22 April 1876 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, in pencil: NN-BGC, UCCL 02500)
(SUPERSEDED)
You’ll see per enclosed slip that I appear for the first time on the stage next Wednesday. You & Mrs. H. come down & you’l shall skip in free.1explanatory note
I wrote my skeleton novelette yesterday & todayⒶemendation. It will make a little under 12 pages.
Please tell Aldrich I’ve got a photographer engaged, & tri-weekly issue is about to begin. Show him the canvassing specimens & beseech him to subscribe.3explanatory note
On 18 April (2), the Hartford Courant announced:
Amateur Theatricals.
The “Loan of a Lover,” one of the plays to be performed by amateurs at Dramatic Hall on the 25th inst., has been in part rewritten by Mr. Clemens, who takes the character of Peter. The quaint simplicity of the honest Dutch farmer is well preserved, and at the same time the character is enlarged and enriched by unconscious witticisms; a great deal of humor is introduced in Mr. Clemens’s own style. The actors are all musical, and the songs which intersperse the play, are a strikingly interesting feature.
The Courant was mistaken in announcing the performance for 25 April. It actually was scheduled for Wednesday, 26 April, as the paper made clear on 21 April (2) in the notice that Clemens presumably enclosed for Howells:
“Private Theatricals.”
Mr. Clemens desires it to be said that the impression that he has in any considerable degree rewritten the “Loan of a Lover” is an error. He has made no marked changes in the text. The piece remains substantially as its author originally framed it.
The following is the cast in full for the plays next Wednesday evening at the Dramatic Hall:
“loan of a lover.”
Musical Director...............Mr. Henry Wilson.
Stage Manager,............Dr. W. A. M. Wainwright.
Peter Spuyk,...........................Mr. Samuel L. Clemens.
Captain Amersfort,..........................Mr. J. O. Breed.
Swyzell,............................George H. Day.
Delve,......................................Mr. B. E. Warner.
Ernestine,..........................Miss Kitty Beach.
Gertrude,.........................Miss Helen Smith.
After which, the farce of
“turn him out.”
Nichodemus Nopps,....................Mr. Alfred B. Bull.
Mr. Mackintosh Moke,..................Mr. B. E. Warner.
Mr. Eglantine Roseley,.....................Mr. J. O. Breed.
Julia (Moke’s wife),.....................Miss Helen Smith.
Susan (a maid of all work),..............Mrs. C. A. Taft.
Two porters.
The price of tickets will be $1, and there will be no extra charge for reserved seats. The sale of tickets will begin on Monday a. m., at 9 o’clock, at the store of Hamersley & Co.
Turn Him Out was a one-act farce by Thomas J. Williams (1824–74). The Loan of a Lover was a one-act play by James Robinson Planché (1796–1880). In addition to Clemens the participants were: Wilson, a local organist and music teacher; physician William A. M. Wainwright; James O. Breed, a teller; Day, an insurance clerk; Bull, a bookkeeper; Helen Yale Smith, daughter of Hartford merchant Morris W. Smith; Ellen Clark (Mrs. Cincinnatus A.) Taft, wife of the Clemens family’s physician; and the otherwise unidentified Beach and Warner. Hamersley and Company was the book and stationery store owned by William J. Hamersley. For reaction to Clemens’s performance, see 28 Apr 76 to Franklinclick to open link, n. 1 (Geer 1875, 38, 41, 58, 79, 146, 153, 235; Geer 1876, 59; Trumbull, 1:148; “The Death of Dr. Taft,” Hartford Courant, 27 June 84, 1).
The enclosed photographs of Clemens and, probably, his children were among those recently taken by Isaac White. Clemens was threatening a repetition of the photograph prank he played on Thomas Bailey Aldrich in late 1874 (see 26 Apr 76 to Howellsclick to open link, n. 8; 29 Apr 76 to Whiteclick to open link; 5 May 76 to Conwayclick to open link; and L6 , 321–24, 336–38).
MTL , 1:276; MTHL , 1:129–130.
See Howells Letters in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.