per Charles Warren Stoddard
10 December 1873 • London, England (MS: MH-H, UCCL 00998)
10 Dec 1873
I would gladly do what you wish to the fullest extent possible but I have been so little in New York or Boston of late years, & American News papers ship new crews so eternally that I hardly know any body on those papers now.
I think my best plan will be to give Mr Loveday2explanatory note a letter to my old friend Sam Glenn who is on the New York Herald3explanatory note & let him introduce Loveday to the best people for him to know. There are quite a lot of them in the Lotos Club & as you’r a member of the Savage, Loveday will find it easy to know them on that account.4explanatory note
J. L. Toole, Esq
See 15 Sept 72 to OLC, n. 2click to open link. Toole was currently appearing at Prince’s Theatre in Manchester, but would soon be engaged at London’s Gaiety Theatre, from 15 to 20 December, in The Hypocrite, a comedy loosely based on Molière’s Tartuffe (London Times: “Mr. J. L. Toole,” 9 Dec 73, 8; “Gaiety,” 15 Dec 73, 8; “Gaiety Theatre,” 18 Dec 73, 5).
George Loveday (1835–87) was Toole’s business manager and traveling companion. In earlier years he had worked as a violinist and an operatic entrepreneur, in partnership with his brother. Upon his death a friend described him as a “quick, shrewd, courteous man of business” who was “always generous, courtly, and sincere” (Toole, 31–33).
Samuel Relf Glen (1820–80) had known Clemens since at least the fall of 1867, when, as the “foreign-correspondence” editor for the New York Herald, he managed to coax out of Clemens an incendiary letter about the Quaker City trip ( L2 107 n. 2, 122). Glen began his journalism career in 1834 as a compositor on the New York Transcript. He thereafter worked for several newspapers, including the New York Herald, in the same capacity. In about 1845 he became assistant editor and manager of the Boston Times and Herald, and in 1860 he took an editorial position with the New York Herald, remaining until his death. During the Civil War he corresponded for that paper, and did so again in 1866 while accompanying the Fenian expedition to Canada. According to his obituary, “He was a versatile writer upon political and social topics, possessed a wide knowledge of American public men and was especially noted for a rare fund of wit, humor and pathos. His was a genial character, and he seemed always in a happy mood” (“Samuel Relf Glen, Journalist,” New York Herald, 14 May 80, 6).
Toole was planning an American tour in 1874–75, and had evidently asked Clemens for his help. On 6 August 1874 the Lotos Club welcomed Toole with a dinner in his honor. Although Clemens did not attend, he sent a letter to be read to the assembled guests (Toole, 248–58; “Dinner to Mr. Toole,” New York Tribune, 7 Aug 74, 5).
MS, Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University (MH-H).
L5 , 505–506.
preserved in Toole’s autograph album.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.