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

To Clara L. Clemens
16 July 1877 • New York, N.Y.
(MS, envelope only: Sotheby’s, New York,
October 1996, UCCL 11992)

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Miss Clara Botheker Clemens1 | Care J. Langdon & Co | Elmira | N. Y. [postmarked:] new-york e jul 16 10 am

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1“Botheker” was one of the many names that, according to a family joke, Clara had acquired in infancy from a series of wet nurses. Clemens listed them all in “A Record of the Small Foolishnesses of Susie and ‘Bay’ Clemens (Infants)”: “Clara Langdon Lewis O’Day Botheker McAleer McLaughlin Clemens” (FamSk, 54).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, envelope only, collection of Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs, seen at Sotheby’s, New York, while awaiting sale in October 1996.

glyph Previous publication:

Christie’s catalog, 17 May 1991, lot 90, partial publication; Sotheby’s catalog, 29 October 1996, lot 210, partial publication.

glyph Provenance:

The envelope was among the letters which, in the 1950s, Clara Clemens Samossoud gave or sold to Chester L. Davis, Sr. After his death in 1987, it became part of the collection of Chester L. Davis, Jr. The envelope was sold by Christie’s in 1991 to James Lowe, who in turn sold it to the Jacobses later that year. The Jacobs collection was sold by Sotheby’s on 29 October 1996.