20? May 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y. (MS: MiD, UCCL 11699)
e. h. paige,
no. 446 main street,
buffalo, n. y.
Thank you & Mrs. Randall very kindly & sincerely.
I think this is by far the best picture I ever had.1explanatory note
S.L.C.
Mrs. J. C. Randall kept the boarding house at 39 Swan Street where Clemens lived in 1869. She may have introduced him to photographer Edward H. Paige, who lived nearby at 23 West Swan, not far from the Buffalo Express offices at 14 East Swan ( L3 , 318 n. 3; Buffalo Directory 1870, 460, 471). On 5 May, the Express reported that an “admirable” photograph of Mark Twain “was taken some time since by Mr. Paige, and is now on exhibition, together with many other specimens of his fine workmanship, at his gallery over 446 Main street” (“Paige’s Photographic Gallery,” 4). When Clemens sat for Paige is not known, but the photograph on exhibit was probably also used for this carte de visite, a supply of which Clemens had only just received when he sent one to James Redpath on 21 May.
References
- Detroit Public Library, Detroit, Mich.
- 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). 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
MS facsimile, on the back of a carte de visite photograph of Clemens. The MS, which is owned by the Detroit Public Library, Detroit (MiD), was not available for inspection.
L4 , 132–133.