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. The physical inventory shall, at all times, remain your property.

MARGARET MITCHELL Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind, sends a letter to Edwin Granberry, who wrote one of the first good reviews of her book. In it, she discusses life as a celebrated author "has been such a hell". Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 1p, 7¼x10¾. Atlanta, Georgia, 1936 October 29. On personal letterhead to Edwin (Granberry). In full: "I forgot to say in my last letter that I admired very much your tricky side stepping in that article you wrote. How neatly you evaded the fact that you not only stood in the station of a North Carolina hamlet and waited for me but you stood and stood and waited and waited. Dearie, till I die I'll get a laugh at the memory of that day with me getting madder and madder as I waited and you three loafing with your backs against the station while I charged in and out, addressing strangers, asking questions, bargaining with taxi drivers for the trip. Edwin, all the while I was up there with you all, I let you talk about my work. Make up your mind that when next I see you, it will be your work that will be talked about.

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.

MARGARET MITCHELL Writing to friend and fellow author Edwin Granberry, she complains of the constant invasions of her privacy following publication of Gone With the Wind; Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 1 page, 7¼x10½. No place, no date, but undoubtedly written from her home in Atlanta in the late in the late 1930s, before the appearance of the film. On personal letterhead to Edwin and Mabel Granberry in full: "I've been intending to write to you for a long time - but you see how far my wants have gotten me. The reason was that when I went to N. Y. to see about the movie contract, my over strained eyes practically gave up the ghost. Herschel B [Brickell, a friendly literary critic], loaded me on the train in a bad way and since that time (up until a week ago) I've been lying in a dark room with a black bandage over my eyes. No, there's nothing seriously wrong and I'm writing you all to tell you so far already the rumor is out that I've gone blind. I wouldn't like for you to hear that and not know the truth. My eyes just needed a rest and so did I. Now I have new glasses and can see very well. It may be some time before I can do any reading or writing but I'm glad enough at being out of the dark.

HERMAN MELVILLE Author Herman Melville wrote this letter to publisher George P. Putnam from Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It accompanied a proof of one of his stories. Melville's signature is one of the rarest of all, and handwritten letters by him are highly desirable. Autograph letter signed "H Melville". 1 page, 4¾x7½, with embossing in top left corner. Pittsfield, Massachusetts, dated "Jan 27th". Addressed to George P. Putnam, Esq., 10 Park Place, New York City. In full: "Dear Sir: Re-enclosed is the proof [not included]. Very Truly Yours". We believe this letter was written between 1852 and 1855, when Putnam's publishing company G. Putnam Broadway was based at 1010 Park Place, New York City. Melville published a number of short stories through Putnam's Monthly Magazine during this time, including Bartleby the Scrivener (1853), The Encantadas, or: Enchanted Isles (1854) and Benito Cereno (1855). GEORGE PALMER PUTNAM (1814-1872, born in Brunswick, Maine) published many important American authors, like Melville, through his publishing house of G. Putnam Broadway, which later became G. P. Putnam's Sons.

MARGARET MITCHELL A 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.

HERMAN MELVILLE Autograph Quotation signed by Herman Melville, one of the rarest of all signatures, framed by the Gallery of History with a picture of Melville and an explanatory metal plaque. AQS: "Hours bright./Herman Melville/March 8, 1882.", 7¾x4¾. Herman Melville (1819-1891) 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. He wrote this quotation at a period during which he withdrew from the literary world and took work as a customs inspector on the docks of New York.

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.

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.

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.