Everybody's Friend, or; Josh Billing's Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor
Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1874.
First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 617 pp + ads, with illustrations by Thomas Nast and others. Bound in three-quarter leather and marbled boards, with marbled edges and endpapers. Some scuffing to leather, small split starting at lower front joint; interals sound and clean. Handwritten note on verso of front free endpaper reads "#186, From the Library of Thos. Nast." (We have no independent knowledge of this reported provenance). Josh Billings was the pseudonym of American humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818-1885), "whose philosophical comments in plain language were widely popular after the American Civil War through his newspaper pieces, books, and comic lectures. He employed the misspellings, fractured grammar, and hopeless logic then current among comic writers who assumed the role of cracker-barrel philosophers. His special contributions were his rustic aphorisms...and his droll delineations of animal life (Britannica). This volume includes the first printing in book form of Mark Twain's letter poking fun at Billings' use of phonetic spelling (see p. 573). BAL 17455.
Item #23855
Price: $150.00