Original Photographs Mark Twain & Helen Keller Together From Twains personal secretarys Estate Isabel Lyon !! Start Price USD 4,444.00 Current Price USD 4,444.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price USD 7,450.00 Reserve Price - Start Time Monday, November 17, 2008 End Time Monday, November 24, 2008 Location Columbus, Ohio See more about 'Original Photographs Mark Twain & Helen Keller Together' Description marktwain Store Original Photographs Mark Twain & Helen Keller Together Wouldn't it be amazing to travel back in time and be at Mark Twain's house when Helen Keller was arriving there?  Thanks to Mark Twain's secretary, we have the next best thing, original pictures of that historic event.  Now they are available for you to own, and be the curator of these very rare photographs .  Group of seven original photographs of Mark Twain and Helen Keller taken by Isabel Lyon, approximately 3 ¼ in by 3 ¼ in, Summer 1908.  Mark Twain and Helen Keller are seen together, and their admiration, love, & respect for each other can clearly be seen.  In a section recounting his friendship with Helen Keller in his Autobiography, Mark Twain writes, “I need not go into any particulars about Helen Keller.  She is a fellow to Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, Homer, Shakespeare, and the rest of the immortals.  She will be as famous a thousand years from now as she is to-day.”These particular photographs were once a part of Isabel Lyon’s personal collection, and later in the collection of noted Mark Twain scholar John Seelye.  Seelye wrote in his book Mark Twain In The Movies, “…the result resembles stills from a movie, a similarity most striking in a sequence taken by Miss Lyon of the arrival at Stormfield of Helen Keller, a brief scenario or newsreel filled with the sentimental tensions of the day and tight with Mark Twain’s self-conscious presence.  By contrast, Miss Keller remains at ease, her insouciance given a certain poignance by the situation, for despite her genius at overcoming the handicaps of blindness and deafness, she was separated forever from the world on film."  This series of photographs was taken right after Mark Twain moved into Stormfield in June, 1908.  He had always been mystified by Helen being able to identify him the day they met for the very first time.  It was a luncheon at Laurence Hutton’s house, Mark Twain explains, “By and by the assemblage proceeded to the dining room and sat down to the luncheon.  I had to go away before it was over, and as I passed by Helen I patted her lightly on the head and passed on.  Miss Sullivan called to me and said, ‘Stop, Mr. Clemens , Helen is distressed because she did not recognize your hand.  Won’t you come back and do that again?’  I went back and patted her lightly on the head, and she said at once, ‘Oh, it’s Mr. Clemens.’  Perhaps some one can explain this miracle, but I have never been able to do it.  Could she feel the wrinkles in my hand through her hair?  Some one else must answer this.”Albert Paine claims that it was during Helen Keller’s first visit to Stormfield that he asked her how in the world she knew it was him when he patted her on the head.  Paine writes, “…the mystery received a very simple and rather amusing solution.  Helen had come to pay a visit to Mark Twain’s Connecticut home, Stormfield, then but just completed.  He had met her, meantime, but it had not occurred to him before to ask her how she had recognized him that morning at Hutton’s, in what had seemed such a marvelous way.  She remembered, and with a smile said: ‘I smelled you.’  Which, after all, did not make the incident seem much less marvelous.”Helen Keller wrote about Mark Twain during her stay at Stormfield, “I have been in Eden three days and I saw a King.  I knew he was a king the minute I touched him though I had never touched a King before. ---A daughter of Eve, Helen Keller.”  After Mark Twain passed away, Helen wrote, “The comfort of having such a friend as Mark Twain may be taken away, but not that of having had his friendship.  His love was as a lamp in my darkness.”  Forms of payment we accept are listed below. Please note we cannot accept any form of online payment (ie we do not use Paypal or any other form of online payment). Accepted forms of payment: Money Order (Bank issued, and US Postal issued) Cashier's check Personal Check Credit Card issued CHECK (allows you to use your credit card, ask for details) Bank Wire Transfer (buyer pays additional $15 charge) Ohio residents (and any Ohio deliveries) must pay applicable sales tax. SPECIAL NOTICE: We have been in business since April of 1991 (before eBay ever existed), and have always accepted personal checks and money orders for payment. We will continue to be in business after ebays ridiculous "paypal only" policy goes into full effect, and will continue to accept checks and money orders. This means we will no longer be able to list anything on ebay because they simply won't let ANYBODY accept checks or even US Postal money orders! I for one trust US Postal money orders a billion times more than paypal, and refuse to succumb to the strong arm dictator tactics ebay is soon to implement. FREE SHIPPING & INSURANCE FOR BUY IT NOW CUSTOMERS (to United States addresses only). WE CAN MAKE SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS TO SUIT YOUR NEEDS so long as we have a mutual agreement before you place a bid. Otherwise, shipping is via United States Post Office