To
Charles Warren Stoddard
28? October 1877 • 1st of 5 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS, inscription in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: InU-Li, UCCL 09289)
To CW Stoddard
from his friend
S. L. Clemens
1877.1
Explanatory Notes
Shortly after Stoddard’s visit to Hartford, Clemens inscribed and sent him five of his books. In a letter of 31 October Stoddard acknowledged the gift, mentioning that it had been delivered by express delivery the previous evening. Given the typical two-day transit time for express mail, the conjectured date of the inscriptions is 28 October. Stoddard wrote (CU-MARK): Edward A. Spring (1837–1907) opened a sculpture studio in Eagleswood, New Jersey, in the 1860s. Specializing in terra cotta work, in 1877 he established the Eagleswood Art Pottery Company (Groce and Wallace 1957, 597). By the “photos of the Babies” and the “photo” in the next paragraph, Stoddard doubtless referred to one or both of the photographs of Susy and Clara taken in April 1876 by Isaac White (see 22 Apr 1876 to White).
Source text(s):Previous publication:
Lilly Library 1973, 42–43, 69, transcript and facsimile; Goodspeed’s Book Shop catalog, sale of unknown date, no. 250, ix; American Art Association catalog, sale of 20 January 1914, lot 59.
Provenance:
Part of Merle Johnson collection offered for sale by the American Art Association in 1914, the inscribed book eventually became part of the Nick Karanovich collection, which was dispersed or sold after his death in 2003.
