25 March 1879 • Paris, France (MS: NN-BGC, UCCL 02530)
We were very sorry to miss your visit, but we were out visiting ourselves. I’ve thought the portrait matter all over, & I see that it won’t do for me to attempt it. I take all my Saturdays & Sundays to rest in, when I am at work, & I shall have to continue that custom here in order to keep myself in working trim. As I do my resting in bed, it wouldn’t be a good position for the portrait of a professedly live man.
Thank you kindly for the vis your note, which I received a few moments ago. I hope I shall be have an opportunity to visit your studio with my wife, yet. Maybe she can go by herself on Thursday. I was not well enough to go out, yesterday.
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- Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Previously Unpublished Letters.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.
Chicago Book Auction catalog, 25 January 1933, no. 30, lot 59, paraphrase; MicroPUL, reel 1.
The MS was offered for sale by Chicago Book Auction in 1933 as part of the collection of E. W. Evans; 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.