22 June 1869 • Hartford, Conn. (Transcript and paraphrase: Libbie, lot 372, UCCL 09743)
paraphrase: To Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican, asking if he will sell him a part interest in the paper.1explanatory note Since Ⓐemendation I have some reputation for joking, it is the part of wisdom to state that I am not joking this time—I am simply in search of a home. I must come to anchor Ⓐemendation
Samuel Bowles (1826–78) had been editor, reporter, and part-owner of the Springfield (Mass.) Daily Republican for most of the twenty-five years since its inception in 1844, and of the Weekly Republican for most of the eighteen years since the death of its founder, his father, Samuel Bowles (1797–1851). During the late 1850s, the Republican became nationally known for its support of a constitutional end to slavery, for its endorsement of the new Republican party, and for the quality and breadth of its news reporting. The New York Tribune called it “the best and ablest country journal ever published on this continent” ( DAB , 2:515). The combined circulation figures of the Daily, Weekly, and Semi-Weekly Republican were nearly 25,000 in 1869. Bowles and Clemens could have met in California in August 1865 (see 24 and 25 Nov 69 to OLL, n. 6click to open link). They certainly met in October 1868, for on the twenty-second of that month Clemens informed the Alta California: “I saw Mr. Sam Bowles in Springfield yesterday. He is just back from his trip to the Mountains. He says his interest in the Pacific Coast remains unabated” (SLC 1868). The Republican’s city editor, Herbert L. Bridgman, recalled that meeting: “I’ll never forget how, in the dusk of one autumn evening, I heard ‘Joe’ Hawley’s cheery voice as he strode along through the outer offices to Mr. Bowles’s private room. ... ‘Sam, I want you to know this here man with me. He calls himself Mr. Clemens, but his real name is Mark Twain’” (Hooker, 125; “Obituary: Samuel Bowles, Journalist,” New York Times, 17 Jan 78, 4; Rowell, 48).
The Libbie catalog describes the MS as “CLEMENS, Samuel L. (‘Mark Twain’) a. l. s. in pencil, 1 page 12o, Hartford, June 22.” The inclusion of the pseudonym in quotation marks is catalog style and probably not indicative of how Clemens signed his name.
References
- Libbie. Autographs. Letters and Manuscripts Left by the Late Frank B. Sanborn, Concord, Mass. . . .; The Collection of James Terry, of Hartford, Conn. Sale of 23 April. Boston: C. F. Libbie and Co. 1918
- 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
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 3: 1869. Edited by Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, and Dahlia Armon. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1992
- Hart, James D. The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 5th ed. New York: Oxford University Press. 1983
- DAB. Dictionary of American Biography. Edited by Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone. 20 vols. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1928–36
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). “Letter from ‘Mark Twain.’ ” Letter dated 22 October. San Francisco Alta California, 15 November, 1. 1868
- Hooker, Richard. The Story of an Independent Newspaper: One Hundred Years of the Springfield Republican, 1824–1924. New York: Macmillan Company. 1924
- Rowell, George P. Geo. P. Rowell & Co’s American Newspaper Directory. New York: George P. Rowell and Co. 1869
Transcript and paraphrase, Libbie, lot 372.
see source text; L3 , 267.
Sometime after receipt, the letter became part of the collection of Franklin B. Sanborn (1831–1917), who was associated with the Springfield (Mass.) Republican from 1856 until 1914 (Hart 1983, 665). The MS was sold in 1918 and its present location is not known.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.