Mirrored from Barbara Schmidt's Mark Twain site

Mark Twain's sixty-seventy birthday, which falls on Sunday, was celebrated at the Metropolitan Club last night by a dinner given in his honor by Col. George Harvey, editor of Harper's Weekly and The North American Review, and President of Harper & Brothers, publishers. It was attended by fifty-three guests, most of them prominent in the literary world.

Mark Twain may or may not have read the notices of his demise which certain newspaper paragraphers have from time to time inserted in their papers prematurely as an excuse for the perpetration of a real or imagined witticism, but last night he laughingly listened while John Kendrick Bangs read a long obituary of him in rhyme and rhythm.

Mr. Howells read a sonnet in which he referred to a number of incidents in Mark Twain's life, and particularly the article the humorist wrote on foreign missionaries. The other speakers were Chauncey M. Depew, Dr. Henry Van Dyke, Col. George Harvey, W. D. Howells, Hamilton W. Mabie, Thomas B. Reed, Wayne MacVeagh, and Mr. Clemens.

The other members of the company were: Charles Frohman, Robert W. Chambers, E. Thompson Seton, John Kendrick Bangs, George W. Young, E. W. Townsend, Will N. Harben, Booth Tarkington, Henry L. Stoddard, Rev. J. H. Twichell, Dr. C. C. Rice, John W. Alexander, Richard Watson Gilder, Henry M. Alden, Prof. Brander Matthews, Howard Pyle, Hamblen Sears, James Lane Allen, Hamlin Garland, Richard Le Gallienne, Thomas A. Janvier, James H. Hyde, Frederick A. Duneka, Thomas F. Ryan, Adrian H. Joline, Van Tassell Sutphen, William A. Nash, Adolph S. Ochs, Major F. T. Leigh, St. Clair McKelway, Will Carleton, J. Henry Harper, F. Hopkinson Smith, Samuel Bowles, Horace White, August Belmont, John Hay, Roy Rolfe Gilson, George W. Cable, David A. Munro, Dumont Clarke, Henry S. Harper, Daniel O'Day, W. B. Leeds, William M. Laffan, Henry H. Rogers.

from: http://www.tarleton.edu/activities/pages/facultypages/schmidt/19021129.html

Barbara Schmidt:

I run a site dedicated to the work of a overlooked Gaslight writer named Robert W. Chambers. Your Mark Twain site lists Chambers as a guest at Twain's Sixty-seventy Birthday.

I would like to mirror your page http://www.tarleton.edu/activities/pages/facultypages/schmidt/19021129.html on my Robert W. Chambers Research Project. I will give full credit and links back to your site.
--

Thank You
Larry Loc

email: Sat, 30 May 1998 10:42:33 -0500 (CDT)

Larry,

Great to hear from you that you've found something related to your Chambers research at my Mark Twain site. Please feel free to add a link or take a copy of the entire text as you please. I have to admit I know nothing about Twain's relationship with Robert W. Chambers. I will have to spend some time at your site and get myself acquainted with Chambers. I did check some of my other Twain reference books but didn't find much on him. The _Union Catalog of Clemens Letters_ lists one letter written from Twain to Chambers. It was dated 1902.11.28. The source of this letter is given as being from a Sotheby's auction catalog for a sale on Oct. 29, 1962. Which means the letter is probably in a private collection. It is possible that the Mark Twain Papers at Berkeley might have a photocopy of the text of the letter on file.

Best of luck with your research. If you find more Twain connections, I love to hear from you about them.

Best,
Barbara

The Mark Twain Papers and Project, The Bancroft Library (University of California, Berkeley)

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am doing research on Robert W. Chambers, a neglected Gaslight writer. I run, what I like to think of as, the most scholarly of the 4 Chambers web sites on the internet, in that I am involved in real research into the life of Chambers.

Through the kindness of Ms. Barbara Schmidt, who runs a great Mark Twain web site at Tarleton State University, I have come to know of the existence of a letter from Mark Twain to Robert W. Chambers.

