To Mary Mason Fairbanks
17 August 1868 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: CSmH, UCCL 02745)

Hartford, Aug. 17.

My Dear Mother=

You didn’t answer my letter from New York. Suppose you are mad about something. You’ll get over it—that is all [right.

It ]is very late—been writing a letter to Chicago Republican.1 Shall leave for New York tomorrow.2 Shall be there 3 to 5 days. Then shall spend a few days with the other cub3 in Elmira—& then both of us will go to Cleveland to see the old bear.4 Good-bye.

[ M ]Yrs

Sam Clemens

Mrs. Mary M. Fairbanks | Care Daily Herald | Cleveland | Ohio [return address:] from | american publishing co., | hartford, conn. | if not called for within | ten days, please return. [postmarked:] hartford conn. aug 17

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens’s dispatch of 17 August to the Chicago Republican discussed the recent increase in emigration to California, described the busy railroad linking Panama City with Aspinwall, and gave an account of what turned out to be his final meeting with Captain Edgar (Ned) Wakeman, the garrulous seaman who inspired his literary interest for many years (SLC 1868 [MT00747]; L1, 370 n. 8; for Wakeman, see N&J1, 241–43). Clemens ended the letter with a flattering description of Hartford and a request to direct his mail to the “Everett House, Union Square” during his upcoming visit to the Midwest.

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2 Since on the morning of 18 August Clemens was reported at the Everett House, he presumably took a late train on 17 (not 18) August (“The City,” New York Tribune, 18 Aug 68, 8).

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3 Charles J. Langdon.

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4 Mary Mason Fairbanks.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif. (CSmH, call no. HM 14231).

Previous publication: L2, 241–242; MTMF, 36.

Provenance:see Huntington Library, p. 512. □

Emendations and textual notes:

right. [¶] It • right.— | [¶] It

M • [partly formed]