Auction Date:2010 Dec 08 @ 19:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Autograph riddle, in pencil, on an off-white 5.5 x 5.25 sheet, Clemens writes, in full: “never speak except when spoken to: I answer respectfully when respectfully addressed, but offensively when offensively addressed; I forget a thing as soon as I hear it; yet I can always recal [sic] it & repeat it as soon as I am always ready to talk, yet indifferant [sic] to conversation, & take no interest in any subject. I could talk when I was not ten seconds old, & the moment I cease to be able to talk I shall die. Echo (or telephone.”
Clemens has crossed out a few phrases, making the final riddle read: “I never speak except when spoken to: I forget a thing as soon as I hear it; I am always ready to talk, yet indifferant [sic] to conversation, & take no interest in any subject. I could talk when I was not ten seconds old, & the moment I cease to be able to talk I shall die. Echo (or telephone.”
A rough top edge, a few creases, and a bit of light soiling, otherwise fine condition. Clemens has offered two possible solutions to this riddle: Echo or telephone. The telephone, like many innovative inventions, fascinated Clemens. He had one installed in his Nook Farm home as soon as they were available. This autograph fragment was included in the 1911 Anderson auction of Clemens’s library, lot 73, loosely inserted in a copy of a facsimile edition of William Caxton’s 1489 printing of The Statutes of Henry VII, and is accompanied by an Anderson Auction Company envelope.
Auction Location:
5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
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