5 November 1872 • London, England (London Daily News, 6 Nov 72, UCCL 11068)
to the editor of the daily news.1explanatory note
Sir,—With your kind permission, I desire to say to those societies in London &Ⓐemendation other cities of Great Britain under whose auspices I have partly promised to lecture, that I am called home by a Cable telegram. I shall spend, with my family, the greaterⒶemendation part of next year here, & may be able to lecture a month during the autumn upon such scientific topics as I know least about, & may consequently feel least trammelled in dilating upon.—Yours respectfully,
Langham Hotel, Nov. 5.
On 5 November Clemens sent the same announcement to the editors of at least three London newspapers. It appeared, with trivial variations, on 6 November in the Daily News, and on 7 November in the Morning Post and the Times. The Daily News was edited by Frank Harrison Hill. The editor of the Morning Post was William Hardman. John T. Delane (1817–79) had made the Times the “leading journal of Europe” since assuming the editorship in 1841 (Newspaper Press Directory, 17; 10 Dec 73 to the editor of the London Morning Post, n. 1; 21 Dec 73 to OLCclick to open link, n. 1).
“Mark Twain,” London Daily News, 6 Nov 72, 2. Copy-text is a microfilm edition of the newspaper in the British Library (Uk).
L5 , 215; “Mark Twain,” London Morning Post, 7 Nov 72, 6; “Mark Twain,” London Times, 7 Nov 72, 8.
The copy-text reading ‘greatest,’ which was probably an error introduced by the Daily News, has been emended to ‘greater’—the reading in the amanuensis copy of 8 Nov 72, as well as in the London Morning Post and Times printings.