A massive collection featuring rare artifacts, letters, first-edition books, manuscripts and even an artistic bust of Connecticut’s likely most famous author are up for sale will find new homes later this month.
Longtime collector Dan Madsen has accumulated a vast Mark Twain collection for nearly four decades and is auctioning off hundreds of historic items later this month online through Heritage Auctions. The auction is ongoing and finishes on March 18.
Madsen, 64, said he grew up interested in the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises and his heroes were fictional characters. As a 17-year-old he headed the licensed Star Trek Official Fan Club and later the Star Wars Official Fan Club. But it was Twain that became an inspiration as a young adult.
“He became one of my heroes. I was fascinated by his satire, his wit and his boldness,” Madsen said.
Madsen’s Denver home began filling with books, letters, autographs and ephemera involving Twain. He said his favorite Twain memorabilia piece is “Mark Twain’s business calling card.”
“It was so rare, so hard to find and I got that through another collector many, many years ago,” Madsen said. “On the front side of the card, it says ‘Samuel Clemens, Hartford, Connecticut’ and you flip the card over, and he’s autographed it, ‘Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain’ in his own handwriting, and that was one of my prize possessions because that, you just don’t see those every day.”
Another prized possession is a book from Twain’s personal library.
The Mark Twain House & Museum on Farmington Avenue in Hartford. (Courtesy of Mark Twain House & Museum)
“Mark Twain has signed it inside and there was actually a little envelope stuck in the side of the book,” Madsen said. “He’s handwritten an address of somebody and was planning to send a letter. It was brokered to me through a dealer and it’s one of my prized possessions.”
Madsen said he also has an entire page of manuscript written entirely in Twain’s hand from the Gilded Age and first edition of Twain’s books Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and “the best bust sculpture of Mark Twain he’s ever seen.” Madsen said Greek artist Zenos Frudakis sculpted the bust and this was one of toughest items to sell.
“It’s so lifelike when you see it in person, it’s like he’s looking at you,” Madsen said. “These were all tough to get rid of but I’m looking at retirement in a year or two and we are planning to move.”
“I decided to hand over my collection to other collectors and share the joy that I’ve built here. Our house is starting to look like a Mark Twain museum. I kid you not. There is Twain on every wall,” Madsen said.
“Right now, the world didn’t necessarily get to see my collection. People who came over to my home, my friends, my family got to see it and would be wowed by everything I had for Twain and (Abraham) Lincoln. But the beauty of the auction, is that with the catalog that’s gone out, with the online auctions, now the world gets to see everything that I collected over the last 40 years. I’m finally getting to show the world. This is what I built over 40 years.”
Madsen said he’s always had a great respect for Twain and has visited the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford several times.
“That’s one of my favorite places. I’ve spent hours in that house. It’s such a beautiful home,” Madsen said. “The fact that Twain lived there, wrote his books there and had his best family memories there – it’s always been a very special place in my heart.”
Madsen’s Lincoln collection is equally as expansive, highlighted by an original flag from Lincoln’s 1860 campaign. The item was listed at $29,000 as of Sunday morning.
“It was so early in his campaign, they didn’t spell his name correctly,” Madsen said. “That’s why on the flag it says Abram and that’s what makes it so valuable.”
His collection also includes Lincoln pins, buttons and ribbons from the 1860 campaign.
Madsen also highlighted a “Wide Awake Rail-Splitter Fence Parade Standard” as historically important folk art that was associated with Lincoln’s “Rail-Splitter” in his campaign. Madsen said it’s a rare three-dimensional, hand-carved artifact.
“It was carried in one of the wide-awake campaign rallies in New York for Lincoln,” Madsen said. “It’s a one-of-a-kind piece.”
“There are just so many fabulous pieces that it was really hard to part with them. I mean, I can’t deny it. It was. I’ve loved them for 40 years,” he added.
Madsen kept one item each from his Twain and Lincoln collections.
The Twain item he couldn’t part with was a menu from Twain’s 77th birthday. It’s a hand drawn with a picture of Twain in the middle with his characters from his books illustrated around him. Dishes served included the names of his characters like Huckleberry Pie and Pudd’nhead Wilson Pudding. The menu is signed by Twain and other prominent businessmen of the day like Andrew Carnegie and Stanley Rogers.
The Lincoln piece he kept was a handwritten letter from Lincoln to General Joseph Hooker in 1863.
“In the note, he says they could hear the cannons from the battle over in Virginia. He told him where and what direction they were coming from. And the value and the importance of that note is that I think most Americans don’t realize how close the Civil War came to the White House. And it came so close that Lincoln could stand in his office and could hear the cannons firing in the battle that was not that far away from the White House. That’s what makes that, that, that notice so incredibly important,” Madsen said.
Madsen said he accumulated these items over the years out of his love for Twain and Lincoln. But he added that they have been a good investment because the value of these items go up each year.
He chose this year to do the auction because it’s the country’s 250th anniversary and the auction is 98% of the 390 items are of Twain and Lincoln. However, he has some other items from America’s Founding Fathers. He is auctioning off George Washington’s signed military discharge papers, a signed letter from Thomas Jefferson and a Theodore Roosevelt signed portrait.
Madsen said he began considering auctioning off his collection about two years ago. He said “it’s a glorious burden” to have artifacts of two of the giants of the 19th century.
“I started thinking about what if my house catches on fire. What happens if somebody breaks in? They’re insured but if one of those things happens, they’re lost forever,” Madsen said. “So, I contacted Heritage Auctions, the largest auction house in the world and they specialize in historical Americana auctions.”
Madsen said he contacted Heritage in October and came to his home and went through his entire collection. The items were packed and shipped to Heritage headquarters in Dallas.
Madsen said every single room in his house, even the bathroom, had items from Twain and Lincoln.
“I had bookcases upon bookcases filled with antiquarian books,” Madsen said. “Walls covered with special items, autograph letters, artwork, statues all over that. I think my wife complained one time and said ‘I’ve lived with Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain for 24 years now and now it’s time to have something different in our house.’ She loves it but she doesn’t love it like I do.”
Madsen has been married to wife Karen, a retired nurse, for nearly 24 years. He said his collection predated their marriage.
“She saw the house before we were married and I told her she knew what she was getting into,” Madsen said with a chuckle. “She saw the giant busts of Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain right in the front window. If you don’t like Twain and Lincoln, this was not the place to be.”
Madsen said he doesn’t have a specific goal for the March 18 auction.
“Whatever people find the value of these things is what I’m willing to accept,” Madsen said. “I just want them to go to good homes where other collectors can enjoy them or other institutions can show them to other people.”
He said he turned down an invitation to watch the proceedings at the Heritage headquarters but wanted to monitor from his home in case it becomes “too painful” to watch and will be able to step away from the computer to stop watching. Instead, he will be watching from home.
“It’s a bittersweet thing on the one hand, I’m happy that I made this amazing collection, it’s going to go out to others now. But on the other hand, I’m sad that it’s no longer going to be mine, and I won’t have the pleasure of owning it and quite frankly being able to brag about it. It’s a bittersweet thing for me,” Madsen said.