To
Ainsworth R. Spofford
18 July 1877 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: DLC, UCCL 12308)
18 July 1877 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: DLC, UCCL 12308)
One dollar enclosed.
Elmira, N. Y.
July 178, /77.
July 178, /77.
Sir: I, Saml. L. Clemens (Mark Twain), am the author of a Light Tragedy entitled “Cap’n Simon Wheeler the Amateur Detective,” the which I desire to copyright. To this end I enclose a printed copy of the title-page for deposit in your office.1explanatory note
Ys Truly
Samℓ. L.
Clemens
Of
Hartford, Conn.
Explanatory Notes
1 Clemens sent this copyright application to Spofford, the Librarian of Congress,
not from Elmira, but from Hartford, where he was still at home on the morning of
18 July. He must have given his return address as Elmira because he expected to be
there to receive Spofford’s reply. The copyright was registered on 20 July (certificate
in Scrapbook 10:21, CU-MARK). The title page he enclosed with this letter, printed
at the head of a synopsis on a single sheet of galley proof, is reprinted in the
Appendix “Enclosures with the Lettersclick to open link.”
References
- United States Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
- 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
- Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Previously Unpublished Letters. Prepared by Anh Quynh Bui, Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Robert H. Hirst, Lin Salamo, and Harriet Elinor Smith. 8 vols. Berkeley: The Bancroft Library. 2001
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
MS, Papers of Ainsworth Rand Spofford, DLC.
MicroPUL, reel 1.
The Spofford Papers were acquired by DLC between 1923 and 1982, primarily as a donation from Barbara Spofford Morgan.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.