13 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B, UCCL 02492)
Just as soon as you consented I realized all the atrocity of my request, & straightway blushed & weakened. I telegraphed my theatrical agent to come here & carry off the MS & copy it.2explanatory note
But I will gladly send it to you if you will do as follows: dramatize it if you perceive that you can, & take, for your remuneration, half of the first $6,000 which I receive for its representation on the stage. You could alter the plot entirely, if you chose. I would help in the work, most cheerfully, after you had arranged the plot. I have my eye upon two young girls who can play “Tom” & “Huck.” I believe a good deal of a drama can be made of it. ComeⒶemendation—can’t you tackle this in the odd hours of your vacation?—or later, if you prefer?
I do wish you could come down once more before your holiday. I’d give anything!
Twichell heard from. Has caught his first 20-pounder.3explanatory note
I’m looking for the music along, but it hasn’t arrived yet.4explanatory note
Mrs. Clemens is doing tolerably well, only. Susie well again.5explanatory note
Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK), which answered his unrecovered reply to Howells’s letter of 6 July (5 July 75 to Howells, n. 8click to open link):
The Howellses planned to stay in Shirley Village, a Shaker community about thirty-five miles northwest of Cambridge, and then travel to Quebec to visit Howells’s father, the American consul there (Howells 1979, 100 n. 2; 21 June 74 to Howells, n. 2click to open link).
Clemens hired H. W. Bergen, who traveled on tour with Raymond and kept a record of the proceeds and expenses of his performances, to make a copy of the Tom Sawyer manuscript. It was not until early November, however, that Clemens gave it to Howells to review (Bergen to SLC, 15 May 75, 22 May 75, CtHMTH; MTB , 1:518–19; amanuensis copy of the MS, almost certainly in Bergen’s hand, at MoFlM; 4 Nov 75 to Howells, n. 7click to open link).
Between 30 June and 17 July Twichell took a “grand salmon fishing trip” to New Brunswick, Canada, “at the invitation and at the expense” of Dean Sage; on 6 July he wrote ecstatically to his wife, Harmony, about this first catch (Twichell, 1:111–15; Sage). Clemens had apparently seen or had a report of this letter, for there is no evidence that Twichell wrote directly to him.
Evidently the music that Howells had intended to enclose in his letter of 6 July.
Howells replied (CU-MARK):
Howells’s story was “Private Theatricals,” published in the Atlantic from November 1875 through May 1876. The play may have been The Parlor Car, completed by mid-February 1876 (see 29 Oct 74 to Daly, n. 4click to open link, and 5 July 75 to Howells, n. 1click to open link; see also 14 July 75 to Waringclick 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. “Some Mark Twain Letters to William Dean Howells and Others.” Harper’s Monthly Magazine 134 (May): 781–94. 1917
- 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
- Howells, William Dean. W. D. Howells, Selected Letters, Volume 2: 1873–1881. Edited and annotated by George Arms and Christoph K. Lohmann. Textual editors Christoph K. Lohmann and Jerry Herron. Boston: Twayne Publishers. 1979
- Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford, Conn.
- Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site, Division of State Parks, Florida, Mo.
MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B).
L6 , 509–11; Paine 1912, 252, and MTB , 1:548, excerpt; Paine 1917, 786, and MTL , 1:260, with omission; MTHL , 1:95.
see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.