Beschreibung:

CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE ("Mark Twain"). Highly unusual autograph letter signed ("Sam") TO HIS MOTHER Mrs. Jane Clemens, care of his sister Mrs. Pamela Clemens Moffett in Fredonia, New York, written from Elmira, New York, 11 June [1871]. Written in violet ink ON 9 IRREGULARLY SHAPED SCRAPS OF WHITE PAPER which must be pieced together, forming a joke or puzzle (some scraps lined, some from letters to him), seven of the pieces written on both sides by Clemens, sizes ranging from about 1 x 1/4in. to 1 x 6in. (25 x 30mm. to 25 x 150mm.), a few fox marks, with the original postmarked enveloped apparently addressed by Clemens; with transcript. "MA I THINK IT LIKELY THAT SOME MEN ARE SO CONSTITUTED THAT THEY WILL, UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES OF AN IRREGULAR NATURE MANIFEST IDIOSYNCRASIES OF AN IRREFRAGABLE AND EVEN PRAGMATIC & LATITUDINARIAN CHARACTER...HOW DOES IT STRIKE YOU?" [scrap 6 verso] "...Your police are doubtless like the police over the [scrap 7 recto] world -- mean, lazy, worthless, cowardly theives. They acted during & after your riot just as they would have done in New York of any other city in America. I am going to start out in [scrap 7 verso] October & lecture about 3 months or three & a half. My subject is: [scrap 8 recto] I expect to lecture first in New England 2 months & then skip to Chicago & lecture a month in the west. I may possibly talk in Elmira, Buffalo, Cleveland & Cincinnati as I go along...I have talked [scrap 8 verso] with several people about it & they say it is the best subject before the country today, & that if I can't do it happy justice I can't do any subject justice. Ma I will help Orion [his brother] with any machine he wants help on. When I was there [at Hartford, Conn.] the other day, we [scrap 9] decided that it was best for him to peg along on this one just as he is doing until I see how my new book [ Roughing It ] is going to pan out...Ma I think it likely that some men are so constituted that [scrap 9 verso] they will, under circumstances of an irregular nature manifest idiosyncrasies of an irrefragable and even pragmatic & latitudinarian character, but otherwise & differently situated the reverse is too often the case. How does it strike you ? Yr Son, Sam."