To Olivia L. Clemens
11 November 1871 • Boston, Mass.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00671)

Boston [(hang ] the date.

Livy darling, I talked in Randolph last night, to a most delightful & jolly little audience. I was happy, because I knew that as it had been fairly pouring rain for 3 hours, & was still pouring, nobody would be there except such as came for the love of [it. House ] two-thirds full, & we had a royal good time.1

Have just arrived from Randolph & had breakfast. (11 AM.)2 But I’ve been awake since 6, & I do feel so rusty & stupid! You see those country [hotels ] always ring a gong at 6 & another at half-past, & between the two they would snake out Lazarus himself, let alone me, who am a light sleeper when nervous.

So with very very great love

Ys

Samℓ.

Mrs. Samℓ. L. Clemens | Cor Forest & Hawthorne | Hartford | Conn [postmarked:] [boston mass. nov. 11 m]

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

Click to add citation to My Citations.

1 No reviews of Clemens’s 10 November lecture in Randolph, Massachusetts, have been located.

Click to add citation to My Citations.

2 Clemens remained in Boston to deliver “Artemus Ward, Humorist” there on Monday, 13 November, before a “large and appreciative audience” in the South End course (“South End Course of Lectures,” Boston Journal, 14 Nov 71, 2). The Boston Evening Transcript and the Advertiser, which had reviewed his 1 November lecture, did not report this second performance (1 Nov 71 to OLC, n. 1).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).

Previous publication: L4, 488–489; LLMT, 362, brief paraphrase.

Provenance:see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

(hang • [no closing parenthesis]

it. House • it.—|House

hotels • hoteles

boston mass. nov. 11 m • [o] n [ss]. nov. 11 [ m] [badly inked]