SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN) The author writes a humorous response to an autograph seeker. ALS: "Saml L. Clemens/Mark Twain," 1p, 5 x 8. Buffalo, 1871 February 17. To Miss Fannie Dennis, Brooklyn. In full: "To write an autograph is no trouble at all, when a body is used to it, but I never have tried to add a 'sentiment' in my life, & so I assure you it comes awkward enough. Therefore, let us judge just dodge the difficulty entirely & make use of somebody else's sentiment. Now I always admired that neat & snappy thing which good old John Bunyan said to the Duke of Wellington: 'Give me liberty, or give me death!' Isn't it pretty?" Fine condition. Accompanied by TLS: "Robert H. Hirst," General Editor, Mark Twain Project, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, regarding this letter. In part: "I cannot identify Fannie Dennis except to say that she was obviously an autograph collector and possibly a young one.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON Autograph Letter signed: "R. W. Emerson". In black ink. 3p, conjoined leaves, 9¾ x 7. Concord, September 12. To “Hon L. Stanley”. In full: “Dear Mr. Stanley, / I was in Boston on Saturday, but could not find you at your Hotel. I wished to beg you to fix a a day when you will visit our village. Will you come & dine with me on Thursday of this week? Take the Fitchburg train at 11 o'c A.M. : you will arrive at noon, &, if it's a fair day, we can show you our meadows before dinner. I have much to hear from you of Oxford & of London. If Thursday does not suite you, will Friday? Or Saturday? With great regards, yours,” In September 1864, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote this note to the Honorable Edward Lyulph Stanley, who was visiting the United States during the Civil War. As friend and correspondent of Emerson, Thomas Carlyle had written the author in March of that year expressing that his letter would be delivered by the young Stanley, the son of Lord Edward John Stanley, postmaster general of England and relative of form Prime Minister Edward George Stanley.
MARGARET MITCHELL Mitchell writes a friend and film reviewer Edwin Granberry mentioning the casting of Scarlett O'Hara. Typed Letter signed: "Margaret", 2 pages, 6½ x 9½. Atlanta, Georgia, March 24, 1937. On personal letterhead to "Dear Edwin" [Granberry]. One ink correction in her hand. Matted and framed to an overall size of 36x26. In part: “We are momentarily expecting the dam to bust. Mr. Cukor, who is to direct “Gone With the Wind,” will be here in the next few days with entourage and loud tooting trumpets. The only reason he is coming is sheer curiosity to see what kind of woman I am who refuses a good salary in Hollywood. However, the natives think he has come here on his knees to beg me to tell just who I think he should pick as Scarlett. As nine-tenths of the natives have already picked themselves for Scarlett, this complicates our lives a little. Of course I want to meet Mr. Cukor, but I will be very glad when his visit is over. I wish he would hurry up and cast the picture, then most of my troubles would be over.
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.
MARGARET MITCHELL and BRAM STOKER A unique collection of letters by two legendary authors! This set includes a typed letter, signed by Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell in 1941, to the wife of a hospitalized friend. In it, she relates how reading Dracula helped her husband John Marsh recover from an illness: "Evidently the shock was beneficial, fro he began to get well the next day." Accompanied by a 1903 handwritten letter by Stoker. Comprises: (1) MARGARET MITCHELL. Typed Letter Signed: "Margaret", 2p, 6½ x 9½. Atlanta, Georgia, 1941 February 13.To Mabel Granberry. In full: "I cannot tell you how joyful and relieved we were to have your letter of February 11th written from the hospital. I read your letter at least six times to make sure I wasn't being guilty of wishful thinking. How good it is to know that Edwin is 'likely to have good vision in both eyes.' What you and Edwin, Senior and Edwin, Junior must have suffered recently is something I do not like to contemplate. It seems to me that I have spent years in hospital rooms and draughty hospital corridors with seriously ill friends and relatives, so I can understand a little what you have undergone.
AMERICAN PULITZER PRICE-WINNING AUTHORS Some of the greatest American authors in history have signed this first day cover. First Day Cover signed: "Katherine Anne Porter", "MacKinley Kantor", "Allen Drury", "James A. Michener", "Robert Penn Warren", "Bernard Malamud", "Shirley Ann Grau", "N Scott Momaday", "William Styron" and "Herman Wouk", 6¼ x 3½. FDC honoring the 400th anniversary of the year of William Shakespeare's birth (1564), 5-cent stamp affixed, postmarked Stratford, Conn., August 14, 1964, FIRST DAY OF ISSUE. Signed by ten authors who have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.James A. Michener won in 1948 for Tales of the South Pacific. Herman Wouk won in 1952 for The Caine Mutiny. MacKinley Kantor won in 1956 for Andersonville. Allen Drury won in 1960 for Advise and Consent. Shirley Ann Grau won in 1965 for The Keepers of the House. Katherine Anne Porter won in 1966 for Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter. Bernard Malamud won in 1967 for The Fixer.
