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Mark Twain: April Fool, 1884

Edited by Leslie Myrick and Christopher Ohge

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Wesley Sisson to Samuel L. Clemens
31 March 1884 • New York, N.Y.
(TS: CU-MARK, UCLC 41978)

madison square theatre

Mr. m. h. mallory, proprietor.

daniel frohman, - manager

new york Mar. 31, 1884.

Samuel L. Clemens, Esq., Hartford, Conn.

Dear Sir:—

Will you kindly send me your autograph on this sheet of paper and much oblige.

Yours truly,

Wesley Sisson / Per C[1]

alt

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Samuel L. Clemens Esq | Hartford | Conn. [return address:] madison square theatre | new york | mr. m. mallory, . . . proprietor [postmarked:] new york apr 1 6 30 am e 84 [docketed by SLC, in pencil:] Sisson

Explanatory Notes

1. This is the only extant letter (aside from telegrams) that is typed by a secretary, i.e., not a holograph offered in exchange for Clemens's. [back]


Textual Commentary

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

Persons Mentioned

Wesley E. Sisson  (1855–?)

Wesley Sisson practiced law with his brother in Chicago from 1876 until 1881, when he moved to New York City to pursue a career in theatrical management. He was the assistant manager of the Madison Square Theatre in the 1880s, with concurrent management interests in the Lyceum and Criterion Theaters. He also managed tours for several companies, including those of Clara Morris, and Thomas and Alessandro Salvini. In 1891 he moved with his family back to Chicago to return to his law practice, while exploring prospects for building a new theater on the South Side. By 1890 they had moved back east again, to Mount Vernon, N.Y., where Sisson is listed in the 1910 census as secretary of the Postal Life Insurance Company, a position which he held until he retired.