CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE. Autograph letter signed ("S.L. Clemens") to Thomas F. Gatts, New York, 30 May 1903. 2 pages, 8vo, on two sheets, a little soiled, some abrasions touching a letter or two, upper third of each sheet backed. "It is indeed a high compliment which you offer me in naming an association after me & in proposing the setting apart of a Mark Twain Day at the great St. Louis Fair, but such compliments are not proper for the living, they are proper & safe for the dead only...So long as we remain alive we are not safe from doing things which, however righteously & honorably intended, can wreck our repute & extinguish our friendships. I hope that no society will be named for me while I am still alive, for I might at some time or other do something which could cause its members to regret having done me that honor. After I shall have joined the dead I shall follow the custom of those people & be guilty of no conduct that can wound any friend; but until that time shall come I shall be a doubtful quantity, like the rest of our race..." With an engraved stock certificate form made out to Gatts for "50 shares" in the "National Mark Twain Association," dated Hannibal, Missouri, 9 September, 1903, 2 pp., small 4 to. (2)

細節

CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE. Autograph letter signed ("S.L. Clemens") to Thomas F. Gatts, New York, 30 May 1903. 2 pages, 8vo, on two sheets, a little soiled, some abrasions touching a letter or two, upper third of each sheet backed. "It is indeed a high compliment which you offer me in naming an association after me & in proposing the setting apart of a Mark Twain Day at the great St. Louis Fair, but such compliments are not proper for the living, they are proper & safe for the dead only...So long as we remain alive we are not safe from doing things which, however righteously & honorably intended, can wreck our repute & extinguish our friendships. I hope that no society will be named for me while I am still alive, for I might at some time or other do something which could cause its members to regret having done me that honor. After I shall have joined the dead I shall follow the custom of those people & be guilty of no conduct that can wound any friend; but until that time shall come I shall be a doubtful quantity, like the rest of our race..." With an engraved stock certificate form made out to Gatts for "50 shares" in the "National Mark Twain Association," dated Hannibal, Missouri, 9 September, 1903, 2 pp., small 4 to. (2)