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hartford, Mch. 22 1872–3. dear sir:1 i thank you very much for your invitation, but am compelled to decline it, as i am not lecturing at all this ‸this or next‸ season, other duties ‸& inclinations & lazinesses‸ rendering this course necessary. yours truly, mark twain. |
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‸Care of‸ “American Literary Bureau,” Cooper Institute, N. Y.,” is Bret Harte’s business address.2 He ought to take with a Buffalo audience, I should think. He has an excellent lecture this season, & reads it execrably. The newspapers say he reads finely, & so I am willing to give you your choice between the criticisms.3 I wouldn’t be a bit afraid to put him in a regular course.4
I wish you had told me when Selkirk’s next payment is due to me while you were writing—I think it is due this month.5
I can’t call any good lecture-cards to mind just at this moment, & I have no lists by me; but if you will drop a line to the American Lit. Bureau, N. Y., & to James Redpath, 36 Bromfield street Boston, they’ll furnish you full lists, & David Gray6 & you together would have no trouble in making a selection.
Ys Truly
Samℓ. L. Clemens.
Explanatory Notes
The lecture was full of brilliant points. Some
of them were too neatly presented—too quietly
exposed—to “rake down the crowd.”
Only his stories and anecdotes secured a full and hearty
appreciation. But, as these constituted a large part of his
discourse, the performance, as a whole, cannot be said to have
lacked an appreciative reception. Certainly nobody who witnessed the
mirth of that audience could have any doubt on that point. Nevertheless it is a fact—as was
casually remarked by Mark Harte—no, we mean Bret Twain,
who, with two other choice spirits, flocked in and secured seats in
one of the private boxes—that in order to bag the game,
every time, when one shoots at an American audience, he must put in
a good deal of powder behind his shot, and make his
“p’ints” stick out so very plain, that you can almost hang your hat
on ’em. (“The Argonauts of
’49,” 4 Jan 73, 1) Although not all of Harte’s other winter engagements have been
discovered, he is known to have appeared in Springfield (25 November
1872), Albany (3 December), Boston (13 December), New York (16
December), Elmira (23 December), Washington, D.C. (7 January 1873),
Pittsburgh (9 January), and in Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa, as well as
Ogdensburg, New York (February–March) (Merwin, 239–41; Harte 1926, 18–20; Hartford Courant: “Brief Mention,”
25 Nov 72, 2; “Personal,” 11 Mar 73, 2;
“Bret Harte,” Elmira Advertiser, 24 Dec 72, 4). Harte’s performances were in
general well received; for example, the New York Tribune praised his Steinway Hall appearance as a most gratifying and genuine success. ... Such delicate humor, such
fine, airy fancy, such close and conscientious painting of
character, is rare to the lecture platforms. ... The lecture of last
night was not only good writing, but good talking also. ... Mr.
Harte’s manner is easy and colloquial, and his voice,
while not very strong, is clear and well managed.
(“California’s Golden Age,” 17 Dec
72, 8) In the fall of 1873, while touring in the Midwest, Harte wrote his wife
that the critics “may be right—I dare say they
are—in asserting that I am no orator, have no special faculty
for speaking—no fire, dramatic earnestness, or
expression” (Harte to Anna Harte, 19 Oct 73, Harte 1926, 26).
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L5, 320–322.
