Where online can I find sample pages of actual original manuscripts by
famous authors?

I am looking for (a) a photo of a handwritten ms. page by an author
whom any American reader would know (e.g., Charles Dickens) and (b) a
photo of a typewritten ms. page by a well-known author (e.g., Ernest
Hemingway).  In both cases I would prefer something on which some
actual words can be read and something that shows hand-marked
corrections.  I have searched numerous sites on Twain, Dickens,
Vonnegut, Hemingway, and others and have found very little that would
serve my purpose.  Perhaps there is some copyright or other legal
interest that prevents such pages from being shown where they could be
downloaded and reproduced in facsimile, and if that is the case then I
am never going to find anything.  But I know nothing about that side
of things and so am still looking for the pages.

What I am trying to do is illustrate to some young technical writers
the separation of content from form and the fact that XML simply
reintroduces the pre-WYSIWYG (FrameMaker et al.) process of composing
text independently of a formatted, printed page.  They are having a
hard time understanding how easily the "what" and the "how" part
company and don't see that their union is actually a very recent
innovation, already passing away.  I think some plain-text manuscript
of subsequently published work would be an aid to my explanation, and
the work of a famous writer would make it more interesting.

I will consider my question answered if I receive a URL for a page
where I can find an image (at least partially legible) of a
handwritten ms. and another of a typewritten ms. by well-known authors
writing in English.

Thank you.

Dear apteryx,

Though not by an author of novels and other fiction literature, these
pictures should meet your needs. They are high-resolution
reproductions of the handwritten draft for a resolution addressed to
the Ohio Democratic Convention, written by Abraham Lincoln himself in
1863. Throughout the 13 pages, Lincoln added insertions, made
corrections and crossed out words. Also, every American should know
the author's name. I provide you the URLs for all 13 pages, so you can
choose yourself which one is most convenient for your project:

http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/001.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/002.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/003.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/004.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/005.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/006.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/007.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/008.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/009.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/010.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/011.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/012.jpg
http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mal/mal1/244/2449400/013.jpg

Here is a page from Thomas Jefferson's own hand-written manuscript of
his autobiography from 1821, with a number of corrections:

http://memory.loc.gov/master/mss/mtj/mtj1/052/0500/0517.jpg

The next reproduction is by a real fiction author, but it is not a
manuscript. It is a letter Ernest Hemingway wrote to Archibald
MacLeish in 1943. There is no doubt Hemingway typed it himself: Some
words are crossed out by putting a row of Xs over them, which a
secretary would not have done.

http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mcc/035/0001.gif

Source for all above pictures:
Library of Congress: American Memory Collection Finder
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/finder.html

Here is Mark Twain's full hand-written 29-page manuscript for his
short story "A True Story", with all his original corrections:

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest1.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest2.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest3.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest4.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest5.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest6.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest7.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest8.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest9.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest10.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest11.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest12jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest13.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest14.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest15.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest16.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest17.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest18.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest19.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest20.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest21.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest22.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest23.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest24.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest25.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest26.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest27.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest28.jpg
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/truest29.jpg

Source:
American Literature since 1865: Gallery of Manuscripts, by Stephen
Railton
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam312/msindx.html

The following reproductions are not as large and less detailed than
those from the Library of Congress; I nevertheless decided to include
them here:

Walt Whitman, hand-written corrected manuscript of "Premonitions",
1865
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam312/wwms.jpg

Ernest Hemingway, typescript of the first page of "The Sun Also Rises"
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam312/ehms.jpg

Source for both pictures:
American Literature since 1865: Gallery of Manuscripts, by Stephen
Railton
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam312/msindx.html

When using any of these reproductions, please make sure in advance you
are not accidentally and inadvertently violating copyrights.

