BOOK REVIEW

The following book review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by R. Kent
Rasmussen.

 ~~~~~

 _Mark Twain 100th Anniversary Collection_. By Mark Twain. Orinda, Calif.:
SeaWolf Press, 2018 – . 10 titles to date. Paper, 6" x 9". $6.95 to $15.95
per vol.

 Many books reviewed on the Forum are available at discounted prices from
the TwainWeb Bookstore, and purchases from this site generate commissions
that benefit the Mark Twain Project. Please visit <http://www.twainweb.net>.

Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
R. Kent Rasmussen

Copyright (c) 2019 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.


Recent decades have seen the publication of many facsimile reprints of Mark
Twain books--both individual titles and large sets. The most ambitious of
these reprints has been Oxford University Press's 29-volume facsimile set
of American first editions that were originally published during Mark
Twain's lifetime. First issued in uniform hardback volumes in 1996, the
Oxford set was edited by Shelley Fisher Fishkin, who invited more than 60
noted authors and scholars contribute new introductions, afterwords, and
other editorial notes to the books. Each volume contains photo-facsimile
pages of its title's first-edition text along with as many as 50 to 100
pages of completely new material that make the books a uniquely valuable
resource. (For more on the Oxford Mark Twain, see my Forum review at <
http://www.twainweb.net/reviews/omt1-rev.html>.


In 2010, Oxford reissued its Mark Twain set in a paperback edition. Around
that same time, a company called the Bradford Exchange began issuing
expensive, full-facsimile replicas of first editions on a subscription
basis. It began with 15 titles, later adding 6 more with so little fanfare
one might not even know they existed, were it not for their occasional
appearance on eBay. By "full-facsimile," I mean reprints that match
original editions both inside and out in almost every detail, including
physical size. The Oxford facsimiles differ in being issued in uniform-size
volumes and in duplicating only the books' textual pages–whose sizes were
adjusted to fit the edition’s standard dimensions.


Other publishers had sold full-facsimile editions of selected Mark Twain
titles before Bradford, but that company's books carried facsimile
reproduction to an even higher level by duplicating every physical aspect
of each book--dimensions; paper; bindings; cover designs; embossing; and
gilding. Indeed, the company carried duplication so far that its books
don't contain a single date or word identifying them as reprints--a fact
that may tempt ignorant or unscrupulous dealers to try passing them off as
genuine first editions.


Now, yet another ambitious reprint edition is coming out, and it is
something quite different than earlier reprints. Last year, SeaWolf Press,
a small company based in Orinda, California, began issuing Mark Twain
reprints in what it calls the "Mark Twain 100th Anniversary Collection" (a
curiously delayed allusion to the 2010 anniversary of the author's 1910
death). SeaWolf plans to reprint about 45 titles, including several not in
any previous uniform edition, such as _Mark Twain's (Burlesque)
Autobiography_; _A True Story_; _Punch, Brothers, Punch!_; and a number of
post-1910 Harper first editions. The company has already published reprints
of books by other 19th century authors, including Jules Verne and Robert
Lewis Stevenson, as well as 50 Jack London titles--the last scarcely a
surprise, incidentally, considering the Bay Area company's name.


Sturdily bound paperback volumes sold primarily through Amazon.com, the
SeaWolf books are manufactured by Amazon’s print-on-demand service, using
acid-free and moderately heavy matte paper that has a nice feel. Like
Oxford's paper-bound edition, the SeaWolf volumes are uniform in size but
somewhat larger. Each 6" x 9" volume is about a half-inch taller and an
eighth-inch narrower than its Oxford counterpart and is also substantially
thicker, despite having fewer pages. SeaWolf books also differ from the
Oxford books in several other ways.


SeaWolf books resemble facsimile reprints in physical appearance but are
not facsimiles. Each book has completely reset type and new page layouts
designed to fit the set's uniform dimensions. Resetting type to reprint
books is not unusual, of course. What makes these books different is that
their pages are designed to mimic those of the first editions. They use the
same or very similar typefaces and contain all the original illustrations.
SeaWolf's success in emulating first editions is especially impressive in
volumes such as _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_, which has
numerous pages with text wrapped closely around irregularly shaped
illustrations. I should also add that my cursory examination of the texts
found no typesetting errors.


One might wonder why bother to reset type if the goal is to make pages
resemble those of first editions. One reason is the publisher’s goal to
make the books comfortable to read with larger and clearer typefaces than
those of most original and true facsimile editions. Moreover, thanks to
having new type, the books don't have the broken, worn, and occasionally
difficult to read characters sometimes seen in facsimile reprints. Examples
of SeaWolf layouts can be seen on Amazon's "look inside" pages for each
title. (Those pages might be best appreciated by comparing them to the
pages of a first edition or a facsimile reprint.)


