Autograph Book signed by Twain, Stowe, George Griffin and others

Лот 138
16.10.2025 10:00UTC +01:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Место проведенияВеликобритания, London
Комиссияsee on Website%
ID 1472060
Лот 138 | Autograph Book signed by Twain, Stowe, George Griffin and others
Оценочная стоимость
$ 10 000 – 15 000
[LANE, Bertha James (1875-1956). Autograph book, c.1880s-90s, Connecticut.]

A quiet artifact of enduring significance: an autograph book linking Ann Petry’s groundbreaking voice to the luminaries of her mother’s Hartford. Kept by Bertha James Lane—the mother of the African-American literary trailblazer Ann Petry—the book includes signatures from Harriet Beecher Stowe; Samuel L. Clemens (signing as "Mark Twain") and family; and George Griffin, the Clemens's family butler who was a freed slave, father figure to the Clemens household, and influence on the character of Jim in Huckleberry Finn.

The Lanes settled in Connecticut, where Bertha was a licensed chiropodist, barber and hairdresser, shop owner and manager. She and her husband Peter ran a pharmacy and soda shop—Peter was one of the first African-American pharmacists in the state, and he would mentor Bertha’s younger sister, Anna Louise James, who became the first female pharmacist in the state. Bertha and Peter’s daughter, Ann Petry, worked in the shop and became a licensed pharmacist, as well, before going on to literary fame. Her 1946 novel, The Street, about a single mother in Harlem, was an instant best-seller and was the first novel authored by a Black woman to sell more than a million copies. Petry became a sensation.

The first signatures in Bertha's book were from family members, but soon she captured Hartford’s resident celebrities, beginning with the woman Lincoln said had started the Great War. She wrote, “‘Trust in the Lord and Do Good,’ written by your sincere Friend, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dec. 5, 1889.” Bertha and the rest of the James family met Mrs. Stowe through her neighbor and their benefactor Mary B. Lewis, who lived on Farmington Avenue around the corner from Mrs. Stowe’s home on Forest Street.

Bertha met the Clemens family through their butler, George Griffin, whom scholars believe served as a model for Jim in Huckleberry Finn. Like the Lane family, Griffin attended North Methodist Episcopal Church. George Griffin's signature is one of only a handful of extant examples and it is notable here for its proximity to those of the entire Clemens family, as well as its relation to its recipient.

The book has been used in both directions—in one direction as a guest book from 1887-1895 and then flipped and used in reverse to record literary autographs from Stowe, Twain and his family (including his wife Olivia and daughters Jean, Clara, and Susy), and George Griffin in December of 1889. The guest book side includes family, schoolmates, and friends from the immediate area of Hartford, CT, as well as visitors hailed from Salisbury, Fayetteville, and Scotland Neck, NC; Providence, RI; Compton and Lynchburg, VA; Standing Rock, Dakota; and more.

Oblong 12mo (190 x 127mm). (Leaves brittle, some detached.) Brown velvet covers (detached, well-worn). Provenance: Bertha James Lane (1875-1956; by descent to:) – Ann Lane Petry (1908-1997; by descent to:) – Liz Petry (1949-2023).
Адрес торгов CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
Великобритания
Предосмотр
02.10.2025 – 16.10.2025
Телефон +44 (0)20 7839 9060
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