Mark Twain: April Fool, 1884

Charles de Kay to Samuel L. Clemens
1 April 1884 • New York, N.Y.
(MS, correspondence card: CU-MARK, UCLC 41987)

The University^[1]

Washn Sq.

New York

My dear Mr Clemens

Hearing that you are collecting autographs, I take great pleasure in enclosing to you mine—and would be glad to have in return

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Yours!

Charles de Kay^[2]

April First 1884

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Full size in new window Saml L. Clemens, Esq | Hartford | Conn [postmarked:] new york apr [1] 6 am d 84 [docketed by SLC, in pencil:] Chas. De Kay

Explanatory Notes

1. Though not officially affiliated with the City University of New York (now New York University), de Kay lived in a tower of the old university building on Washington Square. [back]

2. De Kay had personally congratulated Clemens on his election as a founding member of the Authors Club (de Kay to SLC, 29 December 1882, CU-MARK). [back]

Textual Commentary

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

Persons Mentioned

Charles de Kay (1848–1935)

Charles de Kay was a poet, critic, and founder of the New York Fencers' Club. He took a degree at Yale and spent two years in the company of the literary and artistic celebrities who frequented the salon of his aunt Katherine de Kay Bronson in Paris and Venice. He was the art and literary critic for the New York Times from 1876 to 1894. He was also a founding member of the Authors Club in 1882 and of the National Arts Club in 1899. From 1894 to 1897 he served as consul general in Berlin.

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