10 May 1870 • Elmira, N.Y. (Will M. Clemens 1900, 27, and four others, UCCL 00463)
I guess I am out of the field permanently Ⓐemendation. I am sending off these circulars Ⓐemendation to all Ⓐemendation lecture applicants Ⓐemendation now.1explanatory note If you want some more of them Ⓐemendation I can send them to you Ⓐemendation —for they are very convenient for you to mail to people & save penmanship. Ⓐemendation
Have got a lovely wife, a lovely house, Ⓐemendation bewitchingly furnished Ⓐemendation, a lovely carriage, Ⓐemendation & a Ⓐemendation coachman whose style & dignity are simply awe-inspiring—Ⓐemendationnothing less; Ⓐemendation 2explanatory note & Ⓐemendation I am making more money than necessary, Ⓐemendation by considerable, Ⓐemendation & Ⓐemendation therefore Ⓐemendation why crucify myself nightly Ⓐemendation on the platform Ⓐemendation. The subscriber will have to be excused from the present season at least. Ⓐemendation
Remember me to Nasby, Billings Ⓐemendation & Ⓐemendation Fall. Ⓐemendation Luck to you! Ⓐemendation I am going to print your menagerie, Parton and all, and make comments.3explanatory note
In next Galaxy I give Nasby’s friend and mine from Philadelphia (John Quill, a literary thief) a “hyste.” Ⓐemendation I don’t consider that the Rev. Talmage has the weather gage of me yet. Ⓐemendation 4explanatory note
Doubtless copies of Clemens’s printed form letter for declining lecture invitations: see 8 Feb 70 to Fullerclick to open link.
Patrick McAleer.
Petroleum V. Nasby (David Ross Locke), Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw), and James Parton (1822–91), the well-known biographer and contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, were among the lecturers managed by Redpath and Fall ( Lyceum 1870, 2–3). Clemens had compared experiences with Locke and Shaw in November 1869 and Locke called on the Clemenses in February 1870 ( L3 , 387, 397 n. 3, 405, 406, 409, 411; 20 Feb 70 to Langdonclick to open link). Clemens sent Shaw his wedding cards, in reply to which Shaw returned congratulations on 14 February, reporting that he had “agreed to let Redpath mould me for next season, if I am able to shout, and have gave him entire control of my “Milk” (CU-MARK). Clemens may also have written to Shaw shortly after the present letter, on or about 16 May, but all that survives of his draft is that date and a salutation on a page later used by Olivia for a household shopping list (CU-MARK). Clemens did not publish anything about Redpath’s “menagerie,” at least not in the Buffalo Express. The subject continued to tempt him, however, and in 1898 he wrote about Nasby and others for his autobiography (SLC 1898 [MT01388], 1898 [MT01385]).
See 26 Apr 70 to Fuller, n. 4, and 30? Apr 70 to Converse, n. 1.
No copy-text. The letter is reconstructed from five partial transcripts, each of which derived independently from the MS:
Will Clemens evidently transcribed the P1 text from the MS before 1900. Albert Bigelow Paine must have seen and transcribed the MS before 1912 when he published the short excerpt in P2, and he may have used the same transcription or made a second one before 1917, when he published the longer excerpts in P3. Both catalog texts were transcribed directly from the MS when it was advertised for sale, P4 in 1919 and P5 in 1950. P4 describes it as ‘A. L. S., (signed “Mark”), 2 pages, 4to, Elmira, N. Y., May 10, 1870,’ and P5 includes a similar description.
L4 , 128–129; Horner, 165–66; “Letters to James Redpath,” Mark Twain Quarterly 5 (Winter–Spring 1942): 19, in addition to texts listed under Copy-text.