3 November 1880 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Jacobs; and sales catalog: Swann Galleries,
23 January 1947, no. 169, lot 312, UCCL 09943)
Dr Sir: I suppose the Middlesex Club enjoyed themselves last night. We had a gorgeous time of it here in the Opera House till midnight. When the news was all in & the victory ours, I prep onounced a funeral oration over the deceased Democratic Party—& we also sang “Praise God,” &c., in a mighty chorus. This town is feeling pretty good to-day.
I thank you very much for your kind invitation, & I have a consuming desire to accept it, but I’m obliged to decline, because no one ought to be at such a place without being able to talk if called upon; & I can’t talk a word without previous preparation.Ⓐemendation I would not be able to write & memorize a speech . . . if I should be called on to speak, it might answer to repeat my funeral oration. I’ll think the matter over.
remaining text missing except for signature
The MS, clearly the first two pages of the letter, ends at 1.11, “prepa-.” The Swann Galleries catalog describes the transcript (P) as the “last two pages” of the signed autograph letter. The coupling of the MS with the fragment quoted in the Swann catalog is conjectural, based on content (Clemens’s references to his “funeral oration”). The possibility remains that the catalog fragment belongs to a lost letter written to someone else at about the same time, shortly after the presidential election of 2 November 1880.
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- Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Previously Unpublished Letters.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, Jacobs, and Swann Galleries catalog, 23 January 1947, no. 169, lot 312.
‘Hartford . . . preparation’
‘I would . . . Clemens.’
Swann Galleries, 17 June 1976, no. 1029, lot 75, partial publication; MicroPUL, reel 1.
Offered for sale by Swann Galleries in 1947 and again in 1976; acquired by Seven Gables Book Shop by 1977, after which it was purchased by Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs; offered for sale as part of the Jacobs Collection by Sotheby’s in 1996.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.