19 March–8 May 1872 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS: NN, UCCL 09046)
“S. L. Clemens, Elmira, N. Y.,” witholl will find me without any trouble.
Our tribe is rather unusually well, nowadaysⒶemendation 1explanatory note
All that survives of this letter is the top third of one page, numbered “3,” cut or torn from a folder and inscribed on one side. The stationery is of a type Clemens used intermittently in 1872. He must have written this letter from Elmira in the spring, when his “tribe,” including Langdon and newborn Susy, were healthy. On 20 April, for instance, he wrote to Redpath: “Our tribe are flourishing—the new cub most of all.” Clemens and Olivia visited the Fairbankses in Cleveland from 9 to 14 May, and upon their return to Elmira found Langdon suffering from a bad cold. He was still unwell when they left Elmira on 28 May.
MS, Ford Collection, Personal (Miscellaneous) Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN). The surviving letter fragment is cut or torn from a folder of white laid paper bearing a “P & P” embossment.
L5 , 64–65.
The MS belonged to journalist and businessman Gordon Lester Ford (1823–91), and was probably donated to NN in 1899.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.