"Autograph", from the Greek, means written by the hand itself; the autograph manuscript is thus the author's text set down by his own hand, as opposed to a copy made by a secretary, a copyist or an acquaintance, or to a typescript. The notion takes on its full meaning with the advent of printing, which makes the manuscript the prior state of the work: a draft with deletions, a fair copy intended for the printer, a working notebook, a poem copied out for a friend. The autograph sales that arose in Paris in the 1820s fixed the vocabulary still in use today: A.M. (M.A.) for autograph manuscript, A.M.S. (M.A.S.) when signed.
The bookseller describes a manuscript by its number of pages and leaves, its format, its support, its state of composition (draft, first draft, fair copy), its deletions and additions, its signature if any, and its date, then situates it within the genesis of the work: unpublished text, variant of a published text, definitive state. Authentication rests on comparing the handwriting with authenticated pieces, on the paper, ink and watermark, and on provenance. A complete manuscript of a published work, or a draft revealing the writer's working process, ranks among the most sought-after pieces.
The autograph manuscript is sometimes confused with a period copy made by a third party's hand, or with a copy the author himself had made and merely corrected: such pieces are described as manuscripts with autograph corrections. Nor is a signed autograph manuscript the same as a letter: a letter is addressed to someone, whereas a manuscript is not. Finally, a text copied out by the author long after its publication remains an autograph manuscript, but a late fair copy, not a state of creation.
