To Olivia L. Langdon
19 November 1869 • Boston, Mass.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00374)

1

Boston, 19th—Livy dear, I believe I am to talk in one corner of Brooklyn Dec. 1, & repeat in Plymouth Church Dec.[4. Have ]a call from New York for Dec. 3, but don’t know yet whether we shall take it or not. I am indifferent—just as soon not.2 I have no paper up here, & in a few minutes I start out to talk in the a suburban city (Jamaica Plains.) It is now 6 P.M—lecture begins at 7.45.3

Sam.

[in ink:] Miss Olivia L. Langdon | Elmira | N. Y. [across end:] Note enclosed. [return address:] young’s hotel, court avenue, boston, mass. [postmarked:] [boston mass. nov 198.p.m.] [docketed by OLL:] 141st

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens wrote this note around the imprint—“black, 163 washington st., boston”—of photographer James Wallace Black (Boston Directory, 83). He then wrapped the carte de visite (reproduced here) in a scrap torn from the first leaf of the Eclectic Magazine for November 1869 (n.s., 10:513–14).

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2 On 3 December Clemens lectured in Poughkeepsie, New York. He canceled the second of his Brooklyn lectures, actually scheduled for 6 December (see 3 Dec 69 to the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, and 4 Dec 69 and 6 Dec 69, both to Redpath).

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3 The lecture in the Town Hall of Jamaica Plain, a wealthy suburb of Boston, was a benefit for “a Benevolent Educational Enterprise” (“Unique Entertainment by Mark Twain,” Boston Evening Transcript, 13 Nov 69, 1; Edwin M. Bacon, 259).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, on the back of a carte de visite photograph of Clemens, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). Clemens wrapped the photograph, reproduced in facsimile, in a scrap torn from the Electic Magazine, n.s. 10 (November 1869): 513–14.

Previous publication: L3, 399–400 LLMT, 360, brief paraphrase without the photograph.

Provenance:see Samossoud Collection, p. 586.

Emendations and textual notes:

4. Have • 4.—|Have

boston ... 8.p.m. • [bo] ston [ma] ss. nov i [9] 8.p.m. [] [badly inked]