To Moncure D. Conway
5 May 1876 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: NNC, UCCL 01332)
(SUPERSEDED)

Hartford, May 5.

My Dear Conway:1

Bliss says he will [rush] the pictures the tightest he can, & believes he can have them ready for shipment by May 14. Better call it May 30—& even then it will be the nearest he ever came to being on time with his word.

I’ve been playing Peter Spyk in “ tThe Loan of a Lover” (I re-wrote the part, stupefying it a little more & making it unconsciously sarcastic in spots,) & we made a considerable success of it. Been invited to perform in New York, but declined, of course.

Read Smalley’s letter yesterday, & envied you your seat at the “Queen Mary” opening. It must have been a great occasion.2

Susie escaped death by a hair last week. Diphtheria, of the worst form. She is well, now. Do not remember whether I sent you the new picture of the children—so I will enclose one. If you already have one, give this one to Mrs. Smalley, if she will take it. My own portrait came near appearing, in the right hand corner. I was behind a curtain, hi holding the children’s heads.

James T. Fields will be here in a moment—he lectures to-night—so I will prepare to receive him.3

Goodbye—regards to you both.

Ys Truly

S. L. Clemens

[enclosure:] 4

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens answered the following postcard from Conway, which bears a Boston receipt postmark of 2 May and probably reached Hartford the following day (CU-MARK):

UCLC32324

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For Conway’s “first long letter,” see 9 Apr 76 to Conway, n. 1; for Clemens’s telegram, see 16 Apr 76 to Conway. In a letter not known to survive, Clemens evidently asked Conway to inquire about English copyright on the Gilded Age play (also called Colonel Sellers), which John T. Raymond eventually took to London (L6, 216 n. 1).

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2 George Washburn Smalley, the New York Tribune’s London correspondent, had been acquainted with Clemens since 1873 (see L5, 377–78 n. 2). On 4 May 1876 the Tribune printed his 19 April account of the London performance the previous evening of Tennyson’s play, Queen Mary. Smalley wrote that the play was essentially a series of tableaux, lacking plot and development, and that “in the two chief characters, who must for lack of others be called the hero and heroine, it is impossible for any human being to take a human interest.” Although Queen Mary was reputed to be “impossible to act,” Smalley had high praise for the actors, who included Kate Josephine Bateman as the queen and Henry Irving as Philip, and despite his reservations he overall deemed the play a success. He reported that the distinguished audience, which included Robert Browning, George Eliot, and “Mr. Conway,” was enthusiastic (“Tennyson’s ‘Queen Mary,’ ” New York Tribune, 4 May 76, 2).

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3 Fields lectured in Hartford’s Seminary Hall on “Literary and Artistic Life in London Twenty-Five Years Ago.” On 6 May the Hartford Courant reported: “At the close of the lecture an informal reception was held in the south hall. Mr. Samuel L. Clemens made one of his happy speeches” (Hartford Courant: “James T. Fields’s Lecture at Seminary Hall,” 5 May 76, 2; “Lecture by James T. Fields,” 6 May 76, 2).

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4 The enclosed photograph, taken by Isaac White in late April, does not survive with the letter. It is reproduced here from another copy.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Copy-text:

MS, Conway Papers, NNC.

Previous publication: MicroPUL, reel 1.

Provenance:The Conway Papers were acquired by NNC sometime after Conway’s death in 1907.

Emendations and textual notes:

rush • rus rush [corrected miswriting]