11 November 1881 • Hartford, Conn. (Sanborn 1920, pp. 10–11, UCCL 10423)
I am very much obliged to you for that book, &Ⓐemendation I want to thank you for making it; for I see that you feel about these things just as I do. I have glanced at one page only, thus far, (Page 11), but the way you sail into the Adjective there, warms my heart. I have always wished that somebody would expose the adjective, for it certainly richly deserves it. It is just as you say: the Adjective is a (n) regular, irregular, numeral, cardinal, ordinal, distributive, indeclinable, bloody nuisance “from——.” Yes, that is just where it is from; you couldn’t have said a truer thing; &Ⓐemendation it is where it will go to, one of these days, if my supplications are answered.
(You shouldn’t say “(n)”——half the people wont understand it; say it right out plain, “d—n”). It will gain you millions of friends. Yes, &Ⓐemendation I immensely like your idea of bunching all those things together under “singular” &Ⓐemendation “plural,” &Ⓐemendation cursing them in body, &Ⓐemendation comprehensively—three eloquent dashes to each lot. In a new edition, if you should want any help, in the way of harsh names &Ⓐemendation vicious epithets, you just leave the Adjective to me—leave it to me with the utmost confidence. I can pour out as much as ten pages of Billingsgate on it without going dry. I will give it such another dressing down that it will be ashamed to show its face in literature again for a hundred years.
References
- Sanborn, John W. Distinguished Authors Whom I Have Known. Friendship, N.Y.: n.p. 1920
- 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
Sanborn 1920, pp. 10–11.