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Add to My Citations To James Redpath
9 July 1869 • Elmira, N.Y.
(Transcripts: CU-MARK and Merwin-Clayton, lot 125, UCCL 00325)
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[j. langdon,] miner & dealer in anthracite &
em spaceem spaceem spaceem spaceem spaceem spaceem spaceem spaceem spaceem spaceem spaceem space bituminous coal officeem spaceno. 6 baldwin street

elmira, n.y.July 9, 186 9.

]

Dear Sir:

I failed to get the letter you speak of. Yes, put me down for the Boston lecture you speak of, by all means. Put me down for any time & place without consulting me—for without doubt I shall leave for California about 1st August. I go partly to advertise myself for in New England by newspaper letters.1 What Boston paper shall—what newspaper big gun—had I better write for? Will you speak to me of them about it? No matter about the price—let them pay what they think is [fair.]

[Yrs—in haste—

Samℓ. L. Clemens ]

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

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1 Redpath’s letter does not survive. Clemens was preparing for his long-contemplated trip to California. Evidently he had asked John J. Murphy, the San Francisco Alta California’s New York business agent, who had expedited his Quaker City assignment in 1867 (see L2, 22–24), for assistance. Murphy replied on 12 July: “I have been waiting to see Huntington [Collis P. Huntington, one of the proprietors of the Central Pacific Railroad] for some time. ... It is more than probable that I can get you a pass on the Central, but improbabl[e] that I can do any more. ... You can write for the Alta whenever you have time and inclination and it will be all right” (CU-MARK). About this time Clemens also wrote to Petroleum V. Nasby, inviting him along to give his “Cussed be Canaan” lecture. On 14 July Nasby responded:

My good friend Clemens:—your letter came duly to hand As I had no idea of going to the Pacific this season your proposition takes my breath away. If I had my new lecture completed I wouldn’t hesitate a minute, but really isn’t “Cussed be Canaan” too old? ...

Give me a week to think of your proposition. If I can jerk a lecture in time I will go with you. The Lord knows I would like to. I will give you a definite answer yes or no within a weekem space(CU-MARK; published with omissions in MTB, 1:385–86)

Ultimately neither man made the trip west. (For Clemens’s opinion of “Cussed be Canaan,” see 10 Mar 69 to OLL and CJL, n. 1.)



glyphglyphSource text(s):glyph
P1Transcript, CU-MARK
P2 Merwin-Clayton, lot 125
P1, a photocopy of a handwritten transcription in an unidentified hand, is sole copy-text for most of the letter (282.1–10 and 282.12–13, ‘j. langdon ... it?’ and ‘Yrs ... Clemens’), Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). The remainder is based on P1 and P2, each of which derives independently from the original MS.

glyphglyphPrevious publication:glyph L3, 282; none known other than P2.

glyphglyphProvenance:glyphThe location of the MS, which was sold in 1906 by the Merwin-Clayton Sales Company, is not known. The handwritten transcription was once part of the Tufts Collection (see pp. 587–88). From 1977 to 1987 it was in the possession of Theodore H. Koundakjian, who provided a photocopy to CU-MARK. It is now at Iwaki Meisei University, Iwaki, Japan. The transcript is written on a sheet of paper with the letterhead “the s.f. examiner ǀ san francisco.”

glyphglyphEmendations, adopted readings, and textual notes:glyph

P1, a photocopy of a handwritten transcription in an unidentified hand, is sole copy-text for most of the letter (282.1–10 and 282.12–13, ‘j. langdon ... it?’ and ‘Yrs ... Clemens’), Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). The remainder is based on P1 and P2, each of which derives independently from the original MS.


j. langdon ... it? (P1) • [not in] (P2) j. langdon ... July 9, 186 9 • J. (or I) Langdon | Miner & Dealer In | Anthracite & Bituminous Coal | Office | No 6 Baldwin Street | Elmira N. Y. July 9, 1869 [text of letterhead adopted in part from 26 June 69 to Reid] (P1)

fair. (P2) • fair‸ (P1)

Yrs ... Clemens (P1) • [not in] (P2)