# - Clemens, Samuel Langhorne ("Mark Twain")

(i)  Autograph letter signed ("SL. Clemens"), to Mrs Benjamin, promising to return a "perfectly delightful book" when he has re-read it and sending her his "series of moral photographs", which Beatrice can paste up in her room ("...& you can't imagine the change that will happen..."), also referring to two other sets for other people and mentioning Mrs Rogers and Mrs Senior; a separate note describing the seven photographs as registering "with scientific precision, stage by stage, the progress of a moral purpose through the mind of the human race's Oldest Friend", 3 pages, 8vo, on headed stationery of Dublin, New Hampshire, 29 August, 1906, laid-down on one side of a long  wooden panel, slightly nicked and stained; the other side bearing mounted in a row, framed and glazed:



(ii) the seven photographs in question, each (c.170 x 110mm.) of Clemens in a rocking chair on a porch chiefly smoking a cigar and inscribed by him with a continuous 'moral' beginning "SHALL I learn to be good..." and ending "Oh, never mind, I reckon I'm good enough just as I am" .

Photographs probably taken with an ordinary domestic camera. Silver prints in good condition overall, showing slight signs of silver bloom consistent with age (especially nos. 2, 6 and 7). Only slightly faded. The back board of the frame, which is probably contemporary, has been cut open and the letter and note laid down on the reverse of the mount (the note has become detached). The letter and note are brittle, slightly browned and foxed, with a few small nicks.
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