Editorial work on this volume was made possible by the generous support of the American taxpayer, and by the professional encouragement of scholars who recommended funding for successive grants to the Mark Twain Project from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency. The University of California Press was likewise assisted in meeting production costs by a grant from the Endowment. We are grateful for this intellectual and material support, part of which the Endowment was able to grant by matching, dollar for dollar, a major contribution to The Friends of The Bancroft Library from the Pareto Fund.

Many individuals and institutions have contributed funds which the Endowment has also matched. We are grateful for the generosity of the following donors to The Friends of The Bancroft Library: the late Violet Appert; Betty G. Austin; Paul Berkowitz; The House of Bernstein, Inc.; J. Dennis Bonney; Harold I. and Beula Blair Boucher; Edmund G. and Bernice Layne Brown; Chevron Corporation; Dow Chemical Company; Launce E. Gamble; Dr. Orville J. Golub; James C. Greene; Constance Crowley Hart and James D. Hart; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; the Hedco Foundation; Janet S. Hermann; Kenneth E. Hill; R. N. and Elinore Kauffman; the Koret Foundation; Daniel E. Koshland, Jr.; the Mark Twain Foundation; Jane New hall; James E. O’Brien; the Peninsula Community Foundation; Mrs. John H. Raleigh; Reader’s Digest Foundation; John W. and Barbara Rosston; John R. Shuman; the L. J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation; Marion B. and Willis S. Slusser; the Henry Nash Smith Memorial Fund; the Marshall Steel, Sr., Foundation; Mrs. J. Tourtouret; the estate of John Russell Wagner; Mrs. Paul L. Wattis; and Laurel A. and Jeffrey S. Wruble.

The Mark Twain Committee of the Council of The Friends of The Bancroft Library is chiefly responsible for encouraging these and other donors to lend their support to the ongoing editorial work. Our heartfelt thanks go to the present and former members of this committee: Lawrence W. Jordan, Jr., and Thomas B. Worth, co-chairmen; Henry K. Evers, Stephen G. Herrick, David J. McDaniel, John W. Rosston, and Willis S. Slusser, former chairmen; Cindy Arnot Barber, William P. Barlow, Jr., Barbara Boucke, Henry M. Bowles, June A. Cheit, Launce E. Gamble, Marion S. Goodin, James C. Greene, Constance Crowley Hart, James D. Hart, Peter E. Hanff, William M. Hassebrock, Janet S. Hermann, Roger W. Heyns, Kenneth E. Hill, Nion T. McEvoy, James E. O’Brien, Joseph A. Rosenthal, John R. Shuman, Herbert E. Stansbury, Jr., Norman H. Strouse, and Katharine Wallace, as well as Kimberly L. Massingale, secretary to the Council.

We are indebted to the generations of scholars who have done pioneering work in locating, collecting, and publishing Mark Twain’s letters, particularly to Albert Bigelow Paine and his successors as Editor of the Mark Twain Papers: Bernard DeVoto, Dixon Wecter, Henry Nash Smith, and Frederick Anderson. Paine’s Mark Twain: A Biography (1912) and Mark Twain’s Letters (1917) are indispensable to the present undertaking, and are the sole source now known for some letters collected here. Wecter’s Mark Twain to Mrs. Fairbanks (1949) and The Love Letters of Mark Twain (1949) were the first to publish Mark Twain’s letters in accord with contemporary scholarly standards, in both their annotation and their transcription of the letters themselves. Henry Nash Smith and William M. Gibson’s Mark Twain–Howells Letters (1960) likewise established a new and higher standard for publication of letters. Anderson assisted Smith and Gibson on that publication and, until his death in 1979, was responsible for the Mark Twain Papers series, which included among its first volumes Hamlin Hill’s Mark Twain’s Letters to His Publishers, 1867–1894. We have profited from these pioneering efforts in ways too numerous to bear mention in the notes.

The ongoing research for the documentation of Mark Twain’s letters has required continuing assistance. For valuable aid over many years we are grateful to the staff of The Bancroft Library, especially Brenda J. Bailey, Anthony S. Bliss, Peter E. Hanff, Irene M. Moran, and William M. Roberts. Special thanks go to the staff of the Interlibrary Borrowing Service in the Main Library: particularly Robert Heyer, Leon Megrian, Jo Lynn Milardovich, Kathleen Messer, Helen Ram, and former staff member Rhio Barnhart. Their efforts located many rare and valuable resources that have notably enriched the annotation. We are similarly indebted to Philip Hoehn of the Map Room and to Daniel L. Johnston and Marnie Jacobsen of the Photographic Service in the Main Library.

