Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World - Salesman's Dummy

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1897. Hard Cover. Good/No Jacket. Front hinge loosening, front free endpaper and title page loose but included, lacks sample spine designs (removed from inside front board), first page of subscription sheets used as a general account ledger (pencil notes). 1897 Hard Cover. Navy blue cloth, color illustration mounted on front board, engraved illustrations. A salesman's dummy copy of the travelogue written by Twain beginning in 1895, when we began a tour of the British Empire to present lectures as a means of paying off the sizable debt associated with a failed investment in a typesetting machine. The narrative includes indictments of racism, imperialism, and missionary zealotry. Several (rather farcical) fictional pieces are interwoven throughout.