29 February 1884 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, in pencil: NPV, UCCL 02925)
Let us canvass Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer both at once, selling both books for $4.50 where a man orders both, & arranging with the pPub Co that I shall have half in the profit in on all Sawyers so sold, & also upon all that they sell while our canvass lasts.
Also, canvass Finn, Sawyer & Prince all at once—a reduced price where a man orders the three.
It’s a good idea—don’t forget to arrange for it.
P. S. I have put in my whole time, yesterday & to-day (& shall for several more days,) writing original matter for Prang’s calendar. Besides other stuffs , I have written special squibs for 10 of the months & all the national holidays. My time is worth from $100 to $500 a day, according to what I am doing.
Now then, it would be unfortunate to do all this work & then have eventual trouble & misunderstanding. So you’d better look very carefully into that contract. If Prang is going to have but one price for the calendar, & that price a dollar; it is all right—10 cents to me is correct. But don’t you think there ought to be a clause saying that if he should conclude to charge any higher price for any or all of them, my royalty in that case shall be 10 per cent?
It isn’t the amount of extra money involved that is bothering me particularly—it is the dread of a loose, unclear contract. Carefully look into the thing & get it just right.
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
- 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
MS, in pencil, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Special Collections, NPV.
MTBus, 239–40; MTLP, 172–73.
see McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.