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Mark Twain and Olivia Langdon: Twain Writes Ecstatically On The Pursuit Of His Future Wife
December 12, 1868
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 1852
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Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 2377
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Twain Asks His Young "Quaker City" Shipmate & Favorite, Emma Beach, For Help With His Articles About the Voyage
January 31, 1868
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 2111
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 2295
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Ephemera
1 page
SMC 2291
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Original Painting of the Steamship "Quaker City" Moored at Naples on its Excursion to the Holy Land
August, 1867
Historical artifacts
1 page
SMC 2303
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Signed Book
1 page
SMC 2384
A rare inscribed reprint of Innocents Abroad inscribed by Twain to his wife, Livy. In the past thirty years, only one other book transcribed by Twain to his wife has appeared. This double-volume edition is premium; bound in morocco and gilt.
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Autograph Note Signed
2 pages
SMC 2117
Samuel Clemens explains his nom de plume as originating as a navigational term along the Mississippi. "Mark Twain" signified a depth sounding of two fathoms, and was called out by the leadsman; it was a term Twain, having served as a riverboat captain, would have heard daily.
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Ephemera
2 pages
SMC 2077
This rare, early Directory, in which both Clemens and his brother Orion are listed, records for posterity those two months - beginning October 1, 1861 - when "Samuel Clemens" worked as a dollar-a-day clerk for his brother, during the long opening session of the Nevada Territorial Legislature.
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Mark Twain Names His Lecture Tour About Holy Land Trip: "The American Vandal Abroad"
October 7, 1868
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 117
Twain's use of the title, The American Vandal Abroad – a play on The Innocents Abroad - suggests that perhaps American tourists to the Holy Land weren't always so innocent. Twain recorded, aghast, how these religious pilgrims sliced off souvenirs from venerable biblical sites in Palestine.
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Mark Twain to French Jewish Writer Marcel Schwob: "I Do Commit Crimes, But They Are Not of This Grade"
November 4, 1888
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 118
Here Twain denounces a French translation of a story he did not write, pronouncing it a "singularly unpleasant production." He assures Schwob that he has been deceived: "I do commit crimes," he writes, "but they are not of this grade."
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Autograph Manuscript Signed
2 pages
SMC 119
Mark Twain's handwritten mockup of the title page and dedication of More Tramps Abroad with a note about Innocents Abroad.
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"The American Historian of Joan of Arc Makes His Best Compliments," But Unable to Meet French Ambassador
October 23, 1902
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 120
Samuel Clemens, speaking in third person, referring to himself as "the American historian of Joan of Arc," regretfully declines an invitation to meet the French ambassador. He signs the letter as "Mark," though he also refers to himself as Clemens.
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Ulysses S. Grant Says Mark Twain Has Offered Him "More Favorable Terms" To Publish His Memoirs
November 23, 1884
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 121
Here, Grant reports to his friend and advisor, George Childs, that he’s soured on the Century deal, and is being wooed by Twain’s own publishing firm, Charles L. Webster & Co.
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Autograph Note
6 pages
SMC 125
Mark Twain's notes from 1907, in two sections. One, in the manner of a questionnaire, matches names to places (Joe Goodman's, for instance, with "San Francisco, and Alameda") and indicates where Clemens had not been (Los Angeles & Palmyra); the other section mostly concerns an incident, and includes dialogue.
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Signed Photograph
1 page
SMC 132
Signed photo of Mark Twain on the occasion of his speaking tour about his excursion to the Holy Land.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 281
Samuel Clemens writes to his daughter Jean about the new house, "Innocence at Home," President Grover Cleveland's morality and abilities, and the doctor's orders for her epilepsy.
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Mark Twain, on the Heroic Writing, and Fantastic Success, of Ulysses S. Grant's Memoirs
February 3, 1887
Autograph Letter Signed
6 pages
SMC 282
Samuel Clemens encloses a copy of General Grant's memoirs, calling them "the most admirably simple, direct, and unpretentious story that was ever put on paper by a supremely great man."
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Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 283
Writing shortly after the death of his friend, General Grant, Twain muses on the nature of legacy. He agrees with his correspondent that monuments to Grant will one day crumble though his reputation will live on. Twain then moves on to discuss the longevity of cities, and even touches on the issue of the origin debates, still being hotly debated in that year, 1885.
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Autograph Quotation Signed
2 pages
SMC 284
Mark Twain signs the back of a menu for the The Willard Hotel in January of 1906. The aphorism: "On the whole, it is better to deserve honors & not have them, than to have them & not deserve them."
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Mark Twain Inquires if Alfred Dreyfus Was Struck in the Face With the Hilt of a Sword
February 11, 1895
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 388
Here, Samuel Clemens, who had been in Paris when the Dreyfus affair struck, urgently seeks a detail of Dreyfus' degradation and abuse.
