Submitted by scott on

April 24 Saturday  James Redpath wrote from Boston to Sam:

Dear Sir—I was very sorry that I failed to see you when in Boston; but next time I hope to have better luck.

Now, about lecturing. Let me use your name, say for—“from the 1st of November,” conditional on your return from California;—tell me your terms; send me the titles of your lectures; and I will work you up during the summer. Send me regularly all your short humorous pieces so that I may get them republished, and so keep up & increase your reputation in N. E. I think you wd do well in this section; altho’ you are not so widely known here as in the Middle & Western States. However by sending me a lot of your newspaper scraps that can be remedied.

What I propose to do for lecturers is to advertise my whole list in leading papers, send circulars to every “Post,” (GAR) Y.M.C.A. & Lyceum, & newspaper editor in N.Y; and when the lecturer furnishes me with special circulars scatter them at my own expense

Now, this I wd like to do for you

I enclose the two last that have come to hand for me. Can’t you get up something similar & let me have 500 copies.

Some lecturers prefer also to spend some money (in my name) in special advertisements. Du Chaillu did it & it paid. Whatever am’t (if any) you choose to send for this purpose, I will expend judiciously.

Circulars, however, you ought to have.

Finally, don’t think that I’m half such a dandy as this Notepaper wd seem to imply—I have nothing else & it is my daughters!

Yours truly

Jas Redpath

P.S. My final list for the season won’t be issued till the middle of August. But a Spring list is necessary, as a sort of opening medicine to the body Lyceumic [MTPO; MTL 3: 216n1]. NotePaul Belloni Du Chaillu (1831-1903), French-American anthropologist famous for being the first modern outsider to confirm the existence of gorillas, and later the Pygmy people of Africa.

Links to Twain's Geography Entries

Day By Day Acknowledgment

Mark Twain Day By Day was originally a print reference, meticulously created by David Fears, who has generously made this work available, via the Center for Mark Twain Studies, as a digital edition.   

Contact Us