20 March 1884 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, in pencil: MH-H, UCCL 02937)
I received the $5,000, added a like amount & paid off that old endorsement (total loss, shan’t get back a cent of it—& shan’t play with endorsements any more for pastime.) I have no further present pressure; so I don’t doubt that the acceptances will answer every purpose.
Yes, do fix that prize business; & apply crucial tests to any individual who claims to have sold 400 copies. Privately, I don’t believe any ind[i]vidual did sell that many, but of course I don’t know. As to that 900-claim—well, you can be very sure that that requires a rigid scrutiny; & you can be about as sure, too, that it won’t survive that scrutiny.
Publicly, I’m confined to the house with rheumatism; but under the holy seal of secrecy I reveal to you that it is gout. I suppose this comes of high living when I was a boy—corn-dodgers & catfish.
References
- Harvard University, Houghton Library, Cambridge, Mass.
- 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
MS, in pencil, MH-H (shelf mark bMS Thr 470, 23).
MTLP, 167–68.