ALS signed 'Mark Twain,' one page, 5.5 x 9, March 11, 1885. Letter to Charles Casey, Esq. In full: 'I hurried all I could, but it was a very very severe strain upon that part of my bowels which is called my intellect, & I perceived long ago that I had not asked for time enough on that problem by as much as two years. Well, there is another & a longer world, & I will think it out there. It is not one of these mere ephemeral questions, anyway.' In fine condition, with a small brush to a single word of text and a crease to top left corner.
Clemens had completed a national lecture tour less than two weeks before composing this letter, and just a few months after Huckleberry Finn’s publication. During this period he also successfully convinced Ulysses S. Grant to sign a publishing contract (conveniently with a company co-owned by the author) and was investing heavily in an invention called the Linotype machine—a typesetting machine that became the standard for printing. Through it all, Clemens clearly found himself stretched thin and thus guilty of placing a 'severe strain' on his intellect with the realization that he hadn’t enough time to rectify an unidentified problem. A very witty apology from Clemens. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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