To Edwin Booth
7 April 1877 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS, correspondence card, in pencil: VtMiM, UCCL 01411)

Saturday AM

slcI have called to pay my respects, Mr. Booth, & apologize for my [piece] of supernatural stupidity of last night (for I am sore about it yet, & righteously ashamed); but do not hesitate to excuse yourself if you so pref shall so prefer. I have traveled about the country lecturing enough to know how perfectly justifiably one loathes the intruding stranger who breaks in upon his needed repose & his prized seclusion.1

Truly Yours

Samℓ. L. Clemens

(“Mark Twain”)

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

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1Edwin Booth performed in Hartford on Friday, 6 April 1877, appearing in Hamlet, and on Saturday, 7 April, playing in both The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew (Hartford Courant: “Roberts Opera House,” 6 Apr 1877, 1; “Edwin Booth,” 9 Apr 1877, 2). Clemens’s “piece of supernatural stupidity” has not been explained.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, correspondence card, in pencil, VtMiM.

Previous publication:

MicroPUL, reel 1.

Provenance:

acquired by VtMiM on 4 October 1938.

Emendations and textual notes:

piece • piece piece [corrected miswriting]