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
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Very Yours (In great Haste)
Joseph Hatton
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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).