Letter written and signed by Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) to Mr. McElroy, March 10, 1874
Author Samuel Clemens, appearing under his pseudonym Mark Twain, performed on the lecture circuit throughout his career and “…gave more than 450 lectures or readings to paying audiences and approximately 385 speeches in public.” [1] At the time this letter was written, Twain was known for his short stories, travel dispatches, and as a popular speaker on the lecture circuit. But his promise of “no present idea ^or intention^ of ever standing on a lecture platform again” would prove a short-lived one as Clemens would be compelled to return to the grueling lecture circuit again and again throughout his long career.
“The second half of the nineteenth century was a golden age of lecturing and speeches, and Mark Twain established himself as one of the most popular lecturers and speakers of his time. Throughout the country, there was a wide network of speakers on religion, culture, social issues, literature, and the arts. Twain first gave lectures in the late 1860s, and he returned to the lecture circuit when he needed money or when he was touting a new book, as he did in his 1884–85 lecture tour with George Washington Cable, which covered the Northeast and Midwest for over four months and thousands of miles. When he declared bankruptcy in the 1890s, his around-the-world lecture tour allowed him to pay off his debts in full, as well as to further spread his international reputation. He had a command of the stage and the audience that was gripping, eliciting riotous laughter, but also making people think about his comic but often acerbic comments on a variety of subjects.” [1]
About the Manuscript
Clemens delivered two lectures in Albany, New York, before this letter was written in 1874. “[He] delivered ‘Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands’ in Albany on 10 January 1870, and ‘Artemus Ward, Humorist’ on 28 November 1871. He may not have known McElroy (one of several McElroys in Albany in the early 1870s), who seems to have hoped that Clemens's recollection of a ‘pleasant occasion’ and its participants would be sufficient entrée for a lecture invitation.” [2]
Mch. 10. [1874]
^My^ Dear Mr. McElroy:
Yes I remember the pleasant occasion well & also the gentleman & the lady. And I wish the three of us might have another opportunity to assemble around the festive lunch table after another Albany lecture—but it may ^can^ not be, for I have no present idea ^or intention^ of ever standing on a lecture platform again.
With many thanks, for the compliment of the invitation
I am Ys Truly Saml. L . Clemens
“The ‘gentleman’ conceivably was one of the lecture committee members who served as Clemens's contacts in 1870 and 1871: Robert W. C. Mitchell, a bookkeeper, or Charles H. Burton, a dealer in vinegar and groceries. The ‘lady’ has not been even tentatively identified…” [2]
The letterhead bears the address of “Farmington Avenue, Hartford.” In red engraving ink. Of note, the letter is dated March 10, 1874, but the Clemens’ family would not move into their new home on Farmington Avenue, Hartford, until September 19‚ 1874—after many cost overruns and construction delays. “Mark Twain and his family enjoyed what the author would later call the happiest and most productive years of his life in their Hartford home.” [Mark Twain House and Museum.]
2 Pages (recto blank)
9” x 7” folded to 4.5” x 7”
A portion of the upper-left of the first page is missing and has been professionally patched.
Framed in an antique frame in keeping with the period when the letter was written, with museum-grade, UV-protecting non-glare acrylic.
——
1) Bird, John (Editor) (2019). Mark Twain in Context, Chapter 12—Lectures and Speeches. Cambridge University Press.
2) Twain, Mark (Author); Barry Frank, Michael (Editor); Smith, Harriet E. (Editor), Watson, Richard A. (Other) (2002). Mark Twain’s Letters: Volume 6 1874–1875, p. 65.
