CLEMENS, Samuel L. (''Mark Twain'') (1835-1910). Autograph draft manuscript [c. September 1900].

CLEMENS, Samuel L. ("Mark Twain") (1835-1910). Autograph draft manuscript [c. September 1900].

Three pages, 127 x 202mm (minor soiling, a little wear at creases).

"All the modern inconveniences are furnished & some that have been obsolete for a century": Clemens's humorous one-star review of Brown's Hotel—and the caliber of local lodging in general – during a visit to London. "The bedrooms of the upper floors are hospitals for incurable furniture. ... Some quite respectable Englishmen still frequent them through inherited habit & arrested development; many Americans also, through ignorance & superstition. Brown’s is as interesting as the Tower of London & older I think. Older & dearer. The lift was a gift of William the Conqueror, some of the beds are pre-historic. They represent geological periods. Mine is the oldest." The amusing autograph manuscript has been identified by the Mark Twain Project as a draft of a letter written from Clemens to his friend John Y. MacAlistair. Provenance: James S. Copley Library (his sale, Sotheby's, 17 June 2010, Lot 526).