9 December 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (TS: NN-B, UCCL 02480)
my dear howells:
i want to add a short paragraph to article no. 1, when the proof comes. merely a line or two1explanatory note, however.
i dont know whether i am going to make this type-writing machine go or nto, ⋮that last word was intendred for n-not⋮ but i guess i shall make some sort of a success of it before i run it very long. i am so thick-fingered that i miss the keys.
you neednt a swer this; i am only practicing to get three ⋮anotherslip-up there-⋮ only practicin?ng to get the hang of the thing. i notice i miss fire & get in a good many unnecessary letters & punctuation marks. i am simply using you for a target to bang at blame my cats but this thing requires genius in order to work it just right.
i want to add . . . a line or two] See 11 Dec 74 to Howellsclick to open link.
yours ever] Howells replied (CU-MARK):
The “printed letter of yesterday” was the present typewritten letter, which Howells meant he received on 10 December. For the profanity in the second installment of “Old Times” see 14 Dec 74 to Howells.click to open link
References
- New York Public Library, Albert A. and Henry W. Berg Collection, New York
- 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
- Paine, Albert Bigelow. “Mark Twain: Some Chapters from an Extraordinary Life. Ninth Paper.” Harper’s Monthly Magazine 125 (July): 249–63. 1912
- Paine, Albert Bigelow. Mark Twain: A Biography. By Albert Bigelow Paine. 3 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers. [Volume numbers in citations are to this edition; page numbers are the same in all editions.] 1912
- Paine, Albert Bigelow, ed. Mark Twain’s Letters. Edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. 2 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1917
- MTHL. Mark Twain–Howells Letters. Edited by Henry Nash Smith and William M. Gibson, with the assistance of Frederick Anderson. 2 vols. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 1960
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
TS made by Clemens, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B). It is photographically reproduced.
L6, 311–12; Paine 1912, 250, excerpt; MTB, 1:535, excerpt; MTL, 1:238; MTHL, 1:51.
See Howells Letters in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.