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State of Nevada Receipt to CT Rice, Mark Twain's "Unreliable" Friend [202466]

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State of Nevada Receipt to CT Rice, Mark Twain's  Unreliable  Friend [202466]
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January 5th, 1866 pictorial receipt to CT Rice for 7 days service as Enrolling Clerk for the Senate. Signed by Rice on the reverse. Also signed by Sergeant-at-Arms Noyes and the president of the Senate, JS Crosman. 3.5 x 8" Gold Hill News Print. Clement T. Rice, an important figure in the story of Samuel Clemens becoming Mark Twain, and referred to by Twain as "The Unreliable." Rice, like the Clemens brothers, came to Carson City from the east in the early territorial days. He had hoped to become secretary to Governor Nye, but lost out to Orion Clemens. Rice went to work for the Territorial Enterprise, which at that time was being published in Carson City. Rice lived in the house of Margaret Murphy, along with Samuel Clemens. In 1862, Rice worked for the Virginia City Daily Union while Clemens worked for the Territorial Enterprise, now moved to Virginia City; while the two worked for rival newspapers during the day, they became friends outside of work. They both reported on the Nov. 1862 Territorial Legislature. Clemens was called "reliable" by AJ Marsh and thus he decided to refer to his friend Rice as the "unreliable." In fact, in the February 2nd, 1863 letter to the editor in the Territorial Enterprise where Sam Clemens "became" Mark Twain (by signing the letter with this pen name), Twain describes a party in Carson City where he runs into the "Unreliable." They regularly traded barbs with each other. They also shared an apartment in Virginia City in 1863 and Twain's first trip to San Francisco that year was with Rice. While Twain left Nevada and became a literary celebrity, Rice became Enrolling Clerk in the 1863 Territorial Legislature.
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Date: 1866
Country (if not USA):
State: Nevada
City: Carson City
Provenance: