22 April 1872 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00744)
We have read two b Back-logs aloud since we came here,1explanatory note & a thoroughly grateful audience have insisted both times that I write & cordially thank the author—a thing which I was glad enough to do. Mrs. Ⓐemendation C. reminded me of it again as I started to bed—hence my non-forgetfulness this time.
Livy desires me to write Mrs. Warner in her place, too, since she has not “got down to her work” yet. I have no news save of the household. The new baby flourishes, & groweth strong & comely apace. She keeps one cow “humping Ⓐemendation herself” to supply the bread of life for her—& Livy is relieved from duty. Livy is very inefficient in some respects. Langdon has no appetite, but is brisk & strong. His teeth don’t come—& neither does his language.
Livy drives out a little, sews a little, walks a little—is getting along pretty satisfactorily.
Peace be with you!
I write this note only on condition that it shall not inflict the duty of answering it. I fancy you have writing enough to do, Warner, without bothering with letters.
on a separate sheet:
I have told this lady2explanatory note to apply to you—though I doubted if you really had time to do the work,
enclosure 1:
April 18th 1872.
S. L. Clemens,
Hartford, Conn.,
Sir,
In pursuance of our design to bring the Woman Suff. question favorably, before the people of Mich., during the present year, we wish to obtain a Play for public representations. I wrote to Mr Locke3explanatory note in reference & enclose his reply. Can you meet our wishes? We will of course, pay any reasonable amt., you may think due such service. Permit me to suggest certain characters as likely to draw if well acted. Our object is to make money for the state organization purposes, &, at the same time, to present the question to the people in a popular form. Give us a good play Mr Clemens, & we will not let your reputation suffer by the manner in which we will deal with it. We intend to present it in all towns large & small throughout the state. If you cannot serve us in this matter will you suggest some one who can & will? h Hoping to hear favorably from you at an early day I am,
A minister of the Fulton or Robert Laird Collyer pattern4explanatory note rabidly opposed—a negro—a dutchman & an Irishman, also opposed. A saloon keeper & a young & green graduate of “Yale” or some other college excluding women, also opposed—a reformed drunkard, favorably inclined—a strong minded woman—all the better if an old maid, a strong advocate of the movement—a gay young miss on the rampage after a husband, very much opposed—an old farmer—a regular ol broadhorn very bitter—a young popinjay—just shedding his pin-feathers, opposed. Mixing & mingling these characters with a due proportion of friends & advocates, will I think, give us a drama that will be of much service to us.
enclosure 2:
Toledo, O., April 15 1872
Miss Mathilde Victor
Cor Sec &c
It will be impossible for me to write you a play as you desire, my time being all occupied
P.S.—I am not certain but that Mark Twain would do it. Ⓐemendation as he is not busy at this present time Write him and say that I suggested him He is thoroughly in sympathy with the Ⓐemendation cause and Can do it (if he will) splendidly
His address is
Samuel L Clemens
Hartford Conn
Chas. Duncan Warner Esq5explanatory note | Editor “Courant” | Hartford | Conn. return address: if not delivered within 10 days, to be returned to postmarked: elmira n y. apr 23
Warner’s “Back-Log Studies” were a combination of informal essay and recreated dialog that attempted to capture the intimacy, good humor, and wit of fireside conversation in the Nook Farm community. The first appeared in Scribner’s Monthly in July 1871. Then, after a hiatus of six months, the rest appeared once a month from February through July 1872. Clemens had probably read aloud the March and April installments, the latter having particular interest because it introduced the character of “Our Next-Door Neighbor,” clearly a portrait of Clemens himself (Andrews, 174–76):
I ought to explain who our next-door neighbor is. He is the person who comes in without knocking, drops in in the most natural way, as his wife does also, and not seldom in time to take the after-dinner cup of tea before the fire. Formal society begins as soon as you lock your doors, and only admit visitors through the media of bells and servants. It is lucky for us that our next-door neighbor is honest. (Charles Dudley Warner 1872, 696)
Clemens enclosed a request addressed to him by Mathilde Victor, the corresponding secretary of the Michigan Woman Suffrage Association, which in turn enclosed David Ross Locke’s note to Victor of 15 April 1872.
David Ross Locke, an editor and part owner of the Toledo Blade, was well known by his pseudonym, “Petroleum V. Nasby,” as a humorist and platform performer. He had expressed his strong convictions in favor of female suffrage in his successful lecture “The Struggles of a Conservative on the Woman Question,” first delivered during the 1869–70 lecture season ( L3 , 56 n. 1, 389 n. 4).
Justin Dewey Fulton (1828–1901), a Baptist clergyman, was pastor of Boston’s Tremont Temple from 1863 to 1873. He was a forceful and opinionated preacher, known for his opposition to women’s suffrage, drinking, and the theater. Robert Laird Collier (1837–90), a Unitarian minister associated with churches in Chicago and Boston in the 1860s and 1870s, was a well-known preacher and writer. He lectured for Redpath’s Boston Lyceum Bureau from 1869 to 1871, one of his topics being “Woman’s Place” (Lyceum: 1869, 1; 1870, 2; Annual Cyclopaedia 1890, 641).
Clemens conflated Charles Dudley Warner’s name with that of Captain Charles Duncan, organizer of the 1867 Quaker City excursion ( L2 , 24 n. 2).
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK), is copy-text for the letter and envelope. MS, Mathilde Victor to SLC, 18 Apr 72, CU-MARK ( UCLC #31803), and MS, David Ross Locke to Victor, 15 Apr 72, CU-MARK ( UCLC UCCL 39059), are copy-texts for the enclosures. There is some evidence of repair to the first leaf of Clemens’s MS (79.1–20).
L5 , 79–82; LLMT , 173–74, with omission.
The letter and enclosures were donated to CU-MARK in January 1950 by Mary Barton of Hartford, a close friend of the Warners, who had owned them since at least 1938.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.