Mark Twain: April Fool, 1884
Edited by Leslie Myrick and Christopher Ohge
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Laurence Hutton to
Samuel L. Clemens
31 March 1884 • New York, N.Y.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCLC 41955)
New York
31st March 1884
Samuel L Clemens Esq
Dear Sir
My great admiration for your character, as a man and of your genius as a writer, must be my excuse for addressing you. I am no ordinary autograph hunter. There is nothing mean about me. In my collection are the M.S.S. of all my own books. May I ask that you will make it a perfect collection by adding to it the original of one of your latest & most charming works—Jean for instance.[1]
Please forward to my address as below & oblige
Yours Very Respectfully
Laurence Hutton
229 W 34 thStreet.
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[in upper left:] Personal Samuel L. Clemens | Hartford | Conn. [postmarked:] new york mar 31 2 30 pm e 84 [docketed by SLC, in pencil:] Hutton [rule] | Wants | child
Explanatory Notes
Textual Commentary
▮ Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
Persons Mentioned
Laurence Hutton (1843–1904)
Editor and critic Laurence Hutton, one of a handful of friends whom Clemens addressed in letters by his nickname (“Larry”), served as drama critic of the Daily Evening Mail from 1872 to 1874 and literary critic of Harper's Magazine from 1886 to 1898. He compiled several important dramatic compendia, e.g., Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States, 5 vols. (1886–87), which he coedited with Brander Matthews. He was a founding member of the Authors and Players Clubs and of the American Copyright League. Hutton was also a notorious collector of death masks and association copies.