To Tom Taylor
per Charles Warren Stoddard
29 December 1873 • London, England
(MS: Jacobs, UCCL 01019)

Langham Hotel.
29 Dec 1873.

Dear Sir1

I went to Salisbury to spend Christmas and was persuaded to go on to Ventnor for a day.2 My friend3 told me I could get back to London in season to meet the engagement with you, but I found it impossible to do so and by this time it was too late to accomplish anything by telegraph.4 I will call tomorrow about noon and shall by very glad if I find you at home but if not I shall consider that I am properly punished.

With a thousand apologies—

Ys Truly

Samℓ. L. Clemens.

Tom Taylor, Esq

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1 Tom Taylor (1817–80) was educated at Glasgow and Cambridge universities. After sending his first contribution to Punch in 1844 he was invited to join the staff, where he served until his death, replacing Brooks as editor in early 1874. His greatest success, however, was as a playwright. Over the course of his career he created or adapted over seventy works for the London stage; although many were dramas, the most popular were domestic comedies. In addition, he wrote art criticism for the London Times and Graphic, and published several works of biography (Spielmann, 338–41).

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2 According to Stoddard, Clemens felt “rather ill” after all the dining over Christmas and “concluded to go down to the Isle of Wight to spend Sunday,” 28 December (Stoddard to “My Own Dear Ones at Home,” 29 Dec 73, Bell, 279). Ventnor was a resort on the southern coast of the island.

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3 Presumably William Blackmore, Clemens’s host in Salisbury.

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4 For Clemens’s business with Taylor see 30 Dec 73 to Warner, n. 1.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, collection of Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs, on deposit at Roesch Library, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio (ODaU).

Previous publication: L5, 538–539; Sotheby 1964, lot 475, excerpt.

Provenance:The Jacobses owned the MS by 1967; they deposited their collection at ODaU in 1984.