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THE LOTOS CLUB
The Lotos Club is one of the oldest literary clubs in the United States. For more than a century, since its birth on March 15, 1870, it has been a preeminent New York club. Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), an early member (1873), called Lotos The Ace of Clubs. Newspaper editor St. Clair McKelway declared, “The Lotos Club is the clearinghouse for intellect, conscience and taste!” And lawyer and ambassador Joseph H. Choate said, “I think you may search the United States and Great Britain through without nding an equal or a rival of The Lotos Club.”
It began in February 1870, when a half dozen young writers, journalists and critics met and decided to form a new club. The founders met again on March 15, this time at Weber’s Piano Warerooms on lower Fifth Avenue, and organized their club. At that moment, New York City was blossoming with cultural institutions. Among those born almost simultaneously were the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History and Hunter College.
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