Clemens, Samuel L.

Autograph manuscript signed ("Mark Twain") of the short story "The Esquimau Maiden's Romance," 57 pages (8 x 8 in; 205 x 128 mm), n.p., n.d. [1893], written in ink with revisions throughout on rectos only of sheets of laid paper, signed at end, the phrase "6500? words" in Clemens's hand at head of first page, with the spelling "Esquimaux" by him in the title; the first page slightly darkened; green morocco gilt chemise and red morocco gilt slipcase by the Adams Bindery.

Christie's, 9 December 1998, lot 15 (undesignated consignor)

Autograph manuscript signed ("Mark Twain") of the short story "The Esquimau Maiden's Romance," 57 pages (8 x 8 in; 205 x 128 mm), n.p., n.d. [1893], written in ink with revisions throughout on rectos only of sheets of laid paper, signed at end, the phrase "6500? words" in Clemens's hand at head of first page, with the spelling "Esquimaux" by him in the title; the first page slightly darkened; green morocco gilt chemise and red morocco gilt slipcase by the Adams Bindery.
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A rare Mark Twain story manuscript.  Using his own name, "Mark Twain," as the narrator, Clemens writes of spending a week at the Arctic Circle (a region he never visited) with a 20-year-old Eskimo girl named Lasca in her village.  The main part of the story is Lasca's narrative of her tragic romance with a young man named Kalula. Early in the tale Lasca explains that her life has been ruined by her father's great wealth because people treat her differently and she cannot find a suitor who loves her for herself. Twain writes: "I wondered what her father's great wealth consisted of. It couldn't be the house ... it couldn't be the furs — they were not valued.  It couldn't be the sledge, the dogs, the harpoons, the boat, the bone fish-hooks and needles, and such things — no, these were not wealth. Then, what could it be that made this man so rich and brought this swarm of suitors to his house? ... 'Guess how much he is worth — you never can!' [exclaimed Lasca]. I pretended to consider the matter deeply, she watching my anxious and laboring countenance with a devouring and delighted interest; and when, at last, I gave it up and begged her to appease my longing by telling me herself how much this polar Vanderbilt was worth, she put her mouth close to my ear and whispered, impressively: 'Twenty-two fish-hooks — not bone, but foreign — made out of real iron!' Then she sprang back dramatically, to observe the effect. I did my level best not to disappoint her. I turned pale and murmured: 'Great Scott!' 'It's as true as you live, Mr. Twain'..."

The Eskimo girl tells Twain that Kalula came into her life from a remote community two years earlier, not knowing of her father's great wealth.  The two fell in love and became engaged. Shortly after Kalula was accused of taking a missing fish-hook, was pronounced guilty after a "trial by water," and was cast adrift on an iceberg. Months later, on the day when all the maidens of the village wash their faces and comb their hair, Lasca discovered the missing fish-hook in her hairdo. Twain concludes the story: "So ended the poor maid's humble little tale — whereby we learn that since a hundred million dollars in New York and twenty-two fish-hooks on the border of the Arctic Circle represent the same financial supremacy, a man in straightened circumstances is a fool to stay in New York when he can buy ten cents' worth of fish-hooks and emigrate."

"The story satirizes the inverted ideas that Eskimos and westerners have about wealth. The Eskimos think nothing of wearing sables and other furs that are of immense value to westerners; their idea of wealth is metal objects such as fish-hooks that are of little value to westerners" (Kent Rasmussen, Mark Twain A to Z, 1995, p. 131).  This 6,000-word story first appeared in Cosmopolitan for November 1893; it was later collected in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Essays and Stories). It is currently available in Twain's Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, & Essays, 1891–1910, in The Library of America series.

Other than the occasional chapter from The Gilded Age, Mark Twain fiction manuscripts are rare on the market. Since the mid-1970s, the manuscripts of only two other Twain short stories have been offered at auction: "The $30,000 Bequest" (in 1987) and "A Californian's Tale" (1995).