ROUGHING IT is Twain's 1872 first-person, semi-fictional travel narrative of his youthful trip west in 1862 and of a later one, in 1866, to Hawaii. ROUGHING IT has been described as one of the best books on the old west ever written. (#18 of The Zamorano 80: A Selection of Distinguished California Books Made by Members of the Zamorano Club, #4 of Jeff Dykes “My Ten Most Outstanding Books on the West.) It was his second subscription book (after 1869’s Innocents Abroad) and only the 3rd published book (if you don’t count his odd little “Burlesque Autobiography and First Romance”.
In 1862 with his job gone and Mississippi river traffic shut down because of the Civil War, Sam Clemens decides to travel west with his brother Orion, who has been appointed Secretary of Nevada territory. Twain’s legendary wit endows his observations and descriptions of the six week stage coach trip with satire and even hilarity. Twain devotes two chapters to Joseph Alfred "Jack" Slade, the notorious frontiersman who had no qualms about taking the law in his own hands, executing rustlers, crooked ranchers, and other outlaws in order to clean up the cattle country. He describes his encounter with Slade in Wyoming.
My favorite section is his stop in Salt Lake City, with several chapters devoted to the Mormons, Brigham Young, and Salt Lake. His facetious defense of polygamy (after seeing some of the women involved) is hilarious.
In Nevada, Twain famously makes an unfortunate purchase--a horse, "a Genuine Mexican Plug,” after admiring and hoping to emulate the horsemanship of the Californians and Mexicans. He discusses his life as a miner, becomes a “millionaire” briefly, lives a bohemian life in San Francisco and, takes trip to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) as a roving correspondent for the Sacramento Union. He also describes his first time as a lecturer in California; the lectures took him from locally known journalist to nationally known author and lecturer.
Like most all of Twain’s early subscription books, this one is heavily illustrated by “eminent artists.” There are 570 of them! They truly add to the story and are humorous in their own right.
DESCRIPTION:
9 x 6 inches---592 pages
Custom Leather Binding
CONDITION:
This book is in fine condition (cover and binding) and internally good to very good. It has been rebound using archival acid free materials, new cords, cotton cloth backing and a new leather cover with the decoration on the front board from the original cloth binding and a portrait of young Sam Clemens on the rear board. The spine shows faux raised bands and a black leather label—which closely approximate the original look of the sheep leather bound first edition.book. The leather is beautiful and soft to the touch.
The text block has been rebound with new endpapers that flank the original text which is complete and original—all original pages and illustrations are present. The edges of the first two or three pages have been reinforced with acid free mending paper on the back sides. The second blank endpaper has the original owner’s penciled name, place and date, 1880. The rest of the pages are clean. Page xv, a contents page, has tattered edges which have not been repaired. Page 176, next to the plate of Twain escaping the fire at Lake Tahoe, has a small edge tear in the lower edge. Overall the the interior pages are generally pretty clean for this old book and show less than usual acid toning. All pages are somewhat toned with age as is normal for a book this age. There are no major tears.
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