To John A. Lant
28 November 1869 • (Dobbs Ferry [N.Y.] Register, 24 January 1913, 1: UCCL 13483)
28 November 1869 • (Dobbs Ferry [N.Y.] Register, 24 January 1913, 1: UCCL 13483)
photograph of “The American Humorists,” with Josh Billings, Mark Twain, and Petroleum V. Nasby 1explanatory note
on the back:
h. g. smith,
studio building,
boston.
The accompanying work of art, commonly called ‘The Three Graces’ is submitted to your inspection, with the warm, friendly regard of
Explanatory Notes
1 This carte-de-visite photograph was one of two poses of the three humorists taken
at the same sitting during the second week of November (see the enclosures to 24 and 25 November 1869 click to open link and 27 November 1869click to open link to Olivia Langdon). Clemens knew John A. Lant (1840–1913) since the 1850s when they
were both journeymen printers and possibly worked together in Cincinnati. After serving
in the Pennsylvania Infantry as a private soldier in the Civil War, Lant went on to
the editorship of several newspapers, including the Sharon (Pa.)‘Times in 1868, the Toledo Democrat in 1870, and the Toledo Sun, 1871–75, where he was both editor and publisher. The Sun, which was "devoted to free speech and radical sentiments," such as its advocacy of
the Free Land League, also published the letters and other works of George Francis
Train, the controversial political agitator and promoter. The paper was deemed blasphemous
and obscene by Anthony Comstock of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, who had
Lant arrested in 1875. Lant was found guilty and sentenced to eighteen months at hard
labor in the Albany Penitentiary. He was pardoned in 1877 as one of President Grant’s
last official acts. Lant, after more than two decades of editing other newspapers
and reformist writing, retired to a national home for disabled soldiers in 1906 and
died at Florissant, Mo., in 1913 (see 28 Sept 1871click to open link to Lant; Lant to SLC, 25 Dec 1909, CU-MARK; Missouri State Board of Health death certificate, 17 Jan 1913; Bennett 1876, 1030–31; Wilbur 2006, 1; "New Papers," Blairsville [Pa.] Press, 26 June 1868, 3; "Our Young Friend," Indiana Progress, 21 Apr 1870, 3; Rowell 1872, 147; “Journalistic,” Chicago Inter-Ocean, 11 May 1874, 1; “Obscene Literature Arrest,” New York Herald, 27 July 1875, 13; "Two Extraordinary Pardons," New York Herald-Tribune, 21 Mar 1877, 2; “Editor John A. Lant Dead,” Dobbs Ferry [N.Y.] Register, 24 Jan 1913, 11).
"Editor John A. Lant Dead," Dobbs Ferry (N. Y.) Register, 24 January 1913, 1.
The Register reprints an undated article in the Florissant (Mo.) News, sent by Lant to the New York[?] Daily News, which also presumably published it.
The Florissant News article, quoted in the Register, reads: ‘On November 28, 1869, Samuel L. Clemens sent to John A. Lant, from Boston, a photograph of himself standing back of Josh Billings seated on one side and Petroleum V. Nasby seated on the other, the picture being styled "The American Humorists". On the back of this photograph is written the following felicitous greeting to Mr. Lant in the handwriting of Mr. Clemens: . . . This valuable picture was stored in the East along with a number of others, books, etc., and was brought back by Mr. Lant in his inside pocket for safe keeping.’
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.