29 September 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS facsimile: Sotheby’s, New York, sale of 13 December 2018, lot 231, UCCL 12808)
Many thanks for your letter & enclosures. If I had the time I would hurl myself in the drama,s wholesale. But I must go on with my book. I do not know whether I could fit Mr. & Mrs. Barney Williams with characters or not, but I still think I could fit Bijou—though I must not be thinking about dramas, with this big book on my shoulders.
I have written & asked Raymond to cross my name off the Mark Smith Benefit list, because I shall find it so difficult to leave home.
Look here. You go & see McCullough about that piece. That is what I was going to do, but was so driven I couldn’t. I mean go & see him & make a trade on the merits of the piece, for you see I think I wouldn’t want my name associated with it as being the re-dresser of a character thrown in to make by-play while the scenes are shifted. See? But there’s meat in that play.
We trade affec We swap affections with you.
I enclose the P. M. I see I have been trying to turn it into a magazine article, again, which I had forgotten.
References
- 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
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
MS facsimile, Sotheby’s, New York, sale of 13 December 2018, lot 231.
Paine had this letter transcribed (his TS is now in CU-MARK), but its whereabouts since then are unknown.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.