19 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CSmH, UCCL 01065)
I am going to issue a pamphlet of Sketches,1explanatory note & I want to copyright both the contents of the pamphlet & the engraved design of the cover. Shall Ⓐemendation I simply send a dollar & then say on the Cover, “Cover & Contents entered in the office of the Librarian of Congress?”
letter docketed: Rep. Entry | Mch 212explanatory note
Mark Twain’s Sketches. Number One (25 Feb 74 to Fairbanks, n. 6click to open link).
The reply from Spofford, librarian of Congress since 1864, does not survive, but he evidently informed Clemens that the cover and the contents would be covered by a single copyright. Clemens made formal application for it in his letter of 7 May 1874 to Spofford.click to open link
References
- Henry E. Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif.
- 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 6: 1874–1875. Edited by Michael B. Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 2002
MS, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino (CSmH, call no. HM 40092).
L6 , 84–85.
see Huntington Library in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.