ERNEST HEMINGWAY and PAULINE HEMINGWAY The author and his second wife sign a 1930 Trust Agreement, consigning bonds and preferred stocks to the trust. Typed Document signed: "Ernest Hemingway" and "Pauline Pfeiffer Hemingway" on page 7, 10 pages, 8¾x11¼. New York, 1930 February 18. Trust Agreement with City Bank Farmers Trust Company. The Hemingways, who were living in Paris, France at this time, donate property described on Schedule A for "Trust Estate": "$10,000 Kingdom of Belgium External Sinking Fund 6% bonds due January 1, 1955; 100 Shares Electric Bond and Share Company 6.00 Cumulative Preferred Stock; 300 Shares William H. Warner & Co. Inc. Preferred Stock Par Value $100". Also signed by a Trust Officer. Struggling writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) met Pauline Pfeiffer, an editor with the Paris edition of "Vogue" at a party in Paris in 1925. Hemingway, who was married to his first wife, Hadley Richardson, at the time, divorced Hadley, the mother of his first son, and married Pauline on May 10, 1927, the year after his novel, The Sun Also Rises, had been published. read more...

SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN) Signed 4½x7 autograph letter from a London hotel, writing that he hopes to lecture in Britain "if other & more necessary business shall permit." ALS: "Saml. L. Clemens", 1 page, 4½x7. Langham Hotel,/Portland Place, London. W, no year, October 18. To unknown recipient. Begins: "Sir". In full: "I think it will be 2 or 3 weeks before I shall really know whether I can lecture in Great Britain or not. So I am obliged to be thus indefinite in my reply. I certainly shall lecture about 8 or 10 times in this country if other & more necessary business shall permit." From the University of California Press review of Volume 5 of Mark Twain's Letters prepared by the Mark Twain Project at the University of California, Berkeley. "After beginning work on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, he [Clemens] set it aside to collaborate, almost as a lark, on a novel with Charles Dudley Warner. After a few months of intense labor in the winter of 1872-1873, they produced The Gilded Age, which gave a lasting name to the era it satirized. read more...

HERMAN MELVILLE His clipped signature, with his portrait, two first day covers of stamps honoring him, and a picture of a whale. One of the rarest of all signatures! Signature: "Herman Melville", 4½x4, with four unsigned items: a printed portrait of Melville; two first day covers of stamps honoring him; and a color illustration of a whale, presumably Moby Dick. Herman Melville (1819-1891, born in New York City) worked at a young age as a cabin boy and sailor on merchant vessels. During an unsuccessful whaling expedition, he took part in a mutiny, was jailed and escaped. His seafaring inspired many of his later works, including Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846), Omoo, a Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (1847) and his masterpiece, Moby Dick (1851). Moby Dick, unlike his earlier works, was neither a critical or financial success. Melville's later writings, such as Pierre (1852), The Confidence Man (1857) and the short stories Bartleby the Scrivener and The Encantadas reflected his despair and contempt for society's corruption, hypocrisy and materialism. Melville took a break from writing to work as a customs read more...

MARGARET MITCHELL Letter to fellow author and literary booster Edwin Granberry, accepting congratulations for her Pulitzer Prize but expressing a desire to preserve at least a little personal privacy. Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 1 page, 7¼x10½. Atlanta, Georgia, 1937 May 12. On personal letterhead to ""Dear Edwin", [Granberry], in full: "That was certainly a grand, long letter and John and I appreciated it immediately. Thanks again for the congratulations about the Award. I am just beginning to come up for air and realizing that it is really true. Since the news came so much has happened - flashlights going off, reporters slithering out of the cracks in the floor and the house full of people - that I have had no chance to really think. One of the nice features of the affair was that Harold Latham, who dug up the book, just happened to be in Atlanta on the day the Award was announced. He gave me a party complete with newspaper friends, as many orchids as a Kentucky Derby winner and barrels of Champaigne. While you and Herschel kept telling me last summer that it would undoubtedly work out this way, I just couldn't believe it. read more...

