Mark Twain: April Fool, 1884
Edited by Leslie Myrick and Christopher Ohge
Stillman S. Conant? to Samuel L. Clemens
31 March 1884 • Washington, D.C.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCLC 41973)
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Brooklyn Mch 31 /84
Señor Don Samuel Clemens— HartfordMuy Señor mio—
He emprendido un viage desde un Pais muy lejano, lleno de peligros y vicisitudes, con el solo objeto de dirigirle hoy esta carta, y rogarle me mando su autografo para conservarlo en esta vida y en la venidera en la página mas prominente de mi album.
Esperando no desatenderá mi peticion, soy de ud,[1]
S. S. Q. B. S. M.
Quixote de la Mancha
22 Willow St Brooklyn N. Y.
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Samuel Clemens Esqr. | Hartford | Conn.
[postmarked:] brooklyn n.y. mar 31 84 10 30 pm
[docketed by SLC, in pencil:] Spanish
Explanatory Notes
Textual Commentary
▮ Copy-text: The Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
Persons Mentioned
Stillman S. Conant (1831–1885)
Stillman S. Conant was a journalist who contributed to several prominent periodicals of the day, including the Galaxy, to which Clemens also contributed. He also translated into English (from a German translation) Mikhail Lermontov's poem The Circassian Boy (Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1875). In 1869 he became the managing editor of Harper's Weekly, a position he held until 1885, when he disappeared off the coast of Coney Island. In 1890 the New York Times reported the discovery of a skeleton in the dunes near Rockaway Beach that was believed to be Conant, but that was never verified ("A Skeleton in the Dunes: The Disappearance of Stillman S. Conant Recalled," New York Times, 14 December 1890, 8).