To
Edwin Booth
7 April 1877 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, correspondence card, in pencil: VtMiM, UCCL 01411)
7 April 1877 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, correspondence card, in pencil: VtMiM, UCCL 01411)
Saturday AM
slcI have called to pay my respects, Mr. Booth, & apologize for my pieceⒶemendation of supernatural stupidity of last night (for I am sore about it yet, & righteously ashamed); but do not hesitate to excuse yourself if you so pref shall so prefer. I have traveled about the country lecturing enough to know how perfectly justifiably one loathes the intruding stranger who breaks in upon his needed repose & his prized seclusion.1explanatory note
Truly Yours
Samℓ. L. Clemens
(“Mark Twain”)
Explanatory Notes
1 Edwin Booth performed in Hartford on Friday, 6 April 1877, appearing in Hamlet, and on Saturday, 7 April, playing in both The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew (Hartford Courant: “Roberts Opera House,” 6 Apr 1877, 1; “Edwin Booth,” 9 Apr 1877, 2). Clemens’s “piece
of supernatural stupidity” has not been explained.
Emendations and Textual Notes
MS, correspondence card, in pencil, VtMiM.
MicroPUL, reel 1.
acquired by VtMiM on 4 October 1938.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.