19 November 1869 • Boston, Mass. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00374)
Boston, 19th—Livy dear, I believe I am to talk in one corner of Brooklyn Dec. 1, & repeat in Plymouth Church Dec.4. Have Ⓐemendationa call from New York for Dec. 3, but don’t know yet whether we shall take it or not. I am indifferent—just as soon not.2explanatory note I have no paper up here, & in a few minutes I start out to talk in the a suburban city (Jamaica Plains.) It is now 6 P.M—lecture begins at 7.45.3explanatory note
in ink: Miss Olivia L. Langdon | Elmira | N. Y. across end: Note enclosed. return address: young’s hotel, court avenue, boston, mass. postmarked: boston mass. nov 19 8.p.m.Ⓐemendation docketed by OLL: 141st
Clemens wrote this note around the imprint—“black, 163 washington st., boston”—of photographer James Wallace Black ( Boston Directory , 83). He then wrapped the carte de visite (reproduced here) in a scrap torn from the first leaf of the Eclectic Magazine for November 1869 (n.s., 10:513–14).
On 3 December Clemens lectured in Poughkeepsie, New York. He canceled the second of his Brooklyn lectures, actually scheduled for 6 December (see 3 Dec 69 to the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle click to open link, and 4 Dec 69click to open link and 6 Dec 69click to open link, both to Redpath).
The lecture in the Town Hall of Jamaica Plain, a wealthy suburb of Boston, was a benefit for “a Benevolent Educational Enterprise” (“Unique Entertainment by Mark Twain,” Boston Evening Transcript, 13 Nov 69, 1; Edwin M. Bacon, 259).
References
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
- 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
- Wecter, Dixon. The Love Letters of Mark Twain. Edited by Dixon Wecter. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1949
- Boston Directory. The Boston Directory, Embracing the City Record, a General Directory of the Citizens, and a Business Directory . . . for the Year Commencing July 1, 1869. Boston: Sampson, Davenport, and Co. 1869
- Bacon, Edwin M. King’s Dictionary of Boston. Cambridge, Mass.: Moses King. 1883
MS, on the back of a carte de visite photograph of Clemens, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). Clemens wrapped the photograph, reproduced in facsimile, in a scrap torn from the Electic Magazine, n.s. 10 (November 1869): 513–14.
L3 , 399–400 LLMT , 360, brief paraphrase without the photograph.
see Samossoud Collection, p. 586.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.