22 June 1869 • Hartford, Conn. (Transcript and paraphrase: Libbie, lot 372, UCCL 09743)
paraphrase: To Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican, asking if he will sell him a part interest in the paper.1explanatory note Since Ⓐemendation I have some reputation for joking, it is the part of wisdom to state that I am not joking this time—I am simply in search of a home. I must come to anchor Ⓐemendation
Samuel Bowles (1826–78) had been editor, reporter, and part-owner of the Springfield (Mass.) Daily Republican for most of the twenty-five years since its inception in 1844, and of the Weekly Republican for most of the eighteen years since the death of its founder, his father, Samuel Bowles (1797–1851). During the late 1850s, the Republican became nationally known for its support of a constitutional end to slavery, for its endorsement of the new Republican party, and for the quality and breadth of its news reporting. The New York Tribune called it “the best and ablest country journal ever published on this continent” ( DAB , 2:515). The combined circulation figures of the Daily, Weekly, and Semi-Weekly Republican were nearly 25,000 in 1869. Bowles and Clemens could have met in California in August 1865 (see 24 and 25 Nov 69 to OLL, n. 6click to open letter). They certainly met in October 1868, for on the twenty-second of that month Clemens informed the Alta California: “I saw Mr. Sam Bowles in Springfield yesterday. He is just back from his trip to the Mountains. He says his interest in the Pacific Coast remains unabated” (SLC 1868). The Republican’s city editor, Herbert L. Bridgman, recalled that meeting: “I’ll never forget how, in the dusk of one autumn evening, I heard ‘Joe’ Hawley’s cheery voice as he strode along through the outer offices to Mr. Bowles’s private room. ... ‘Sam, I want you to know this here man with me. He calls himself Mr. Clemens, but his real name is Mark Twain’” (Hooker, 125; “Obituary: Samuel Bowles, Journalist,” New York Times, 17 Jan 78, 4; Rowell, 48).
Transcript and paraphrase, Libbie, lot 372.
L3 , 267; none known except the copy-text.
Sometime after receipt, the letter became part of the collection of Franklin B. Sanborn (1831–1917), who was associated with the Springfield (Mass.) Republican from 1856 until 1914 (Hart 1983, 665). The MS was sold in 1918 and its present location is not known.
The Libbie catalog describes the MS as “CLEMENS, Samuel L. (‘Mark Twain’) a. l. s. in pencil, 1 page 12o, Hartford, June 22.” The inclusion of the pseudonym in quotation marks is catalog style and probably not indicative of how Clemens signed his name.