To
Clara L. Clemens
19 July 1877 • New York, N.Y. (MS, correspondence card, in pencil: Sotheby’s,
New York, October 1996, UCCL 01454)
19 July 1877 • New York, N.Y. (MS, correspondence card, in pencil: Sotheby’s,
New York, October 1996, UCCL 01454)
New York, July 19.
slcBay Clemens, I have bought two bath tubs & two dolls & sent them by express.—they are for you & Susie. One of the dolls is named Hosannah Maria & is in quite delicate health. She belongs to you. SheⒶemendation was out driving & got rained on, & caught a very severe cold. It settled on her mind. When she had partly recovered, she caught a new cold, which paralyzed the sounding-board of her ears & the wobbling nerve of her tongue. She has never heard or spoken since. I have consulted the best physicians. They say constant & complicated bathing will fetch her.
Papa
Emendations and Textual Notes
Ⓐ
you. She ●
~.— | ~
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
- Sotheby’s, New York, N.Y.
- Wecter, Dixon. The Love Letters of Mark Twain. Edited by Dixon Wecter. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1949
- Davis, Chester L., Sr. “Family Letters of the 1890s (Continuation).” Twainian 37 (September–October): 1–4 1978
- Christie, Manson and Woods International, New York City
MS, correspondence card, in pencil, collection of Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs, seen at Sotheby’s, New York, while awaiting sale in October 1996.
LLMT , 202; Davis 1978, 4; Christie’s catalog, sale of 17 May 1991, lot 90, partial publication; Sotheby’s catalog, sale of 29 October 1996, lot 210, partial publication.
The letter was among those which, in the 1950s, Clara Clemens Samossoud gave or sold to Chester L. Davis, Sr. After his death in 1987, it became part of the collection of Chester L. Davis, Jr. The letter was sold by Christie’s in 1991 to James Lowe, who in turn sold it to the Jacobses later that year. The Jacobs collections was sold by Sotheby's on 29 October 1996.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.