ERNEST HEMINGWAY Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway signed this document in 1938 to buy additional shares in a company. Document signed "Ernest Hemingway" as Trustee and by an unknown Donor, both in blue ink. Pencil notation at top edge in unknown hand. 1 page, 8½x11, carbon copy, thin paper. Aug. 11, 1938. Addressed to Ernest Hemingway, Trustee. Headed: "Delivery of Additional Securities/Under Trust dated November 2, 1936". Hemingway signed this document to buy an additional 22 shares, at $100 per share in William R. Warner & Company, Inc. This purchase was in accordance with a Trust Agreement that Hemingway had signed on Nov. 2, 1936. In May 1918, Hemingway (1899-1961) volunteered to serve in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps in World War I. On July 8, 1918, Austrian artillery hit the 19-year-old. The injuries were so severe that he had to be hospitalized in Milan. Hemingway would later condemn the savagery of war. His 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms was the study of an American ambulance officer's disillusionment in the war and his role as a deserter. read more...

SAMUEL CLEMENS ("MARK TWAIN") Preparing to set sail for America, he defers a dinner invitation in Florence by explaining that he will arrive by way of New York and Chicago, "because it is much more creditable to go 8,000 miles to pay a dinner-call than it is to go a matter of 600 yards". A classic example of the author's dry wit, matted and framed to 13½x11½. Autograph Letter signed: "Auf Wiedersehen/S L Clemens", 2 pages (integral leaf), 3¾x6. Double-matted and framed with an unsigned picture of Clemens and explanatory plaque, to an overall size of 13½x11½. Villa Villiani, Settignano, Florence [Italy], 1893 March 20. To "Mrs. Ross" [Janet, Mrs. Henry Ross], in full: "It was my purpose to run in & indulge my pleasure in the society of Sir William & my Lady a little more, & I count it a loss that I failed of the chance; but my time has been all taken up in clearing the decks for America. I shall go over & pay my dinner-call the moment I get back from America. This seems unprompt; but I have a read more...

MARGARET MITCHELL Her typed and signed 1937 letter upon learning that Gone With the Wind had won the Pulitzer Prize, addressed to the literary critic who had first predicted that it would, framed with her picture in the Gallery of History style to 30x22. Typed Letter Signed: "Margaret", 1 page, 6½x10. Atlanta, Georgia, 1937 May 4. To Mabel and Edwin Granberry. In full: "Your telegram has just arrived and thank you so very much for it. As soon as I got the news last night I thought of you two and Herschel at the table last summer when you predicted it and I laughed so hard my glasses fell into the gravy. Naturally, this is a happy day for me and a wire like yours adds greatly to my happiness." Typed note by Granberry at lower margin: "(NOTE: GONE WITH THE WIND had just won the Pulitzer Prize. - E.G.)". MARGARET MITCHELL (1900-1949) had won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, Gone With the Wind, the day before she wrote this letter. Mitchell, who had begun writing her epic about the Civil War and Reconstruction South in 1926, finally submitted her manuscript to Macmillian Company in 1935. 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 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...

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY The author of the "Star-Spangled Banner" signed this framed document 14 times in its text! Autograph Document Multi-Signed: "Francis/ Scott Key", "Francis S. Key", "F S Key" (ten times!) and "Key" (twice), all in text, 4p, 7½x12. District of Columbia. Dated January 19, 1824. Indenture between "John W. Baker of George Town District of Columbia…and Francis Scott Key of the same place." In part: "Witnesseth that whereas Walter Smith hath this day by the order and sanction of the said F S Key conveyed to the said John W. Baker by deed bearing the same date with these presents, a certain piece or portion of land lying in Washington County in the said District…and whereas the said John W. Baker stands indebted to the said F S Key in the full and just sum of three thousand five hundred dollars, a part of the purchase money for said land read more...

STEPHEN CRANE The author of The Red Badge of Courage writes from England, where he had settled two years earlier. Calling Card Signed: "Yours faithfully/ Stephen Crane/ March 16, 1899", on verso of his personal 3x1½ card, printed: "Stephen Crane./ Brede Place./ Sussex” (not visible in frame). Also includes a black and white 3x4½ photograph of the author, 2x3½ visible. America's foremost "naturalistic" author Stephen Crane (1871-1900) moved to England in 1897. Although Crane never served in the military, he won international acclaim with The Red Badge of Courage, his 1895 book that told the story of a young soldier during the American Civil War. He later served as a war correspondent, covering the Greco-Turkish War (1897) and Spanish-American War (1898) for foreign newspapers. Crane's signature is virtually unobtainable in any form. The one offered here is especially desirable as it was penned by him on his calling card. Crane suffered from tuberculosis and died in a German sanitarium the year he signed this card. He was 28. Card lightly toned. Otherwise, fine condition. 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...

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...