James Redpath and George L. Fall prepared this circular in late December 1871. Clemens had made a successful debut with a “Roughing It” lecture on 7 December, in Warsaw, New York, and the following day cabled Redpath and Fall, instructing them to “Notify all hands that from this date I shall talk nothing but selections from my forth-coming book Roughing it.” But after failing with the same lecture later on 8 December, in Fredonia, he set about rewriting it, temporarily falling back on “Artemus Ward, Humorist.” He completed a new version of “Roughing It” on 10 December and gave it for the first time in Lansing, Michigan, on 14 December. He continued delivering and refining that lecture in preparation for Chicago performances of 18 and 19 December, both resoundingly successful, then reworked it still again over Christmas. Before the end of the month he definitively abandoned the Artemus Ward talk, and he delivered “Roughing It” exclusively during the remainder of his 1871–72 tour.
The circular excerpts reviews from four Chicago newspapers of 19 December 1871: the Times (“Mark Twain’s Lecture,” 3); the Evening Post (“Mark Twain Last Night,” 4); the Mail (title and page unidentified); and the Tribune (“Mark Twain,” 1). It also excerpts reviews of the earliest “Roughing It” lecture from the Warsaw Western New Yorker (14 Dec 71, title and page unidentified) and the Buffalo Courier (David Gray’s “A New Lecture by Mark Twain,” 9 Dec 71, 2). Clemens probably provided all of these notices for the Boston Lyceum Bureau, which sent him copies of the circular in January 1872 (10 and 11 Jan 72 to OLC, CU-MARK; George H. Hathaway to SLC, envelope containing circulars, postmarked “boston jan [2]2 8 pm,” CU-MARK).
