To Henry M. Crane
3 September 1868 • Elmira, N.Y.
(MS: WU, UCCL 02749)

elmira, n.y. Sept 3, 1868

Dr Sir—

Your favor of Aug. 28 is just to hand. In reply, I must can say that I am willing to lecture, but I cannot tell just yet what the subject would be—either “Venice” or “California,” I think. You may set me down for some day in January, if you will—& let me know the date. As to terms, I only want your usual price—what is it? ‸My usual price is $100.‸ 1 My address, for the next 3 weeks, will be “1312 Chesnut street, St Louis, Mo.”

Yrs Truly

Sam. L. Clemens
(Mark Twain.)

C. M. Crane, Esq2 | Care Lincoln Literary Society | Rondout | New York. [postmarked:] elmira n.y. sep 5 [postage stamp removed] [return address] return to j. langdon, |elmira, n. y., |if not delivered within 10 days. [docketed:] Sept 1868 | Twain | Ansd 8th was marked for Jan 63 [and]

850

125

75

1050

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1 In November 1868 the New York Evening Post reported that the highest-paid speaker currently represented by the American Literary Bureau in New York was author and women’s-rights advocate Olive Logan, who earned up to $250 per lecture. Several other celebrities could command from $150 to $200 at this time, such as Henry Ward Beecher, Anna Dickinson, John Bartholomew Garth, and Horace Greeley. Clemens averaged $100 even during the 1869–70 season, and in 1871 still considered $150 a high fee (“The Price of Lectures,” New York Evening Post, 28 Nov 68, 2; Higginson, 54; Eubank, 134, 137; SLC to George L. Fall, 20 July 71, MTL, 1:189–90).

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2 Clemens’s difficulty in reading Crane’s handwriting continued (see 20 May 67 to Crane), causing him to mistake Crane’s first initial, at least in addressing the envelope.

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3 Crane apparently first booked Clemens to lecture in Rondout on 6 January 1869. Clemens must have rescheduled his lecture in a later letter (now lost), since he actually performed in Rondout on 2 December 1868; in early January he was touring the Midwest.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Rare Book Department, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison (WU).

Previous publication: L2, 246–247.

Provenance:see Bassett Collection, p. 511.