To Olivia L. Clemens
15 July 1877 • New York, N.Y.
(MS, correspondence card, in pencil: CU-MARK, UCCL 01450)

Sunday P.M.

slcLivy darling, I took the Erie transfer coach at on ‸the‸ Jersey [City,] ‸side,‸ & liked it. It is big, roomy, clean. It came by ferry boat to 23d street, & deposited me at the hotel without delay—myself & trunk for 75 cents. I go to Hartford in the morning, but I loathe the trip. It is now about the middle of the afternoon; breakfasted in bed, & have just got up. Baggage car took fire yesterday. The play was in danger. However, I could have re-written it without great difficulty.1 Am expecting [fu] Fuller every moment, now.2 I love you, darling, & was so sorry you were “low” when I left. Cheer up!

Saml.

Mrs. Saml. L. Clemens | Elmira | N. Y. [postmarked:] new-york e july 16 7am

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1The manuscript of Cap’n Simon Wheeler, The Amateur Detective that Clemens took to New York was evidently a holograph. Later in 1877 Clemens’s secretary, Fanny C. Hesse, made a security copy of it. Both the holograph and the copy survive in the Mark Twain Papers.

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2Clemens and Frank Fuller were going to discuss their ongoing investment in two devices invented by H. C. Bowers, a “Salt-Water Evaporator” and a “Circulating Steam-Generator” intended to power a tugboat. Clemens lost about $5,000 on the latter, causing a temporary estrangement from Fuller in the early 1880s (23 Apr 1877 to OLC, n. 1; U.S. Patent Office 1877, 479–80; Fuller to SLC, 23 Feb 1880 and 23 Mar 1882, CU-MARK).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, correspondence card, in pencil, CU-MARK.

Previous publication:

MicroML, reel 4.

Provenance:

See Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

City, • [deletion implied]

fu • [‘u’ partly formed]