SAMUEL L. "MARK TWAIN" CLEMENS - AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT UNSIGNED - HFSID 65491

SAMUEL CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN)
Four paragraphs of notes, likely referring to photographs he is forwarding!
Autograph Manuscript, unsigned, 1p, 4½x7. No place, but likely Hartford, Connecticut, no year, but possibly circa 1881-1882. Four paragraphs of notes, likely referring to photographs he is forwarding. Headed: "FIRE". In full: "Abuse our fire-engine/system which we are so/proud of. We ought to be/ashamed of buildings/which necessitate it./And of Johnstown Dam 78/Shot at Pullman - 78/[ditto marks] 79/[ditto marks] 80/[ditto marks] 81/All this is legitimate work & entitled to thanks." The fire engine mentioned was likely located in Hartford, Connecticut, where Samuel Clemens (1835-1910) and his growing family lived from 1874-1891. Clemens had moved to Hartford to be close to his publisher, Elisha Bliss, whose American Publishing Company, located in Connecticut's capital, had published his book, Innocent's Abroad, in 1869. During his years in Hartford, Clemens, who was best known by his pen name, "Mark Twain", wrote eight major works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889). It is ironic that he mentions buildings that necessitate fire engine systems, as "Stormfield", the home he built in Redding, Connecticut in 1908, was destroyed by fire in 1923, 13 years after the author's death. His reference to the Johnstown Dam is also interesting because in 1889, as the author was planning a visit to landscape painter Frederick E. Church, the South Fork Dam in  Johnstown, Pennsylvania burst, resulting in a devastating flood. Lightly creased. Stray ink blots touch 2 words, minor stains at lower blank margin. Upper left blank corner creased. Otherwise, fine condition.