20 April 1869 • Elmira, N.Y. (Merwin-Clayton, 14 and 15 May 1906, UCCL 00287)
Nasby & Ⓐemendation I hunted for you in Boston lately, unsuccessfully—it will be some time before I know positively whether I can lecture at all Ⓐemendation 1explanatory note
Clemens and Petroleum V. Nasby were in Boston together on 14 and 15 March. James Clark Redpath (1833–91), author, journalist, abolitionist, social reformer, and educator, founded the Boston Lyceum Bureau (later the Redpath Lyceum Bureau) in 1868, in partnership with George L. Fall (d. 1874 or 1875), to supply the need for a central booking agency for lecturers. The date of this letter fragment establishes the beginning of Clemens’s long, congenial association, both personal and professional, with Redpath, who replied on 24 April (see 10 May 69 to Redpath, n. 1click to open link). The Lyceum Bureau also represented many of the other leading speakers of the day, including, by 1870 at least, Nasby (Eubank, 84, 89–99, 103–6, 114, 295–98; Horner, 141–55, 175, 180–81).
The Merwin-Clayton catalog does not identify the addressee, describing the letter as an “A.L.S. 1 page, 4to. Apl. 20, 1869.” The paper was probably the same as that Clemens used for his letters to Elisha Bliss of 12, 20, and 29 April: white wove, unwatermarked, measuring 10 9/16 by 8 1/16 inches, ruled in light blue.
References
- Merwin-Clayton. Catalogue of Elegant and Rare Books from the Library of Mr. John Kendrick Bangs . . . and Autograph Letters of Famous Authors. Sale of 8, 9, and 10 February. New York: Merwin-Clayton Sales Company. 1905
- 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 3: 1869. Edited by Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, and Dahlia Armon. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1992
- Eubank, Marjorie Harrell. The Redpath Lyceum Bureau from 1868 to 1901. Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 1969
- Horner, Charles F. The Life of James Redpath and the Development of the Modern Lyceum. New York: Barse and Hopkins. 1926
Merwin-Clayton, lot 126.
L3 , 199
The present location of the MS is not known.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.