To the Editor of the London Telegraph
per Unidentified
8 November 1872 • London, England
(MS: ViU, UCCL 00830)

Langham Hotel
Nov. 8th 18721

To the Editor of
“The Daily Telegraph”2

Sir,

With your kind permission I desire to say to those Societies in London and other cities of Great Britain, under whose auspices I have partly promised to lecture, that I am called home by a Cable Telegram.

I shall spend with my family, the greater part of next year here, and may be able to lecture a month during the Autumn upon such scientific topics as I know least about & may consequently feel least trameled in dilating upon

Yours respectfully

Mark Twain

[letter docketed:]

My Dear Macdonell3

Perhaps this may amuse you.

[DLJ] 4

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Since Clemens’s 5 November letters to the Daily News, the Morning Post, and the Times survive only in printed form, it is not known whether Clemens hired a copyist to make the duplicates he needed. But by 8 November he had found some help: except for the signature, the present letter is entirely in the hand of an unidentified amanuensis. This letter was not published, however, either in the London Telegraph or in any other London newspaper that has been found.

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2 Edward Levy (later Levy Lawson, 1833–1916) was the influential editor of the politically liberal London Telegraph, a widely read newspaper known for “the promptitude, the fullness, and the variety of its telegraphic advices” (Newspaper Press Directory, 17; Griffiths, 362–63). Levy began his journalism career as a drama critic on the London Sunday Times. He was appointed editor of the Telegraph in 1856 by his father (the proprietor), and his vivid treatment of the news brought to the newspaper a wide readership. Clemens later met Levy, probably through Anthony Trollope (see 6 July 73 to Fairbanks, n. 11).

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3 James Macdonell (1842–79) was Levy’s “confidential helper.” He began his newspaper career in Scotland at age sixteen, and in 1865 went to work on the Telegraph. He was also a regular contributor to Fraser’s Magazine, Macmillan’s Magazine, and the North British Review (Griffiths, 388–89).

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4 Unidentified.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU).

Previous publication: L5, 219–220.

Provenance:deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 15 May 1962.

Emendations and textual notes:

DLJ • [possibly ‘DSJ’]