2 June 1878 • Heidelberg, Germany (MS: NNC, UCCL 01566)
In a thoughtless moment I gave a young nephew of mine, aged 17 or 18, a letter of 17 or 18 (Samuel Moffett) a letter of introduction to you just before I left home. I afterwards wrote my sister & wrote home & said I preferred that the letter should not be presented, except in an urgent & justifiable case, since you, like other busy men, have your hands full enough without outside help.
Young Moffett is a very excellent boy, of considerable education, quite unusual natural capacity, & irreproachable character—but these are no reasons why he should in the least bore or burden you or Eustace. I hope he wouldn’t be any trouble to you, but he mustn’t’ be. He is old enough to hunt out his own courses, make his own inquiries & paddle his own canoe—& it is time he were learning the trick of it. But if he should happen along during the summer & you & Eustace are not in need of interruption, just give him a card of admission to the British Museum—he will bury himself in the books there & never be heard of again.
We shall be here till middle of July or 1st August. It would be jolly to see you & Mrs Conway here. Mrs. Clemens & I send our kindest regards to you both.
References
- Columbia University, New York
- 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
- Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Previously Unpublished Letters. Prepared by Anh Quynh Bui, Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Robert H. Hirst, Lin Salamo, and Harriet Elinor Smith. 8 vols. Berkeley: The Bancroft Library. 2001
MS, Conway Papers, NNC.
MicroPUL, reel 1.
The Conway Papers were acquired by NNC sometime after Conway’s death in 1907.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.