to Margaret C. Avery
15-30 November 1877 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CLjC, UCCL 12465)
in purple ink, sketch of sleeping cat and caption by SLC; in black ink, sketch of cat and caption by Thomas Nast:
in purple ink:
If by “we,” Mr. Warner means Hartford generally, it would have bectter become him to speak for himself alone, & not wantonly hurt the feelings of such of us who as can “draw & paint.”
(“Mark Twain.”)
Margaret C. Avery (1828–91) was the wife of Abraham Avery (1824–93), a partner in Rand, Avery, and Company, Boston printers and publishers (Memorial Biographies 1908, 127). Clemens and Nast made this contribution to her autograph album, which contained verses, sentiments, and drawings by many prominent people, penned expressly for her. Clemens’s remarks were a reply to Charles Dudley Warner, who had inscribed the following lines in it: “Though we can neither draw nor paint, / Yet to this complexion must we come at last.” His sentiment—a play on Hamlet, act 5, scene 1, “Now get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this complexion she must come at last”—was signed “Yours Sincerely / Charles Dudley Warner / Hartford October 11th 1877” (Warner 1877). An article printed widely in newspapers in 1883 and 1884 described the album, listing a number of people who signed it (at undetermined dates), including several of Clemens’s acquaintances: Bayard Taylor, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, James T. Fields, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Bret Harte. According to the author of the article,
Mark Twain now strikes out as a limner. With bold pen and ink he has drawn at the top of the page a creature that might be worshiped without violating the commandments, as it is not an image of anything on earth or in air or water, but it looks a little like a cow and some like a compost heap. Under this he has boldly written “A Cat,” adding, “if by ‘We,’ Mr. Warner means Hartford generally, it would have better become him to speak for himself alone, and not wantonly hurt the feelings of those of us who can draw and paint. sam’l l. clemens.”
Thomas Nast makes his mark right here. Observing the amorphous insect which Mark Twain has arrogantly called “a cat,” Mr. Nast calmly draws a conventional cat, back up and spitting fire, and written under it, “This is a dog. Th. Nast.” (Croffut 1883)
Warner wrote on one slip of paper, and Clemens and Nast on another, which Avery had evidently sent them and then later pasted into her album. Nothing further has been discovered about the dates or circumstances of the inscriptions, but if Nast visited Clemens in November, shortly after receiving his proposal for a joint lecture tour, he could have made his contribution at that time (see 12 Nov 1877 to Nast).
MS, CLjC.
Hamilton 1979, 42; Book Block catalog, sale of March 1990, lot 22; MicroPUL, reel 1; William A. Croffut, “The Metropolis,” Chicago Tribune, 30 December 1883, 11; and, in an excerpt from Croffut’s article entitled “A Rare Album”: the Lawrence, Kansas Herald, 18 January 1884, 4; Hazelton (Pa.) Sentinel, 25 January 1884, 1; Rossville (Kansas) News, 16 February 1884, 4, and other newspapers; and “Table Gossip,” Boston Globe, 20 January 1884, 12.
The MS was offered for sale by the Book Block company in March 1990. Before 2000, it was purchased by CLjC.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.