“Yours truly, Mark Twain”: Letters
Mark Twain was a prolific letter writer. From his early days as a riverboat pilot through his last days in Bermuda, Twain corresponded with friends, family, and admirers. This broad medium demonstrates the full range of Twain’s—and Clemens’s—personality: some show the comedic persona on full display, while others provide glimpses into the man behind the name.
Samuel L. Clemens. Autograph letter signed (“Sam. Clemens”) to Elizabeth W. Smith (“Aunt Betsey”). St. Louis, [October 13?], 1859.
Clemens was a twenty-three-year-old riverboat pilot when he wrote this letter to Elizabeth W. Smith, a family friend from Missouri whom he referred to as “Aunt Betsey.” He comments on a romantic attachment: “All the family are well except myself—I am in a bad way again—disease, Love, in its most malignant form. Hopes are entertained of my recovery, however.” This is one of the earliest Mark Twain letters held in a private collection.
Samuel L. Clemens. Autograph letter signed “S. L. Clemens” to Elisha Bliss, Jr. Hartford, February 19, [1874].
In this letter, Twain offers a humorous reply to Rufus Hatch, managing director of a steamship company, who had requested copies of Twain’s publications to stock his fleet’s onboard libraries. Twain responds that Bliss should send the books in exchange for “disposing” of a troublesome (fictional) relative: “See that my poor old excellent but imperishable aunt Rachel is shipped westward in the slowest & rottenest craft Mr. Hatch can furnish, even if he has to charter one from some other company; & finally, that you personally superintend the embalming of my aunt—for that, you understand, is the main thing.”
Mark Twain. Autograph letter signed “Mark” to Elisha Bliss, Jr. Buffalo, N.Y., October 29, [1870].
In this letter to his publisher, Twain humorously disparages Albert S. Evans, who had authored a book about his travels in Mexico, while requesting research materials for Roughing It: “Colonel Albert S. Evans!. . .Who made him a Colonel? . . . A one-horse newspaper reporter, who has been trying all his life to make a joke & never has & never will succeed. A Colonel! He would run from a sheep.”
Samuel L. Clemens. Autograph manuscript, “To the Bride” [and] “S’klk! G’lang!” [N.p.], September 1, 1886.
When Olivia Clemens’s childhood friend Clara Spaulding was married in 1886, Clemens honored her with a pair of horse-car tickets, along with this cover letter and a “loving though humble and squalid poem.” The poem humorously describes Christopher Columbus, the prophet Elijah, and others who had the courage to “take a ride.”
Samuel L. Clemens. Autograph note, “To the Precious Invalid.” [Riverdale, N.Y., ca. 1902-1903.]
Following a heart attack in 1902, Olivia Clemens’ doctors advised that she avoid seeing her husband or other family members lest the excitement of visitors cause her condition to worsen. Samuel Clemens communicated with her via notes during this period, and in this charming series of manuscripts devises a code to keep the content of his letters away from the prying eyes of his children.
Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library
Mark Twain. “To My Guests” [broadside]. Redding, Connecticut: October 7, 1908. Signed and inscribed by Twain.
Clemens moved to Stormfield, his home in Redding, Connecticut, in 1908, and helped create the town library with a large donation of books from his personal library. In this humorous broadside given to visitors to Stormfield, he notes that there was only “one detail lacking: a building for the library . . . It seems best to use coercion in this case. Therefore I have levied a tax— a GUESTS’ MARK TWAIN LIBRARY BUILDING TAX, of one dollar, not upon the valuable sex, but only upon the other one. Guests of the valuable sex are tax-free, and shall so remain; but guests of the other sex must pay, whether they are willing or not.”
Samuel L. Clemens. Autograph letter signed (“S. L. Clemens”) to Andrew H. H. Dawson. Hartford, November 26, [1879].
