14 September 1876 • Hartford, Conn. (MS facsimile: Tauchnitz 1937, UCCL 01364)
I met my friend Mr. Harte in New York a day or two ago, & he handed me your letter of Aug. 21st (to him.)2explanatory note That you should purpose adding a book or books of mine to your series is a compliment which I greatly value. I suppose, from your letter, that you have a copy of “Tom Sawyer” by you, therefore it will not be necessary for me to send one to you. The American edition has been delayed by the artists & engravers, & will not issue from the press for two months yet; but there will be no alterations from the English edition, except that it will contain this line: “To my wife I affectionately dedicate this book.” I forgot that when I sent the manuscript to London.3explanatory note
That you have recognized my moral right to my books gratifies me but does not surprise me, because I knew before that you were always thus courteous with authors.4explanatory note
To Baron Tauchnitz:
In fact, Harte had enclosed Tauchnitz’s letter in one of his own, which he mailed on 9 September and which Clemens received after his 11 September return to Hartford (CU-MARK):
For Harte’s play, see 14 Sept 1876 to Howells, n. 5. His novel, Gabriel Conroy, was published by Elisha Bliss’s American Publishing Company in September 1876, after his and Harte’s long mutual dissatisfaction (see 28 July 1872 to Bliss, L5, 134–35 n. 2, and L6: 22 May 1875 to Howells, 483–84 n. 3; 5 July 1875 to Howells, 505 n. 4).
The English edition of Tom Sawyer, unlike the American, was not illustrated. There also were variations in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and wording, in keeping with Chatto and Windus house style and English usage (see TS 1980, 545–54).
References
- Tauchnitz, Bernhard. The Harvest: Being the Record of One Hundred Years of Publishing, 1837–1937. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz. 1937
- 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
- Otto, Curt. Der Verlag Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1837–1912. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz. 1912
- Meyer, Horst E. “An Unnoticed Twain Letter.” Mark Twain Journal 16 (Winter): back cover. 1972
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 5: 1872–1873. Edited by Lin Salamo and Harriet Elinor Smith. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1997
- 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
- Gerber, John C., Paul Baender, and Terry Firkins, eds. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Tom Sawyer Abroad; and Tom Sawyer, Detective. Edited by John C. Gerber, Paul Baender, and Terry Firkins. The Works of Mark Twain. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1980
- Annual Cyclopaedia 1876. Appletons’ Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1876. Vol. 16 (n.s. vol. 1). New York: D. Appleton and Co. 1877
MS facsimile, Tauchnitz 1937, 59–60.
Otto 1912, 125; Meyer 1972, back cover.
The Tauchnitz Verlag archives were destroyed in the bombing of Leipzig in 1943.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.