To Mary Mason Fairbanks
21 September 1874 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: CSmH, UCCL 01129)

Sept. 21.

Dear Mother:

We are just back & find the house still full of workmen—which knowcks our purpose of compelling you to stop yo here on your way home, in the head. We occupy the study, nursery & mother’s bedroom—the carpenters have the rest of the house.1

We saw Charley in New York & he drew an admirable picture to send to you. He has grown into a stately fellow, & don’t chatter. I do, but I am old. I told him to draw all the time, & shirk everything else. I believe he said he would.2

Livy wore herself out buying carpets & furniture in New York—that & the journeys “fixed” her. But she will rest up, now, I hope. Miss Lee has just been in inquiring after the health of Mrs. Wyman, but I could tell her nothing.3

You must go & see my play in New York. You’ll like Col. Sellers.

Lovingly, (from both,)

Samℓ

To Box Office Park Theatre

Broadway near 23d,

New York.

Please provide bearer with a couple of choice seats & oblige

Ys Truly

Mark Twain

Will you go?4

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1 The Clemenses had canceled their August visit to Cleveland, and instead invited Mrs. Fairbanks to stop in Hartford on her “way home” from seeing her son in New York; Clemens was now forced to withdraw the offer. He usually used the term “mother” for Mrs. Langdon (and as an affectionate form of address for Mrs. Fairbanks), referring to his own mother as “ma.”

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2 Charles Fairbanks was now evidently living in New York, having graduated from his preparatory school in Hudson, Ohio. Although he had begun a career in journalism—writing occasional correspondence for his father’s newspaper, the Cleveland Herald, and perhaps for other newspapers as well—he hoped to become an artist. In 1872 Clemens had encouraged his artistic ambitions by introducing him to Thomas Nast (Charles Mason Fairbanks 1874 [bib13489], 1874 [bib13490], 1874 [bib13491]; L5, 252 n. 1).

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3 Neither woman has been identified.

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4 No mention of the Gilded Age play occurs in any of Mrs. Fairbanks’s surviving letters to Clemens, or in the Cleveland Herald.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino (CSmH, call no. HM 14284).

Previous publication: L6, 239–240; MTMF, 189–90.

Provenance:see Huntington Library in Description of Provenance.