16 November 1882 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, Cifaldi, UCCL 02306)
I struck a subject to-day, & was all right. ButⒶemendation to-night I have struck a couple more—so I am all wrong. Ⓐemendation again. I shall select one of the three, & speak upon it, but I can’t yet tell which one. But in order that the Printing Committee shall not be delayed, suppose I be set down in this way:
5th Regular Toast.
Response by MARK TWAIN.
Or, if that is too irregular, suppose we put it—
5th Regular Toast: The jurisprudence of New England—
—or some such grave subject, you know, & leave me to shirk the text as I may, & ring in my own subject.
The first proposition is the safest one, perhaps. I think I shall make a farewell address—it is one of my three topics & the one that seems to promise best—& I don’t quite know how to frame a toast to fit it, wherefore no toast at all best covers the ground, perhaps.
Judge Horace Russell | Superior Court | New York return address: return to s. l. clemens, hartford, conn., if not delivered within 10 days. postmarked: hartford conn. nov 17 12m
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
- Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Previously Unpublished Letters.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, Cifaldi.
MicroPUL, reel 2; Admirable Books 2006 catalog, item 45, MS facsimile and transcription.
Purchased by Angelo Cifaldi in 2008.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.