18 November 1868 • Cleveland, Ohio (MS facsimile: CtY, UCCL 02764)
Allow me the privilege (in haste,) of remembering myself most kindly to my esteemed & honored brethren of the S & K.—whom God preserve!
enclosure: 2explanatory note
On 5 November Clemens became an honorary member of the Scroll and Key, a secret society for Yale College seniors and alumni, founded in 1842 for the pursuit of fellowship, moral and literary self-improvement, and charity. Clemens’s membership was sponsored by Joseph Twichell, who had been active in the society since 1859, his senior year. Twichell requested permission for Clemens to join under a provision that allowed for the election of public figures who had attained eminence in literature or art (Maynard Mack, 46, 214–15 n. 14).
MS facsimile. The editors have not seen the MS, which is in a scrapbook in the Scroll and Key Society archives, Department of Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library (CtY, call no. “Scrapbook: C.S.P. 1869. Vol. 2. Junior and Senior. 378.74
YL 10 v. 2”). A photocopy of the MS was made available to the Mark Twain Papers through the kindness of Radley H. Daly and the Scroll and Key Society.
L2 , 281; Maynard Mack, 214–15 n. 14.
The MS has remained, since its receipt in 1868, in the possession of the Scroll and Key Society.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.