ALS signed “S. L. Clemens,” two pages on two adjoining sheets, 3.75 x 5.75, Villa di Quarto letterhead, no date but circa 1903–1904. Letter to Mr. Dibdine. In part: “I remember that there was a photographer on board the ship, but his show has passed away from my recollection. If my book says he used ‘photographic’ slides, I back it as being true; but if it does not make that specification the slides could have been the old-fashioned painted glass things.” Expertly archivally double-matted and framed with a portrait to an overall size of 19 x 12.5. In fine condition, with slight toning and a brush to a single word. Clemens lived at the Villa di Quarto in Italy in 1903 and 1904, returning to the United States after his wife passed away. The subject of this letter must have been his 1869 travelogue The Innocents Abroad, a humorous chronicle of his trip aboard a chartered vessel through Europe and the Holy Land with a group of American travelers in 1867. Early in the book he mentions a photographer aboard the ship who ‘brought out his transparent pictures and gave us a handsome magic lantern exhibition.’ The Innocents Abroad was Clemens’s best-selling work during his lifetime, and letters by authors commenting on their work are of the utmost desirability. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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