Antique 1880 Sketches by Mark Twain, Rare Pirated Publication

[Chicago]: Belford & Co., 1880. Later edition. Maroon cloth, gilt stamped titles to upper panel and spine. viii,9-319,[1] pp. Front hinge slightly cracked, erratically printed, yet a very good copy of this pirated edition, the subject of a lawsuit regarding non-copyrighted material by the author; without a dust jacket. Some background: Sketches by Mark Twain published by Belford & Company, 1880. Smaller in size and unillustrated (with the exception of end pieces for each story) was issued without permission from Samuel Clemens and contained much of the same material as the book issued by American Publishing Company in 1875. Clemens sued Belford and his partner James Clarke. The Complaint, filed November 2, 1882, quoted in part: "8. And that the defendants in their said book so published by them placed upon the page next succeeding the leaf whereon the title-page is printed, a preface in these words: 'I have scattered through this volume a mass of matter which has never been in prin