A letter to Georgia politician Andrew Dawson regarding A Tramp Abroad in which Clemens humorously pretends not to be able to spell “hellfire”: “I am in trouble again with my helfiard book. (There—I have probably spelt that word wrong again. Mr. Beecher tried a million times, if he tried once, to teach me how to spell that simple, every-day word, but somehow I never could seem to get the hang of it. I cannot use it with any sort of confidence especially in print.)”
Napoleon Sarony. Cabinet card photograph of Mark Twain. New York, 1893.
Twain signed this photograph taken by celebrity photographer Napoleon Sarony, “This is the very worst!”
Samuel L. Clemens. Autograph postcard signed (“S.L.C.”) to Frank or Elisha Bliss, Jr. [Vienna, Austria, February 11, 1898.]
Both during his lifetime and today, Mark Twain was well known for his maxims: quotations that are simultaneously brief, humorous, and wise. Clemens sent this postcard to his publisher, proposing that they issue a series of similar postcards accompanied by a series of quotations that he had already assembled.
Samuel L. Clemens. Autograph letter signed (“Father”) to Clara Clemens. London, June 30, 1907.
Clemens writes to his daughter, describing the program of events at the ceremony for the awarding of his honorary doctoral degree from Oxford University.
Photograph of Clara Clemens and Susy Clemens in The Prince and the Pauper: A Tale for Young People of All Ages. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882.
Clemens dedicated The Prince and the Pauper to his daughters, Clara and Susy. This copy has a bound-in photograph of the two children, bearing inscriptions from both Samuel and Livy Clemens on the verso, facing the dedication page. After Susy’s death at the age of 24 in 1896, Clemens used black-bordered mourning stationery for the rest of his life.
Samuel L. Clemens. Autograph letter signed (“S. L. Clemens”) to Robert Barr. Weggis, Switzerland, [September 16–30], 1897.
Clemens writes to his contemporary Robert Barr, praising his novel A Woman Intervenes (1896) and reflecting on the qualities of a good novel: “honest, simple, straight-forward, unostentatious, unbruffled; barren of impertinences & familiarities; dignified, refined, self-respectful & respectful toward the reader; bright, snappy, humorous, moving.”
Autograph letter signed (“Mark Twain”) to Lilian G. Kimball. Riverdale, N.Y., March 2, 1902.
Twain reflects on life being “only one long Accident, nothing more,” noting that “it begins with the Accidents of birth— place, sex, social degree & the formidable & much-determining Accident of Environment.”
Autograph letter signed (“Mark Twain”) and (“Mark”) to Richard Gilder. Leypone, India, March 12, 1896.
Twain wrote this two-part letter to the editor of The Century Magazine while on his fundraising Around the World Tour in India. The first part of the letter, which is signed “Mark Twain,” is a travel essay based on the author’s experiences in India. The second part, which is marked “private” and signed “Mark,” details a cost-effective publication plan for the public part of the letter.
Samuel L. Clemens. Autograph receipt and “For Sale.” [Bermuda], March 6 [and ca. March 7–28], 1910.
These two handwritten documents on a single folded sheet are some of the final writings in Clemens’s hand. Clemens spent the final months of his life at the home of William H. Allen in Bermuda. In the first document, Clemens writes out a receipt to Allen’s daughter Helen, in which she affirms that he had given her two dollars
and forty cents in exchange for her “promise to believe everything he says hereafter.” Sometime over the course of the next few weeks, he added text to the sheet offering this promise for sale, since his declining health was quickly diminishing its value: “it will keep but only a little while in this kind of weather & is a kind of proppity—that don’t give a dam for cold storage nohow.” Even in his final days, Clemens’s sense of humor was undiminished.
Isabel Lyon. Photograph of Samuel Clemens and Helen Allen. Bermuda, 1908.
Clemens made several trips to Bermuda in the final years of his life, in hopes that the warm climate would have a positive effect on his health. He is pictured here swimming with Helen Allen, daughter of his host, William H. Allen.