"The _Union Catalog of Clemens Letters_ lists one letter written from Twain to Chambers. It was dated 1902.11.28. The source of this letter is given as being from a Sotheby's auction catalog for a sale on Oct. 29, 1962. Which means the letter is probably in a private collection. It is possible that the Mark Twain Papers at Berkeley might have a photocopy of the text of the letter on file." B. Schmidt

I am looking for a copy of this letter which I would like to publish on my Robert W. Chambers Research Project web site and maybe later in a small press history of Chambers that I am working on. My project is a self financed act of love with very little chance of commercial return, but I still think it has merit.

There are some interesting questions about this letter. It was written on Nov. 28th. 1902 and Chambers was a guest at Twain's Sixty-seventy Birthday Dinner Given by Col. Harvey at the Metropolitan Club on the next night, Nov. 29th 1902. It may be a thank you letter? Maybe Twain was a guest at the Chambers' estate, Broadalbin? Chambers estate was a real show piece set in the middle of 800 acres of first growth forest in up state New York and was used as a retreat by many a famous visitor to New York City. My question is why write a letter to someone that you are going to see the next night before the letter could arrive?

I am also looking for any letters that Robert W. Chambers may have written to Mr. Clemens. Most of Mr. Chambers papers were destoryed after Broadalbin was left abandon after his wife died, so my hunting has been quit lean.

Thank you for your help--

Larry Loc
Robert W. Chambers Research Project

I'm afraid I can't supply you the text of Clemens to Chambers, 28 Nov 1902, for which we have no Xerox. I can describe it for you, based on the entry in the Sotheby's catalog for 29 October 1962.

In publishing "Amended Obituaries" in *Harper's Weekly* for 15 November 1902, Mark Twain had one of his drawings of himself engraved, presumably on a copper plate, along with the following words:

Done by Truly Yours Mark Twain *N.B.* I cannot make a good mouth, therefore leave it out. There is enough without it, anyway. Done with the best ink. M.T.

The letter to Chambers consists of this copper engraving plate, plus "inset at the foot of the plate an additional ink inscription on paper by Twain to R. W. Chambers," according to the Sotheby's catalog. That's all we know of it, I'm afraid.

A check of UCLC shows no incoming letters from Chambers to Clemens. Sorry we can't be more help. I certainly wish we knew more, and welcome anything you can tell us about Chambers' relationship with Clemens. I can't say exactly why this exchange would have occurred just before the 1902 dinner.

Bob Hirst

Dear Mr. Robert T. Hirst:

I think I have found a better reason for the letter to Chambers. On re-reading my source, I find that the report in the New York Times on Nov. 29, 1902 is about a party that happened on the night before, Nov. 28, 1902 (silly me) the same date at the letter. This would lead me to believe that something said at the party caused Mr. Twain to send this letter to Mr. Chambers and to send it to him that night after the party.

As I said, Chambers' estate was left abandon after his widow died in 1938. For some reason his son didn't close up or take care of the house (he was in the army and may not have been able to get away). The Mark Twain letter may have been taken from the Chambers estate at that time, since many of the local youth used Broadalbin House as a hang out/party place, often burning his papers to stay warm.

Thanks for your response and kindness

Larry Loc
RWC Research Project

Dear Mr. Loc,

Yes, that does sound like the right explanation. The party was definitely a Harper's party, put on by Col. Harvey for Mark Twain, and Chambers was a Harper author as well. (He was seated opposite and to the right of Mark Twain at a large oval table, according to the seating chart in our files.) Chambers reprint of *Cardigan; A Novel* in 1902 through Harpers was at one time owned by Clemens, very possibly as a gift from Chambers. Clemens also owned at least four other titles, published between 1896 and 1905 by Chambers. Since Chambers was as much artist as novelist, it seems appropriate that Clemens would give him the Harper engraving plate of his own "amateur" drawing.

What I don't find are any clear traces of additional correspondence, or mention of Chambers in the notebooks or autobiography--just this one "letter." I'll let you know if we ever find more.

Bob Hirst