Stated First Edition, My Father Mark Twain, 1931, Clara Clemens, ExLib/HC/Photos For Sale

A significant early biographical work by Clara Clemens, daughter of Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens), offering an intimate, firsthand portrait of America’s most celebrated humorist. This 1931 first edition is valued for its unpublished Twain letters, family photographs, and Clara’s personal accounts of life with her father.

• Primary-source letters — Includes previously unpublished correspondence from Mark Twain, providing rare insight into his private voice, humor, and reflections.

• Family photographs — Features multiple photo plates, including a frontispiece of Twain receiving his Oxford degree, offering visual documentation of the Clemens family’s history.

• Firsthand biography — Clara’s narrative blends affection, candor, and cultural observation, illuminating Twain’s domestic life, personality, and the early 20th‑century social world surrounding him.

• Historical context — As a contemporary account written by Twain’s daughter, this volume remains an important contribution to Twain scholarship, valued for its authenticity and proximity to the subject.

• A true first edition from 1931, increasingly scarce in the market.

• Contains unique textual and photographic material not reproduced in later editions.

• Offers direct familial perspective, making it a desirable companion to scholarly Twain provenance from Oakland Public Library, catalogued the year of publication — a detail of interest to collectors of institutional history.

• Boards & binding — Red cloth boards; binding remains structurally sound despite wear.

• Spine — Lower spine shows a 3-inch tear in the cloth; gilt title and author name at the top remain legible. Rubbing present where the Dewey Decimal label once sat.

• Library markings — Library pocket affixed to front board; checkout slip on facing endpaper (loans from 1943–1965). Title page bears a library stamp and a poor attempt at a joke, likely from a juvenile.

• Interior — Small library stamps on page 1; ink notation beneath Clara Clemens’s photo plate. Other pages and photo plates are clean and unmarked.

• Paper — Pages are toned but supple, with clear, readable type.

• Illustrations — All photo plates intact; frontispiece shows Twain at Oxford.

A scarce 1931 first edition containing unpublished Twain letters, rare family photographs, and Clara Clemens’s intimate biographical account. Despite ex‑library wear, this remains a desirable and historically valuable Twain family volume with strong appeal to collectors of American literature and primary-source Twain material.