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Mourning Daughter Susy, Mark Twain Describes His Family Life as Adrift, Indifferent, and Derelict
January 19, 1897
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 484
Mark Twain describes the listlessness of his family life since the sudden death of his daughter Susy. Whereas once they had a charted course, now they are adrift. And what is more, they are "derelict" and indifferent to their plight.
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Card Signed
1 page
SMC 503
Samuel Clemens's calling card, signed on the back as Mark Twain and Samuel Clemens.
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Autograph Note
2 pages
SMC 911
In this leaf from one of Mark Twain's missing notebooks, the young author writes of his upcoming journey to Europe and the Levant. Twain would chronicle the trip in The Innocents Abroad, a book that which would launch his career as a writer.
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Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1575
Young Mark Twain, during his four month stint in Hawaii, makes plans to see Haleakala, a volcano on Maui.
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Autograph Note Signed
1 page
SMC 1617
A brief note regarding composition from Mark Twain, directing either Elisha or Frank Bliss to set something up in facsimile rather than type.
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Olivia Clemens Quotes “Mr. Clemens” - Mark Twain - About a Phrase in “Following the Equator”
January 9, 1898
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1670
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Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1673
Mark Twain gently Emerson's prose as being like "gravel in the bread," while at the same time complimenting Laura Wright Benjamin on her husband, William Wright, whose nom de plume was Dan de Quille.
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Mark Twain Discovers His Newfound Celebrity Status Upon his Return from His "Quaker City" Voyage
December 13, 1867
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1681
Mark Twain only realizes that his correspondence from his travels have made him something of a celebrity writer upon his return.
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From "Innocents Abroad," Mark Twain's Famous Soliloquy at the Tomb of Adam in the Holy Land
November, 1870
Autograph Quotation Signed
1 page
SMC 1682
Mark Twain's handwritten irreverent soliloquy from the Tomb of Adam in the Holy Land from Innocents Abroad.
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Carte de Visite
1 page
SMC 1683
Photo signed as Samuel Clemens, taken in 1867 in Constantinople by Abdullah Frères. Clemens was in the midst of his trip on "The Quaker City," which also took him to the Holy Land.
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Autograph Letter Signed
8 pages
SMC 1684
A long and flirtatious letter from the young bachelor Mark Twain to Emma Beach, primarily about their recently shared “Quaker City” excursion to Europe and the Holy Land. He discusses, amongst other things, a lecture he's been up all night writing, and how the photos taken of him in Egypt are a terrible likeness.
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Mark Twain's Last Day in New York Before Leaving on the "Quaker City," Spent Drinking With Writers
June 8, 1867
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1686
A letter written in the wee hours of the morning after an evening and night spent drinking. Twelve hours later, Twain would be aboard "The Quaker City."
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Mark Twain Promotes his "Quaker City" Roommate to His Publisher as a Promoter of The Innocents Abroad
December 28, 1869
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1687
Dan Slote, Mark Twain's roommate on the "Quaker City" voyage, has sold about 200 copies of The Innocents Abroad to his friends, and given away about a dozen more. He is very well-connected, and can sell more copies. Twain asks his publisher to supply Slote with about 50 more copies of the book at a 40% discount, to be paid after he's sold the books.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 1688
Twain is asked by a correspondent for recommended reading. Here he lists his favorite books.
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Mark Twain Says He Cannot Deliver a "Light and Nonsensical Speech" While President Garfield is Dying
August 23, 1881
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 1693
Mark Twain explains he cannot deliver a "light & nonsensical speech" while fatally wounded President Garfield is dying. Signed as Samuel Clemens.
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Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 1695
Mark Twain deflects the responsibility for offending a Madame Blanc, and blames her French lack of humor.
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Mark Twain Can't Remember Recent Things But Vividly Recalls His Hannibal Courier Co-Workers
January 17, 1886
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 1699
Mark Twain declares that "recent names & things take no hold" on his "bald-headed memory; they slip-up & slide off" so he isn't sure about a Mrs. Brackett - but to the mention of names and things from thirty-five years ago, his memory is alert.
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Autograph Manuscript
4 pages
SMC 1706
In an unpublished article, Mark Twain excoriates Theodore Roosevelt for bullying a fifteen-year-old girl and for promoting a man who, it was well known, was "brutal" to a woman in a waiting room.
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Mark Twain on the San Francisco Earthquake and a Picture He Cannot Get Out of His Mind
April 30, 1906
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1708
Though himself a writer, Mark Twain says that the picture of the San Francisco earthquake entitled "The Spirit of Humanity," expresses the tragedy of the earthquake in a way that words cannot.
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