JOHN STEINBECK. Steinbeck authorizes the French production of a war-time play. Typewritten contract signed: "John Steinbeck", 3p, 8x12½ Paris, France, 1947 February 24.John Ernest Steinbeck Jr. signed this contract, dated February 24, 1947, to permit Madame Rose Belin, the Director of the Saint George Theater, to finance productions of his play, The Moon Is Down, in France and Belgium. The contract also provided for the translation of the play into French. Steinbeck had written the play during World War II (1939-1945); it had opened on Broadway on April 8, 1942. After completing the play, Steinbeck immediately adapted it into a novelette with the same title. The Moon is Down deals with the Nazi occupation of a European country; Steinbeck wrote it as a contribution to the war effort while working with the Coordinator of Information, an agency created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) to combat Nazi propaganda with Allied films and literary works. The play was criticized in the United 
LORD BYRON Rare, signed autograph letter from 1814, to lifelong friend and fellow poet Francis Hodgson, discussing Byron's impending visit. Rare ALS: "Byron", 1 page, 7x9. No place, 1814 July 18.To Mr. Hodgson.In full: "Tomorrow (Tuesday) or Wednesday at farthest expect in all -- Capt. Byron (whom you know or will know) accompanies us. If there is not convenient room - we can dispose of him at the Hostel. Excuse haste -- in the hope of seeing you&c&c." Handwritten postscript: "P.S. Many thanks for today's epistle. I shall be happy to see you so." LORD GEORGE GORDON BYRON, 6th Baron Byron of Rothdale, wrote this letter to Reverend FRANCIS HODGSON (1781-1852), a poet and scholar whom he had met when he began studying at Trinity College in Cambridge in October 1805.By the time this letter was written, Byron had been lionized in Whig society after the 1812 publication of the first two of his four cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818). The opening lines of the canto had first been written to Hodgson on board a ship bound for Lisbon.
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. 
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.
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.
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.
LORD BYRON His handwritten quotation from an epic Celtic poem by Ossian and his signature. Autograph quotation unsigned: "Motto to Neustein, Adieu. Why dost thou build the hall, Son of the winged days? Thou lookest from thy towers today; yet a few years, and the blast of the Desert comes, it howls in thy empty Court. - Ossian". 6¾ x3½ page. Accompanied byhis signature: "Byron", on a 2x1 slip of paper affixed to a 4½x2¾ card. GEORGE GORDON BYRON (1788-1824), the sixth Baron Byron, commonly known as Lord Byron was among the foremost English poets of the Romantic movement. Among his best-known works are the poems "She Walks in Beauty" (1814) and "So, We'll Go No More a Roving" (published 1830). Even more renowned are his narrative poems, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1818) and Don Juan, his 17-canto masterpiece (1819-1824). Byron was a political and social reformer, a defender even of the Luddites, but was also noted for his aristocratic excesses, which included huge debts, many love affairs and self-imposed exile from Britain (1816 to his death).
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.
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".
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.
SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH, FRANCIS SCOTT KEY, KATHERINE LEE BATES, IRVING BERLIN, AND SARAH M. WILSON Amazing collection of items signed by Americans who paid tribute to Old Glory. Framed collection consisting of: 1.) Sarah M. Wilson: Annotated Flag Signed. 4/1/1914. 10x6, red, white and blue silk U.S. American flag, made by Sarah M. Wilson (great granddaughter of Betsy Ross), signed on the white border, left side "Made by Sarah M Wilson great granddaughter of Betsy Ross/East Wing of Independence Hall Philadelphia April 1st 1914" Fine condition. 2.) Francis Scott Key: Autograph Check Signed "F.S. Key". In black ink, 6 x 2½. Paper check drawn on Corcoran and Riggs Bank, Washington City, in the amount of $100 payable to himself. Fine condition. 3.) Samuel Francis Smith: Annotated Poem Signed. 1 page, 4½ x 7½, printed copy of all 4 stanzas of his most famous poem "America" signed and dated at lower center at conclusion, "1832 S.F. Smith". Ornately bordered in black. Fine condition. 4.) Irving Berlin: Currency Signed "I. Berlin" WWII-era one-peso Philippine bank note picturing Mabini. 6 x 2½.Authors | Sheet Music / Lyrics
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ABE BURROWS - SHEET MUSIC SIGNED - HFSID 301542ABE BURROWS Sheet music for Leave Us Face It (We're in Love), signed on the front cover Sheet Music signed: "Abe Burrows", 4 pages, 9x12. Sheet music for Leave Us Face It (We're in Love). American playwright ABE BURROWS (1910-1985) wrote and often directed classic American musical comedies.Sale Price $288.00
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ERSKINE CALDWELL - INSCRIBED TYPED LYRIC(S) MULTI SIGNED 03/10/1967 - HFSID 283900Typed draft (7 pages) of lyrics for the film version of God's Little Acre, inscribed and signed twice on the 1967 cover letter and also on two of the lyric pages. Each of the lyrics contains corrections and/or numbering in Caldwell's hand.
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JAMES MONTGOMERY - AUTOGRAPH LYRICS SIGNED 12/20/1843 - HFSID 73539JAMES MONTGOMERY The prominent British social commentator and reformer writes first stanza of one of his original hymns, signs name underneath in black ink Autograph lyrics signed: "J. Montgomery" in faded black ink. 1 page, 3¾x4½. The Mount, Sheffield, England. December 20, 1843.
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ARNOLD SHAW - INSCRIBED SHEET MUSIC SIGNED - HFSID 89459ARNOLD SHAW Sheet music for Christmas and Chanukah inscribed by Shaw Inscribed sheet music signed "To David Coxon/with all good wishes/Arnold Shaw". 3 pages including cover, 8 ½ x 11. Music and lyrics to The Lights of Christmas/Chanukah, published by Surosalinda Music Company.
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