Details
CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE. Autograph letter signed ("Saml.") to his wife Livy in Saybrook, Conn., [New York] "Dan Slotes," 20 [August 1872]. 2 pages, square 8vo, on the blank sides of greenish-blue paper covers of a school exercise notebook (with printing on the other sides), slight fold tear, with original stamped envelope addressed by Clemens.
Written the day before Clemens sailed from New York for Liberpool on the Scotia. "...It just occurs to me -- how could you sleep on the shelf they call a berth, in a steamer? The thing is impossible. You would prefer your bath-tub at home, with a newspaper under you to soften it...I have bought a hat, & some books & other traps. I go aboard the ship at noon tomorrow. Presently I am going out to dine with John Hay, & the Harper's Drawerman & Will Carleton the farm-ballad writer. Bret Harte talks of going to Saybrook for a week."
Written the day before Clemens sailed from New York for Liberpool on the Scotia. "...It just occurs to me -- how could you sleep on the shelf they call a berth, in a steamer? The thing is impossible. You would prefer your bath-tub at home, with a newspaper under you to soften it...I have bought a hat, & some books & other traps. I go aboard the ship at noon tomorrow. Presently I am going out to dine with John Hay, & the Harper's Drawerman & Will Carleton the farm-ballad writer. Bret Harte talks of going to Saybrook for a week."