cots.twain.IMG.0582.jpg Mr. Samuel L. Clemens, Hartford, Connecticut
cots.twain.IMG.0582.jpg
I am afraid Mr. Twichell didn't form a very good opinion of me. My backward way is
an affliction—a state of chronic inflammation —until I get used
to people. But I enjoyed his breezy way most thoroughly. I would have asked him to
my house, but the fact is I am not comfortably enough fixed to be hospitable, and I
[?] should have been dreadfully embarrassed.
Poverty is [?] an embarrassing disease anyhow. I should
have been glad to have Mr. Twichell above all things, not only for his sake, and
yours, and mine, but because he had somehow gathered an idea that Southern people
never ask Northerners to their homes. All this by the way.
My suggestion that you return North by way of Atlanta was merely a suggestion. I
will gladly meet you in New Orleans unless some unforeseen contingency should [?]arise. In regard to my diffidence, I will say that
the ordeal of appearing on the stage would be a terrible one, but my experience is
that when a diffident man does become familiar with his surroundings he has more
impudence than his neighbors. Extremes meet. At any rate,
cots.twain.IMG.0584.jpg
your project
is immensely flattering to me, and I
am grateful to you for even connecting me with it in your mind. I appreciate the
fact that, [?] if successfully carried out, it
would be the making of me in more ways than one. It would enable me, for one thing,
to drop this grinding newspaper business and write some books I have in my mind. I
only hope you will see your way clear to including me in the scheme in some shape or
fashion. A telegram three or four days in advance of your arrival in New Orleans
will enable me to be on hand promptly; and you might mention the name of the hotel
provided you settle that matter in advance also.
By the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, in conjunction with the Center for the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis.