To Joel Benton
20 February 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y.
(MS: NPV, UCCL 00428)

Buffalo, 20th.

Friend Benton—

No, I write European Letters occasionally for the [Express ], & they are all we need.1

I will do my best to remember to put the “Times” on the X list,2 but as I don’t go to the office once a week it will simply be a marvel if I don’t forget it. But if you had dropped a line to the “Publishers” it would have been all right—savez? I’ll tie a string round my finger, though, & I’ll determine to recollect—& so I think I can safely say that I will remember to fix that thing, sure.

We are about as happy in our Aladdin’s Palace (I think it is a little more tasteful & exquisite in all its appointments than most palaces are,) as if we were roosting in the closing chapter of a popular novel.3

Pray remember me kindly to our delightful friends the [Payne’s],4 & we shall be glad at any time to see you & them at 472 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo.

Yrs Sincerely

Samℓ. L. Clemens.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 If Clemens did in fact write “European Letters” for the Express, they have not been identified. His series of “Around the World” letters did not describe European travel (22 Jan 70 to Bliss, n. 2). Benton seems to have offered to sell the Express some European travel letters, possibly his own, not further identified.

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2 That is, the exchange list of the Buffalo Express. The Amenia Times was Benton’s former newspaper (8 Jan 70 to OLL [1st], n. 2).

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3 Clemens’s comments about his absence from the Express offices and about his domestic happiness show that he wrote shortly after the wedding, hence 20 February.

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4 See 8 Jan 70 to OLL (1st).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Autograph Collection, Vassar College Library (NPV).

Previous publication: L4, 73–74.

Provenance:purchased in 1922 from Caroline B. Peters of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Emendations and textual notes:

Express • E Express [corrected miswriting]

Payne’s • [sic]