9 September 1881 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS: CtY-BR, UCCL 02032)
I didn’t think about their there being any hurry; & besides, I wasn’t expecting any delay. I got the cover-design last Sunday—mailed it to New York that evening; expected it to be in our artist’s hands by 9 a. m. Monday; expected it to be out of his hands (in the form of a type-metal facsimile,) some time during Wednesday; I hoped it would reach Chelsea that night, be cast in brass & finished-up on Thursday & be in your hands & ready for the press on Friday.
But everything went wrong, of course. The design did not reach our artist until some time on Tuesday; the Thanksgiving or Prayer-holiday stopped the work on it yesterday, no doubt; & now comes a telegram to say it won’t be ready for the brass founder till Monday.
So I am instructing my nephew to take the spelter-cast to Boston Monday night, & get it cast in brass, in Chelsea, Tuesday.
I am not foreseeing any difficulty about it; but if our work should be inferior & unsatisfactory to you, you can fire away & have the plate cut, by the die-sinkers. Webster will bring you the original design.
I shall be sorry if it turn[s] out that I have caused you a week’s delay, but hellandamnation I wasn’t dreaming of such a thing.
You haven’t told me the extra cost of gilding the whole thing instead of printing a part of it black.
References
- Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, 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
- Hill, Hamlin, ed. Mark Twain’s Letters to His Publishers, 1867–1894. Edited by Hamlin Hill. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1967
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). The Prince and the Pauper: A Tale for Young People of All Ages. Boston: James R. Osgood and Co. 1881
MS, Collection of American Literature, CtY-BR.
MTLP, 140–41.
The MS, donated by Owen F. Aldis in 1910, was laid in a copy of SLC 1881.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.