26 February 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Cornman, UCCL 01197)
I am not so situated as to be able to sell the Jumping Frog, because I am just on the point of issuing it in book form through my publishers here, all al along with all my sketches complete
Mess. Warren Choate & Co
Washington.1explanatory note
Clemens had included the “Jumping Frog” sketch in the ill-fated Sketches. Number One pamphlet. Warren Choate and Company, a firm of booksellers, stationers, and publishers, had evidently asked to purchase the rights to the story. Clemens did use it in his new sketchbook, Sketches, New and Old, but as the first part of a longer sketch (25 Feb 74 to Fairbanks, n. 6click to open link; 12 Feb–31 Mar 75 to Bliss, n. 1click to open link; Boyd, 142).
References
- Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cornman
- 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
- Goodspeed’s Book Shop. Catalogue No. 369. Autograph Letters, Documents, Manuscripts. June. Boston: Goodspeed’s Book Shop. 1943
MS facsimile. The editors have not seen the MS, which was owned sometime prior to 1983 by Charles Cornman, who provided a photocopy to the Mark Twain Papers.
L6 , 394; Goodspeed’s Book Shop 1943, lot 44, excerpt.