To
Olivia L. Clemens
December 1876 • Hartford, Conn. (MS facsimile, inscription in The National Ode:
Christie’s catalog, 21–22 February 1989, lot 1769, UCCL 10648)
December 1876 • Hartford, Conn. (MS facsimile, inscription in The National Ode:
Christie’s catalog, 21–22 February 1989, lot 1769, UCCL 10648)
Explanatory Notes
1 Clemens wrote this inscription in a copy of The National Ode: The Memorial Freedom Poem by Bayard Taylor (1825–78). The book, with numerous illustrations by various artists,
was issued in early December by William F. Gill and Company. Taylor was a poet, novelist,
translator, and diplomat, whom Clemens had probably first met in 1872 (23 Feb 1872
to Redpath, L5, 47–48 n. 1). According to the “Publishers’ Note” in the volume, Taylor had written
the poem for “the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of American
Independence, held within the shadow of Independence Hall, July 4th, 1876. Its delivery
by the author was the crowning success of the memorable exercises of this eventful
day” (Taylor 1877, 5). Clemens may have given the book to his wife as a Christmas gift. In late January
1877 he purchased an additional copy through James R. Osgood and Company, who sold
other publishers’ books as well as their own (BAL, 8:19807; “Bought of James R. Osgood & Co.,” receipt for Clemens’s book purchases,
20 Jan–24 Oct 1877, Scrapbook 10:69, CU-MARK).
MS facsimile, inscription in Taylor 1877, Christie’s catalog, sale of 21–22 February 1989, lot 1769.
19th Century Shop catalogs: sale of 1989, no. 10, lot 67, paraphrase; sale of October 1990, no. 17, lot 204, paraphrase; sale of October 1992, lot 186; MicroPUL, reel 1.
Bought in 1940 by Carrie Estelle Doheny from Maxwell Hunley Rare Books and thereafter donated to St. John’s Seminary, Camarillo, California (CCamarSJ); it remained there until the collection was sold in 1989. It was thereafter offered for sale by the 19th Century Shop in 1989, 1990, and 1992.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.