‘something to respect, something to admire, something to love’
Autograph Manuscript Leaf from a Speech in Praise of Women.
[London: 1872].
Price: $7,500.00
About the item
Published at p. 213 of Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old (Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1875). Ink on paper, 16 lines, page numbered 7 at top, with a couple of changes while writing. 1 vols. 8vo. ‘something to respect, something to admire, something to love’. Matted. In a fine copy of Word Shadows of the Great, no. 298 of 300 copies, original Japan vellum spine and boards and slipcase, with original glassine (some chipping and toning to glassine).
Item #322027
An outstanding manuscript leaf of a humorous talk by Mark Twain on women, his “Speech at a Scottish Banquet in London”, delivered in 1872 in response to the toast of “The Ladies”
[I feel that if I] were to talk hours I could not do my great theme completer or more graceful justice than I have now done in simply quoting that poet’s matchless words.
The phases of womanly nature are infinite in their variety. Take any type of woman, & you shall find in it something to respect, something to admire, something to love …
It is well known that Clemens was extraordinarily devoted to his wife and daughters, and this is a remarkable testimony to his great love of Women throughout history and literature. Only one other leaf of this manuscript is known to have survived.
The manuscript is in a copy of the deluxe edition of Word Shadows of the Great, The Lure of Autograph Collecting (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1930), the acclaimed book by legendary autograph dealer Thomas F. Madigan, with two typed letters, signed, from Madigan to a New York collector, one conveying this manuscript and book.
