ALS signed “Mark Twain,” three pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.25 x 5.25, personal letterhead bearing a “C” crest, December 26, [1870]. Letter to the Farmers’ Club of the American Institute of the City of New York, declining an invitation in the vein of his recently published sketch ‘How I Edited an Agricultural Paper Once’ (Galaxy, July 1870). In full: “I thank you very much for your invitation to the Agricultural dinner, & would promptly accept it & as promptly be there but for the fact that Mr. Greeley is very busy this month & has requested me to clandestinely continue for him in The Tribune the articles headed ‘What I Know About Farming.’ Consequently, the necessity of explaining to the readers of that journal why buttermilk cannot be manufactured profitably at 8 cents a quart out of butter that costs 60 cents a pound compels my stay at home until the article is written.” Under Clemens’ signature, a notation by A. B. Crandell reads: “Explanatory: As Secretary of the New York Rural Club Horace Greeley President-I was instructed to invite Mark Twain to one of our dinners. This is his reply.” In very good condition, with minor separations to the vertical fold of both pages, light toning along edges, some scattered light spotting, and the writing just a shade light.
Clemens occasionally wrote for Greeley’s New York Tribune, even though the newspaper editor and politician was at times ridiculed by the famed author. The urgency in reporting buttermilk’s state of affairs may be suspect, but then, so is Crandell’s notation at the end of this letter. At the time, Crandell was not “Secretary of the New York Rural Club”—that honor fell to J. W. Chambers. Furthermore, Nathan C. Ely, not Greely, was president of the club. (Greeley was president of the parent organization, the American Institute of the City of New York, which also promoted agriculture and commerce). Murky as Crandell’s memory may have been, Clemens’ wit here is sheer brilliance, and when his regrets were read aloud, must have elicited a snicker or two from the those gathered. This letter was published in the book, Mark Twain’s Letters, Vol. 4, 1870–1871. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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