To
Unidentified
18 April 1871 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 11014)
18 April 1871 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 11014)
Elmira, Apl. 18.1explanatory note
Dear Sir:
The speech on “Woman” was delivered very early in January, 1868, & was copied into all the papers during the month. A reference to files of the period will unearth it. I have no copy—I wish I had.2explanatory note
Yrs Truly
Samℓ. L.
Clemens.
Explanatory Notes
1 This letter has been assigned to 1871
because Clemens is known to have used stationery of its kind
intermittently between 6 September 1869 and 29 June 1871, and because he
was not in Elmira on 18 April in 1870.
2 Delivered on 11 January 1868 before the Washington Newspaper
Correspondents’ Club, Clemens’s response to the toast
“Woman: The Pride of the Professions, and the jewel of
ours,” was published from a phonographic transcript in the
Washington Evening Star on 13 January 1868 (SLC 1868). The following reprintings
have been located so far: “A Eulogy of Woman by ‘Mark
Twain,’” New York Evening Post,
15 Jan 68, 1; “Woman. Mark Twain’s Eulogy of the Fair
Sex,” St. Louis Missouri Republican, 22
Jan 68, 3; “Woman—Mark Twain’s Opinion of
Her,” Virginia City Territorial
Enterprise, 2 Feb 68, 1; “A Eulogy of Woman by
‘Mark Twain,’” San Francisco Examiner, 3 Feb 68, 1;
“Woman—Mark Twain’s Opinion of
Her,” Oakland News, 10 Apr 68, 4;
“Eulogy on Woman,” Excelsior Monthly
Magazine 1 (Aug 68): 99–100. Clemens sent a clipping of
the Evening Star printing to his mother on 14 January
1868, and a clipping of the Excelsior printing to
Elisha Bliss on 3 September 1868 (
L2
, 131–32 n. 5, 155–57, 245 n. 1,
415–16).
References
- Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford, Conn.
- 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
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). “[To Woman].” Untitled speech in response to the toast to “Woman,” as reported in “Annual Banquet of the Correspondents’ Club.” Washington Evening Star, 13 January, 2. 1868
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 2: 1867–1868. Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith, Richard Bucci, and Lin Salamo. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1990
MS, Cyril Clemens Collection, Mark Twain House, Hartford (CtHMTH).
L4 , 380.
donated to CtHMTH in 1984 by Cyril Clemens.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.