7–30? April 1873 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B, UCCL 00895)
SLC canceled the text from ‘58’ to ‘beauti‐’ with two wavy vertical lines
58
88
53
up a dome of bloody like lava as large as a small
cottage, & this bursts & sends a million sparkling
gems aloft that shed a blinding radiance around—& from
the midst of the exploding dome a filmy veil of light green flame flashes
out & floats away like a disembodied
soul.—& then the monstrous mass crushes
back into the lake & attests its ponderous weight by the deep,
funnel-like depression it makes in the surface. In a few moments a black
crust of cooling lava forms upon the lake like a cream, & over it
dance a myriad of beauti‐
cross-written on the page: 1explanatory note
Will this do? Though it isn’t a “sentiment” strictly speaking. It is original MS of first lecture. Delivered October, 1867 in San Francisco.2explanatory note
Mark Twain.
Like the previous two pages of lecture manuscript that Clemens mailed, this page was originally written in black ink (faded to brown), then revised in pencil: the insertion of the page number “58,” the deletion of “88,” and the insertion of “like” were all in pencil, as were the two lines striking through the entire page. Although the paper stock is different from the previous two pages, it has the same dimensions as those and a dozen others from the same manuscript, now in the Mark Twain Papers (SLC 1866). None of the immediately surrounding pages is known to survive, but it is apparent that Clemens was describing Kilauea volcano, a well-known highlight of his lecture from its very first performance in San Francisco. The date of Clemens’s letter is again uncertain, but see the next note.
The year was 1866, not 1867. Clemens’s error may mean that some time had passed since he wrote the two previous letters, in both of which he correctly dated his lecture.
MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B).
L5 , 334–335; Anderson Galleries 1924, lot 191, personal note only.
The MS, owned at one time by Irving S. Underhill, was sold in 1924 as part of the collection of William Harris Arnold (1854–1923). It was later owned by businessman William T. H. Howe (1874–1939); in 1940 Dr. A. A. Berg bought and donated the Howe Collection to NN.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.