per Charles Warren Stoddard
22 November 1873 • London, England (MS: ViU, UCCL 00986)
Langham’s Hotel
22d Nov 1873.
I am afraid I shall be so occupied with my Lecture business1explanatory note that I cannot promise to go down to Croydon on Wednesday next .; 2explanatory note but so I will wait a little, till I can decide, & then write you again.
Henry Lee Esq | 43 Holland St | Blackfriars Road. | S. E. postmarked: london • w x no 22 73 and london • se mm no 22 73
Clemens was preparing to deliver a new series of lectures. His first London appearance took place on Monday, 1 December, and his last on 20 December. On 19 November the following announcement began to appear in every issue of the London Daily News (4):
MARK TWAIN.—Mr. GEORGE DOLBY has much pleasure in announcing that MARK TWAIN has this day arrived in London from America, and will make his REAPPEARANCE at the Hanover-square Rooms on MONDAY EVENING, December 1, when he will deliver his Humorous Lecture, entitled “Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands.” The lecture will be repeated every evening (except Saturday) at 8, and on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons at 3. Stalls, 5s.; second seats, 3s.; admission One Shilling.
The same notice appeared in the London Morning Post, Pall Mall Gazette, Times, Graphic, and no doubt other newspapers.
Clemens altered the period after “next” to a semicolon, and then finished the letter.
MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU).
L5 , 481.
purchased by ViU on 4 January 1963.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.