Beschreibung:

CLEMENS, Samuel Longhorne, his copy]. CONWAY, Moncure Daniel (1832-1907). Autobiography: Memories and Experiences . Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1904.
CLEMENS, Samuel Longhorne, his copy]. CONWAY, Moncure Daniel (1832-1907). Autobiography: Memories and Experiences . Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1904. 2 volumes, 8 o . Numerious illustrations. (Page 139 torn at gutter, not affecting text). Original blue cloth, top edges gilt, others uncut (rebacked, preserving original spines). Provenance: SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (ownership inscription in ink on front pastedown, "SL. Clemens Oct. 1905"); Clara Clemens (shelfmark Bc/Ls35; "Mark Twain Library Auction" Hollywood, 10 April 1951, lot 35a); Chester L. Davis (sold Christie's New York, 17 May 1991, lot 77); Nick Karanovich (his sale, Sotheby's New York, 19 June 2003, lot 195). MARK TWAIN'S COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION: WITH EXTENSIVE NOTATIONS BY HIM. "ONE OF THE MOST AUTOBIOGRAPHICALLY REVEALING OF ALL CLEMENS' ANNOTATED BOOKS" (Gribben). Altogether some 530 words (mainly in ink) on 30 pages with extensive marginal markings (mainly in pencil) and underlinings on 20 of the annotated pages plus another 58 pages. It may be noted that Conway's autobiography was highly influential in Clemens' own: "Isabel Lyon Clemens [Clemens' secretary] noted on 30 November 1904 in New York City: 'Tonight at dinner Mr. Clemens was talking of Moncure D. Conway [the clergyman, reformer, and literary man to whom he had entrusted arrangements for the publication of Tom Sawyer in England]. He is reading Conway's autobiography just published, and it made him hark back to the days in London 25 years ago' Conway's book obviously must have influenced Mark Twain's eventual choice of a narrative mode for his own autobiography, which he would launch in earnest (following earlier, sporadic attempts) in 1906. Conway soon discarded the strictly chronological organization of his first chapters in favor of a thematic approach that allowed him to discuss fully the individuals, literary groups, and social sets with which he had become acquainted at various phases of his life. Conway's recollection repeatedly stirred Clemens' autiobiographical tendencies. On page 277 [vol. I] Clemens noted in pencil: 'I seem to have met most of the people mentioned in this book.' After a list [by Clemens] of his childhood acquaintences in Hannibal at the top [and bottom] of page 147 [vol.2], Clemens wrote: 'They are all gone; why were they created?' Many other revealing reminiscences occupy the margins of various pages, including the passage [vol. 2, p. 146] in which Conway recalls showing the Clemenses around Paris in 1879." Some other particularly interesting Twain annotations: "There is no subject for a great speaker or a great writer now" (vol. 1, p. 278); beneath a passage about Edward Everett "Is this the idiot I talk about in A Tramp Abroad on a steamboat on a Swiss lake? But that ass seemed to be a son or grandson" (vol. 1, p. 286); next to a passage about the marriage of Thomas and Jane Carlyle, "It is as if he [Carlyle] were speaking of Livy, & of me" (vol. 2, p. 108); next to a passage about Ford Madox Brown "A fine & lovable person, & yet did not believe in hell & its inventor" (vol. 2, p. 135); "Sir Thomas Hardy Charles Kingsley. Browning. George Dolbey, Ch. Warren Stoddard, Ambrose Bierce, Joaquin Miller & (imitator of Harte's Condensed Novels ) -- perished in a canoe -- now I recall his name -- Prentice Mulford" (vol. 2, p. 138); a passage dealing with Charles Dickens' 1867 visit to America prompts Clemens' recollection of his first meeting with Livy, "(a memorable visit for me!) I met Livy at the St. Nicholas [Hotel], & took her to the [Dickens] reading (toward end of December) on Mrs. Hooker's ticket. Spent New Years with her at Mrs. Berry's" (vol. 2, p. 140). Gribben, p. 157. (2)