Clemens, Samuel L.:

$3,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED ("S. L. CLEMENS"), TO HIS PUBLISHER, JAMES R. OSGOOD]. To James R. Osgood, then principal of Osgood & Company and publisher of The Prince and the Pauper and other titles by Clemens and his contemporaries, on the occasion of George W. Cable's appearances in Hartford:"Cable read Parson Jones before the Young Girls' Club & scored a rattling victory. They have made it the talk of Hartford. The Warners are gathering a crowd for tonight & when Cable is through with them his stock will be away up, & the memory of his defeat will be sponged out & forgotten. He knows how to read - there ain't no question about it...."Cable arrived in Hartford on April 2, and stayed with C. Dudley Warner; during the course of his six days in Hartford, he spoke or read at several public or private venues, including a reading at Unity Hall on the 4th, where Clemens introduced him, but the reading went poorly. As indicated in Clemens' letter, he vindicated himself with a reading on the 5th. Clemens concludes his letter with a troubling paragraph about Livy Clemens' deteriorating health, closing: "I am uneasy & bothered. Yrs truly SL Clemens."

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