To James B. Pond
27 September 1876 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: NN-BGC, UCCL 02506)
(SUPERSEDED)

‸ Private. ‸

Hartford, Sep. 27.

My Dear Pond:1

My lawyer has been examining things, & says it will not do for me to go to Philadelphia, Washington, or any place in that region.2

I told him to go to work & buy a compromise if possible. He will try to-day, & can give me an answer probably within a week.

Meantime, I want you ‸to‸ manage so as to have me released from those southern engagements if the compromise fails. If the compromise succeeds I’ll go to those places. If it fails I’ll have to be released. Will you ask Pugh & Washington to promise me release if the compromise fails?3

Ys Truly

S. L. Clemens

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1 As one of James Redpath’s successors in the Redpath Lyceum Bureau, Pond (1838–1903) was Clemens’s lecture agent (see L6, 541 n. 6).

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2 Clemens’s lawyer was Charles E. Perkins, of Hartford. He had advised exclusion of this part of the East from a planned reading tour because of Clemens’s legal entanglement with an old Baltimore adversary (see 11 Oct 76 to Pond).

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3 Thomas B. Pugh was the Philadelphia impresario and lecture manager who generally handled Clemens’s appearances there (L4, 239–40; L6, 328 n. 1). Clemens did read in Philadelphia, on 14 November (see 19 Oct 76 to Saunders, n. 2). No evidence has been found that he fulfilled any Washington or “southern” engagements.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Copy-text:

MS, NN-BGC.

Previous publication: MicroPUL, reel 1.

Provenance:It is not known when the MS became part of the Berg Collection, given by Dr. Albert A. Berg to NN in 1940, but continuously enlarged since then.