To William Bowen
20 March 1873 • Hartford, Conn
(MS: TxU-Hu, UCCL 00888)

Hartfd, Mch. 20.

Dear Will——

Am very much obliged to Mr. Bent for the copy of his lecture, & shall read it with interest.1

Can’t come out there & [lecture. Can’t] lecture anywhere—[detest] the business with all my heart. Am not a free man, anyway. Been offered everything, from $500 up to $800 a night for 20 or 30 nights,2 & my wife said [ No ]—for which I was not sorry & did not weep.

We [ said sail] for England May 17 & return in October—meantime we hope the most aggravating part of the house will be built & off our minds.3

Ys Ever

Sam.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens had evidently received—either from Bowen or from Silas Bent—a copy of Bent’s Gateways to the Pole: An Address Delivered before the St. Louis Mercantile Library Association, January 6th, 1872, upon the Thermal Paths to the Pole, the Currents of the Ocean, and the Influence of the Latter upon the Climates of the World (St. Louis: 1872). Bent (1820–87) was an oceanographer and former naval officer who, like Bowen, lived in St. Louis. His thesis—that currents maintained an open sea around the North Pole—was not accepted by other authorities on polar exploration.

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2 See 13 and 17 Jan 73 to Reid, n. 3.

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3 See 13 and 17 Jan 73 to Reid, nn. 6, 8.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin (TxU-Hu).

Previous publication: L5, 319–320; Hornberger, 21–22.

Provenance:purchased by TxU in 1940 from Eva Laura Bowen (Mrs. Louis Knox), daughter of William Bowen.

Emendations and textual notes:

lecture. Can’t • lecture.— |Can’t

detest • detecsst

No • No No [rewritten for clarity]

said sail • saidl