SeaWolf's reset type also offers another advantage that in some volumes
seems almost paradoxical: Although most SeaWolf books use at least slightly
larger fonts, they also typically have fewer text pages than the first
editions. For example, SeaWolf's _Connecticut Yankee_ has about 130 fewer
pages than the first edition, even though it uses a larger font. The reason
for this apparent paradox is that many first editions have generous amounts
of "white space" in wide margins. Moreover, when first-edition pages were
fitted into the Oxford Mark Twain's standard dimensions, the proportions of
white space usually increased. A striking example can be seen in the Oxford
reprint of _The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg_: Type areas in its 398
facsimile pages fill only about 33 percent of each page. Though using a
slightly larger typeface, the SeaWolf edition needs only 217 pages to
contain the same text. Type areas in typical SeaWolf books fill about 75
percent of each page without looking crowded. In addition to wasting less
space, the SeaWolf pages are generally more pleasing to the eye.


A second significant way in which SeaWolf books differ from other reprint
editions is in their cover designs. Oxford paperback edition volumes have
uniform cover designs differing only in their titles and contributor names.
In contrast, not only does each SeaWolf edition have a unique cover design,
most are available with a choice of two completely different covers. Most
titles issued so far are available with color facsimiles of first edition
covers above a brown banner along the base containing name of the edition.
One _Huckleberry Finn_ version, for example, copies the green and gilt
cover of the Charles L. Webster Co. first edition. The result is reasonably
handsome, but because the reprint cover has different proportions, SeaWolf
has altered its layout slightly, making Huck's image slightly slimmer. Few
people would notice the alteration without placing a book next to a first
edition, however.


SeaWolf's second _Huckleberry Finn_ version uses Worth Brehm’s attractive
painting of Huck fishing that appeared on a Harper Brothers pictorial
edition in 1923. Like the other SeaWolf version, this cover design has also
been slightly altered to fit SeaWolf's standard dimensions. Several other
titles also offer both first-edition designs and full-color Harper
illustrations as options. (Speaking strictly personally, I find those with
the Harper covers far more attractive.) For several titles, SeaWolf went
further afield for cover designs. _The Celebrated Jumping Frog_ reprints,
for example, are available with replicas of both the first American and the
first British editions of that title. The first American edition of _The
Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays_ (1900) was
issued in Harper's bland red cornstalk edition. As that book's original
cover would make for a dull reprint, SeaWolf instead used the cover of the
first British edition--Chatto & Windus's striking design. It has a line
drawing of a sinister-looking man in a top hat seated on a chair,
apparently floating in space over a dark yellow background that makes the
man appear to be emitting shock waves. (I should add that while I'm not
sure whether the contents of the two British editions I've mentioned
exactly match those of their American counterparts, SeaWolf's copyright
pages make it clear that the books' contents are from the American
editions.)


As a final point on cover designs, it should be noted that the spines on
the volumes do not attempt to replicate those of the first editions. Each
book's spine simply has its title printed in a typeface matching that of
the front cover title over the same color background as that of the front
cover, with a cameo drawing of Mark Twain superimposed on the brown banner
at the base.


Finally, the SeaWolf editions issued to date contain no additional
editorial matter beyond brief blurbs about Mark Twain and the individual
books. Readers seeking additional substantive material will naturally
prefer the Oxford Mark Twain editions, but those interested only in reading
Mark Twain's own words are likely to prefer the SeaWolf books. With the
Oxford books now apparently out of print, however, that choice may be
academic. In any case, the SeaWolf books are handsome, sturdy, and
reasonably priced volumes that would make excellent reading copies and fine
gifts.


Titles issued to date along with their ISBN numbers are:

978-1948132800 - _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ - first edition original
cover

978-1948132824 - _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ - Worth Brehm painting cover

978-1948132817 - _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ - first edition original
cover

978-1949460810 - _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ - Worth Brehm painting
cover

978-1948132862 - _The Prince and the Pauper_ - first edition original cover

978-1948132114 - _The Prince and the Pauper_ - William Hatherell painting
cover

978-1948132893 - _The Celebrated Jumping Frog_ - first edition yellow cover

978-1948132886 - _The Celebrated Jumping Frog_ - first edition red cover

978-1948132121 - _The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg_ - Chatto & Windus
first edition cover

978-1949460797 - _Eve's Diary_ - first edition cover

978-1948132077 - _The Innocents Abroad_ - first edition cover

978-1948132084 - _The Innocents Abroad_ - Antonio Joli  painting cover

978-1948132879 - _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_ - first
edition cover

978-1948132909 - _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_ - Eugene
Frandzen painting cover

978-1948132916 - _Roughing It_ - first edition cover

978-1948132930 - _Roughing It_ - Charles Nahl painting cover

978-1949460766 - _Life on Mississippi_ - first edition cover

978-1949460735 - _Life on Mississippi_ - Frank E. Schoonover painting

It should also be noted that Amazon's online search feature using only the
ISBN numbers for this series is not currently functioning. The books are
best found by searching "Mark Twain" under AUTHOR and “SeaWolf
Press”--spelled out in full--under PUBLISHER in Amazon's advanced book
search. The online version of this review at  <
http://www.twainweb.net/reviews/SeaWolfPressEditions.html> features direct
links to each of the above titles.