If nothing happens, I suppose we shall be so far away from here in July that we◇ can’t
attend that jolly gathering; but we are magnanimous enough to hope you & Mrs. Barnum
will have a royal good time, even
though we lose our share.2explanatory note We hope to enjoy your hospitality another time. With ourⒶemendation kindest wishes for you both
X
Yrs Truly
S. L. Clemens
letter docketed by Barnum Mark Twain
Textual Commentary
7 June 1875 • To
P. T. Barnum
• Hartford, Conn. • UCCL01240
Source text(s):
MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
(ViU)
Previous Publication:
L6, 491–92.
Provenance:
deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 15 May 1962.
Barnum first urged the Clemenses on 23 March to pay a visit to his summer home, Waldemere,
in Bridgeport,
Connecticut: “You must not creep and crawl and sweat out of giving us at least a week’s
visit with your wife when the weather is warmer.” He made the invitation more specific
on 4 June (both letters in CU-MARK):
UCLC32183
seal of the city of bridgeport incorporated 1836 mayor’s office.
bridgeport, ct June 4 1875
My dear Clemens
I want you surely to come and spend 5th of July with us. We
have nobody except ourselves & my married daughters who live in cottages close by,
except your townsman David Clark, who
always comes on that occasion, it being my birth day. This year instead of being my 45th I am very sorry to say it is my 65th! We have dinner & a clam
bake in the grove on my place and a quiet social time. My wife joins me in hoping
the health of your wife will enable her to accompany
you.
P. T. Barnum
P. S. The “queer letters” are accumulating.
Barnum had been elected to a one-year term as mayor on 5 April 1875. Waldemere, the
second opulent mansion he built in
Bridgeport, was completed in 1869, more than ten years after his first one was destroyed
in a fire. Two of his daughters by his
first wife, the former Charity Hallett, who had died in 1873 lived in cottages on
the extensive grounds. Caroline Cordelia (b. 1833)
was married to David W. Thompson, a bookkeeper; Pauline (1846–77) was married to Nathan
Seeley. Barnum married his much
younger second wife, the former Nancy Fish (1850–1927), in September 1874. David Clark,
a owner of the Hartford Morning Post, was one of Clemens’s fellow directors the Hartford Accident Insurance Company (see
pp.
171–72; Saxon, 35-36, 46, 150, 191, 201, 212, 214, 253, 263, 266,
330, 394 n. 31; Trumbull Geer: 1874, 292; 1875, 294).
MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU)
L6 , 491–92.
deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 15 May 1962.