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 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...

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 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 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...

MARGARET MITCHELL She writes to close friend and fellow author Edwin Granberry about his new play, and mentions several prominent US actors and writers, including Alexander Woolcott and the Lunts. Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 2 pages (front and verso), 7¼x10½. Atlanta, Georgia, 1941 February 3. On personal letterhead to "Dear Edwin and Mabel" [Granberry], in full: "The combination of Bretaigne Windust and Roual Pene duBois gave us as much delight as it did you. The show can't hep being 120 proof with two such names. I was inclined to agree with Frank Sullivan to agree with Frank Sullivan, however, and will have to see these two gentlemen myself before I believe in their names. We were so happy and proud at the good news and hope you will have time to keep us posted on progress. Naturally, we are bursting to know what the Lunts think. I am sorry they are on tour now because that will probably delay their decision, as their time is pretty well occupied with long jumps and one-night stands. Do I understand that the interest of Mr. W. and Mr. DuB. Means that someone has bought the play or intends to produce it if they can get the right stars? We hope so ardently for the Lunts and can hardly wait to know what happens. 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...

DASHIELL HAMMETT Signed and notarized 1930 contract selling Paramount the rights to one of his stories Typed Contract signed: "Dashiell Hammett", 4 pages, 8½x11, separate sheets. No place, but County of Los Angeles, 1930 November 26. Contract between Hammett and Paramount Publix Corporation regarding the sale of the rights "to an original story entitled AFTER SCHOOL written by the seller [Hammett]." Hammett was paid "the sum of Five Thousand ($5000.00) Dollars, receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged." Countersigned by the Executive Manager of Paramount Publix Corporation. Lightly creased. Nicked at upper right blank corner of first page, file holes at blank left margins. Fine condition. Accompanied by typed notarized statement signed: "Alfred A. Grosser" as Notary Public, 1 page, 8½x11. Attesting that "personally appeared DASHIELL HAMMETT, personally known to me to be the person whose name is subscribed to the foregoing instrument...." Lightly creased, chipped at upper right blank corner. File holes at blank left margin. Fine condition. After School became City Streets, released in 1931 and starring Gary Cooper. read more...

SAMUEL CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN) His dual signature as Clemens and Twain, on his original handwritten letter thanking poet Edward Lummis, who had written to praise Twain's books. Accompanied by a copy of Lummis' poem addressed to Twain, and by a Typed Letter Signed from Mark Twain scholar Robert Hirst, discussing both letters Autograph Letter Signed: "S.L. Clemens/Mark Twain", 1 page, 5½x8¾. Hartford, 1886 May 17. To Mr. Edward W. Lummis. In full: "If I too were a poet, I would acknowledge your pleasant compliments in verse; but I am not, & so am forced to say my thanks in the ruder form of prose -- which is like answering the gracious salutation of a bugle with a fog-horn." Creased, shaded, folds, lightly soiled. All touches writing and signature. Accompanied by Typed Letter Signed: "Robert H. Hirst" as General Editor, Mark Twain Project, 1p, 8½x11. University of California, Berkeley, 1983 September 28. In part: "Lummis had written to Mark Twain from Worcester College, Oxford University, England, on 6 May 1886. read more...