Beschreibung:

CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE ("Mark Twain"). Autograph letter signed ("S.L. Clemens") with an excerpt from Pudd'nhead Wilson signed ("Mark Twain"), TO MISS HARRIET STOWE, daughter of the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin , London, 23 April 1897. 2 pages, 8vo, written on pages 1 and 4 of a 4-page sheet, laid down on a leaf in an album kept by Miss Stowe (see below). MARK TWAIN AND PUDDEN'HEAD WILSON EXTOLL THE DOMESTIC CAT "Dear Miss Stowe: The pleasant words which you have said about our absence have gratified us all. It is a comfort in our exile to know that we have left such an impression. We often think of our old neighbors & wish we were back -- & that the breaks in the circle could be mended [probably a reference to the death of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1 July 1896) and the death of Susy Clemens (18 August 1896)]. Mrs. Clemens & the daughters send you their kindest regards & desire to abide in your remembrance. I am obliged to use this paper instead of the paper which you sent, because my fountain pen emptied a quart of ink upon yours & spolied it.... Filling the other page, Clemens has penned a lengthy excerpt from his novel Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), apparently specifically requested by Miss Stowe for inclusion in her scrapbook on cats. At the bottom he notes, "Written for Miss H.B. Stowe." The passage reads: "When there was room on the ledge outside of the pots & boxes for a cat, the cat was there, in sunny weather, stretched at full length asleep & blissful, with her furry belly to the sun & a paw curved over her nose. Then that house was complete; & its contentment & peace were made manifest to the world by this symbol whose testimony is infallible. A home without a cat -- & a well fed, well petted & properly revered cat -- may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title? -- Pudd'nhead Wilson , Ch.I, p.18...." The letter and manuscript are previously unpublished. Clemens' letter and excerpt are is part of a typical Victorian scrapbook: 4to, 16 pages, 13 3/8 x 10 1/2 in., bound in orange decorated cloth ; on its front cover a chromolithograpic print of a cat has been pasted. The pages, which are quite fragile and fraying at edges, are filled with newspaper clippings relating to cats (many taken from newspapers published in Hartford, where Miss Stowe resided, across the lawn from the Clemens family), chromolithographic trade and greeting cards, original photographs of cats (perhaps some of Miss Stowe's own?), and similar materials.