Details
CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE. Autograph letter signed ("Saml.") to his wife Livy, in Hartford, London, 15 September [1872]. 3 pages, 8vo, in pencil on gray stationery with cross-hatched lines and Clemens' imprinted monogram, with original stamped envelope addressed by him.
TWAIN IN LONDON: A LITERARY LION
"Everybody says lecture -- lecture -- lecture -- but I have not the least idea of doing it -- certainly not at present. Mr. [George] Dolby, who took [Charles] Dickens to America, is coming to talk business to me tomorrow, though I have sent him word once before, already, that I can't be hired to talk here, because I have no time to spare. There is too much sociability -- I do not get along fast enough with work [Clemens had planned to write a satirical book about the English]. Tomorrow I lunch with Mr. Toole & a Member of Parliament -- Toole is the most able Comedian of the day. And then I am done for a while [Clemens was having a triumphant visit to England, lionized every where he went]. On Tuesday I mean to hang a card to my keybox, inscribed 'Gone out of the City for a week' -- & then I shall go to work & work hard. One can't be caught in a hive of 4,000,000 people, like this..."
TWAIN IN LONDON: A LITERARY LION
"Everybody says lecture -- lecture -- lecture -- but I have not the least idea of doing it -- certainly not at present. Mr. [George] Dolby, who took [Charles] Dickens to America, is coming to talk business to me tomorrow, though I have sent him word once before, already, that I can't be hired to talk here, because I have no time to spare. There is too much sociability -- I do not get along fast enough with work [Clemens had planned to write a satirical book about the English]. Tomorrow I lunch with Mr. Toole & a Member of Parliament -- Toole is the most able Comedian of the day. And then I am done for a while [Clemens was having a triumphant visit to England, lionized every where he went]. On Tuesday I mean to hang a card to my keybox, inscribed 'Gone out of the City for a week' -- & then I shall go to work & work hard. One can't be caught in a hive of 4,000,000 people, like this..."