When did readers begin asking writers for their signatures?
The practice was established by 1874, when Mark Twain received a letter from a ten-year-old: “Please send me your autograph and greatly oblige your young friend”. On this occasion, according to the editor of the forthcoming book, Dear Mark Twain: Letters from his readers, the novelist responded kindly.
He was not always minded to do so. The ruses devised by autograph hunters were wily. One sent cards bearing “beautiful senti-ments”, asking for Twain’s signature under-neath. He claimed to have called his son “Samuel Clements” (misspelling Twain’s real name). “My wife joins me in this earnest appeal, on behalf of our darling and beautiful boy.” Some were too clever by half. “Your books . . . are the vilest trash I ever waded through. I would just like to place in my album the autograph of the writer who could be guilty of foisting upon a credulous & gullible public such iniquitous twaddle.” “I wuz sik last winter. I hav got a Baby. Hiz name is Mark Twain Kane cuz I like wat you rite. Send your autograf to me.”
Autographs were often sought in order to be sold, but some seekers tried a direct route to gain. One sought a loan of $1,100, with the promise to make Twain the beneficiary of his life insurance: “$1,400 payable to you at my death”. According to the editor of Dear Mark Twain, Kent Rasmussen, this was “a common ploy”. Another supplicant was more modest, and more logical. “Gracious Sir; You are rich. To lose $10.00 would not make you miserable. I am poor. To gain $10.00 would not make me miserable.”
Some offered him money. Having to deliver a speech, an admirer asked Twain to write it, “for $10? I will send the money by P.O. Order”. Another requested permission “to use the title (Mark Twain)” as editor of his newspaper. Then there was Will Clemens, regularly greeting “that Uncle of mine”. When he died, obituarists called him Twain’s nephew. Twain called him “a fraud”.
To the secretary dealing with his correspondence, Twain would jot, “From an ass” or “Villain” or just “No”. Occasionally, however, a reader was rewarded. Young Florence Benson wrote on November 30, 1907 that she had seen in the newspaper “that today is your birthday --and it is mine too. I am writing . . . to tell you that I think Tom Sawyer is the nicest boy I have ever known”. Twain replied: “I have always concealed it before, but now I am compelled to confess that I am Tom Sawyer”.
Dear Mark Twain is published by University of California Press.
TLS 11.1.2013
Εκείνο το Some were too clever by half πώς θα το αποδίδαμε;
The practice was established by 1874, when Mark Twain received a letter from a ten-year-old: “Please send me your autograph and greatly oblige your young friend”. On this occasion, according to the editor of the forthcoming book, Dear Mark Twain: Letters from his readers, the novelist responded kindly.
He was not always minded to do so. The ruses devised by autograph hunters were wily. One sent cards bearing “beautiful senti-ments”, asking for Twain’s signature under-neath. He claimed to have called his son “Samuel Clements” (misspelling Twain’s real name). “My wife joins me in this earnest appeal, on behalf of our darling and beautiful boy.” Some were too clever by half. “Your books . . . are the vilest trash I ever waded through. I would just like to place in my album the autograph of the writer who could be guilty of foisting upon a credulous & gullible public such iniquitous twaddle.” “I wuz sik last winter. I hav got a Baby. Hiz name is Mark Twain Kane cuz I like wat you rite. Send your autograf to me.”
Autographs were often sought in order to be sold, but some seekers tried a direct route to gain. One sought a loan of $1,100, with the promise to make Twain the beneficiary of his life insurance: “$1,400 payable to you at my death”. According to the editor of Dear Mark Twain, Kent Rasmussen, this was “a common ploy”. Another supplicant was more modest, and more logical. “Gracious Sir; You are rich. To lose $10.00 would not make you miserable. I am poor. To gain $10.00 would not make me miserable.”
Some offered him money. Having to deliver a speech, an admirer asked Twain to write it, “for $10? I will send the money by P.O. Order”. Another requested permission “to use the title (Mark Twain)” as editor of his newspaper. Then there was Will Clemens, regularly greeting “that Uncle of mine”. When he died, obituarists called him Twain’s nephew. Twain called him “a fraud”.
To the secretary dealing with his correspondence, Twain would jot, “From an ass” or “Villain” or just “No”. Occasionally, however, a reader was rewarded. Young Florence Benson wrote on November 30, 1907 that she had seen in the newspaper “that today is your birthday --and it is mine too. I am writing . . . to tell you that I think Tom Sawyer is the nicest boy I have ever known”. Twain replied: “I have always concealed it before, but now I am compelled to confess that I am Tom Sawyer”.
Dear Mark Twain is published by University of California Press.
TLS 11.1.2013
Εκείνο το Some were too clever by half πώς θα το αποδίδαμε;
