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ALS signed "Mark Twain," three pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.25 x 5.25, personal ‘C’ crest letterhead, December 26 [1870]. Addressed from Buffalo, New York, a handwritten letter to the Farmers' Club of the American Institute of the City of New York, declining an invitation with allusion to 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 fine condition.
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