ERNEST HEMINGWAY He signs an autograph note replying positively to a request to send a fundraising letter in his name. Autograph note signed: "Ernest Hemingway" at lower margin of a typed letter signed: "Abner Green", 1 page, 8¼x14. New York, 1939 December 21. On letterhead of Fourth Annual Conference for the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born, listing Hemingway and Dr. William Allan Neilson as Co-Chairmen, Committee of Sponsors. Hemingway's note, in full: "Enclosed signed letter. [Not present]. Haven't any money yet because writing on this novel since 1st of March. Turned down all other work. Wish me luck. I hope everything goes well with the committee." Green's letter, in full: "Dear Hemingway:-It's the usual thing. We've got our Conference under way - and without doubt you must have read about it in the Times and other papers. We've got enough moral support to make us feel like David with his sling-shot. And then there comes the question of money. Honestly, I wouldn't bother you if the matter of money weren't so damned important. read more...

MARGARET MITCHELL Mitchell, always shy about the spotlight on her following Gone With the Wind, confides to friend and fellow author Edwin Granberry that "it is tempting fate to ever write a book or a play. If you do, everything except a plague of grasshoppers arrives." Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 2 pages (front and verso), 7¼x10½. Atlanta, Georgia, 1941 November 11. On personal letterhead to "Dear Mabel and Edwin" [Granberry], in full: "We were very distressed to learn of your illness, Mabel, and I was glad to see Fred Hanna at a party Sunday night and learn that you really were up and about. Don't you think you Granberrys have managed all the plagues of Egypt now? I never knew any family, except us, to have as much trouble. (And, as Michael Arlen remarked in 'The Green Hat,' 'the Marches are never let off of anything.') Things are well with us now but I remember, with no pleasure, the first five years we were married when everyone in our family seemed to have something happen to them. Perhaps it is something all couples must go through with, but I hope the Granberrys are really through now. Edwin, you know it is tempting fate to ever try to write a book or a play. 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...

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...

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 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 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...

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...

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...