To Edward Hastings
17 February 1876 • Hartford, Conn.
(Paraphrase: Edward Hastings to SLC, 25 April 1876,
CU-MARK, UCCL 12943)

the national home for disabled volunteer soldiers.

managers:

the president of the united states. the chief justice. the secretary of war.—ex officio.

major-general benjamin f. butler, president, lowell, mass.

maj.-gen. john h. martindale, 1st v. p., rochester, n. y. hon. hugh l. bond, baltimore, maryland.

gov. frederick smyth, 2d v. p., manchester, n. h. dr. erastus b. wolcott, milwaukee, wis.

hon. louis b. gunckel, secretary, dayton, ohio. maj.-gen. thomas o. osborn, chicago, ill.

brig.-gen. john s. cavender, st. louis, mo. maj.-gen. james s. negley, pittsburgh, penn.

officers of southern branch:

capt. p. t. woodfin, deputy governor and treasurer.

dr. w. m. wright, surgeon and acting secretary. capt. h. keyes, steward.

elizabeth city county, va., April 25 187 6

Mark Twain, Hartford. Conn

Sir,

The frank cordiality and sincerity of your letter to me, dated February 17, assures me that you will not deem me presumptuous in asking you to gratify the eager expectation of our men to read your new book “Tom Sawyer”. I can truly say that your books have not reposed on [my ‸our‸] shelves one hour since I received them, but are in constant use, knowing which will, I am sure, please you much. You were right when you wrote that no American author would say “no” to my requests on behalf of my Comrades, who will have a respectable, if not a large, collection of books very soon.1 Of Mr Clemens my comrades know very little, but with Mark Twain they have formed an acquaintance; and feel for him a regard at once familiar and respectful, and they would all be pleased to have the opportunity of showing it.

With unfeigned respect I subscribe myself

Your obedient servant

Edward Hastings
Librarian

Reading-room

4. p.m.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

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1Clemens’s letter of 17 February is known to survive only as a brief paraphrase in this final request from Hastings. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was not published until December 1876, so Hastings presumably had been alerted to it by Howells’s early review in the Atlantic Monthly for May 1876, available by mid-April (Howells 1876b). “Answered,” Clemens wrote on Hastings’s envelope; his answer is also not known to survive.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

Paraphrase, Edward Hastings to SLC, 25 April 1876, CU-MARK, UCLC 32332.

Provenance:

See Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

my ‸our‸ • [sic]