Letter from Helena Modjeska to Samuel L. Clemens : an electronic text MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). 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 to Hartford.Modjeska finished a three-week engagement in New York on 1 March, appeared for one matinee at the Madison Square Theater on 6 March, and performed in New Haven on 17 March, which places her visit to Hartford around 16 March. She left for Europe on 7 June for a sixteen-month farewell European tour, which included appearances in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Saint Petersburg, and Krakow ("On the Crowded Steamers," New York Sun, 8 June 1884, 1).

Mrs. Clemens told [me] you were not well then.Clemens had been suffering from gout. See SLC to Osgood, 20 March 1884. 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 the following address:

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,The editors thank UC Berkeley librarian Liladhar Pendse and UCLA professor Roman Koropeckyj for their help with this letter. The final transcription and translation were kindly provided by Professor Koropeckyj, who translates as follows: Wielmożna [form of honorific address] Helena Chłapowska (Modrejewska) w Krakowie [in Krakow] Na ulicy Mikołajskiej w domie W-go Myśliwca [On Mikołajska St. in the home of Mr. Myśliwiec] Na ręce [for] Wielmożnej Jósefy Bendowej [mother of M, who was born after the death of the latter’s husband, Szymon] Europe. Austria Galizien Berlin—Breslaw
Your great admirer, Helena ModjeskaFellow April Fool letter writer Clara Louise Kellogg credits her correspondence with Jeannette Gilder, upon seeing Modjeska perform in Sacramento, with the arrangements that led to Modjeska's eastern tour (Memoirs of an American Prima Donna, 282). Once in New York, Modjeska was embraced by the Gilder-de Kay circle. (See, for instance, Charles de Kay, "Modjeska," Scribner's Monthly, [March 1879]: 665–71). April 1st 1884. S. L. Clemens Esqre | Hartford | (Conn.) u.s. ◇◇◇◇apr 1 ◇◇◇ docketed by SLC, in pencil: Modjeska