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...

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS Archive of 16 letters written by Tarzan's creator to his son Jack between 1923 and 1935, plus one letter from Burroughs to a film company. He writes in depth about family matters, but also about the filming of a Tarzan movie. The letters are signed "Papa" or "OB" (Old Burroughs). A rare insight into the private and public life of the prolific author. Collection comprised of 1) Autograph Letter signed: "Papa", 1 page, 8½x11. North Platte, Nebraska, 1923 February 16. To "Dear Jack", in full: "We are just leaving North Platte, Nebr. The train shakes so that I cannot draw very well. I couldn't if it didn't shake at all, so what's the difference. Did I tell you that I found your valentine in my grip? The one of the lady kicking. That must be the way she feels before breakfast. I wired ahead for reservations on the Broadway Limited on the Pennsylvania RR so we will arrive in New York at 9:40 Sunday morning. It will be nice & wintry and cold out. The air feels & tastes & smells good. Love & kisses to my dear children." At the top of this letter Burroughs has drawn a four-panel cartoon featuring his sons Jack and Hulbert. read more...

TWO RARE ORIGINAL AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT PAGES FROM THE GILDED AGE, ONE IN THE HAND OF MARK TWAIN, THE OTHER IN THE HAND OF HIS COLLABORATOR, CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER (WITH A SUGGESTION BY MARK TWAIN) THE GILDED AGE: SAMUEL L. CLEMENS and CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. Comprises: (1) SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN). Autograph Manuscript, unsigned, 1p, 5x8. From Part 2, Chapter XI of The Gilded Age. Clemens has penned: "396" at upper margin (it has been crossed out and renumbered "307" by Warner). Clemens writes, in full: "he saw the pathetic sorrow in their faces when they asked for more & there was no more to give them, he hated himself for his stupidity and pitied the hunger famishing young things with all his heart. The other matter that disturbed him was the dire inflation that had begun in his stomach. It grew & grew, it became more & more supportable. Evidently the apples turnips were swelling fermenting. He forced himself to sit still as long as he could, but the distress steadily augmented till his anguish conquered him at last. read more...

DASHIELL HAMMETT Signed and notarized 1930 contract selling Paramount the rights to one of his stories Typed Contract signed: "Dashiell Hammett", 4 pages, 8½x11, separate sheets. No place, but County of Los Angeles, 1930 November 26. Contract between Hammett and Paramount Publix Corporation regarding the sale of the rights "to an original story entitled AFTER SCHOOL written by the seller [Hammett]." Hammett was paid "the sum of Five Thousand ($5000.00) Dollars, receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged." Countersigned by the Executive Manager of Paramount Publix Corporation. Lightly creased. Nicked at upper right blank corner of first page, file holes at blank left margins. Fine condition. Accompanied by typed notarized statement signed: "Alfred A. Grosser" as Notary Public, 1 page, 8½x11. Attesting that "personally appeared DASHIELL HAMMETT, personally known to me to be the person whose name is subscribed to the foregoing instrument...." Lightly creased, chipped at upper right blank corner. File holes at blank left margin. Fine condition. After School became City Streets, released in 1931 and starring Gary Cooper. read more...

ERNEST HEMINGWAY Handwritten 1936 manuscript intended for publication in Esquire magazine, vividly describing the horrors of war, with his third person signature in the text Autograph Manuscript signed in text: "Mr. Ernest Hemingway" in pencil, 1 page, 8½x11. No place, c. 1936. Headed by him: "Please Mr. Ernest Hemingway by Paul Harris, The American Criterion, Dec 1935, about 'letters' appearing monthly in Esquire...." Ernest Hemingway was a frequent contributor to "Esquire" magazine. He wrote a total 31 "letters" which were published in "Esquire" in the 1930s. In the September 1935 issue, he wrote: "Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter". This may be a rough draft of one of the 31 "letters". Hemingway has made an "X", crossing out the entire letter. In part: "Mr. Hemingway, you were at the front. You saw people die? I was ten and I saw people, I saw something in them die and they had to go on making believe they were alive still with their guts out of them. I saw people age. I saw the unseeable, the drawn faces, the haunted eyes...A child is sensitive to change in those he knows [he is referring to an aunt, a cousin, involved in changes resulting from life in wartime]. 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...

MARGARET MITCHELL Typed letter from Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and author of Gone With the Wind, to Edwin Granberry (and wife), who wrote one of the first good reviews of her book. She discusses how sorry she is for not writing them sooner describing herself as "oafish of oafs", explaining how busy she has become and will send a lengthier letter when the time is allowed Autograph Letter Signed: "M. M. M", 4p, 7x11. No place, 1936 July 27. To "Mabel and Edwin" [Granberry, an early reviewer of Gone With the Wind]. In full: "You two have every right to think me the most oafish of oafs for not having written you sooner to thank you for sanctuary, good food and best of all, marvelous company. Each morning I've risen, bent on writing to you and, as Hell began to pop before I even got my coffee down, I'd think 'No, I'll wait till I get time for a long letter.' And the time hasn't come. I don't know when it will come as John and my brother Steve, after a five hour conference about this so-and-so contract, sprung on me tonight a plan to go to N.Y. tomorrow and settle the thing in person. I have no clothes, no hats, not a change of underwear or an extra pair of stockings, but it seems that I'm going to N.Y. read more...

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...

VOLTAIRE Signed letter from Paris written just weeks before his death in 1778, fearing that hypocritical priests will deny him a church burial. The letter, written in fine French (fully translated here) in a beautiful hand to the Count of Rochefort, shows that the sage had lost none of his mental acuity Letter signed: "V", 2 pages (integral leaf) 4½x7 folded, 9x7 open flat. Paris, 1778 April 16. To the Comte de Rochefort. In French, fully translated: "I must apologize for having written so formally to Madame Dix-Neuf Ans ["Nineteen Years"]. I apologize for taking so long to thank you for your pleasant letter, sir, but I have had lately a very violent fever, following two fatal illnesses from which I escaped. I think that Monsieur the Abbey of Beauregard, preacher of Versailles, so-called former Jesuit, would willingly refuse me a burial, which is very unfair, because they say that I would not ask for more than to bury him; and he owes me, it seems, the same courtesy. I do not think whatsoever that the master and mistress of the house mocked this abbey of Beauregard. read more...