Original 2.5 x 4 carte-de-visite portrait of Clemens by W. & A. H. Fry, circa 1872, signed below the image in black ink, “Yours truly, Mark Twain.” Printed text on the reverse reads: “W. & A. H. Fry, Art Photographers and Miniature Painters, 68, East Street, Brighton.” Scattered marks and speckling to the image, light silvering to darker areas of the image, and two small areas of surface loss and a pencil notation to the reverse, otherwise fine condition. Clemens began as a newspaper reporter, first writing under the “Twain” pseudonym in 1863. His first novel, The Gilded Age, was published in 1873, followed by his greatest works—The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—in 1876 and 1884, respectively. He made his first trip to England in 1872, and had his portrait taken at the W. and A. H. Fry studio on September 12, from which four poses are known to be extant. It is thought that Twain undertook the trip to do research for a work that lampooned English culture and society, but fell in love with the culture, causing him to abandon the idea. He later wrote of the proposed satire, “I could not leave out the manners & customs...yet I would shrink from deliberately describing them in a book, for I fear that such a course would be, after all, a violation of the courteous hospitality which furnished me the means of doing it.” A wonderful portrait of Clemens at a significant turning point in his life and career. RR Auction COA.
