- 526
Clemens, Samuel L.
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 USD
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Description
- paper and ink
Two letters with travel observations.
Autograph manuscript draft, possibly intended for John Y MacAlister, n.p., n.d. [London, ?1 October 1900], 3 pages, being a humorous damanation of English family hotels; soiled, fold separations on p. 3 — Autograph letter signed ("SL. Clemens"), 2 pages on Villa de Quarto stationery, Florence, 12 April 1904, to Mrs. Graham, extolling the glories of the Italian spring and reporting on Livy's failing health; browned.
Autograph manuscript draft, possibly intended for John Y MacAlister, n.p., n.d. [London, ?1 October 1900], 3 pages, being a humorous damanation of English family hotels; soiled, fold separations on p. 3 — Autograph letter signed ("SL. Clemens"), 2 pages on Villa de Quarto stationery, Florence, 12 April 1904, to Mrs. Graham, extolling the glories of the Italian spring and reporting on Livy's failing health; browned.
Catalogue Note
In the draft, Clemens draws a humorous sketch of family hotels in London, singling out Brown's in particular: "The bedrooms of the upper floors are hospitals for incurable furniture ... Brown's is as interesting as the Tower of London & older I think. Older & dearer I think. The lift was a gift of William the Conquerer, some of the beds are pre-historic. They represent geological periods. Mine is the oldest. It is formed in strata of Old Red Sandstone, volcanic tufa, ignis fatuus & bicarbonate of hornblend superimposed upon argillaceous shale ... Thousands of scientists come to see it. ... they want to blast out the print but cannot. Dynamite rebounds from it." In the letter to Mrs. Graham, he describes a dazzling spring morning, resplendent with vividly colored flowers and then contrasts it with the events taking place in the house. "The Obverse — 5 minutes later. The physicians have come to hold a consultation; for our house is a hospital, these 5 months, & the sunshine is all outside of it, there is none within." Livy died in early June of 1904.