To George H. Fitzgibbon
19 June 1873 • London, England
(MS: NN-B, UCCL 00929)

Edwards’ Hotel
June 19.

My Dear Fitz Gibbon:

You must pardon my delay. I have been to [ b ]Belgium to help write up the Shah for the N. Y. Herald—got back last evening & have already mailed 2 long letters & am starting in on a few more. Can’t see Parliament or any place till I get the Shah off my hands & out of the country.

I have tried to make up my mind to deliver my New York lecture on the Sandwich Islands here, ‸(in London)‸ but I can’t—so I have dismissed the subject from my mind at present & don’t know whether I shall talk or not. But in any event, I would not be likely to lecture outside of London because I could not spare the time.

I had no idea of writing any newspaper letters while here, but I got fascinated with this Shah business & took a sudden notion to sally out for the Herald.

My novel ( “The Gilded Age” (written by Chas. Dudley Warner & myself) will be published simultaneously here & in America in the coming autumn.1

These are all the facts in the case of yours truly. Hope to see you when this press of writing is over. We go to the Langham h Hotel next Wednesday to live. My wife likes this awfully [ quil quiet ]place but I don’t. I prefer a little more excitement.2

With warm regards,
Ys

S. L. Clemens.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens’s first two letters on the shah, written on 18 and 19 June, appeared in the New York Herald on 1 and 4 July. The last three, written on 21, 26, and 30 June, were published on 9, 11, and 19 July (SLC 1873 [MT01123], 1873 [MT01224], 1873 [MT01125], 1873 [MT01126], 1873 [MT01127]). As the London correspondent for the Darlington Northern Echo, Fitzgibbon reported on the proceedings in Parliament; he had evidently invited Clemens to accompany him to a session. He must also have asked Clemens about his plans in order to report them for his newspaper. He used this letter to prepare the following paragraph, published on 21 June:

I am very much afraid it will be some time before Mark Twain can lecture anywhere out of London. He has been interviewing the Shah, and accompanying him in Belgium, and from Belgium to London. He has only just returned to London. The result of his personal experience of the Shah is to be published in the New York Herald. He will be so busily occupied for some time, that he has given up for the present his idea of lecturing even in London. His new novel, “The Gilded Age,” will be published next autumn, simultaneously in England and America. (Fitzgibbon 1873)

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2 According to Thompson, Clemens and Olivia “foun[d] the private hotel, although about as expensive as a first class hotel, was not so convenient for some things; for instance there was no billiard room, and billiards was Clemens’ chief exercise. ... they moved to the Langham Hotel where he had stopped before” (Thompson, 99).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B).

Previous publication: L5, 385–386.

Provenance:The MS was owned by businessman William T. H. Howe (1874–1939); in 1940 Dr. A. A. Berg bought and donated the Howe Collection to NN.

Emendations and textual notes:

b • [partly formed]

quil quiet • quilet