![]() |
Mark Twain |
In the early days of our marriage my wife joined a book club. She wanted to stock our bookcase with the classics. For years they just sat on the shelf looking respectable. I eventually made a goal of reading each book.
![]() |
A Few Mark Twain Books |
![]() |
Mark Twain's Other Woman |
All of this to say that I have learned a lot about Clements, his family, and his life.
But the one thing that I did not know was that Sam Clements enjoyed playing guitar and owned one of the very first C.F Martin guitars ever built.
![]() |
C.F. Martin |
![]() |
Marker 196 Hudson St. NYC |
Shortly after the Civil War started, Samuel Clements purchased a used Martin Size 2 ½ 17 parlor guitar reportedly costing him $10. He used this 1835 Martin extensively as a singer guitarist, bringing it along to his many travels.
And Mark Twain began his career by traveling and writing stories for a newspaper. Those publications became his first popular book, Innocents Abroad. Twain continued to travel far and wide, often with only his 1835 Martin, paper and ink to accompany him.
Twain played his 1835 Martin guitar frequently for friends and fellow travelers. He entertained the miners of the infamous California’s Gold Rush and the newspaper men of the Nevada Territories.
He also rocked the joint with passengers aboard the steamship Quaker City, bound for Europe and The Holy Lands, and the clipper ship Ajax bound for the Hawaiian Islands. As many guitarists would approve, Twain prefers to play his Martin guitar for the “willing women of the West.”
![]() |
John Hancock III |
The guitar remained in the Hancock family for four generations until it was purchased by renowned guitar collector Hank Risan in the mid-nineteen nineties.
Risan then worked with UC Berkeley to authenticate the guitar and created the Mark Twain Project. The guitar came with it’s original coffin case and had a genuine shipping label dated 1866, with “Mr. M. Twain, New York.”
In today’s dollars and due to its provenance, it is valued at over $15 million dollars. Risan also uncovered an unpublished poem by Twain called Genuis. The guitar’s original coffin case bears a shipping label dated 1866, with Mr. M. Twain, New York written on it in script that was penned in Mark Twain’s own hand.
As of 2015 Risan went on to establish The Private Life of Mark Twain exhibit at the Museum of Musical Instruments, MoMI. This is where the guitar and poem currently reside.
©UniqueGuitar Publications (text only) 2025
Click on the links below the pictures for sources.
Click on links in the text for further information.
Please click on the advertisements to help support this page. Thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment