Hartford
Nov.
7.
Click to add citation to My Citations.
Dear Will—
Have just got my wife & family home safe, & I start back to London tomorrow to finish talking.1
I got your sad news in London & wrote you.2 Yes, you must come & give us a good visit—but don’t come till toward end of May, for we won’t be in our new house till then.3 We will talk over old times & tell my wife about them.
Affectionately
Sam.
Explanatory Notes
Click to add citation to My Citations. 1
Clemens was to sail on the City of Chester,
scheduled to depart at 8 A.M. on Saturday, 8 November (New York Times: “Shipping,” 3 Nov
73 and 9 Nov 73, 7; “Passengers Sailed,” 9 Nov
73, 8).
Click to add citation to My Citations. 2
Bowen had probably written Clemens about the death of his wife of sixteen
years, Mary Cunningham Bowen (Hornberger, 7, 33). The exact date of her death in
1873 has not been found, and Clemens’s letter of condolence
(presumably written between June and late October) is not known to
survive.
Click to add citation to My Citations. 3
Orion reported to Mollie on 3 November, “The roof is on
Sam’s house” in Hartford (CU-MARK). The new home was not ready for
occupation, however, until the following fall.
Source text(s):MS, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
(TxU-Hu).
Previous publication:
L5, 472; Hornberger, 22–23.
Provenance:purchased by TxU in 1940 from Eva Laura Bowen (Mrs. Louis Knox), daughter of
William Bowen.
