Mark Twain: April Fool, 1884
Edited by Leslie Myrick and Christopher Ohge
Austin C. Dunham to Samuel L. Clemens
31 March 1884 • Boston, Mass.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCLC 41863)
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Boston March 31st/84
My dear Clemens
I am seized with a longing to grasp your handwriting. Will you kindly send me your autograph which I will embalm & perfume & think of you as a ready writer with gratitude & joy
Sincerely Yours
A. C. Dunham Wool Gatherer.
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Saml L. Clemens Esq | Hartford | Conn
[return address:] tremont house, | boston. | silas gurney & co.
[postmarked:] boston mass. mar 31 12 pm 84
[docketed by SLC, in pencil:] Dunham
Textual Commentary
▮ Copy-text: The Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
Persons Mentioned
Austin Cornelius Dunham (1833–1917)
Austin Dunham was a wool merchant, inventor, and president of the Hartford Electric Light Company. In 1870 he joined the Monday Evening Club, where Clemens had read before (see Clemens's 11 January 1876 letter to William Dean Howells at MTPO). The Dunhams were also good friends with Clemens's friend and collaborator Charles Dudley Warner.