SAMUEL L. "MARK TWAIN" CLEMENS - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED CIRCA 1897 - HFSID 32834

SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN)
The author thanks a representative of his English publishers for a thesaurus, sent to him during an extended stay in Europe with his family.
ANS: "SLC" on verso of 5½x½ postal card. Swiss postal card, postmarked Weggis, Switzerland, September 18, 1897. Addressed by Clemens on front to: "Robert Barr, Esqr, Care Chatto & Windus, 111 St. Martin's Lane, London WC, England". British postmark of September 20, 1897 at upper center. In full: "Many thanks for the Thesaurus. I forgot to ask for your address. Ours is c/o Thos. Cook & Son, Vienna. But we stop a week in Salzburg on the way - from Wednesday next (22d) - post restante." In July 1896, the year before he wrote this note, Samuel L. Clemens and his family had settled outside of London for a year, during which time the author prepared his final travel book, Following the Equator, as well as various shorter works. The following July, the party decided to travel to Lucerne, via Holland and Germany, and spend the summer there. Joined by Clemens' sister-in-law and niece, the family eventually chose as a vacation spot the small village called Weggis, at the foot of Rigi mountain. Here, Clemens enjoyed visiting with local residents and attempted to proceed with various literary projects. As he had done for the previous twelve months, Clemens did not encourage public knowledge of his whereabouts and requested that his English publishers, Chatto & Windus, receive his mail. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), who wrote under the pen name Mark Twain, was a steamboat pilot, journalist, world traveler and renowned lecturer. Above all, he was a skillful essayist and novelist whose lasting contributions to American literature include Tom Sawyer (1875), Huckleberry Finn (1885) and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Lightly creased and soiled. Ink from postal markings touch several words (all legible). Overall, fine condition.