May 04, 2017 - Sale 2446

Sale 2446 - Lot 414

Price Realized: $ 2,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
TWAIN, MARK. Autograph Letter Signed, "Sam'l L. Clemens," to journalist Hiram J. Ramsdell ("Dear Ramsdell"), elaborately declining to deliver a lecture [to the Washington Correspondents' Club?]. 2 pages, 4to, "Boston Lyceum Bureau" stationery, ruled paper, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet; short closed separation at horizontal fold. (MRS) Boston, 23 November 1869
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". . . Confound it, I would a heap rather have lectured for the boys, of course--have always been laying for a chance to do it . . . . I am to talk in Washington for the G[rand] A[rmy of the] R[epublic], the only solitary night I have got left in the whole winter . . . .--therefore, you old rip, how can your servant lecture for the boys?
"But you better not write me down, you freebooters, & you better not tear down my bills, either, unless you want to stand a small trial for incest, or arson, or whatever the technical term for such a crime may be. Go slow!
"No, my boy, write me up--that is the way to achieve the affection & reverence of your country. Protect my bills (pay them, for instance) & uphold mine honor & my reputation. That is the way to bring down your gray hairs with satisfaction to the grave. . . ."
Published in Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 3: 1869, ed. Fischer, Frank. Berkley, 1992.