealth eludes them, often with tragic results... With his characteristic wit and perception, Mark Twain and his collaborator, Charles Dudley Warner, expose the greed, lust, and naivete of their own time.

Appearing at the end of 1873, some copies carry an 1873 date, but most are dated 1874, including most of the 60 advance review copies. Copies with the earliest states of the text are found with both 1873 and 1874 title pages.

Points of early state in this particular copy:

1). Artist "White" on the title page.
2). Wm. H. Lockwood the Electrotyper, Hartford, Conn. Is stated on the copyright page.
3). page 246: "Hallelujahab" and no comma instead of "Halleluah,".
4). P.280: neither dot nor comma after "Dr. Jackson" instead of "Dr. Jackson,"
5). Four pages of ads with 'Everybody'd Friend' [corrected to "true index"] at the end of the book (six points of nine).

Provenance:

From the library of Moses Collins Murphey. "Moses C. Murphey (stamped) and handwritten, Augusta, Ga. Decbr 10th 1874" is pen-written on the front endpaper.Moses Collins Murphey (1838-1915), a contemporary of Mark Twain, was a veteran of the Civil War and a businessman during the Reconstruction and Gilded Age. Murphey was born on the old homestead plantation of the family, in Richmond county, Ga., July 28. 1838. His father was a prosperous planter in the Antebellum era. After the Civil War Moses became an owner of the well-known at that time wholesale grocery of Murphey & Co., of Augusta, Georgia.

"Murphey family belonged to the Oglethorpe colony which came from England to Georgia in 1736, so that the family name has been identified with the history of this great commonwealth from the earliest pioneer days. Moses C. Murphey was afforded the advantages of excellent private schools in Jefferson county, Ga., whither his parents removed when he was six years of age and where he was reared to maturity on the home plantation. At the age of nineteen years he located in Augusta, where he took a clerkship in the grocery store of his uncle, Edmund T. Murphey, and at the inception of the Civil War he had become a partner in the business, which was being conducted under the name of E. T. Murphey & Co. In May, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company D, First Georgia volunteer infantry."

Moses Murphey took part in many important battles. He was wounded in the battle at Spottsylvania Court House, and was with Johnston's army at the time of the surrender at Greensboro, N. C., April 26, 1865. The close of the war Mr. Murphey located in the city of Savannah, where he was employed as a grocery salesman until 1868, when he returned to Augusta and resumed the partnership with his uncle, having ever since been continuously engaged the wholesale and retail grocery trade in that city.

Since 1885, the enterprise has been principally of the wholesale order, and the present firm title of Murphey & Co. was adopted in 1887, the entire business being now owned by Mr. Murphey and his two elder sons, John E. and Milledge, who are numbered among the progressive and representative young business men of Augusta. "Mr. Murphey is a stanch supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, is a comrade of Camp No. 435, United Confederate Veterans, and is a prominent member of St. James church, Methodist Episcopal South, in which he is a trustee and steward." [from the "Richmond County, Georgia. Biographies"]

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