28 September 1872 • London, England (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00816)
I have been received in a sort of tremendous way, tonightⒶemendation, by the brains of London, assembled at the annual dinner of the Sheriffs of London—mine being (between you & me) bet beingⒶemendation Ⓐemendation a name which was received with a flattering outburst of spontaneous applause when the long list of guests was calledⒶemendation.1explanatory note
I might have perished on the spot but for the friendly support & assistanceⒶemendation of my excellent friend Sir John Bennett—& I wantⒶemendation you to paste the enclosedⒶemendation in a couple of the handsomest copies of the Innocents & Roughing It. Ⓐemendation & send them to him. His address is—
“Sir John Bennett
Cheapside
London.”
I have informed him they are comingⒶemendation.2explanatory note
letter docketed: S. L. Clemens | London | Sep 28th | 1872.
See the next letter.
The enclosures are not known to survive. Bliss evidently sent the books to Clemens for inscription, and Clemens then gave them to Bennett. The copy of Roughing It has not been found, but a copy of The Innocents Abroad (first edition, second issue, bound in morocco leather with gilt edges) survives in the collection of the Mark Twain House (CtHMTH), inscribed as follows:
To Sir John Bennett With the warm regards of The Author— Samℓ L. Clemens Mark Twain.Nov. 7, 1872.
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). The MS, a single leaf, has been mounted on paper so that some letters and punctuation at the right and bottom edges of the verso are partially obscured.
L5 , 182–183; MTB , 1:462–63, excerpt; MTL , 1:199–200, with omission; Anderson Galleries 1916, lot 22, excerpt.
see Appert Collection in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.