Beschreibung:

CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE ("MARK TWAIN"). Autograph manuscript signed ("Mark Twain"), entitled "A Word of Explanation" and addressed to his Australian admirers, "Hartford, U.S.A.," 24 July [1881]. 5 pages, large 8vo . [ With ] Autograph letter signed ("S.L. Clemens 'Mark Twain'"), to [Percy Frederick Sinnett] in Adelaide, Australia; Hartford, Connecticut, 24 July 1981. 3 pages, large 8vo and 4to, with the original stamped envelope addressed in Twain's hand (damaged) . (2) TWAIN'S "SUDDEN DEATH" IN AUSTRALIA: AN IMPOSTER "HAS DONE A THING FOR ME WHICH I WOULDN'T EVEN HAVE DONE FOR MYSELF" The manuscript : "During the present year I have received letters from three gentlement in Australia who had in past times known people who had known me 'in Australia.' But I have never been in any part of Australia in my life. By these letters it appears that the persons who knew me there, knew intimately--not for a day, but for weeks, & even months. And apparently I was not confined to one place, but was scattered all around over the country. Also, apparently, I was very respectable...from the character of the company I seem to have kept--government officials, ladies of good position, editors of newspapers, etc. "It is very plain, then, that some one has been in Australia who did me the honor to personate me & call himself by my name. Now if this man paid his debts, & conducted himself in an orderly & reputable way, I suppose I have no very great cause of complaint...; and yet I am not able to believe that a man can falsely assume another man's name & at the same time be in other respects a decent & worthy person. I suspect that...this stranger...was at bottom a rascal, & a pretty shabby sort of rascal at that. That is all I wish to say about the matter. There are signs that I have an audience among the people of Australia. I want their good opinion.... "To-day's mail brings a letter to a member of my family...dated 'Government House, Sydney, May 29," in which the writer [Mr. Chalmondelay] is shocked to hear of my 'sudden death.' Now that suggests that that aforementioned imposter has even gone the length of dying for me. This generosity disarms me. He has done a thing for me which I wouldn't even have done for myself. If he will only stay dead, now, I will call the account square, and drop the grudge I bear him...." The letter : Sending the above manuscript, Twain continues his facetious vein: "...Mrs. Derwent, and your father, and many other citizens of your distant region have been imposed upon by some graceless adventurer. I have never been...further westward from here than the Sandwich Islands....It has seemed worthwhile to at least publish the fact that he is not me , since if I remain silent & he chance[s] to do somebody a wrong, my silence makes me an accessory..." He asks Sinnett to please "publish the short card which I enclose ['A Word of Explanation']...." Since the correspondent who reported his death, Mr. Chalmondley of Condover Hall, "does not say whence or how he got the news of my death, I have jumped to the conclusion that I have died (by proxy) somewhere in your region, & that my proxy is the same person who imposed upon your father & others. I shall write Mr. Chalmondeley that I am not dead yet, & shall hope it may reach Sydney before he leaves. What a pity he didn't come across my double in the flesh! But that is the sort of accident which an imposter never seems to encounter. Many a time men have lectured under my name in various States of this Union (sometimes in cities where I was personally known to a dozen people) but not one of them has ever had the ill luck to be detected...." (2)