Mark Twain: April Fool, 1884
Edited by Leslie Myrick and Christopher Ohge
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Helena Modjeska to Samuel L. Clemens
1 April 1884 • New York, N.Y.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCLC 41993)
HCM
Dear Mr. Clemens
Before I leave for Europe I want to tell you how sorry I have been for not seeing you this time when I paid a short visit
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Mrs. Clemens told [me] you were not well then.[2] I hope you feel better now and will be able to grant my request.
I know it will be rather an annoyance, but, Oh! I wish so much to possess Mark Twain’s autograph.
Will you, pray, send it to me under View Page
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Wielmożna Helena Chłapowska
(Modrejewska)
w Krakowie
Na ulicy Mikołajskiej w domie
W-go Myśliwca.
Na ręce Wielmożnej Jósefy
Bendowej.
Europe. Austria Galizien,
Via Berlin—Breslaw, and oblige,[3]
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Your great admirer,
Helena Modjeska[4]
April 1st 1884.
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S. L. Clemens Esqre | Hartford | (Conn.) [postmarked:] u.s. ◇◇◇◇apr 1 ◇◇◇
[docketed by SLC, in pencil:] Modjeska
Explanatory Notes
Textual Commentary
▮ Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
Persons Mentioned
Helena Modjeska (1840–1909)
Helena Modjeska, whose name on her birth certificate was Jadwiga Benda, was baptized Helena Opid in Krakow. She took as her stage name a simplified version of the stage name of her first husband, Gustaw Zimajer, who went by “Gustaw Modrzejewski.” Under his management she solidified her reputation as the leading tragic actress on the Polish stage. In 1875 she emigrated to California with her second husband, Karol Bozenta Chlapowski. She eventually made her way to the New York stage, with the support of the Gilder circle. After three years in London she returned to New York with further accolades. She retired from the stage in 1907 (Modjeska, Memories and Impressions of Helena Modjeska [New York: Macmillan, 1910]; New York Times, 9 April 1909).