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...

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...

JOHN STEINBECK This contract signed by the American author authorized a German production of Of Mice and Men Typewritten contract signed: "John Steinbeck", 2p, 7½x12½ New York, New York, 1946 June 3. John Steinbeck signed this contract, dated June 3, 1946, allowing German-speaking actors to perform Of Mice and Men, his 1937 novelette featuring the tragic characters of Lennie and George, two migrant laborers. The work had been chosen by the Book-of-the-Month Club and quickly became a best seller, sparking both Broadway's and Hollywood's interest in adapting it into a play. While writing Of Mice and Men in 1936, Steinbeck was growing increasingly interested in the theater, believing it to be the best medium to reach the common working man. In fact, Steinbeck actually wrote the book with the intention of making it a novel/play - a novel which could be performed as it was without needing to be revised for the stage. However, this experiment failed, and Steinbeck was forced to adapt it - his first attempt at writing a screen play. He was advised and encouraged by dramatist George S. read more...

MARGARET MITCHELL The year the film version of her Gone with the Wind premiered (1939), Mitchell signed this typed letter, forwarding with skeptical comments a letter she had received. Framed with 2 pictures of Mitchell to an overall size of 29½x18. Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 1 page, 5¾x9. Atlanta, Georgia, 1939 May 3. On personal letterhead to "Dear Franklin" [Garrett]. One strike-over and ink correction in her hand. Triple suede matted and framed with two portraits of Mitchell to an overall size of 29½x18. In full: "I am enclosing a letter I recently received [Item not included], for I thought some of the information in it might be of interest to you. Because of the manifold errors in the letter I have doubts as to the lady's statement that her father was the first white child born in Atlanta. You will notice that she says her grandfather had fifteen hundred slaves and the plantation covered the 'whole of Dahlonega County.' I believe at that time there were about five thousand people in the county of which Dahlonega is the seat. However, knowing your interest in such matters, I am passing the letter on to you. Please return it when you have finished reading it. read more...

AS HER WRITING CAREER WINDS DOWN, THE FAMED AUTHOR SELLS THE INVENTORY OF SEVERAL OF HER PUBLISHED WORKS - BUT RETAINS CONTROL OVER HER LITERARY LEGACY   AYN RAND, ROBERT HESSEN and BEATRICE HESSEN. Scarce Typed DS: "Ayn Rand" on page 3, 3p, 8½x11, separate sheets. New York City, 1976 June 12 (dated by Rand). Letter of Agreement to Rand from Palo Alto Book Service. Begins: "Dear Ayn". In full: "This will serve as our Agreement for the Palo Alto Book Service for the purpose of promoting and selling the remaining inventory of The Ayn Rand Letter, The Objectivist, the bound copies of The Objectivist Newsletter, and the pamphlets published by The Objectivist Newsletter and The Objectivist. We will receive the physical inventory of the above as well as any remaining stock of your novels and non-fiction works, including Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, all of which are held by The Objectivist Book Service, Inc. The inventory will be shipped to us, insured, via book rate, or by truck, if that method should prove less expensive. We will share the cost of shipment with the Objectivist Book Service, Inc. 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) 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...

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 the up roar of a Dutch publisher bringing Gone With the Wind out in Holland without her consent Typed Letter Signed: "Margaret", 1p, 7x11. Atlanta, Georgia, 1937 December 15. On personal letterhead to Edwin and Mabel. In part: "By all means keep 'Co. "Aytch"' as long as you like. Our plans, as usual, are in a snarl. Perhaps you've seen items in the paper about a Dutch publisher bringing out 'Gone With the Wind' in Holland without my consent. I have lost my case in the lower Dutch courts and have appealed. I took the matter to the Department of State in Washington and they are working on it now. That may mean we will have to remain in Atlanta in case we are needed...." "CO. AYTCH", MAURY GRAYS, FIRST TENNESSEE REGIMENT; OR, A SIDE SHOW OF THE BIG SHOW , published in 1882, was written by Samuel R. Watkins. Watkins, a Confederate private with Co. H, 1st Tennessee Infantry, fought in the western theatre of the war and saw action in most of the major battles in the west. 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...