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18 April 1871 • Elmira, N.Y.
(MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 11014)
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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

Sam. 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).



glyphglyphSource text(s):glyph
MS, Cyril Clemens Collection, Mark Twain House, Hartford (CtHMTH).

glyphglyphPrevious publication:glyph L4, 380.

glyphglyphProvenance:glyphdonated to CtHMTH in 1984 by Cyril Clemens.