20 August 1878 • Lucerne, Switzerland (MS: NN-BGC, UCCL 02526)
My address for 3 months is “Care E. M. Smith, Esq., Lang’s Hotel, Heidelberg, Germany
How are you, Generator!
Other things fail beside Generators, my boy. For instance, my old friends Slote, Woodman & Co., 121 William street. I lent them $5,000 (just the Generator figure, you see,) some months ago. Y Would you mind representing me at the creditors’ meetings for me, in case Mr. Perkins shall desire it?—for he lives too far away to attend them himself conveniently. And will you charge what is right for the service, & present the bill to Perkins?
Dan Slote wants to take the scrapbook & run it by himself. I should prefer that.
We have been enjoying a pretty comfortable time since I wrote you in May. Spent several quiet months in Heidelberg, & I sort of wish we were there yet. Latterly we have been fooling around Baden-Baden & the Black Forest, & Joe Twichell & I have had two or three pretty sweaty tramps among the aborigines.
We have been here a couple of weeks; but tomorrow we take wing for a wide flight. We expect to winter in Munich. I have sent Mrs. Clemens, Miss Spaulding, Twichell, & a Courier, to explore St Gothard pass for me, because I hate travel. I am here with the children. With love to the Fullers,
References
- New York Public Library, Albert A. and Henry W. Berg Collection, 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- Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Previously Unpublished Letters.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
- New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations, New York
MS, NN-BGC.
Anderson Galleries catalog, 10 May 1934, no. 4111, lot 122, partial publication; MicroPUL, reel 1.
The MS was offered by sale by Anderson Galleries in 1934. Sometime before 1939 it was purchased by businessman William T. H. Howe (1874–1939). In 1940 Dr. Albert A. Berg bought and donated the Howe Collection to NN.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.