How to Sell Your Samuel Clemens / Mark Twain Autograph Letter Signed
To buy, auction, sell or consign your Mark Twain or Samuel Clemens autograph letter signed, please email your description and photos to [email protected] of Nate D. Sanders Auctions (http://www.NateDSanders.com).
Mark Twain is one of America’s most prominent writers and his writings remain pertinent today. His handwritten letters contain the humor and witticisms he’s remembered for while providing a glimpse into his personal experiences and thoughts. We at Nate D. Sanders Auctions have sold Mark Twain handwritten letters signed “SL Clemens” and as his pen name, “Mark Twain”. Learn how to sell your Mark Twain autograph.
How much can a Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens autograph letter sell for?
A Mark Twain handwritten and signed letter can sell anywhere between $3,000 and $9,000 depending on the length and content. Letters to notable people or content that references Twain’s writings or personal life can increase the letter’s value.
Here are some examples we’ve sold:
Mark Twain Autograph Letter Signed “SL Clemens” from 1895
We sold a Mark Twain autograph letter signed from September 1895 written during his “At Home Around the World” speaking tour in Australia and New Zealand. His travels and experiences from this tour were included in his 1897 book Following the Equator.
Two page letter reads in full, “Sunday, a.m. / Dear Miss Buckley: I am so disappointed. I was fully expecting to be there & have my share of the good times, this afternoon, but I am obliged to lose that pleasure. I have spent the last few days in bed trying to check a very persistent carbuncle – with no success – & I find I must continue that discipline. The society of a carbuncle is full of interest, but to get the fullest enjoyment out of it, one must seclude himself from other society & give all his devotion to that. I hope I may have the good pleasure to find you in, in case I am able to call before we leave Melbourne & so be able to thank you in person for the courtesy & compliment of your kind invitations to me & mine. Sincerely yours, S.L. Clemens”.
Mark Twain Autograph Letter Signed ”S.L. Clemens”
We sold an undated letter to Robert Underwood Johnson, conservationist and editor of The Century Magazine, in which Twain mentions the publication of a forthcoming book. Twain contributed some book excerpts, essays and short stories to The Century Magazine.
Two page letter reads in part, ”…I am sorry to have made delay by going away, but it was one of these unavoidable things. If the article were going in the Dec. No., I wouldn’t be strenuous about anything, but it is going to come out early enough to give many careless readers the impression that all of it will appear in the Century. Those are hard people for a canvasser to capture. So you see I have offered a compromise. I use the book’s title as a heading but ask you to put in that foot-note telling who publishes it. So in the case of ordinary book-notices, this has an effect which works both ways & is fair to all — to the reader who wants the book, it tells where to apply; & also tells the other sort where not to apply. Are you perfectly willing? Also I have removed from the opening bracketed paragraph every suggestion of apology. Yours sincerely S.L. Clemens / I mail the proof by this same mail”.
Mark Twain Autograph Letter Signed ”S.L. Clemens” from 1881
The Prince and the Pauper is Mark Twain’s historical fiction novel revolving around a plot of mistaken identity between two identical strangers, Prince Edward and a poverty-stricken boy named Tom. We sold a Mark Twain autograph letter to A.V.S. Anthony, book design director, regarding illustrations for The Prince and the Pauper.
Letter is dated 3 March 1881 and reads in full “Dear Sir: (Been away till last night). Very well then, I do say ‘go ahead’ to the artist who is ready to make a couple of drawings on approbation. I don’t know what the size of the new work will be. I suggest that it be the size & shape of ‘Sketches, Old & New’ — I think Osgood approves. In fact I had the idea (vaguely, but still I had the idea) that Osgood & I settled it, here, once that the book was to be the size & shape of ‘Sketches.’ I guess we’ll let it stand at that. / Yours truly / S.L. Clemens”. Twain’s “Sketches, Old & New”.
Autograph Letter Signed “Mark Twain”
We sold a Mark Twain autograph letter signed written to “F.C.” [Fat Contributor, pen name of Alphonso Griswold] and dated 1 September 1869, shortly after The Innocents Abroad was released. The letter is written on “Express Printing Company” stationery, the firm responsible for printing the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, where Mark Twain contributed early on in his career as a reporter and editor.
Two page letter reads in part: “…If I had received your letter a week sooner, I would have remained in the lecture field + helped your talk. I was to have opened in Boston Nov. 10, but did not intend to go out of New England. But the other day I wrote Redpath, drawing out altogether. If he says it is all right, I am out of the field entirely for this season — + I hope this will be the case, for I had rather stay in one place a while, now, just for the novelty of it. Across these sweltering intervening States I stretch my longing & lengthening hand for a friendly shake…”.
Thank you for checking out some of the Mark Twain autograph letters signed that we’ve sold. Please let us know if you’d like a free appraisal or would like to sell your Mark Twain autograph letter signed. Browse some of our realized prices of Mark Twain signed books.