westminster hotel, cor. of irving place and
16th st. new york roberts
& palmer proprs
May 20, 1867.
Henry W. Creal, EsqI have received your kind note, & would gladly accept your invitation but that I am find myself so pressed for time, now, that I dare not do it.1 My newspaper correspondence has fallen so behindhand in these last few weeks that if I lose a single day I shall not catch up before I leave. A magazine article or two, still unfinished, must be attended to.
I was to have lectured in Brooklyn again, & even hired the Academy of Music, but inexorable duty to my employers in San Francisco compelled me to give the lecture up.
I know Rondout pretty well, through my old shipmate, Kingman,2 & I assure [ th ]you that I am sincerely sorry I cannot get up there this trip.
With many thanks,
I remain
Yrs Truly
Sam. L. Clemens
Henry W. Creal Esq | Sec’y Lincoln Literary Association | Rondout | N.Y. [postmarked:] new-york may 21 [postage stamp removed] [docketed:] “Mark Twain” | May 1867
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Source text(s):
Previous publication:
L2, 47–48.
Provenance:see Bassett Collection, p. 511.
Emendations and textual notes:
th • [partly formed]