Autograph Album

In 2s (9 x 6 3/4 in.; 230 x 171mm), 148 leaves (including blanks) on vellum, with a pair of vellum flyleaves at front and rear, containing autograph contributions from 76 authors (American or American residents), ranging from signatures and aphorisms, to poetic and literary transcriptions, to an original 4-page humorous sketch by Mark Twain; with calligraphic title-page gilt and an illuminated cipher of the recipient. Contemporary polished brown morocco, the covers with a frame of five gilt and one black fillets and gilt cornerpieces, front cover with a lightly incised relief after Fra Angelico's "Reading Monk," the flat spine sparingly lettered, tooled, and ruled, vellum pastedowns with wide inner dentelles gilt with a foliate roll, top edges gilt, by William Matthews (signed on front turn-in); some light spotting, corners rubbed, front joint cracked at bottom.

A literary offering to First Lady Frances Folsom Cleveland. The genesis for this fascinating album, which is something like Kunitz and Haycraft's biographical dictionary of American authors come to life, is explained in a prefatory "Account of this Collection" by the redoubtable Hoosier Edward Eggleston. "In March 1888 when the Author's Readings were given in Washington for the purpose of furthering the passage of the international Copyright Bill a reception was given by the President and Mrs. Cleveland to the authors present at the Readings. This was not a mere compliment to the profession of letters; it served to give an invaluable social sanction to the movement in favor of a more honest copyright law and facilitated the passage of the bill in the Senate. During the evening I discovered that Mrs. Cleveland was interested in autographs. … I proposed to send to Mrs. Cleveland some autograph letters from literary people. … Sheets of vellum were therefore sent to the authors whose names occured to me, or the friend who assisted me, with a suggestion that each of them should write something for Mrs. Cleveland. … As a sincere tribute from all who have cooperated in its production, this volume is now presented to Mrs. Cleveland by her humble servant."

The contribution by Mark Twain is by far the most intriguing of all of the manuscripts, first, because of its length; second, because of Clemens's role in strengthening copyright law; and, third, because it provides a hitherto little-known example of his use of African-American dialect. Clemens begins his remarks in the most uncharacteristic style possible: "It is to be understood that under the words and between the lines of this opening paragraph, & in the air all around & about them, is hidden a whole world of compliment for the owner of this book, a whole great world of sincere admiration, appreciation, & respectful regard." He then explains that he is writing "in this furtive & stealthy & clandestine way" because of the advice given him by a "colored waiter" at a hotel where he and several other authors had been discussing how to address the Clevelands: "Gentlemen, if you let me mix in, I kin settle dat, 'kase I's a ole han' in dese-yer gov'ment marters. Now concernin' en dat letter, dey's etiquette for dat. [No K-sound in that 'etiquette.'] Yassir, dey's etiquette for it, an' you want to go mighty slow an' don't make no mistakes. … you can't write no letters to de President's wife, an' you can't bust no compliments at her — in de fust pusson, you understan'. Whe'r you's a communicatin' wid de President hisself, ur … wid his wife, de rule is, you got to jis' jumble an' jumble it aroun', widout lettin-on which un um you's arter in partickler; an' jis' take 'n mush-up de compliments all in 'mongst de words, so's you knows dey's dar, but nobody else don't know it an' dey don't stick out nowhere." Clemens's sketch is double-signed "S.L. Clemens / Mark Twain." (The Mark Twain Papers, University of California, Berkeley, owns Clemens's manuscript draft version of this sketch, dated 5 June 1888, which he kept as a copy and on which he wrote "In Mrs. Cleveland's Autograph book.")

Among the many other contributors are such literary luminaries as Thomas Baily Aldrich (transcript of "Nocturne"); John Burroughs on building a house; George Washington Cable (prose transcript); Frances Hodgson Burnett (passage from Little Lord Fauntleroy); Edward Bellamy (prose transcript); Mary Maples Dodge (transcript of "The Stars"); Edward Everett Hale ("Led a Hand"); John Hay; Thomas Wentworth Higginson; Oliver Wendell Holmes (poetic transcript); William Dean Howells (transcript of "The Throne"); James Russell Lowell (excerpt from his address at Harvard's 250th anniversary); Brander Matthews; Edgar Wilson Nye (humorous letter, with original drawing, under the person of Bill Nye); Francis Parkman (excerpt from Montcalm and Wolfe); James Whitcomb Riley (transcript of "At Broad Ripple"); Robert Louis Stevenson (transcript of "Requiem"); Frank Stockton; Charles Dudley Warner; and John Greenleaf Whittier (transcript of "Our Country").