Handwritten 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 how sorry she is for not writing them sooner describing herself as
"oafish of oafs", explaining how busy she has become and will send a lengthier letter when
the time is allowed
Autograph Letter Signed: "M. M. M", 4p, 7x11. No place, 1936 July 27. To "Mabel and
Edwin" [Granberry, an early reviewer of Gone With the Wind]. In full: "You two have every
right to think me the most oafish of oafs for not having written you sooner to thank you for
sanctuary, good food and best of all, marvelous company. Each morning I've risen, bent on writing
to you and, as Hell began to pop before I even got my coffee down, I'd think 'No, I'll wait till I get
time for a long letter.' And the time hasn't come. I don't know when it will come as John and my
brother Steve, after a five hour conference about this so-and-so contract, sprung on me tonight a
plan to go to N.Y. tomorrow and settle the thing in person. I have no clothes, no hats, not a
change of underwear or an extra pair of stockings, but it seems that I'm going to N.Y. just the
same.…"
View Listing 55643
Handwritten 1936 manuscript likely intended for publication in Esquire magazine,
vividly describing the horrors of war, with his third person signature in the text
Autograph Manuscript signed in text: "Mr. Ernest Hemingway" in pencil, 1 page, 8½x11. No
place, c. 1936. Headed by him: "Please Mr. Ernest Hemingway by Paul Harris, The
American Criterion, Dec 1935, about 'letters' appearing monthly in Esquire…."
Ernest Hemingway was a frequent contributor to "Esquire" magazine. He wrote a total
31 "letters" which were published in "Esquire" in the 1930s. In the September 1935
issue, he wrote: "Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter". This may be a
rough draft of one of the 31 "letters". Hemingway has made an "X", crossing out the
entire letter. In part: "Mr. Hemingway, you were at the front. You saw people die? I was
ten and I saw people, I saw something in them die and they had to go on making believe
they were alive still with their guts out of them. I saw people age. I saw the unseeable, the
drawn faces, the haunted eyes…A child is sensitive to change in those he knows [he is
referring to an aunt, a cousin, involved in changes resulting from life in wartime].…"
View Listing 160236
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 by
his 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). He may even be considered
the first celebrity; his wife Annabella even coined the term "Byromania.…"
View Listing 354518
The author of The Red Badge of Courage writes from England, where he had settled two
years earlier.
Calling Card Signed: "Yours faithfully/ Stephen Crane/ March 16, 1899", on verso of his
personal 3x1½ card, printed: "Stephen Crane./ Brede Place./ Sussex” (not visible in frame). Also
includes a black and white 3x4½ photograph of the author, 2x3½ visible. America's foremost
"naturalistic" author Stephen Crane (1871-1900) moved to England in 1897. Although
Crane never served in the military, he won international acclaim with The Red Badge of
Courage, his 1895 book that told the story of a young soldier during the American Civil War.
He later served as a war correspondent, covering the Greco-Turkish War (1897) and
Spanish-American War (1898) for foreign newspapers. Crane's signature is virtually
unobtainable in any form. The one offered here is especially desirable as it was penned by him
on his calling card. Crane suffered from tuberculosis and died in a German sanitarium the year
he signed this card. He was 28. Card lightly toned. Otherwise, fine condition. Framed in the
Gallery of History style: 20½x11.…"
View Listing 348082
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 wrote this letter on 24, May 1937, to
her friend Edwin Granberry, a writer and reviewer for the New York Sun.
View Listing 350546
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.…"
View Listing 55661
The author 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. We have heard nothing from the Dowdeys either.…"
View Listing 55655
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. I found a stack of mail waiting and, among the
letters, some from England and they were about your (Edwin's) article in
'Colliers'.…"
View Listing 55690
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.…"
View Listing 285810
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.
View Listing 55688
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. If you do, everything except a plague of
grasshoppers arrives.…"
View Listing 55659
. Scarce Cabinet Card Photograph signed:
"Faithfully yours:/Joel Chandler Harris". Sepia, 4¼x6½ overall, image 4x5¾ (two
surfaces). Photographer's imprint beneath image and on verso: "C.W.
Motes/Photographer,/No. 34 Whitehall St./Atlanta/GA." In the 1880s, Harris, a former
journalist for Georgia newspapers, became one of the first American writers to use original
dialects in his stories rooted in Black folklore. His lead character was Uncle Remus, a
servant who entertains the young son of his master with tales of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox
and Brer Bear, animals with distinctly human qualities. His books, which are credited with
preserving the African-American heritage of the old South, include Uncle Remus, His Songs and
His Sayings (1880), Nights with Uncle Remus (1883) and Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit
(1906). Fragile condition. The photo had split, touching the "d" in Chandler. It is repaired by
conservator's tape on verso. Stained on verso. Upper corners chipped, edges worn. Pencil
notes on verso (unknown hand).
View Listing 250986
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.
View Listing 350437
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.
View Listing 285978
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. We agree to insure the inventory for its
replacement value, and shall share equally with you the cost of insurance. We shall be
charged with the responsibility of maintaining the inventory in sound condition.…"
View Listing 272394
Authors | Stock Certificates
Top Signers
- Margaret Mitchell
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- Stephen Crane
- George G. Byron
- Pearl S. Buck
- Ray Bradbury
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ALICE STONE BLACKWELL - STOCK CERTIFICATE SIGNED 07/07/1911 WITH CO-SIGNERS - HFSID 226257Stock Certificate signed: "Alice Stone Blackwell" as President, "Francis J Garrison" as Treasurer and "Catharine Wilde" as Clerk of The Proprietors of the Woman's Journal, 1p, 7½x5¼, with 3¼x5¼ transfer portion affixed at left edge.
Price: $750.00