Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance is a short volume, published by Sheldon in 1871, is Mark Twain's third book. It consists of two stories - First Romance, which had originally appeared in The Express in 1870, and A Burlesque Autobiography (bearing no relationship to Twain's actual life), which first appeared in Twain's Memoranda contributions to the Galaxy .
The illustrations form an interesting aspect of this book. They ha...
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Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance is a short volume, published by Sheldon in 1871, is Mark Twain's third book. It consists of two stories - First Romance, which had originally appeared in The Express in 1870, and A Burlesque Autobiography (bearing no relationship to Twain's actual life), which first appeared in Twain's Memoranda contributions to the Galaxy .
The illustrations form an interesting aspect of this book. They have no relationship to the text of the book. Rather, they use cartoons illustrating the children's poem The House that Jack Built to lampoon the Erie Railroad Ring (the house) and its participants, Jay Gould, John T. Hoffman, and Jim Fisk.
The book was not one of Twain's personal favorites. Two years after publication, he bought all of the printing plates of the book and destroyed them.
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