Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910), Autograph Quotation Signed

Lot Details & Additional Photographs

Single leaf removed from an antique autograph album, dated 3 March 1885, with a quote from Mark Twain's short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and signed as both Clemens and Twain: "'I don't see no p[']ints about that / frog that's any better'n any / other frog.' / Yours truly / S.L. Clemens / Mark Twain."

3 x 5 1/8 in.

This autographed quotation from Mark Twain was part of an autograph album owned by Dr. Sue Emma Hertz Howard (1869-1956). Howard was the first female physician in Burlington, Vermont. According to the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, Howard met a lot of well-known figures of the day through her time spent with her aunt and uncle when she was a child. She was in Washington, D.C. with them in 1885 when "The 15-year-old Susan sat next to Mark Twain and chatted with him, and he signed the family autograph album..." Twain was in the nation's capital in March 1885 as part of his lecture tour with fellow author George Washington Cable. (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/changing-the-face-of-medicine/physicians/biography_susan_howard.html?id=item-157)

One edge uneven as expected from being removed from the album; subtle toning to edges; several ink smudges; one negligible stain below the signature and a couple of minor spots of foxing to verso.