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...

SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN) The American author famous for his characters Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer signed and wrote this framed letter in 1895! Autograph Letter Signed: "S L Clemens", 2p, 3¾x6, conjoined leaves. On letterhead of Villa Viviana Settigano, (Florence, Italy). Written from Hartford, Connecticut, 1895 February 20. To "My Dear Mrs. Bronson". In full: "Mrs. Clemens sends her best bow & thanks with mine for your steadfast kindness in regard to the glass. I shall drop Moses of the Tower a line & propose as you suggest. I shall drop Mr. Forbes a line, too, & ask him to waive rank & call on me, & as soon as I get a chance I will pay back in kind. Florence is 4,000 miles from here & I hardly ever attempt the achievement of going there. This further off than any place that I've got friends in except heaven Hell, & sometimes even that resort doesn't seem so far. (But I didn't need to make that correction - it doesn't seem to disexaggerate  (sic) the distance as much as I thought it would.) Mrs. Clemens' health is not improving, I am sorry to say, but the rest of us are without ailments. read more...

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY In this handwritten and signed letter, the writer of the Star-Spangled Banner discusses appearing before the United States Supreme Court Autograph Letter Signed: "F.S. Key", 1p, 8x9½. Geo: Town, 1815 February 20. Integral leaf addressed by Key to: "Mr Thomas Biddle/Philadelphia". Postmarked Georgetown, Feb 22 ("22" handwritten). Docketed above address panel, probably by Biddle: "F.S. Key/Georgetown, Feby 20, 1815". In full: "Your cause will be called I presume in two or three weeks, but if the trial is not pressed by your opponent, it can be continued till the next Term - nor is it likely he would object to the continuance - I observe no Counsel has yet entered an appearance for it. - If it is thus put off till the next Term, it will afford you the means of compromising it, if you think you can do so on advantageous terms. As to your success, I think it as certain as any thing undecided I can conceive of can be. - Not only is it a very plain case in your favour, as I think, but two of the Judges of the Sup Court - Washington & Story have both so adjudged the point on which it chiefly depends. read more...

MARGARET MITCHELL The year she received the Pulitzer Prize for Gone With the Wind, she writes of fending off law suits, including a plagiarism suit, and desires to visit friends in Florida only if her visit can be kept secret from reporters and autograph seekers. Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 2 pages(front and verso), 7¼x11. Atlanta, Georgia, 1937 July 27. On personal letterhead to ""Dear Mabel and Edwin", [Granberry], in full: "If your offer of hospitality still holds good I would like to come to visit you two for three days, preferably around the end of this week (arriving Saturday the 31st or Sunday the 1st). However, if this date is not convenient to you for any reason, please do not hesitate to tell me so and to fix your own dates. John will not be able to come with me. His own work at his office is very heavy at present and my business affairs which he is handling at night show no signs of slacking. We have two new lawsuits in addition to the plagiarism suit! I'll tell you about them when I see you. I think I know you two well enough to ask for frankness. Please tell me (1) just when it will be 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...

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...

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...

SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN) Visiting Sweden in search of a cure for his daughter's epilepsy, Clemens asks a bookseller to send him some "the very best of Clark Russell's sea-tales". Autograph Letter Signed: "SL C.", 1p, 5½x8½. Sanna, Rosendala, Sweden, 1899 July 16. "Telegraphic address: Sanna Jonkoping, Sweden". To bookseller "C&W". In full: "Please send me a couple of the very best of Clark Russell's sea-tales that you've got in stock. If any of my photos are only about as big as this page, we shall be glad to have them here - but bigger ones we prefer to leave with you for the present. If you haven't heard from Clara when this reaches you, please drop her a line. Jonkoping is pronounced Zhenshepping - think of that!" Samuel, his wife Olivia and their daughter Jean had arrived in Sweden early in July 1899, and remained until October. JEAN CLEMENS (1880-1910), then 19 years old, suffered from epilepsy. Clemens had heard of an osteopathic treatment as practiced by Heinrick Kellgren in Sanna. Kellgren's method was known as the "Swedish movements". 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...