To Edwina Booth
8 April 1877 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS of inscription in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: ViU, UCCL 09285)

Some day, Miss Booth,1 when you (having become acquainted with my many virtues & merits,) shall come to like me as well as I already like you,) we two shall be a couple of right good friends. Then you will say, “I do not value this book because it has worth—since that is questionable—but I value it because Mr. C’s impulse was kindly & honest & I am satisfied that he would have sent me a much better one if he had been able to write it.” (And that will be just as true a thing as you ever said—mark my words!)

Truly Yours

Samℓ. L. Clemens

Hartford, Apl. 8/77.

Explanatory Notes

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1Edwina Booth (1861–1938), the daughter of Edwin Booth.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS inscription in SLC 1876c, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman Library, ViU. Clemens’s draft or fair copy MS of the letter is at VtMiM.

Previous publication:

University of Virginia 1969, 69.

Provenance:

The draft copy MS was acquired by VtMiM on 4 October 1938.