. . . .
The Prodigal in a far country chawing of husks,1
Sam. L. Clemens
P.S.—& with nobody to molest or keep him straight.
(!)mild exultation.
Explanatory Notes
And not many days after the younger son
gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country,
and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a
mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen
of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with
the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. Clemens could have written this letter, the body of which has not been
found, anytime between his arrival in San Francisco on 2 April and his
lecture there on 14 April, the income from which must have obviated any
need for “chawing of husks” (see 1 and 5 May 68
to Fairbanks). The likelihood is strong, in fact, that it was
written toward the beginning of this span of dates, perhaps to announce
his safe arrival in San Francisco.
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L2, 208; MTMF, 33, dated by Dixon Wecter, “in the midst of this
California sojourn.”
Provenance:see Huntington Library, p. 512.
