July? 1871 • Elmira, N.Y. (CU-MARK, UCCL 10651)
I only make them at funerals & places where IⒶemendation wish to s feel sad.1explanatory note
This letter has been dated on the basis of the paper, ink, and handwriting, which are similar to those in the next letter. Accompanying it is the following explanation by H. M. Reynolds of Glendale, California, dated 18 June 1929:
In the early seventies I had the autograph craze badly and secured many from men and women of national reputation. My cousin Pierre Reynolds was collecting at same time, and those that he secured later came to me. Pierre wrote to Mr Clemens asking that he make a pun for him. This is the reply. Along about 1910, for some reason I had taken the autograph to the store, and left it there in a desk drawer for some little time. While there a wandering rat one night located it and chewed a while on it, luckily damaging one corner only.
References
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
- 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 4: 1870–1871. Edited by Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, and Lin Salamo. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1995
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). The lower right corner of the MS page, probably cut from a larger sheet, is missing, reportedly having been eaten by a rat (see p. 427, n. 1 top).
L4 , 426–427.
see Tufts Collection in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.