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Elmira, Apl. 18.1
Dear Sir:
The speech on “Woman” was delivered very early in January, 1868, & was copied into all the papers during the month. A reference to files of the period will unearth it. I have no copy—I wish I had.2
Yrs Truly
Samℓ. L. Clemens.
Explanatory Notes
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1This letter has been assigned to 1871
because Clemens is known to have used stationery of its kind
intermittently between 6 September 1869 and 29 June 1871, and because he
was not in Elmira on 18 April in 1870.
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2Delivered on 11 January 1868 before the Washington Newspaper
Correspondents’ Club, Clemens’s response to the toast
“Woman: The Pride of the Professions, and the jewel of
ours,” was published from a phonographic transcript in the
Washington Evening Star on 13 January 1868 (SLC 1868). The following reprintings
have been located so far: “A Eulogy of Woman by ‘Mark
Twain,’” New York Evening Post,
15 Jan 68, 1; “Woman. Mark Twain’s Eulogy of the Fair
Sex,” St. Louis Missouri Republican, 22
Jan 68, 3; “Woman—Mark Twain’s Opinion of
Her,” Virginia City Territorial
Enterprise, 2 Feb 68, 1; “A Eulogy of Woman by
‘Mark Twain,’” San Francisco Examiner, 3 Feb 68, 1;
“Woman—Mark Twain’s Opinion of
Her,” Oakland News, 10 Apr 68, 4;
“Eulogy on Woman,” Excelsior Monthly
Magazine 1 (Aug 68): 99–100. Clemens sent a clipping of
the Evening Star printing to his mother on 14 January
1868, and a clipping of the Excelsior printing to
Elisha Bliss on 3 September 1868 (L2, 131–32 n. 5, 155–57, 245 n. 1,
415–16).
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MS, Cyril Clemens Collection, Mark Twain House, Hartford (CtHMTH).
Previous publication:
L4, 380.
Provenance:
donated to CtHMTH in 1984 by Cyril Clemens.