9 October 1871 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 00657)
Send along the first end of my list & s let me see where I am to talk.1explanatory note Please send a copy to my publisher, E. Bliss Jr. 149 Asylum st Hartford—for I must read proof for the next month or so.2explanatory note
I lef leave for good, next Friday.3explanatory note
We are settled here.
letter docketed: Conn “Twain Mark” | Hartford Conn | Oct. 9th ”71. and G. L. F. 4explanatory note
The Boston Lyceum Bureau’s chief clerk, George H. Hathaway, prepared this lecture list in a small memorandum book—6½ by 3 inches—that fit into a leather wallet, embossed in gold with Clemens’s name. Presumably the bureau routinely presented similar itineraries to each of its lecturers. Ultimately Clemens’s filled sixteen pages, specifying lecture dates, places, and fees, as well as rail connections, local contacts, and accommodations. Hathaway updated the book at least twice, adding entries for November and then for December through 31 January 1872, perhaps during Clemens’s stops in Boston on 1 and 13 November (Pond, xxv; Redpath and Fall 1871–72; 11 Oct 71 to Redpath and Fallclick to open link; 1 Nov 71 to OLCclick to open link; 20 Nov 71 to Howlandclick to open link).
Clemens had probably read Roughing It proofs through chapter 25 (less than a third of the book) while in Hartford in August. His expectation of reading the remaining proofs during the first month of his lecture tour (16 October–16 November) proved unrealistic ( RI 1993 , 864, 867–72).
Friday, 13 October.
George L. Fall.
References
- Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford, Conn.
- 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
- Anderson Auction Company. Catalogue of a Remarkably Interesting Collection of Books and Autograph Letters, Mainly from Private Collections. Sale no. 235 (17 and 18 November). New York: Anderson Auction Company. 1903
- Pond, James B. Eccentricities of Genius: Memories of Famous Men and Women of the Platform and Stage. New York: G. W. Dillingham Company. 1900
- Redpath, James, and George L. Fall. Notebook containing Clemens’s lecture itinerary for 1871–72 in the hand of George H. Hathaway of the Boston Lyceum Bureau. MS of sixteen pages entitled “Lecture-route, winter of 1871” and annotated by Clemens. Accompanied by its own black leather wallet, which is engraved in gold on an interior flap “Sam’l L. Clemens,” CU-MARK. 1871–72
- 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
MS, Cyril Clemens Collection, Mark Twain House, Hartford (CtHMTH).
L4 , 466–467; Anderson Auction Company 1903, lot 123, brief paraphrase.
donated to CtHMTH in 1984 by Cyril Clemens.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.