CLEMENS

['By consent of the Police? NO.': E. V. Knox, editor of 'Punch'.] Typed Card Signed from Cyril Clemens of the Internation Mark Twain Society, asking for Knox's 'definition of democracy', with carbon copy of Knox's reply.

Author: 
Cyril Coniston Clemens (1902-1999), founder of the International Mark Twain Society, the writer’s third cousin twice removed; E. V. Knox [Edmund George Valpy Knox, ‘Evoe’] (1881-1971), 'Punch' editor
Publication details: 
Clemens' TCS: 10 January 1969, with his stamp as president of the Internation Mark Twain Society, Webster Groves, Missouri. Carpon of Knox's reply, 1 March 1949.
£90.00

See Knox’s entry in the Oxford DNB. The two items are in fair condition, lightly aged and creased, each with a couple of lightly-rusted pin holes. Clemens’s plain card, with stamps and postmarks, is addressed to ‘E. V. Knox Esq / c/o Punch / London, England.’, and is signed ‘faithfully / C C Clemens’. The message reads: ‘Dear E.V. Knox / We hope the life of President Truman reached you safely? / The Society is arranging a symposium on democracy You may care to send your definition of democracy and a few comments.

['Mark Twain' (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), great American writer.] Envelope addressed to 'S. L. Clement, Esqr. | "Mark Twain"', at 'Buckenham Hall', and forwarded to 88 Brook Street, with annotations and eight postmarks.

Author: 
'Mark Twain', pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), great American writer, creator of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, described by William Faulkner as 'the father of American literature'
Twain
Publication details: 
Sent from Belfast to Brandon in Norfolk, and then on to London. November 1887.
£90.00
Twain

8.5 x 14 envelope. In fair condition, aged and creased. Torn open, with slight loss to flap. A nice Mark Twain artefact, and something of a puzzle, as he does not appear to have been in England at the time. There does not appear to be any connection between Twain and William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst (1835-1909), 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney, whose London address was 88 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square.

[ Cyril Clemens, editor of the Mark Twain Journal. ] Typed Letter Signed to military historian Barrie Pitt, informing him of his election as 'A Knight of Mark Twain'. With photocopy of letter from Winston Churchill to Clemens, inscribed to Pitt.

Author: 
Cyril Clemens [ Cyril Coniston Clemens ] (1902-1999), editor, Mark Twain Journal [ Barrie Pitt (2006), military historian; Winston Spencer Churchill ]
Publication details: 
Clemens' letter to Pitt is dated 5 May 1978. On his letterhead as editor of the Mark Twain Journal, Kirkwood, Missouri. The photocopy is of a Churchill letter dated from 10 Downing Street, 25 October 1943.
£65.00

ONE: Typed Letter Signed from Clemens to Pitt. In good condition, with light signs of age and wear. Expansive signature in blue ink. Letterhead with printed quotations from President Ford, Carl Van Doren, William Faulkener, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Message reads: 'Dear Barrie Pitt | In recognition of your outstanding contribution to Biography, you have been unanimously elected, in succession to the late Captain Basil Liddell Hart | A KNIGHT | of | MARK TWAIN'. TWO: Photocopy of letter from Churchill to Clemens.

[Simplified Spelling Board, New York.] Twenty-five printed circulars, numbered 1-21, 23-25 (including two versions of 16), promoting English spelling reform.

Author: 
Simplified Spelling Board, New York [Thomas R. Lounsbury; Mark Twain; Calvin Thomas; Brander Matthews; Henry Holt; Burt G. Wilder; William Hayes Ward, Editor of The Independent; William H. Maxwell]
Publication details: 
The twenty-five items printed by the Simplified Spelling Board, 1 Madison Avenue, New York, between 30 April 1907 and 30 September 1911.
£950.00

The Simplified Spelling Board was founded in 1906, funded by Andrew Carnegie, and counted Mark Twain and President Theodore Roosevelt, and the English lexicographers James A. H. Murray, Walter W. Skeat and Joseph Wright among its members. The present collection of the Board's Circulars consists of 25 uniform items, all unbound and stapled. The collection is in fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with occasional wear. Stamps, shelfmarks and labels of the Board of Education Reference Library, London.

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