14 November 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y. (MS: CtHSD, UCCL 00534)
Can’t meddle with the Almanac business with a clear conscience—have had heaps of offers, but that belongs to Josh & I won’t touch it.2explanatory note
I inclose picture. I don’t mind being caricatured myself, but don’t put in my baby.3explanatory note If I was sure it was going to live, I wouldn’t care, but its health is so precarious that I hardly dare utter a pleasantry about the little fellow lest he pass from us & leave it looking ghastly in print.
Good luck go with you & long life attend you.
Haney (1829–1901) wrote and published handbooks on authorship, shorthand, memory enhancement, stammering cures, ventriloquism, horseshoeing, soap-making, and bartending. He also edited and published humor magazines, including, currently: Nick Nax for All Creation, the Comic Monthly, Merryman’s Monthly, and Haney’s Journal (“Death List of a Day,” New York Times, 6 Aug 1901, 7; Mott 1938, 43, 180 n. 120, 183–84, 185 n. 132; “Rare Chance!” Galaxy 11 [Jan 71]: “Galaxy Advertiser,” 14).
See 13 Oct 70click to open link, 26 Oct 70click to open link, and 31 Oct 70, all to Blissclick to open link.
The enclosed photograph has not been found, but was probably taken either in May or July (20? May 70 to Paigeclick to open link; 8 July 70 to OLC, n. 3click to open link). Haney published a “capital caricature” of Clemens, presumably based on the photograph, in the December 1870 number of the Comic Monthly (“Mark Twain,” Galaxy 11 Jan 71: “Galaxy Advertiser,” 14). No copy of the magazine has been found.
References
- Stowe-Day Memorial Library and Historical Foundation, Hartford, Conn.
- Machlis, Paul, ed. Union Catalog of Clemens Letters. Edited by Paul Machlis. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. [In some cases, UCCL catalog numbers cited in this volume supersede those assigned in 1986 and reflect corrections or additions to the catalog since publication. An updated version of the catalog can be consulted via the Letters Search page at MTPO.] 1986
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 4: 1870–1871. Edited by Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, and Lin Salamo. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1995
- Mott, Frank Luther. A History of American Magazines, 1850–1865. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1938
MS, Katherine Seymour Day Collection, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford (CtHSD).
L4 , 238; Goodspeed’s Book Shop 1936, item 52, with omission.