18 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NNC, UCCL 01270)
I don’t know where in the mischief to find you, but if you ever get this, promise that you will run up to Hartford & give Mrs. Clemens & me a few days of your time.—Ⓐemendation will you?
We would very greatly like to take you by the hand, & thank you for the kind offices you did us in London & that pleasant town of “Hep-worth.”1explanatory note
We are so sincerely sorry that we were right in New York & yet one bother after another lost us the chance of seeing Lord Houghton, who was as kind to us in England of as if we had belonged to the peerage ourselves.
With hearty friendship,
Conway and Clemens probably first met in London in 1872. The following year, he helped Clemens arrange an affectionate ruse to surprise Olivia with a visit to Stratford-upon-Avon, making her believe the destination was “Hepworth.” In August 1875 he sailed from England to undertake a four-and-a-half-month lecture tour of the eastern and midwestern United States. After visiting his father in Virginia and his sister in Pennsylvania, he began lecturing in mid-October. For his visit to the Clemenses, see 16 Dec 75 to Conwayclick to open link ( L5 , 171 n. 1, 411–12 n. 2; Burtis, 148–55).
MS, Conway Papers, Columbia University, New York City (NNC).
L6 , 557.
The Conway Papers were acquired by NNC sometime after Conway’s death in 1907.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.