Registered and Insured Mail, delivered to an address in the United States. A simple fixed price of $15 is added to the winning bid to help defray our costs, which are more. Shipment will happen after payment in full clears our bank. The current postal insurance limit within the United States is $25,000 so other delivery arrangements can be made should the winning bid exceed this amount. FORIEGN BUYERS are welcome, but packages shipped outside the United States are extremely limited to the amount of insurance allowable by normal shippers (United States mail, UPS, FedEx, etc.), so we can only insure for the amount that the carrier specifically permits to your country, in which case you will be responsible for all risk exceeding the insurability limit. Your complete satisfaction is our goal. We look forward to serving all Mark Twain afficianados, young and old, female or male, including COLLECTORS, MUSEUMS, LIBRARIES, DEALERS, and ANY OTHER Mark Twain enthusiasts. Because ebay is a special venue, all sales are considered final unless there was a major mistake in the listing, in which case we expect immediate notification of any such problem. ALL AUTOGRAPH ITEMS CARRY $1,000 ABOVE PRICE PAID AUTHENTICITY GUARANTEE! Although this may be surprising and unusual to you, that someone would care enough to verify authenticity enough to offer such outstanding buyer protection, this has proudly been our standard operating procedure since 1998. FIRST TIME bidders (i.e. bidders with a feedback of zero or less), bidders with over 5 bid retractions, or bidders with more than 5 negatives must get approval from the seller in writing before placing any bids. Such bidders who post any bids or bid retractions will be reported to ebay. FOREIGN BIDDERS--- PLEASE CONTACT US BEFORE PLACING A BID TO DISCUSS YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION. PAYMENT MUST BE MADE IN US DOLLARS DRAWN ON A UNITED STATES BANK, AND ALL SHIPPING WILL BE MADE AFTER PAYMENT CLEARS. NO ONLINE PAYMENTS. YOUR BEST BET IS TO HAVE THE LOT SHIPPED TO A UNITED STATES ADDRESS, OR BETTER YET, COME PICK THE LOT UP IN PERSON and I'll buy you dinner. ALL TAXES & DUTIES, TARIFFS, ETC., ARE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE BIDDER. WE WILL SHIP VIA UNITED STATES REGISTERED MAIL, FED EX, OR UPS, AND WILL NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR THE LACK OF INSURABILITY ANY CARRIER STIPULATES. ALL SALES FINAL FOR FOREIGN TRANSACTIONS. All rights reserved, including copyright (this listing may not be reproduced without prior permission in writing), and also including the right to relist this item if eBay experiences operating failure during this auction, especially anytime during the last two hours of it. Thanks again for stopping by, and please take a look at my other auctions. TO THE WINNING BIDDER: Thank you for your bid and congratulations. A phone call is better than dealing with internet messages, so please call 614-777-9375 to expedite your order. The total amount due for this lot is $15 shipping & insurance + the winning bid (if an Ohio resident or sending this to an Ohio address, please add the current sales tax of 6.75%). IF YOU ARE IN A HURRY to receive the item please notify me immediately after the auction BY TELEPHONE so we can talk about the best way to get the item to you and to arrange payment (cash in person, via postal money order, or wire transfer is best, as a check is fine but must clear the bank before shipment & this can take up to two weeks). Thank you for your business! [Note: For more information please go to my "ME" link above] 25 years ago I was a beginner Mark Twain collector, who met up with some extraordinary stashes of Mark Twain memorabilia stemming from people who actually knew Mark Twain, including Cyril Clemens and Jervis Langdon Jr., whom I later had the honor of selling Mark Twain's actual marriage certificate (his Great Grandfather was the father of the bride who signed the document as a witness, and his grandfather was the brother of the bride), and still others who knew his only surviving daughter Clara. Along the path of collecting Mark Twain I found out that the beloved friend of Mark Twain's daughter Clara, Caroline Thomas Harnsberger, lived just a few short miles away from me. We soon became great friends and she helped me more than I can say here. Then in 1991 I became a full time Mark Twain dealer, and quit my "real job." This opened the door to making many friends with Mark Twain enthusiasts from almost every walk of life, and enabled me to acquire and even discover some of the highest quality Mark Twain memorabilia on the planet. Striving to provide the best possible service, my expertise in Mark Twain's handwriting enabled me to develop the world's best authenticity guarantee on handwritten material. Simply stated I personally guarantee all autograph items to be authentic for $1,000 above the purchase price, free of any time limit (other than my date with the Great Beyond). That guarantee applies to Ebay listings, too, of course. I would hope other sellers of autographs would emulate this policy of more than your money back, but so far as I know I am the only seller on Ebay or ANYWHERE ELSE that cares enough about the client to offer such basic protection. Should you want any more information, please feel free to contact us by phone at 614-777-9375 , or e-mail us at nospambob@marktwaincollector.com (and be sure to not include that nospam at the beginning). Place a Bid!