11 April 1867 • St. Louis, Mo. (MS: IaK, UCCL 00121)
Howard Tucker Esq
I hasten to acknowledge the receipt of $35 from the Library Association, in full of all moneys due me from the proceeds of the lecture delivered by me on the 8th ins’t.1explanatory note
The “Mark Twain’s” referred to are all right, now—I forgot them when I left Keokuk. Notwithstanding your damaging surmises, they are all the family I have got—or am aware of, at any rate.2explanatory note
Remember me kindly to Mr Bower3explanatory note & believe me
Howard Tucker (b. 1829 or 1830), a hardware dealer in Keokuk, was the treasurer of the Keokuk Library Association, which sponsored Mark Twain’s lecture at the Chatham Square Methodist Episcopal Church on 8 April. Admission was $.50, and since the association cleared $34.75 to Mark Twain’s $35.00, attendance was about one hundred and forty (Keokuk Census , 22; OC 1857, 71; History of Lee County , 654; “Mark Twain’s Lecture,” Keokuk Gate City, 7 Apr 67, 4; Keokuk Constitution, 7 Apr 67, cited in Lorch 1929, 510; Bower, 4).
It is not known what “Mark Twain’s” Clemens “forgot” when he left Keokuk after a five-day stay. He had arrived at the Deming House in Keokuk four days before his lecture on 8 April; dissatisfied with the service there, he moved the next day to the Tepfer House (“Mark Twain,” Quincy Herald, 5 Apr 67, 4; “Arrivals at the Tepfer House—April 5th.,” Keokuk Gate City, 6 Apr 67, 4; SLC 1867). It seems likely that Orion was also in Keokuk at this time, in order to visit Mollie, but his presence has not been demonstrated. Surely Clemens saw Mollie and her parents, William and Mary Stotts, as well as his “favorite companions” of old—Eleanor J. (Ella) Patterson and his second cousin Mary E. (Ella) Creel—both aged twenty-six or twenty-seven. In 1910, Margaret W. Patterson recalled for Clemens the time he “came to see us with the two Ellis, Creel and Patterson. Well it was evening and we had good Apples in the celler ... you offered to go with me to open a barall which we did, and had a good sociel time.... you were full of your expected trip to the Holy land” (L1 , 101–2 n. 4; Margaret W. Patterson to SLC, 9 Jan 1910, CU-MARK).
Robert F. Bower (b. 1824), a wholesale grocer in Keokuk since 1856, had been an important founding member of the Keokuk Library Association in 1863. As its current president, he introduced Clemens to his audience on 8 April. Bower recalled in 1882 that Clemens began by saying, “If I were as grand a specimen of manhood as the gentleman who has just introduced me, you might expect a magnificent lecture” (Keokuk Census , 35; History of Lee County, 654, 685; Keokuk Constitution, 18 May 82, quoted in Lorch 1929, 509).
References
- Keokuk Public Library, Keokuk, Iowa
- Machlis, Paul, ed. Union Catalog of Clemens Letters. Edited by Paul Machlis. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. [In some cases, UCCL catalog numbers cited in this volume supersede those assigned in 1986 and reflect corrections or additions to the catalog since publication. An updated version of the catalog can be consulted via the Letters Search page at MTPO.] 1986
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 2: 1867–1868. Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith, Richard Bucci, and Lin Salamo. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1990
- Keokuk Census. “Free Inhabitants in Keokuk.” National Archives Microfilm Publications, Microcopy no. 653. Washington, D.C.: General Services Administration. [1860] 1967
- Clemens, Orion. Keokuk Directory and Business Mirror for the Year 1857. Compiled by Orion Clemens. Keokuk: O. Clemens. 1857
- History of Lee County. The History of Lee County, Iowa. Chicago: Western Historical Company. 1879
- Lorch, Fred W. “Lecture Trips and Visits of Mark Twain in Iowa.” Iowa Journal of History and Politics 27 (October): 507–47. 1929
- Bower, Robert F. “Report of the Keokuk Library Association.” Keokuk (Iowa) Gate City, 14 May, 4. 1867
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). “Letter from ‘Mark Twain.’ [No. 15.]” Letter dated 19 April. San Francisco Alta California, 2 June, 1. Reprinted in part in MTTB, 149–58. 1867
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 1: 1853–1866. Edited by Edgar Marquess Branch, Michael B. Frank, and Kenneth M. Sanderson. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1988
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
MS, Keokuk Public Library, Keokuk, Iowa (IaK).
L2 , 20–21.
The letter has presumably remained in the library since Tucker, treasurer of the Keokuk Library Association in 1867, received it.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.