A Family Flight through France, Germany, Norway and Switzerland

5b Rev. E. E. Hale and Miss Susan Hale, Boston, 1881. Fully Illustrated. From the Library of Mark Twain. Presented to his daughter by her mother.

Notes

A Family Flight through France, Germany, Norway, and Switzerland (1881) is a travelogue written by Rev. E. E. Hale and his daughter Miss Susan Hale. The book documents their journey across Europe, providing a detailed and engaging account of their experiences as they explore the landscapes, cultures, and cities of France, Germany, Norway, and Switzerland. The Hales offer a blend of personal reflections, insightful descriptions, and historical observations, along with charming commentary on the people and places they encounter. This work gives readers a glimpse into late 19th-century European travel, highlighting both the beauty of the countries they visit and the practical aspects of family travel during that time.

This copy belonged to Mark Twain which was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835–1910), stands as the quintessential voice of American realism and one of the nation's greatest humorists, satirists, and social critics. Raised along the Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri—a landscape that permanently infused his narrative imagination—Twain spent his youth working as a printer's devil, a riverboat pilot, and a frontier journalist before capturing global attention with his 1865 short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” He permanently dismantled the rigid, overly formal conventions of 19th-century literature by writing in the authentic, vernacular speech of ordinary Americans, a stylistic revolution that reached its artistic peak in his 1884 masterpiece, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Through his biting wit, sharp anti-imperialist commentary, and a unique ability to expose the deep moral hypocrises of the Gilded Age, Twain left an unparalleled cultural legacy that Ernest Hemingway famously declared served as the definitive foundation for all modern American fiction.

Description

Green cloth binding with red embossed lettering on the upper board and spine. Gilt illustration on the front cover and crest on the spine as well. All edges red. Fading to the spine, rubbing the canvas to a shine along all extremities. Illustrations throughout. Comes in a bright green clamshell with embossed illustrated cover and gilt embossed lettering and details along the spine. Blue ink iInscription on the second leaf; “Clara L. Clemens. Hartford Dec. 25th 1881. Merry Christmas from Mamma.”