To George M. Fenn
2 August 1877 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 02366)

slc/mtfarmington avenue, hartford.

Aug. 2.

[Mr. Dear] Mr. Fenn:

I would greatly like to do that, but I very seldom write a miscellaneous article [now-a-day-s], & the I am already under contract in London & America for all such things that I do write. So you see I can’t.1

I wish you would remember me gratefully to friends in the Savage & Whitefriars2—especially Henry Lee, if he will only be good & not so lazy & tell me what amount of money it was I once borrowed of him ‸in‸ Paris & told Dolby to repay him & Dolby writes that he forgot it3—& I’ve forgotten the amount & Lee is too indolent to drop me a line—& I never will borrow money from such a lazy man again! I think Lee means to “lay low & keep dark” & get rich on the interest. A literary child has no show with one of those old cunning financial frauds.

Ys Truly

Samℓ. L. Clemens

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1Clemens remained in New York for the second performance of Ah Sin on 1 August, then left the following day. Before returning to Elmira, he stopped briefly in Hartford. This undated letter was written after 1873, when the Clemenses traveled to Paris (see note 3), and before 1879, when George Manville Fenn (1831–1909), a prolific English novelist and author of boys’ books, ceased to be the editor and proprietor of Once a Week (London), for which he evidently had requested a contribution The only year in that time span when Clemens is known to have been in Hartford on 2 August is 1877.

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2In 1872 and 1873, when Clemens was in London, he was befriended by members of the Savage and Whitefriars clubs. He attended their dinners, where he was invited to speak (L5, passim).

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3Clemens and his wife visited Paris in the fall of 1873, accompanied by Lee, the naturalist of the Brighton (England) Aquarium. His loan was no doubt occasioned by the Clemenses’ need for money after their bank failed and suspended payment. George Dolby was Clemens’s English lecture agent (L5: 15 Sept 1872 to OLC, 159–60; 25 or 26 Sept 1873 to Lee, 443–44; 22 Nov 1873 to Lee, 481).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Cyril Clemens Collection, CtHMTH.

Previous publication:

MicroPUL, reel 1.

Provenance:

Donated in 1984 by Cyril Clemens.

Emendations and textual notes:

Mr. Dear • [sic]

now-a-day-s • [sic]