TWAIN ESTATE UP $65,000 IN YEAR
Accounting in Connecticut Discloses That $22,000 Came From Royalties
$700,000 VALUE LIKELY
Securities Author Bought Have Increased Greatly - Daughter Benefits
By DAVID ANDERSON
Special to The New York Times
REDDING, Conn., April 17 - Wealth has accrued to the estate of Mark Twain in a manner that might have astonished him.
No business man himself, the 1910 had learned to leave such matters to friends.[sic] Their successors met in Redding Town House, a small white clapboard structure of 1834 vintage, this morning for the annual passing of the accounts.
Probate Judge Hjalmar Anderson, a small boy when the shaggy-haired old man in the white suit was the foremost citizen of Redding, opened the proceedings. "Now we have the estate of Samuel L. Clemens," he said simply.
Reams of paper covered with figures showed that the inventory value of securities was $398,337.13. Royalties from Mark Twain's published works in 1958 amounted to $22,000. What the papers only hinted at was the actual market value today of the stocks and bonds. It is estimated to be more than $700,000. The income was $43,000 for a total of $65,000 gross.
A Growth Stock
One capital item was 270 shares of International Business Machines common stock listed at $6,314, the price paid for it. Today, it was noted, the holding is worth $148,061.
The income beneficiary is Mrs. Clara Clemens Samossoud of San Diego, Calif. She was married in Redding to the late Ossip Gabrilowitsch, the pianist and conductor, the year before her father's death. They had a daughter, Nina, who was not specifically provided for. Mrs. Samossoud can dispose of the estate as she sees fit.
Judge Anderson explained that Mark Twain's daughter last year received $35,781, before taxes. Each year since 1919, $10,000 has been set aside for a sinking fund that now makes up the bulk of the estate.
Royalties, though dwindling, will continue for years. Lawyers for the estate refused to comment on the status of copyrights.
A photograph of Samuel L. Clemens was over Judge Anderson's head. Down the road stands a library commemorating the untimely death of Jean Clemens, a daughter. A mile or so away is the site of Stormfield, the home Mark Twain lived in for about four years. He built it with the proceeds from "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven."
"Redding hasn't really changed physically since the old man was here," said Judge Anderson. "I remember him well. So does Mrs. Leonard Taylor, a school teacher in town. Mark Twain was fond of her as a little girl. There must be others among us as well for he wasn't a man a child could ever forget."
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