1 This offer, which works out to $833 per lecture, far exceeded the fees Clemens had earned during his 1868–72 lecture tours—usually $75–$150, but also, very infrequently, $200 or $250. He repeatedly claimed to have declined munificent offers, notice of which he thought useful in publicizing his books and lectures. Later in 1874 he reportedly refused a lucrative proposal from Redpath himself (25? Sept 74 to Redpath). He actually earned such large fees on only a few isolated occasions—an October 1866 lecture in Virginia City, Nevada, which probably paid him nearly $800; an April 1868 San Francisco lecture, which paid about $1,600; and a pair of February 1873 New York lectures, which together paid $1,300. The price Clemens could command may have increased as a result of the great success of his lectures in England in 1873 and 1874, but what he earned there is not known. No source for the present offer has been identified, but Redpath evidently did start the amount “afloat” in the Boston Advertiser of Tuesday, 3 March 1874:

(L2, 209 n. 2, 212; L3, 44 n. 2, 106 n. 2, 384 n. 9; L4, 133, 401 nn. 4, 6, 9; L5, 121, 123–24 n. 5, 128, 210 n. 8, 269, 270 n. 3, 274 n. 1 bottom, 281 n. 2, 319, 452–54 n. 2, 492–93, 682–83.)