SAMUEL L. "MARK TWAIN" CLEMENS - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 03/07/1906 - HFSID 3329

SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN)
Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) sends an autograph letter of apology that the photograph that was sent to him to sign was sent to another fan but he is replacing it with a more recent photograph.
Autograph Letter Signed: "S.L. Clemens", ¼p, 5x6½. No place, no date but 1906 March 10. To Miss Stickey. In full: "This note from a student of Columbia University will help to an understanding of my blunder. By mistake I have sent her the photograph which came from you. But I am sending you a far more recent one, & shall hope that you will forgive me." Clemens has written his note over an Autograph Letter Signed: "Edwina L. Levy", 2¼p, 5x6½. No place, but Barnard College, New York, 1906 March 7. Levy's letter is addressed to "Mr. Samuel L. Clemens". In full: "I had the great pleasure of listening to 'Mark Twain' this afternoon, at Bernard College, and the still greater pleasure of meeting him after the lecture. Would you induce him to be kind enough to send me his autograph, that I may have a Souvenir of one of the most delightful afternoons I have ever spent. If you are successful, you will earn the appreciation and the most sincere thanks of yours gratefully (in anticipation)". Lightly creased with folds, horizontal fold underlines signature. Ink lightly faded at the "L" of signature. Soiled and stained ¾x½-inch paper loss at upper left corner opening of wax seal, ½-inch diameter seal remnant at lower left corner. Accompanied by Typed Letter Signed: "Robert H. Hirst" as General Editor, Mark Twain Project, ¾p, 8½x11. Berkeley, California, 1983 September 29. On letterhead of the Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library to Mr. Todd M. Axelrod, American Museum of Historical Documents, Las Vegas, Nevada, providing the background of Twain's letter. In full: "Thank you for showing me the autographed portrait of Mark Twain dated 10 March 1906 and the unusual note accompanying it. As Mark Twain's apologetic note explains, he mistakenly sent a photograph submitted to him by 'Miss Stickey' to another autograph seeker, 'Edwina L. Levy,' and to make amends he presented Miss Stickey with a more recent photograph, together with this charming expression of his blunder-indeed, a rather characteristic blunder. The letter from Miss Levy refers to a speech Mark Twain delivered at Barnard College on 7 March 1906. In his Autobiography, he described how much he looked forward to this occasion, knowing he would undoubtedly receive the kind of flattering feminine attention that he found so gratifying: 'Girls are charming creatures. I shall have to be twice seventy years old before I change my mind as to that. I am to talk to a crowd of them this afternoon, students of Barnard College (the sex's annex to Columbia University), and I think I shall have just as pleasant a time with those lassies as I had with the Vassar girls twenty-one years ago" (ed. Albert Bigelow Paine, 2:172). The text of this speech may be found in Paul Fatout's Mark Twain Speaking. Thank you once again for the opportunity to read this letter; it's one that I am sure any Mark Twain fan would be happy to own." Lightly creased with folds. Staple holes at upper left corner. Pencil note (unknown hand) at upper right corner. Overall, fine condition. Two items.