Search terms used (in Google Images):
hemingway manuscript
http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=hemingway+manuscript&sa=N&tab=wi&meta=

Hope this is what you were looking for!
Best regards,
Scriptor

---

Request for Answer Clarification by apteryx-ga on 16 Feb 2003 18:22 PST

Thanks, Scriptor.  I was not after any of the historic-document
examples because I am trying to illustrate the publication process. 
Documents that were an end in themselves don't serve that aim; I would
not call those "manuscripts" in that sense.  The same goes for
correspondence, etc.  I could just as well write a letter myself to
illustrate writing by hand; I'm sure the students have heard of that,
even if they've never tried it themselves.  I wanted to show a
recognizable manuscript on its way to becoming a published book--the
next frames in the series being a bar of hot type and a printing press
followed by a book cover.  I did find the same Hemingway and Twain
that you did, and I guess they would do, technically meeting my
criteria, but they're rather less than I was hoping for.  Do you think
anything more might be found if you looked further?  There are many
more names that one might explore--from Alcott to Poe--but I posted
this question to avoid spending more time on it myself than I already
had.

---

Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 17 Feb 2003 05:08 PST

Dear apteryx,

I will try to find more. This may take a couple of days, so please be patient.

Best regards,
Scriptor

---

Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 17 Feb 2003 10:03 PST

Dear apteryx,

The Google Answers Researchers aim to satisfy their customers' needs
as good as only possible. To find something that meets your
spectifications, I
- drove to the library,
- searched the literature department,
- scanned certain documents I found,
- rented webspace,
to provide you appropriate material. Here is the result of my efforts:

1. The hand-written first page of Ernest Hemingway's original
manuscript of "A Farewell To Arms" (1928), with all additions and
alterations made by the author during the creative process:
http://home.foni.net/~scrippor/script1hemingway.jpg

(Source: 'Ernest Hemingway', by Anthony Burgess. Published by Heyne,
1987. ISBN 3-453-00112-5)

2. The typed first page of Raymond Chandlers original typescript of
"The Little Sister" (1949), with all the author's alterations:
http://home.foni.net/~scrippor/script2chandler.jpg

3. The typed first page of Raymond Chandler's original typescript of
"The Pencil" (1958), with some alterations by the author:
http://home.foni.net/~scrippor/script3chandler.jpg

(Source for the Chandler scripts: Raymond Chandler, by Thomas
Degering. Published by rororo, 1989. ISBN 3-499-50377-8)

4. Since I expect the people you are going to work with to be educated
persons, I included this one: A page from the hand-written original
manuscript of Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann's novel "The Magic
Mountain" ('Der Zauberberg', 1924), with many corrections and
alterations:
http://home.foni.net/~scrippor/script4mann.jpg

(Source: The Yale Zauberberg-Manuscript, by James F. White. Published
by Francke, 1980. ISBN 3-7720-1465-8)

I hope this is what you need.
Best regards,
Scriptor

Wow!  The results are indeed what I had hoped for, but the lengths you
went to  are considerably beyond what I would have expected or even
imagined.  I would not expect a Google researcher to have to leave the
comfort of his or her computer desk and look for anything in the real
world.  Libraries, God bless 'em--I hope we do not get careless and
let them languish and disappear.  I can't properly compensate you for
your efforts, but I can at least add a token to show my sincere
appreciation of your work.  I have safely downloaded your excellent
finds and recorded the source data.  Thank you.

Apteryx

Scriptor, a fine job.  You certainly went above and beyond the call of web duty.  :)

Apteryx 

I just signed up to Google Answers, after a little lurking - so please
forgive my newbie errors. I'm not sure there's anything to add to
Scriptor's great work, but just in case... Your question doesn't say
you are looking specifically for manuscripts of material that was
subsquently published, so I wanted to alert you to digital copies of
edited remarks made by Kurt Vonnegut to the graduating class of Rice
University in 1998. You can find the 7-page document here:
http://www.rice.edu/fondren/woodson/vonnegut/
Although it is also linked on the page, for completeness, here is an
HTML copy of the remarks as delivered:
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~presiden/Speakers/Commence98.html

I had seen these remarks before, and found them today via a Google
search for Rice and Vonnegut - then a search on Rice University's
website: http://www.rice.edu/Internet/search/query.php?tab=sitemap

Thanks.
-Proteus

Proteus,

It says "plain-text manuscript of subsequently published work"--but I
do thank you for your comments.  And welcome.  I am amazed that the
"Proteus" handle wasn't taken.  Google Answers is just the place for
proteans.

I used several of Scriptor's finds in my document.  They were perfect
for my purposes.

Apteryx
(you know, one of those things you put next to a footnote . . .)