19 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Transcript and paraphrase: Parke-Bernet 1963,
lot 34, and two others, UCCL 09485)
paraphrase: The dated note . . . is addressed to “Dear Madam”, thanking her for a Ⓐemendation ticket, which he unfortunately will not be able to use.Ⓐemendation I send copies of my books for the Library Ⓐemendation & hope your enterprise will meet with a generous success.Ⓐemendation 1explanatory note
The addressee’s name is provided by the 1 January 1876 statement of Clemens’s account with the American Publishing Company, which indicates that on 20 July 1875 a “Set of books” bound in cloth was ordered for Foster (not further identified), at a cost of $3.60 plus $1.00 for “Express on same” (APC 1876). Included were The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, and The Gilded Age.
References
- Parke-Bernet. Manuscripts & Autographs, Historical and Literary. Sale no. 2235 (3 December). New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries. 1963
- 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
- Parke-Bernet. Exhibition and Sale at the Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc. Sale no. 2282 (12 May). New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries. 1964
- Sotheby Parke Bernet. The William E. Stockhausen Collection of English & American Literature, Part 1. Sale no. 3694 (19 and 20 November). New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet. 1974
- 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
- APC (American Publishing Company). “S. L. Clemens To American Pub. Co. Dr.” Statement of account dated 1 January. Scrapbook 10:25, CU-MARK. 1876
No copy-text. The text is based on three transcripts and paraphrases, each of which derives independently from the MS:
Each catalog contains quoted or paraphrased text, or descriptive information, not present in the others. None of the texts is complete, however. P2 describes the letter as “1½ pp., 8vo,” and P3 describes it as “2 pp. 12mo,” whereas the surviving text would certainly have fit on a single page.
L6 , 514.
Adopted readings followed by ‘(C)’ are editorial emendations of the source readings.