Martin Luther Letter, Oscar Wilde Photograph, and Malcolm X Prison Archive to Auction

RR Auction’s monthly Fine Autographs and Artifacts Sale runs through October 16 with more than 800 lots of signed books, autograph letters, and historically significant documents from the 16th century to the present day. 

Highlights include: 

* a signed letter from Martin Luther, dated March 12, 1530, addressed to Joseph Levin Metzsch, Lord of the Castle of Mylau in which Luther tackles the question of whether debt inherited from one’s parents is an act of God's will and punishment. He writes: “Even if someone comes into such guilt willfully or through carelessness, or inherits it with innocence, it is still decreed by God.”

* an extensive archive chronicling Malcolm X's years in prison featauring more than 80 documents, a signed letter, and a rare mugshot photo, shedding light on his time of reflection and self-education that ultimately shaped him into the civil rights leader he became. In a letter, he writes: “If I had completed my education I never would have been in prison today."

* a four-volume J. R. R. Tolkien set signed by the author, including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy

* a rare signed portrait of Oscar Wilde, inscribed to his longtime editorial assistant Arthur Fish, dating from 1890