Mediterranean Hotel,
Jerusalem Sep.
21 24
1
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Mr. Esais—Fix up the little Bible I selected (I don’t want any other)—the one that has backs made of Balsam-wood from the Jordan, oak from Abraham’s tree at Hebron, olive-wood from the Mount of Olives, & whatever the other stuff was—ebony, I think. Put on it this inscription: “Mrs. Jane Clemens—from her son—Mount Calvary, Sept 24, 1867.” Put “Jerusalem” around on it loose, somewhere, in Hebrew, just for a flyer.2 Send it to our camp, near head of the valley of Hinnom—the third tents you come to if you leave the city by the Jaffa Gate—the first if you go out by the Damascus Gate.3
Yrs
Sam L. Clemens
[on back of letter as folded:]
Forwardd per politeness of Mr.
Weintraub.
Mr. Esais
Bookstore
Near church of Holy Sepulchre4
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Click to add citation to My Citations. 1Clemens and
his party arrived in Jerusalem at noon on 23 September after
departing the village of Lubban at 2:30 that morning. Riding ahead
of their tents and equipment, they took rooms at the Mediterranean
Hotel, “a large and commodious house, well situated near
the British Consulate, and not far from the Damascus
gate,” according to a contemporary guidebook. Clemens
noted to himself: “Loafed all the afternoon in the
Mediterranean Hotel.” But judging from the entries in his
notebook, Clemens spent all of the following day inspecting the
landmarks of the city (Murray, 1:73; N&J1, 432–35).
Click to add citation to My Citations. 2This small (diamond type, 16mo) King James Bible,
now in the Mark Twain Papers, was printed at Oxford University Press for the
British and Foreign Bible Society in 1863, and was later bound or rebound as
Clemens describes. The inscription Clemens ordered appears verbatim in
gothic lettering on the front and back panels, with
“Jerusalem” in Hebrew characters between
“Mount Calvary” and “Sept. 24,
1867” on the back panel. Clemens himself inscribed the front
flyleaf in pencil: “Mrs. Jane Clemens
From her
Son—
Jerusalem, Sep. 24, 1867.” (Orion Clemens
later traced over the inscription in purple ink and added, “The
above, in pencil, but traced in ink May 15, 1874 by O.
C.”)
Click to add citation to My Citations. 3On the morning of 25 September,
Clemens’s party set off for Jericho and Bethlehem, returning to
Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Hotel on 27 September. After two more nights
at the Mediterranean Hotel, they left Jerusalem on 29 September to rejoin
the Quaker City at Jaffa the following day (N&J1, 432–43; Clemens’s notebook entries for
22–28 September are misdated: see Denny, entries for
22–30 Sept).
Click to add citation to My Citations. 4Neither Mr. Weintraub,
to whom Clemens entrusted delivery of his note, nor Mr. Esais,
from whose bookstore he purchased the Bible, has been further
identified.
Source text(s):MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley (CU-MARK).
Previous publication:
L2, 94–95.
Provenance:see Mark Twain Papers, pp. 514–15. Mr. Esais presumably returned
the letter with the Bible, both of which are in CU-MARK.
Emendations and textual notes:
