25 February? 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: TxU-Hu, UCCL 01054)
It promises to be about the most comfortable den in America. If you’ll drop in on us for a week or so next fall or winter, we’ll play billiards up stairs all day & euchre all down stairs all night, & have a general good time. Will you?1explanatory note
We leave for Elmira, N. Y., for the summer, about May 1.2explanatory note
Bowen was still living in St. Louis. Formerly employed by the Phoenix Insurance Company there, he evidently now was an independent agent, with an office at Main and Chestnut streets. “Bowens’ Insurance Agency” was established at 122 Olive Street by the spring of 1875 (20 Mar 75 to Bowen, n. 4click to open link). Clemens repeated his invitation to Bowen in his letter of 26? July 74 ( L4 , 53 n. 1; David B. Gould, 139, 1098).
This repetition of the departure date mentioned in the first paragraph of the previous letter helps establish an approximate date for this fragment. By the middle of March Clemens was planning to leave for Elmira “as early in April” as his wife could travel (15 and 16 Mar 74 to Aldrichclick to open link).
References
- 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
- Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 6: 1874–1875. Edited by Michael B. Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 2002
- Hornberger, Theodore, ed. Mark Twain’s Letters to Will Bowen. Austin: University of Texas Press. 1941
- 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
- Gould, David B., comp. Gould’s St. Louis Directory, for 1874. St. Louis: David B. Gould. 1874
MS, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin (TxU-Hu).
L6 , 50–51; Hornberger, 23.
purchased in 1940 from Eva Laura Bowen (Mrs. Louis Knox), daughter of William Bowen.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.