Mark Twain Project :: Letters :: : an electronic text

To James B. Pond
19 June 1877 • Elmira, N.Y.
(Lyceum 1877–78, p. 2, UCCL 11871)

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[Elmira], N. Y., June 19, 1877.

[My Dear Pond]:

Can’t lecture till the [revises] come. They [haven’t] arrived yet. Am summering here in calm contentment, far from the platform [&] its seductions. Long may you wave!1

Yours sincerely,

[Mark.]

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1Pond and George H. Hathaway had purchased the Redpath Lyceum Bureau from James Redpath in October 1875. In publishing this letter in their circular, the bureau noted that it was in response to its offer of a lecture fee of “three hundred dollars” a night (Lyceum 1877–78, 2). This would have been a much higher fee than Clemens had earned in any of his earlier platform tours managed by the bureau (L6: 23 Feb 1874 to Redpath, 43 n. 1; 22 Sept 1875 to Redpath, 541 n. 6).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

Lyceum 1877–78, 2.

glyph Emendations and textual notes:

Elmira • Elmira

My Dear Pond • My Dear Pond

revises • reverses [Pond apparently misread the word ‘reverses’ when he transcribed Clemens’s unrecovered manuscript]

haven’t • have n’t

& • and

Mark. • “MARK.”