Samuel L. Clemens and Elisha Bliss, Jr.
31 July–7 August 1876 • Hartford, Conn.
and Elmira, N.Y. (MS, damage emended: CU-MARK, UCCL 12720 and 31928)
(SUPERSEDED)
office american publishing company,
f. e. bliss, sec’y and treas’r. {118 randolph st., chicago, ill.,
Chp 8
in pencil, with a line drawn to type below, torn away:
Do you want this style toⒶemendation
be uniform? if so sayⒶemendation
here & hereafter.
SLC in ink:
No, not uniform; follow copy; sometimes it is a quiet negative, & sometimes an exclamatorily vigorous one. The copy isn’t always the way I want it, though. The thing takes a different look in print from what I thought it would.
remaining print on top of page 75 reads: “early lessons.” and “75”
Bliss on fragment of page 85, torn from top margin:
in pencil: Chap 9
in ink: Of course! alter wherever it dont look right. We will follow copy & make your alterations afterwards.
SLC in pencil:
Very well, what better way is there than that? Do I give you one-fiftieth the trouble that Richardson did?
remaining print on page 85 shows top portion of illustrated chapter 9 openingBliss, in ink, on the back of the above proof, which is pasted to a letter sheet thereby hiding the following:
No. 2
I meant to say. Of course some things look differently set up, & need altering. Alter as you see fit & proper. We will follow copy first & make all alterations you wish afterwards. It is all right for you to do so.
Bliss on letter sheet to which the above fragments have been
pasted:
There aint any better way & that’s a good way enough. Confound my blunders why
did I not say my note was in reply to yours on 8th chap. & not let it go to you as an original
ironical remark, just what it was not intended to be! I meant to concur in what you
said about somethings looking
differently in print from what they do in Ms., & of the necessity of changing them & to say go ahead,
& make every thing neccessary;—it was all right & expected— Connected with yours on
Chp
8.th, as a reply, it seems to me I say it, disconnected & as an independent remark, it
might
mean something else which it should not. Enclosed is letter to you.
Richardson made more trouble over every page than you do in a whole book. Your model Ms is my standard to gauge others by, & must not be much better & cant be really.
S. L. Clemens Esq | Elmira | N. Y.
return address:
if not delivered in ten days, please return to american publishing company, 284 asylum
street, hartford,
conn.
postmarked: hartford conn. aug 7 9pm
The letter was in part assembled by Bliss from fragments of marked pages torn from proofs of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. One of these fragments, containing a note by Bliss, has evidently been further torn over time. Several words and punctuation marks are wholly or partly missing, but most are readily conjectured from the context and have been supplied by the present editors. An illustration of the letter, showing the damaged portion and its editorial reconstruction, will be supplied at a later time.