To
Ellen D. Conway
25 June 1873 • London, England
(Transcripts and paraphrase:
Anderson Galleries 1920 [bib12452], lot 48,
and AAA 1925 [bib12432], lot 37, UCCL 00932)
(SUPERSEDED)
[paraphrase: To Mrs. Conway.1 Delightful and humorous letter, accepting an invitation for a visit, reading in part,—] [Pardon my dilatoriness ... July 8, being one of the dates. ... Mr. Charles suggests, we beg to take that for our visit to—to—I have forgotten the town’s name ... no matter so long as we get there ... upon referring to my wife I learn ... the town is ... Hepworth & I see ... she likes the ring of Mr. Charles’s invitation2 ... so do I, after so many solemn “Mr. & Mrs ... Jones’s compliments & request the pleasure,” &c.—precisely the language they used to use in Missouri in private invitations to funerals. ]
I date from the [Langham, because ]we remove to that hotel [today]. My wife likes Edwards’ Hotel; [& ]so would I if I were [dead; ] [I would not desire a more tranquil & satisfactory tomb.]
{. . . .}
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Clemens and his wife came to London, and Charles
Flower of Avonbank, mayor of Stratford-on-Avon, begged me to bring
them there for a visit. Mrs. Clemens was an ardent Shakespearian,
and Mark Twain determined to give her a surprise. He told her that
we were going on a journey to Epworth, and persuaded me to connive
with the joke by writing to Charles Flower not to meet us himself
but send his carriage. (Conway 1904, 2:145) The name that Clemens and Conway chose to disguise
“Stratford” was “Hepworth,”
a fictional town (10? July 73 to Warner, n. 2), not
“Epworth,” a real town in northern England. Conway
was also mistaken in recalling that Charles Edward Flower
(1830–92) was the mayor of Stratford in 1873: he served in
that capacity from 1878 to 1880. (His father, Edward F. Flower, had
served several terms as mayor before the 1870s.) Flower was the senior
partner in the family brewery, Flower and Sons, from 1862 until his
death. In 1874 he founded the Shakespeare Memorial Association, to which
he donated thirty thousand pounds to construct a theater.
Flower’s widow bequeathed their home, Avonbank, to the
Memorial in 1908 (Boase, 1:1071, 5:314; Trewin, 49;
“Obituary,” London Times, 4
May 92, 9; information from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust).
Source text(s):| P1 | Anderson Galleries 1920, lot 48 |
| P2 | AAA 1925, lot 37 |
Previous publication:
L5, 387–388.
Provenance:The MS belonged to Moncure D. Conway’s son, Eustace Conway, when
it was sold in 1920, and was offered for sale again in 1925 as part of the
collection of businessman William F. Gable (1856–1921).
Emendations, adopted readings, and textual notes:
No copy-text. The text is based on two transcriptions, each of which derives independently from the MS:
P1 and P2 each preserve portions of text not present in the other, although P2 is much more complete. P1 describes the letter as “3 pp. 12mo.,” whereas P2 describes it as “3pp. 8vo.”
Langham Hotel, June 25. (C) • Langham Hotel, June 25, n. y. (P1); Langham Hotel, June 25, no year. [both reported, not quoted] (P2)
Pardon . . . funerals. (P2) • [not in] (P1)
Langham, because (P1) • Langham . . . (P2)
today (P2) • to day (P1)
& (P1) • [not in] (P2)
dead; (P2) • dead, (P1)
I . . . tomb. (P2) • [not in] (P1)
Saml. L. Clemens. (P2) • [not in] (P1)
