per Charles Warren Stoddard
29 December 1873 • London, England (MS: Jacobs, UCCL 01019)
I went to Salisbury to spend Christmas and was persuaded to go on to Ventnor for a day.2explanatory note My friend3explanatory note told me I could get back to London in season to meet the engagement with you, but I found it impossible to do so and by this time it was too late to accomplish anything by telegraph.4explanatory note I will call tomorrow about noon and shall by very glad if I find you at home but if not I shall consider that I am properly punished.
With a thousand apologies—
Tom Taylor, Esq
Tom Taylor (1817–80) was educated at Glasgow and Cambridge universities. After sending his first contribution to Punch in 1844 he was invited to join the staff, where he served until his death, replacing Brooks as editor in early 1874. His greatest success, however, was as a playwright. Over the course of his career he created or adapted over seventy works for the London stage; although many were dramas, the most popular were domestic comedies. In addition, he wrote art criticism for the London Times and Graphic, and published several works of biography (Spielmann, 338–41).
According to Stoddard, Clemens felt “rather ill” after all the dining over Christmas and “concluded to go down to the Isle of Wight to spend Sunday,” 28 December (Stoddard to “My Own Dear Ones at Home,” 29 Dec 73, Bell, 279). Ventnor was a resort on the southern coast of the island.
Presumably William Blackmore, Clemens’s host in Salisbury.
For Clemens’s business with Taylor see 30 Dec 73 to Warner, n. 1click to open link.
References
- Collection of Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs. Dispersed by sale in 1996. But ODa2 is still primary source.
- 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
- University of Dayton, Roesch Library, Dayton, Ohio.
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 5: 1872–1873. Edited by Lin Salamo and Harriet Elinor Smith. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1997
- Sotheby. Catalogue of English Literature, Science and Medicine, and Other Valuable Printed Books, Autograph Letters and Historical Documents. Sale of 25, 26, and 27 May. London: Sotheby and Co. 1964
- Spielmann, M. H. The History of “Punch.” New York: Cassell Publishing Company. 1895
MS, collection of Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs, on deposit at Roesch Library, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio (ODaU).
L5 , 538–539; Sotheby 1964, lot 475, excerpt.
The Jacobses owned the MS by 1967; they deposited their collection at ODaU in 1984.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.