Mark Twain: April Fool, 1884
Edited by Leslie Myrick and Christopher Ohge
Full size in new window
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]
View Page
Full size in new window
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
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.