The Earliest Signed Photograph of Mark Twain That We Can Recall Seeing, Signed With His Double Signature

On November 18, 1865, budding but unknown author Samuel L. Clemens published the short story "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog." It appeared in the New York Saturday Press and proved popular. This raised Twain's profile as a writer, and he soon landed an assignment with a California newspaper to travel to Hawaii and report from there. On March 18, 1866, Twain landed in Honolulu; he spent four months writing letters from there for publication. He was still a neophyte writer at this time and had not yet published a single book. Upon his return, he presented a lecture on the islands for the first time on October 2, 1866 in San Francisco. It was a hit.

Twain left California for New York at the end of 1866, but before he did he secured a job as a traveling correspondent for the San Francisco Daily Alta California. In 1867 he published his short short stories, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches." These were popular, and in April of that year Twain convinced the Alta to provide $1250 to pay his fare on the Quaker City tour of Europe and the Middle East. Throughout that five-month trip he sent back 51 letters to the Alta, which the paper published between August 1867 and January 1868 under the running heading: "The Holy Land Excursion. Letter from 'Mark Twain.' Special Traveling Correspondent of the Alta." These letters, together with seven printed in two New York newspapers, were very well received and became the basis for his first book, "The Innocents Abroad".

On April 2, 1868, Twain returned in triumph to San Francisco, intending to lecture on his Holy Land pilgrimage. In short order the 32-year old writer had a formal photograph taken by Bradley & Rulofson; this was the first portrait of him taken after he became well known in literary circles. An original Bradley & Rulofson CDV of Twain, 1868, signed with his double signature, "Your friend, Saml. L. Clemens, Mark Twain." This Bradley & Rulofson photo is the earliest one of Twain that we have seen signed, and none before that has a double signature. We acquired this from a private collection put together half a century ago, and it has not since been offered for sale.

"The Innocents Abroad", based on his tour in 1867, was written during the first half of 1868. Its humor and unique perspective made it a huge success, and made him famous as Mark Twain. It proved to be the best selling of Twain's works during his lifetime and one of the best selling travel books of all time.