Sentence:  In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his <WSD>manuscripts</WSD>, [...], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A book, composition or any other document, written by hand (or manually typewritten), not mechanically reproduced.