13 December 1867 • Washington, D.C. (MS: Craven, UCCL 00173)
I believe I have made a mistake in not lecturing this winter. I did not suppose I was any better known when I got back than I was before I started—but every day I find additional reasons for thinking I was mistaken about that. I have prepared a new lecture which I think I shall like better than the old one, when I shall have finished amending it. The Correspondents’ Club have threatened to call me out for a speech for the benefit of their widows & orphans, & if they do I shall respond. Ⓐemendation—say any time within the next 2 or 4 weeks.1explanatory note If it made anything of a hit, I should be tempted to receive proposals from Young Men’s Christian Ass.’s & such like. Because I am already dead tired of being in one place so long. I have received 2 or 3 calls lately from N. Y. & Indiana towns. When are you coming down? I might take a “disgust” any moment & sail for Cal.
For the “new lecture,” called “The Frozen Truth,” see 8 Jan 68 to JLC and PAM, n. 7click to open link. For the Correspondents’ Club, see 10 Dec 67 to JLC and family, n. 5click to open link.
References
- Collection of Robin Craven.
- 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
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
MS, collection of Mrs. Robin Craven.
L2 , 136; AAA / Anderson Galleries 1934, lot 122, excerpt.
sold on 6 or 7 November 1924 by Anderson Galleries, New York City, sale no. 1870, lot 84 (“Autographs and Manuscripts of the Late F. Hopkinson Smith”). Mrs. Craven provided CU-MARK with a photocopy of the MS on 21 April 1969.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.