To Charles Warren Stoddard
22 October 1877 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS, correspondence card: CU-MARK, UCCL 01490)

Monday, P.M.

slcDear Charley: My wife has plunged me into an abyss of genuine remorse, by saying, “What! didn’t you go to the station with Mr. Stoddard?” I said, “You know I only go when there are ladies, or when the gentlemen do not know the way.” “She said, “But this is such a dismal day. It is so forlorn to send anybody away alone.” I realized it in an instant & I have felt like a brute ever since—but I do assure you my conduct was innocent & only heedless—but it was hellish, nevertheless.1 Now you promise me to come again & give me one more chance. Will you?

Yrs Ever

Mark.

We all thoroughly enjoyed your visit, my boy—all the tribe of us.

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1The arrival and departure dates of Stoddard’s visit to Hartford have not been discovered. He was definitely there on Saturday, 20 October, when Twichell wrote in his journal, “Saw Charles Warren Stoddard the Author at M.T.’s.” On Sunday, 21 October, Stoddard signed Olivia Clemens’s diary (Twichell 1874–1916; OLC 1877–1902). He probably left on Monday, 22 October, the last day of a long rainstorm, and the probable date of this letter (Hartford Courant: “Brief Mention,” 22 Oct 1877, 23 Oct 1877, 2).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, correspondence card, CU-MARK.

Previous publication:

Christie’s catalog, sale of 21–22 February 1989, Part V, lot 1772, excerpts; Sotheby’s catalog, sale of 29 October 1996, lot 268, excerpts; MicroPUL, reel 1.

Provenance:

The MS was offered for sale in 1942 by City Book Auction, 27–28 March 1942, lot 247. Sometime afterwards, it became part of the Estelle Doheny Collection at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California. When the Doheny Collection was sold in 1989, Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs purchased the MS from Christie’s and sold it through Sotheby’s in 1996 to CU-MARK.