Clemens, Samuel L.

Autograph letter signed ("S.L. Clemens"), 4 pages bifolium on stationery with 30, Wellington Court, Albert Gate imprint (6 x 3 3/4 in.; 152 x 97 mm), London, 17 April 1900, to Canon Wilberforce, accepting his invitation to give a talk on Joan of Arc; skillful repair to fold crease on page 2. 

"It is not an effort to account for Joan, but rather an argument or confession that she cannot be accounted for. A large part of the interest which she has for me, gorws out of just that perplexing & fascinating mystery: that our capablest rules of measurement are baffled & defeated in her case—we can't get at her astronomical dimensions with our yard-stick." Clemens accepts an invitation to deliver a talk on his Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896) based on a paper he wrote for a book by another author in which he conjectures that the "chief marvels of Joan's character [are] revealed by the prominent incidents of her career."  Joan of Arc was Clemens's next-to-last full length work and considered by him to be his best. It is his only work to focus on a female, Joan of Arc, whom he modeled after his favorite daughter Susy. Joan/Susy is characterized as capable, defiant, independent, dynamic and courageous; she champions democratic ideals, rebelling against tyranny and injustice, and shows compassion for the common people and the oppressed.