TLS signed “Thos. A. Edison” in blue pencil, one page, 8.5 x 9.75, Orange, New Jersey laboratory letterhead, April 19, 1915. Edison writes to the Associated Newspapers in New York City. In part: “I am in receipt of your favor ... in regard to the cartoons made by your Mr. H. T. Webster on ‘Our Boyhood Ambitions.’ I would say in reply that I have no objection to his making one referring to myself if you wish. My boyhood ambition was experimenting with chemicals. I should, of course, be glad to receive the original cartoon after its reproduction....” Webster (1885–1952) was dubbed “Mark Twain of American Cartoonists” for his slyly satirical style. His best-known effort, the long-running panel cartoon “The Timid Soul,” featured the hapless protagonist Caspar Milquetoast, whose surname entered the American lexicon as a synonym for meek, ineffectual men. Beginning in 1912, Webster embarked on a daily newspaper cartoon published under a rotating series of titles, including “Our Boyhood Ambitions.” Edison’s stated boyhood ambition calls to mind one of the most famous (and documented) anecdotes related to his youth. As a vendor of candy and newspapers on the train that ran between his home of Port Huron, Michigan and Detroit, the young Edison improvised a chemical laboratory in a boxcar, where he conducted some of his earliest experiments. After the boxcar caught fire, Edison and his apparatus were thrown off the train. (In later years, Edison often claimed that his hearing loss resulted from being boxed in the ears by the angry conductor; he later modified this claim to say that the catastrophic injury occurred when he was helpfully lifted onto a moving train by his ears.) In very good condition, with intersecting mailing folds (vertical fold touching two letters of signature), scattered edge toning and light wrinkling, and trimming to bottom margin (small loss to lower right corner). Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
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