8 August 1871 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: IC, UCCL 00642)
I am different from other women. They have their monthly period once a month, but I have mine once a week, & sometimes oftener. That is to say, my mind changes that often. People who have no mind, can easily be steadfast & firm; but when a man is loaded down to the guards with it, as I am, every heavy sea of foreboding, or inclination, or mayhap indolence, shifts his cargo. See?
Therefore, if you will notice, one week I am likely to give rigid instructions to confine me to New England; next week, send me to Arizonia;2explanatory note next week, withdraw my name; next week, give you untrameled swing—& the week following, modify it. You Ⓐemendationmust try to keep the run of my mind, Redpath—it is your business, being the agent—& it always was too many for me. It appears to me to be one of the most delicate finest pieces of mechanism I have ever met with. Now about the West. This week I am willing that you should retain all the western engagements you have made, & make as many more as will cluster well, pay high prices & not cost too hard travel.3explanatory note
But what I shall want next week, is still with God.
Let us not profane the mysteries with soiled hands & prying eyes of sin.
P. S. Shall be here 2 weeks—will run up there when Nasby comes.4explanatory note
letter docketed: Twain Mark | Hartford, Conn | Aug. 8 ’71 and 8/9.71
Clemens had left Elmira on 2 or 3 August. He spent at least two days in New York City, staying at the St. Nicholas Hotel while shopping for clothes and perhaps attending to other unidentified business. He arrived in Hartford on 5 or 6 August, bringing with him his fifth submission of Roughing It printer’s copy, about 272 manuscript pages (460 equivalent pages: see 15 May 71 to Bliss, n. 3click to open link). While in Hartford he planned to give the book its final shape, cutting or adding material as needed (10 July 71 to Blissclick to open link; 10 Aug 71 to OLCclick to open link; 17 Aug 71 to Greeleyclick to open link; RI 1993 , 815, 863).
Arizona Territory, the site of recent Indian wars, was unlikely to be included on any lecture itinerary (Annual Cyclopaedia 1871, 723–24).
Clemens had considered lecturing as far west as Davenport, Iowa. Ultimately no “western engagements” were retained (10 June 71 to Redpath and Fallclick to open link; 12 June 71 to Redpathclick to open link; 23 July 71 to Bowenclick to open link; Lecture Schedule, 1871–1872click to open link)
References
- Chicago Public Library, Chicago, Ill.
- 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 4: 1870–1871. Edited by Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, and Lin Salamo. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1995
- Clemens, Will M. “Mark Twain on the Lecture Platform.” Ainslee’s Magazine 6 (August): 25–32. 1900
- Paine, Albert Bigelow, ed. Mark Twain’s Letters. Edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. 2 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1917
- Horner, Charles F. The Life of James Redpath and the Development of the Modern Lyceum. New York: Barse and Hopkins. 1926
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Roughing It. Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith, Edgar Marquess Branch, Lin Salamo, and Robert Pack Browning. The Works of Mark Twain. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. This edition supersedes the one published in 1972. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1993
- Annual Cyclopaedia 1871. The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1871. Vol. 11. New York: D. Appleton and Co. 1875
MS, Chicago Public Library (IC).
L4 , 440–441; Will M. Clemens 1900, 28; MTL , 1:190; Horner, 168–69; “Letters to James Redpath,” Mark Twain Quarterly 5 (Winter–Spring 1942): 20; all with omissions.
donated to IC in 1976 by Mrs. Leon Mandel.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.