17 January 1873 • Hartford, Conn. (Anderson Galleries 1926, lot 413, and AAA/Anderson 1929, lot 22, UCCL 09230)
$1000 wouldn’t pay me to memorize that lecture, & I won’t re-deliverⒶemendation the Sandwich Islands lecture there1explanatory note—besides, I may talk the latter in N. Y. & Brooklyn for the Mercantile LibraryⒶemendation ... I haven’t got a bit of time to fool away lecturing.
Clemens was probably replying to the following letter of 16 January from George L. Fall (IaU):
Dear Sir:
Pugh, Philadelphia offers 400 $ for a lecture in his course, and gives you these dates to select from:—
Feb 17th
20th
Mch 6th
10th
15th
Please telegraph us early in morning, your answer, as Pugh is pressed for time. Redpath in NY.
Yours truly Redpath & Fall
Clemens may have telegraphed a briefer answer before following up with the present letter. The lecture that he was unwilling “to memorize” has not been identified. He had delivered his Sandwich Islands lecture in Philadelphia, in T. B. Pugh’s “Star Course,” on 7 December 1869 ( L3 , 485).
No copy-text. The text is based on two incomplete transcriptions, each of which derives independently from the MS:
P1 describes the letter as an “A. L. s., 1 p., 8vo. Hartford, Jan. 17, 1873. To Mr. Redpath.” P2 describes the letter identically, except for the variants noted below, but its text is less complete.
L5 , 274.
The MS was offered for sale in 1926 as part of the autograph collection of Emanuel Hertz, and in 1929 as part of the collection of John M. Geddes.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.