with a note to Thomas L. James, New York Postmaster
18 November 1879 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MoSW, UCCL 01721)
Read the enclosed & return it to me so I can answer it. I want to know whether to decline or accept—& so, to act intelligently, I must know whether it is going to be an enormous occasion or only a moderate one. Who is Mr. Dawson, & what is he? If this is an occasion big enough to rake in Whales like Grant & Victoria’s daughter, how is it that they construct an Invitation Committee out of such wordy, flippant & obscure timber as this Mr. Dawson? I never heard of him before. Isn’t it barely possible that he is expecting a park of heavy artillery which won’t arrive, & that he hopes to rope in my “Swamp Angel” on these false pretenses?
Look into this, Frank, will you? I can’t afford to attend any but the very biggest kind of blow-outs—neither can I afford to miss the biggest kind of blow-outs.
With this family’s warmest regards to you both—
Work this secretly——but you know how.
Mr. James, have I got to put the address of the Windsor on, according to the new law, or will you let this go, just this once, & greatly oblige Yrs Truly M. T. | I don’t know the address. Gov. Frank Fuller | Windsor Hotel | New York | N. Y. return address: If not delivered, please return to “Mark Twain,” Hartford, Ct. postmarked: hartford conn. nov 18 4pm and new-york rec’d. nov 19 1 pm 79 and h 11 19 8
References
- Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.
- 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- Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Previously Unpublished Letters.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, George N. Meissner Collection, University Library, MoSW.
MicroPUL, reel 1.
Donated in about 1960 by the family of businessman and collector George N. Meissner (1872–1960).
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.