8 September 1884 • 1st of 2 (MS, in pencil: NPV, UCCL 01373)
Here is a photograph from the bust. How would it do to heliotype it (reducing it to half the present size), & make a frontispiece of it for Huck Finn, with
Mark Twain
from the bust by Karl Gerhardt
printed under it.
Would the whole thing (binding into the book included), cost more than 2 cents? Otherwise we couldn’t afford it. And could we delay the canvassing copies & put it in them? I suppose it would help sell the book.
If you think well of the idea, you might write the heliotype people & ask their terms for 3 20,000 copies (and as many more as we may in future require,) mounted & ready for binding.
If the terms were favorable you’d have to go to Boston & give minute directions & draw a contract requiring delivery of the things on or before a certain date, with penalty for failure.
References
- Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
- 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
- Webster, Samuel Charles. Mark Twain, Business Man. Edited by Samuel Charles Webster. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. 1946
MS, in pencil, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Special Collections, NPV. The enclosed photograph does not survive with the letter.
MTBus, 275–6.
see McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.