Samuel Langhorn Clemens [Mark Twain] [photographs].

The photographs are individually numbered [#1 through #7] and inscribed by Clemens. The first photograph is signed "With kind regards to Mrs. W. E. Benjamin, Aug. '06." The photographs show Clemens in a rocking chair on a porch, smoking a cigar. Each photograph is inscribed with a continuous "moral purpose" beginning "Shall I learn to be good . . ." and ending, in the seventh photograph: "Oh, never mind, I reckon I'm good enough just as I am."
In "Mark Twain, a biography: the personal and literary life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens" (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1912), page 1316, Paine noted that "It was just before one of his departures that I made another set of pictures of him, this time on the colonnaded veranda, where his figure had become so familiar." Clemens "ordered a number of sets of this series, and he wrote a legend on each photograph, numbering them from 1 to 7, laying each set in a sheet of letter-paper which formed a sort of wrapper, on which was written: 'This series of 7 photographs registers with scientific precision, stage by stage, the progress of a moral purpose through the mind of the human race's Oldest Friend. S.L.C.' He added a personal inscription, and sent one to each of his more intimate friends. One of the pictures amused him more than the others, because during the exposure a little kitten, unnoticed, had walked into it, and paused near his foot. He had never outgrown his love for cats, and he had rented this kitten and two others for the summer from a neighbour."
Acquired with MA 7252, an autograph letter from Clemens to Mrs. W. E. Benjamin.