The $30, 000 Bequest and Other Stories (1906) is a collection of thirty comic short stories by the iconic American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The stories contained span the course of his career, from ‘Advice to Young Girls’ in 1865 to the titular tale in 1904. Although Twain had ample time to refine his short stories between their original publication date and this collection, there is little evidence to suggest he took an active interest in doing so. ‘A Burlesque Biography’ contains only a few minor technical revisions which make it different from the 1871 version found in Mark Twain’s ‘(Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance’. ‘Advice to Little Girls’ shows slight revision from its earlier publication in The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
In September 1906, Harper and Brothers created another collection of previously published short stories and essays by Mark Twain. They compiled two separate versions of this collection: a trade print issued in red cloth binding with gold cornstalks and an ongoing series for subscription book buyers who had first purchased their sets from American Publishing Company in 1899. By 1906, the American Publishing Company sets contained material that had not yet been incorporated in any of Harper’s previous uniform series of books with red cloth bindings. With the publication of The $30, 000 Bequest and Other Stories, Harper had the opportunity to even the offerings. Twain did not want either collection to contain duplicate material and ultimately approved Frederick Leigh’s plan for the new volume’s contents.
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