19 November 1869 • Boston, Mass. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00374)
Boston, 19th—Livy dear, I believe I am to talk in one corner of Brooklyn Dec. 1, & repeat in Plymouth Church Dec.4. Have Ⓐemendationa call from New York for Dec. 3, but don’t know yet whether we shall take it or not. I am indifferent—just as soon not.2explanatory note I have no paper up here, & in a few minutes I start out to talk in the a suburban city (Jamaica Plains.) It is now 6 P.M—lecture begins at 7.45.3explanatory note
in ink: Miss Olivia L. Langdon | Elmira | N. Y. across end: Note enclosed. return address: young’s hotel, court avenue, boston, mass. postmarked: boston mass. nov 19 8.p.m.Ⓐemendation docketed by OLL: 141st
Clemens wrote this note around the imprint—“black, 163 washington st., boston”—of photographer James Wallace Black ( Boston Directory , 83). He then wrapped the carte de visite (reproduced here) in a scrap torn from the first leaf of the Eclectic Magazine for November 1869 (n.s., 10:513–14).
On 3 December Clemens lectured in Poughkeepsie, New York. He canceled the second of his Brooklyn lectures, actually scheduled for 6 December (see 3 Dec 69 to the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle click to open link, and 4 Dec 69click to open link and 6 Dec 69click to open link, both to Redpath).
The lecture in the Town Hall of Jamaica Plain, a wealthy suburb of Boston, was a benefit for “a Benevolent Educational Enterprise” (“Unique Entertainment by Mark Twain,” Boston Evening Transcript, 13 Nov 69, 1; Edwin M. Bacon, 259).
MS, on the back of a carte de visite photograph of Clemens, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). Clemens wrapped the photograph, reproduced in facsimile, in a scrap torn from the Electic Magazine, n.s. 10 (November 1869): 513–14.
L3 , 399–400 LLMT , 360, brief paraphrase without the photograph.
see Samossoud Collection, p. 586.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.