My eBay Bargain — Six Word Saturday —

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my Six Words: ..

A Good eBay Bargain for Me

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My book find is a 1958 (55 years old) first printing of  "Traveling with the Innocents Abroad; Mark Twain's Original Reports from Europe and the Holy Land; Edited by Daniel Morley McKeithan."  It was published by the University of Oklahoma Press at Norman.

My bargain price was $0.50 U.S. plus $3.88 shipping and $0.03 Texas Sales Tax for a total of $4.41.  I watched it for several days and then before the eBay auction was to close I bid $6.01.  Since the seller had established a starting bid, my bid was entered for 50¢ and it would automatically increase to meet competition as needed until I would be outbid.  Then I would enter another higher price and monitor the bidding accordingly.  That was not necessary as my 50 cent bid was the only one made.

The lowest on-line book store price I could find it for was $19.95 for a former library copy (plus shipping and also Texas Sales Tax if 'the seller did business in Texas').

Our college library, where I taught Business Law and other business courses, had this book on their shelf.   I started reading that copy several years back and only got about half finished with it.  It was a wonderful book to read in ones leisure because each chapter was a letter from a different place that Mark Twain had visited.  The library disposed of this book before I retired so I could not finish my reading.

Mark Twain took The Quaker City, a steamship with auxiliary sails, on a European cruise-tour.  He was one of seventy-six passengers who sailed from New York City on June 8, 1867 and returned after five plus months on November 19.

Twain was under contract with the San Francisco Daily Alta California (newspaper) who paid for this voyage with Mark to send letters back of his travels.   This he did by sending back 58 letters, all of which are published in my book.  Six of the letters were written for the New York Tribune, one for the Naples Observer, and the one for the New York Herald after his return.  The rest, fifty, were written for the Daily Alta California.

From these letters Mark Twain wrote his travel novel, The Innocents Abroad, which was published in July, 1969.  "(It) has been the most popular book of foreign travel ever written by any American" (my book preface, page xi).  You may have read this book, The Innocents Abroad, I have not.

 



 

My book contains 325 pages not including the preface of eighteen pages, marked with Roman Numerals.  Five of these 325 pages make up the index at the end.

I will start my reading with Chapter 32, titled Camping Out, on page 178.  Here Twain picks up "In Camp, Mountains of Lebanon, Syria, September 11th, 1867."  The group had just returned from Ephesus, Asia Minor (now Turkey).
 
After finishing reading my book (who knows when?) I will start over.  I may reread the preface before beginning my reading as the part I read in getting information for this post was very interesting. 

I have had no buyer's remorse because of this purchase.  Instead, I am a VERY happy camper with it.  Mrs. Jim and I have visited many of the places where Mr. Twain tells of his travels.  In 1980 we visited on a cruise tour of Greece, the Mediterranean isles, Ephesus (Turkey), Egypt, Israel, and Jordan.  Since then we have visited most of the rest of the places he has gone.
 
The last page, 326, shown above in the picture on the right, says the following about my new-to-me book:
 

Traveling with the Innocents Abroad

 

has been set in eleven and one-half point

Linotype Caslon with one and one-half

points of leading, and is printed

on an antique wove paper.

 

University of Oklahoma Press

Norman

 

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