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Mark Twain: April Fool, 1884

Edited by Leslie Myrick and Christopher Ohge

Joseph Hatton to Samuel L. Clemens
31 March 1884 • New York, N.Y.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCLC 41963)

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the lotus club

147 fifth avenue

March 31

My Dear Clemens,

I have one of your autographs. But I find life is not worth having without two. I want one to carry about with me on this side (the one I have is in London) especially as this weather is cold & windy. Will you View Page
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oblige me at once.

Very Yours (In great Haste)

Joseph Hatton

alt

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S. L. Clemens Esq | Hartford, | Conn— [postmarked:] new york ... mar ... 6 [docketed by SLC, in pencil:] Joseph Hatton | mention



Textual Commentary

Copy-text:The Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).

Persons Mentioned

Joseph Paul Christopher Hatton  (1841–1907)

Joseph Hatton was a journalist (notably for the Sunday Times) and prolific popular writer. In addition to writing over thirty novels and running a popular column called "Cigarette Papers," he published a biography in 1884 of Henry Irving after traveling with him on tour. In Hatton's book on Irving, he also established himself as an ally in Clemens's crusade for improved copyright laws between the United States and Great Britain (328–29). Just before he died, Hatton wrote on 7 July 1907 that recently "Mark Twain came to see me. I had got into the garden nicely packed up in blankets, and was asleep—that sort of dreamy sleep when you don't quite know whether you are asleep or awake. He was very kind and sympathetic, and we had a very pleasant chat" (M.A.P., 10 August 1907, 157–58).