MARGARET MITCHELL Writing to friend and literary ally Edwin Granberry the year she won the Pulitzer Prize, she declares herself "yearning for battle" against "lawsuits, racketeers and chiselers". The author of Gone With the Wind laments that "there are so few novels about happy married life." Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 2 pages (front and verso), 7¼x11. Atlanta, Georgia, 1937 August 8. On personal letterhead to ""Dear Mabel and Edwin", [Granberry], in full: "Yesterday I sent Edwin, Jr. 'Microbe Hunters' and "two Little Confederates' and if they do not arrive shortly, please let me know and I will get behind the book store. I hope he likes them both. I found that John, during my absence, had not been devoting his time to riotous living and making the most of his opportunities. He and my brother had worked every night - and all night - on this and that and both looked tired and frayed. The suit against Billy Rose isn't to open tomorrow due to a delay in drawing up the papers and the suit against the Dutch pirate is also held up due to some complication or other but the opening guns of both should begin in a week or so. read more...

JOHN STEINBECK Letter to an ex-wife as he toured the Deep South, the journey recalled in his book Travels with Charley. His son "Cat" and  boyhood friend Glenn Graves are mentioned in this very personal letter. Autograph Letter signed: "John", 3¼x5½ postcard. Postmarked Pelahatchie, Mississippi, December 3, 1960. Addressed in his own hand on verso to Gwyn Steinbeck (his ex-wife). In full: "Doing the deepest south now. I'm in Miss. Near the Alabama border. Saw the ladies perform in N. O. [New Orleans] (mother love). Going to Montgomery now and then Cracker country, then up the Smokeys. Should be home some time next week. This has been a long hard grind. Maybe I learned something. We'll see. Sorry to hear about Cat. He makes it so hard for himself. Can't think what next. Glenn Graves had a good record company. See you." Novelist JOHN STEINBECK (1902-1968), who was noted for his portrayals of hard-working people and social themes, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. read more...

MARGARET MITCHELL Pleased that friend and fellow author Edwin Granberry is writing again, she shares with him her relief that the frenzy over the movie version of her book has abated with the outbreak of war: "The world has far more important things to think about these days than me." Several other literary notables are mentioned in this letter. Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 3 pages, 7¼x10½. Atlanta, Georgia, 1940 September 23. To "My dear Mabel and Edwin [Granberry], you varmint". In part: "Here I've gone around feeling blue ever since I had the last news of you (Edwin) that you had given up any notion of writing any more. I had thought about what a waste of talent it was and had heroically restrined myself from writing and telling you so. Then, a month ago, vague rumors began trickling into my ears at parties that you were writing again. Don't ask me who told me because I don't know. I go places and meet two hundred strangers in thirteen and a half minutes, and some of them say, 'Oh, do you know Edwin Granberry who is doing some writing?' and before I could catch them they would disappear and twelve more strange faces would stand before me. read more...

HERMAN MELVILLE Extremely rare clipped signature, accompanied by an unsigned postcard photo of the author Signature: "Herman Melville", 4x1 fragment clipped from a letter. 1¾x¼-inch portion torn at lower left blank corner, lightly stained, light show-through from writing (not his) on verso. Overall, fine and rare. Accompanied by unsigned postcard photograph. B/w, 4¼x6. Fine condition. American novelist Herman Melville (1819-1891) first found fame with his romances: Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846) and Omoo, a Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (1847). In 1851, his masterpiece, Moby-Dick; or The Whale, dedicated to his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, introduced readers to some of literature's most enduring characters -- Captain Ahab, the cabin boy/narrator Ishmael, and Moby Dick, the great white whale. Two items. read more...

MARGARET MITCHELL Long personal letter to friend and fellow author Edwin Granberry, mentioning several literary friends and the exigencies of life in wartime Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 3 pages, 7¼x10. Atlanta, Georgia, 1942 September 21. On personal letterhead to "Dear Mabel and Edwin" [Granberry], in part: "I have been laying off to write to you for the longest and foolishly postponed doing so until I could write a long letter. That time may never come, and so I am grabbing this opportunity while the house painters are out at lunch. ... I've just come back from a quick trip to New York where John had to be on business. The only people I saw were the Clifford Dowdeys, who asked to be remembered to you. Clifford has been having fits trying to get into the army, with no luck so far because his eyes are bad. He has almost finished a new novel , which is about Memphis or Natchez in the 1830's. He told me news of Kenneth Littauer which I am passing on to you. He has been in the air corps for nearly a year, with the rank of major. His address is Headquarters 21st Bomb Group, MacDill Field, Tampa, Florida. read more...