Mark Twain Project :: Letters :: : an electronic text

To Frank M. Etting
8 June 1876 • Hartford, Conn.
(Sales catalog: American Art Association,
16 April 1925, lot 26; and Brownell 1944, p. 5, UCCL 01339)
(SUPERSEDED)

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[Hartford June 8]

[Dear Sir—]

[I] have sketched Francis Lightfoot Lee, [&] it was my purpose to come to Philadelphia the first week in [July (as was, I believe, the suggestion of your general circular).1 ] But I (as do others of our [guild,]) find myself in doubt as to what is expected or what is to be done. [Can you resolve these doubts for me?

For instance:] [ Are ] the several authors to go to Philadelphia? Are they to read [their] several sketches themselves? [Or are they [not] to be read at all, but simply filed?]

[If] the [authors] are to come in [person,] I would [mainly] desire to learn if you [know, by their promises,] that any considerable number of them will be present. [It] will not be easy for me to go to Philadelphia [&] therefore [if] I can fulfil my Centennial duty [by] sending my [MS] to [you &] [remaining home, I would like that. There are doubtless authors in your list whom I would willingly travel to Philadelphia to see, but then, they may not be there.2

J. Hammond Trumbull told me yesterday that the day you have set will fall on a Sunday—but that was caused by a misprinted calendar, I suppose.3

With great respect
I am
Yrs Truly]

[Samℓ.] L. Clemens
(Mark [Twain.])

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 The circular has not been recovered. It presumably accompanied the invitation to participate in Philadelphia’s centennial celebration that Clemens received in February (see 23 Feb 76 to Etting).

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2 Clemens was the best known of the authors of the 156 papers—each “a brief biographical sketch of one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, or of some other prominent Revolutionary patriot”—prepared for the 1 July event. That day many of the authors “were unable, through illness or other engagements to be present, but had sent their sketches” (“Centennial Anniversary,” Philadelphia Public Ledger, 3 July 76, 1). Clemens did attend, however, persuaded by Etting’s 18 June reply to the present letter (see 20? June 76 to Trumbull, 24 June 76 to Stokley, 14 Sept 76 to Fairbanks). Clemens’s “Francis Lightfoot Lee” was published in 1877 in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (SLC 1876, SLC 1877).

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3 The celebration originally had been scheduled for Sunday, 2 July 1876, the actual centennial of the Colonial Congress’s resolution of independence, but was moved up one day.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Copy-text:

No copy-text. The text is based on two transcripts, each of which independently derives from the manuscript.

P1	American Art Association catalog, 16 April 1925, lot 26
P2	Brownell 1944, 3:5

glyph Previous publication: Wholihan 1949, 2:21.

glyph Provenance:Collection of “the late William F. Gable,” offered for sale by the American Art Association in April 1925.

glyph Emendations, adopted readings, and textual notes:

Hartford June 8 (MTP) • Hartford June 8 [1876?] [reported, not quoted] (P1); Hartford, June 8 (1877) (P2)

Dear Sir— (P2) • [salutation not in] (P1)

[¶] I (P2) • [no ¶] I (P1)

& (P1) • and (P2)

July (as was, I believe, the suggestion of your general circular). (P2) • July. . . . [parenthetical remark not in, replaced by three ellipses] (P1)

guild, (P1) • guild (P2)

Can you resolve these doubts for me? [¶] For instance: (P2) • . . . [nine words not in, replaced by three ellipses] (P1)

Are (P2) • Are (P1)

their (P1) • the (P2)

Or are they [not] to be read at all, but simply filed? (P2) • . . . [sentence not in, replaced by three ellipses] (P1)

[¶] If (P1) • [no ¶] If (P2)

authors (P2) • Authors (P1)

person, (P1) • person (P2)

mainly (P2) • . . . [word not in, replaced by three ellipses] (P1)

know, by their promises, (P1) • know by their promises (P2)

[no ¶] It (P1) • [¶] It (P2)

& (P1) • and (P2)

if (P2) • . . . [word not in, replaced by three ellipses] (P1)

by (P2) • . . . [word not in, replaced by three ellipses] (P1)

MS (P2) • Manuscript (P1)

you & (MTP) • you and (P2); you. . . . (P1)

remaining home . . . Truly (P2) • [remainder of paragraph, next paragraph, and complimentary close not in] (P1)

Samℓ. (MTP) • Sam’l (P2); Saml. (P1)

Twain. (P1) • Twain (P2)