9 October 1871 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 00657)
Forest street
Hartford Oct 9.
Send along the first end of my list & s let me see where I am to talk.1explanatory note Please send a copy to my publisher, E. Bliss Jr. 149 Asylum st Hartford—for I must read proof for the next month or so.2explanatory note
I lef leave for good, next Friday.3explanatory note
We are settled here.
letter docketed: Conn “Twain Mark” | Hartford Conn | Oct. 9th ”71. and G. L. F. 4explanatory note
The Boston Lyceum Bureau’s chief clerk, George H. Hathaway, prepared this lecture list in a small memorandum book—6½ by 3 inches—that fit into a leather wallet, embossed in gold with Clemens’s name. Presumably the bureau routinely presented similar itineraries to each of its lecturers. Ultimately Clemens’s filled sixteen pages, specifying lecture dates, places, and fees, as well as rail connections, local contacts, and accommodations. Hathaway updated the book at least twice, adding entries for November and then for December through 31 January 1872, perhaps during Clemens’s stops in Boston on 1 and 13 November (Pond, xxv; Redpath and Fall 1871–72; 11 Oct 71 to Redpath and Fallclick to open link; 1 Nov 71 to OLCclick to open link; 20 Nov 71 to Howlandclick to open link).
Clemens had probably read Roughing It proofs through chapter 25 (less than a third of the book) while in Hartford in August. His expectation of reading the remaining proofs during the first month of his lecture tour (16 October–16 November) proved unrealistic ( RI 1993 , 864, 867–72).
Friday, 13 October.
George L. Fall.
MS, Cyril Clemens Collection, Mark Twain House, Hartford (CtHMTH).
L4 , 466–467; Anderson Auction Company 1903, lot 123, brief paraphrase.
donated to CtHMTH in 1984 by Cyril Clemens.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.