17 November 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Axelrod, UCCL 10499)
The book I have is one which I urged Mr. House some five years ago to write—or rather, it is one written in place of that. It seems to be all about that War out there, so it may be the Herald letters collected. I cannot let it pass out of my possession, however, because House entrusted it to me without giving me that privilege.1explanatory note But there is a copy in New York, in the hands of Mr. Geo. Simmons, Army Ⓐemendation Building, & no doubt you can see that one. I think Mr. Young knows Simmons.2explanatory note
bottom one-half inch of page cut away 3explanatory note
Clemens answered the following letter from Bennett, owner and editor of the New York Herald, whom he had met in 1867 (CU-MARK; L2 , 115–16, 107 n. 2, 121):
The book was The Japanese Expedition to Formosa, in which House had incorporated his 1874 Herald correspondence (see 10 Apr 75 to Bliss, n. 1click to open link). In a 13 November 1874 letter to Clemens from Japan, House had complained that although the Herald had “printed pages of my matter, I have never had the first line of acknowledgment, or anything else from them” (CU-MARK).
Only one George Simmons, a clerk, was listed in the New York City directory, place of employment unspecified. By the “Army Building” Clemens meant the headquarters of the Division of the Atlantic, at 33 West Houston Street. Since 1872 John Russell Young had been a New York Herald foreign correspondent (Wilson 1875, 1231, “City Register,” 12; Appleton’s Dictionary, 138; L5 , 383 n. 1).
The small marks still visible on the manuscript suggest that Clemens drew a paraph under his signature and added Bennett’s name.
References
- Collection of Todd M. Axelrod, Gallery of History
- 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
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 2: 1867–1868. Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith, Richard Bucci, and Lin Salamo. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1990
- Wilson, H., comp. Trow’s New York City Directory, . . . Vol. LXXXIX. For the Year Ending May 1, 1876. New York: Trow City Directory Company. 1875
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 5: 1872–1873. Edited by Lin Salamo and Harriet Elinor Smith. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1997
MS, collection of Todd M. Axelrod.
L6 , 591–92.