7 November 1873 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: TxU-Hu, UCCL 00981)
Nov. 7.Ⓐemendation
Have just got my wife & family home safe, & I start back to London tomorrow to finish talking.1explanatory note
I got your sad news in London & wrote you.2explanatory note Yes, you must come & give us a good visit—but don’t come till toward end of May, for we won’t be in our new house till then.3explanatory note We will talk over old times & tell my wife about them.
Clemens was to sail on the City of Chester, scheduled to depart at 8 A.M. on Saturday, 8 November (New York Times: “Shipping,” 3 Nov 73 and 9 Nov 73, 7; “Passengers Sailed,” 9 Nov 73, 8).
Bowen had probably written Clemens about the death of his wife of sixteen years, Mary Cunningham Bowen (Hornberger, 7, 33). The exact date of her death in 1873 has not been found, and Clemens’s letter of condolence (presumably written between June and late October) is not known to survive.
Orion reported to Mollie on 3 November, “The roof is on Sam’s house” in Hartford (CU-MARK). The new home was not ready for occupation, however, until the following fall.
MS, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin (TxU-Hu).
L5 , 472; Hornberger, 22–23.
purchased by TxU in 1940 from Eva Laura Bowen (Mrs. Louis Knox), daughter of William Bowen.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.