To David Gray
18 April 1874 • Elmira, N.Y.
(MS: NHyF, UCCL 11400)

Elmira, Apl. 18.

Dear David:1

We are very glad to hear that Mrs. Gray is getting along so favorably. We reached here yesterday evening, & Susie & her mother show but slight traces of what was a very wearing & arduous journey.2 In the course of two weeks we shall be housed at the farm on top of the hill— can’t feel settled till then—& then we shall be a great deal more than glad to welcome you. Don’t forget, & don’t change your mind.3

As soon as I got posted on that “Mark Twain dinner” item I saw that it wasn’t of a discomforting nature, & so I swallowed the joke without any difficulty.4

With the very best wishes for all of you, not forgetting the little new party,

Ys Ever

Mark

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

Click to add citation to My Citations.

1 On 6 April Gray had written (CU-MARK):

UCLC31984

Click to add citation to My Citations.

Clemens may have replied to Gray’s letter in an earlier letter that has not been found (see note 4). Gray’s troubles, about which Clemens wrote his “splendid letter” from London (now lost), were evidently financial (28 Mar 75 to Gray, n. 1). The newborn son was given Martha Gray’s maiden name, Guthrie. The Grays’ first child, David—whom Gray wanted to “introduce” to Susy—was born on 8 August 1870 (“David Gray,” Buffalo Courier, 19 Mar 88,4; L4, 102 n. 9; Larned, 1:135).

Click to add citation to My Citations.

2 The Clemenses left Hartford on 15 April, stopping in New York at the luxurious new Windsor Hotel on Fifth Avenue until 17 April, when they continued on to Elmira. At the Windsor they met Mrs. Fairbanks, who had just visited Hartford, and her son, Charles (see 25 Feb 74 to Fairbanks, n. 1; “Arrivals at the Hotels,” New York Times, 16 Apr 74, 5; L5, 452 n. 1 bottom). In his “Here and There” column published in the Cleveland Herald on 3 June, Charles recalled:

One of the events of my New York visit, was a dinner—dinner is always an event with me and a happy one although a duty—with Mark Twain and the genial “Dan” of the Innocents, whom everyone likes. I almost forgot to eat, in my enjoyment of the conversation—what more could I say of its interest?

The magnificence of the Windsor Hotel, which we honored by our presence, was a feast for the eyes as much as the dinner for the inner man, and words to describe the elegance of the furnishings at all adequately are hard to command and would sound so extravagant as to repel faith in them. (Charles Mason Fairbanks 1874)

“Dan” was Daniel Slote, Clemens’s cabin mate on the Quaker City excursion to Europe and the Holy Land in 1867. John Hay and his wife were also to have been at the Windsor Hotel gathering. On 25 April Hay wrote (CU-MARK):

UCLC31985

Click to add citation to My Citations.

Click to add citation to My Citations.

3 The Clemenses stayed with Mrs. Langdon at her home in Elmira proper until 5 May, when they moved to Quarry Farm (5 May 74 to Warner). It is not known if Gray paid them a visit there, but he did see them in Buffalo in August (22 Aug 74 to Howells; Gray to SLC, 18 Aug 75, CU-MARK).

Click to add citation to My Citations.

4 This remark suggests that Clemens had previously written to Gray about the item on or shortly after 9 April, when he first learned of it. It is possible, however, that Clemens assumed Gray had read it in the newspaper exchanges at the Buffalo Courier office. Clemens’s conclusion that it was a misdirected joke (see 13 Apr 74 to the editor of the Hartford Courant and 13 Apr 74 to Stillson) was reflected in the Elmira Advertiser on 20 April: “It was only an April fool joke, after all. Mark Twain was no invited guest at a dinner party. Nor did he conscientiously pay the bill when presented to him afterwards. Mark’s jokes are beginning to equal Sothern’s” (“Topics Uppermost,” 2). English comedian Edward Sothern was on an extended tour of the United States (4 Mar 74 to Howells, n. 2).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, David Gray Papers, General Services Administration National Archives and Record Service, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York (NHyF).

Previous publication: L6, 108–10.

Provenance:The David Gray Papers—donated to NHyF by David Gray, Jr.—include several dozen letters written to his father and mother. Among these are nine letters from Clemens, one from Clemens and Olivia, and one from Olivia alone.