The Mark Twain Papers in The Bancroft Library is the archive of more than half of the original letters published in this volume; this collection of Mark Twain’s own private papers was brought to the University of California in 1949 through the persuasive powers of Dixon Wecter and the generosity of Clara Clemens Samossoud. We are grateful to Violet Appert, Mrs. Eugene Lada-Mocarski, Jervis Langdon, Jr., Mrs. Robert S. Pennock, and Mrs. Bayard Schieffelin, all of whom donated to the Papers manuscripts of letters which appear here. The other primary source of manuscript letters in this volume is the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, where we received timely and expert assistance from Sara S. Hodson, Brita F. Mack, Aldo R. Perdomo, Virginia Renner, and Mary Wright. Several letters published here are in the Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers in the Vassar College Library, where Barbara LaMont, Nancy S. MacKechnie, and Eleanor Rogers provided repeated access to Mark Twain materials and supporting documentation. We are grateful as well to Patricia Middleton, Kate Sharp, and Patricia C. Willis of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, and for the unfailing cooperation of all the other libraries that own letters published in this volume. We are likewise grateful to Todd M. Axelrod, Jack F. Cooper, Chester L. Davis, Chester L. Davis, Jr., Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs, Theodore H. Koundakjian, and Daphne B. Sears, who generously made accessible to us the letters in their collections; to Charles S. Underhill, who made available a photograph in his collection; and to Nick Karanovich, who provided information and documents which contributed to the annotation.

In the course of transcribing, annotating, and tracing the provenance of these letters we were aided by a great number of people. We have benefitted from the extraordinary generosity and helpfulness of Gretchen Sharlow, Herbert A. Wisbey, Jr., Mark Woodhouse, and Jan Kather of the Mark Twain Archives and Center for Mark Twain Studies at Quarry Farm, Elmira College; Marianne J. Curling, Laura Vassell, and Beverly J. Zell of the Mark Twain Memorial in Hartford; Diana Royce of the Stowe-Day Library in Hartford; William H. Loos of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library in Buffalo; and Patricia Virgil of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society in Buffalo. We also received invaluable assistance from: Lisa Backman of the Library of the Boston Athenaeum; Professor William Baker of Wright State University; Cathy A. Barlow of the Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript-Telegram; Joan E. Barney of the New Bedford (Massachusetts) Free Public Library; Laura J. Berk of the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield; Christopher P. Bickford, Diana E. Mackiewicz, Paige A. Savery, Alesandra M. Schmidt, and Martha H. Smart of the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford; Persis E. Boyesen of the Ogdensburg (New York) Public Library; Louise A. Brackman of the Naperville (Illinois) Heritage Society; Mary B. Bowling, Lisa Browar, Wayne Furman, Frank Mattson, and Radames Suarez of the New York Public Library; Matthew C. Bruccoli and Susan Heath of Bruccoli, Clark, Layman, in Columbia, South Carolina; Ron D. Bryant of the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort; Judith Bushnell and David W. Parish of the College Libraries at the State University of New York in Geneseo; Frank J. Carroll and James H. Hutson of the Library of Congress; Robert Collins of the Chelsea (Massachusetts) Public Library; John D. Cushing of the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston; Kevin Danielson of the New Castle (Pennsylvania) Public Library; Carolyn A. Davis of the George Arents Research Library at Syracuse University; Timothy L. Decker of the Chemung County Historical Society in Elmira; Mary E. Devies of the Marlboro Township Historical Society in Alliance, Ohio; Kathleen C. Eustis of the California State Library in Sacramento; Marie Booth Ferre of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania; James W. Fry of the Library of Michigan in Lansing; Dorothy T. Frye of the University Archives and Historical Collections at Michigan State University; Kevin J. Gallagher of the Adriance Memorial Library in Poughkeepsie, New York; Myrta Garrett of Roberts Library at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas; Professor William H. Gerdts of the City University of New York; Margaret Grier of the Otis Library in Norwich, Connecticut; James L. Hanson of the Batavia (Illinois) Historical Society; Greer Hardwicke of the Dedham (Massachusetts) Historical Society; Margaret Humberston of the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts; Mary M. Huth of the Rush Rees Library at the University of Rochester; Amanda C. Jones of the Ulster County Historical Society in Kingston, New York; Edmund Kenealy of the Canton (Massachusetts) Public Library; Ernestine A. Kyle of the Ravenna (Ohio) Heritage Association; Dennis R. Laurie of the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts; Karen Lightner and DianeJude L. McDowell of the Free Library of Philadelphia; Daniel Lombardo of the Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts; Charles S. Longley of the Boston Public Library; Jan J. Losi of the Niagara County Historical Society in Lockport, New York; Ann M. Loyd and Lucille A. Tomko of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh; Robert A. McCown of the University Libraries at the University of Iowa; Julie McElroy of the Portage County Historical Society in Ravenna, Ohio; Kathleen McFadden of the Senate House State Historic Site in Kingston, New York; Ruth C. Main of Kent State University; Peter Mehlin of the Brooklyn Public Library; Paul Mercer and Cindy Stark of the New York State Library in Albany; Jay N. Miller; Eric N. Moody of the Nevada Historical Society in Reno; Virginia Moskowitz of the Landmark and Historical Society of Mt. Vernon, New York; Frank Murtha of the Society of the Founders of Norwich in Norwich, Connecticut; Irene R. Norton of the Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts; Martha Oaks and William Presson of the Cape Ann Historical Association in Gloucester, Massachusetts; Beverly H. Osborn of the Worcester (Massachusetts) Historical Museum; Arlene C. Palmer of the New Britain (Connecticut) Public Library; Linda Perry of the University Library at the University of Nevada–Reno; Barbara Pickell of the Holyoke (Massachusetts) Public Library; Michael Plunkett of the University of Virginia Library in Charlottesville; Jennie Rathbun and Melanie Wisner of the Houghton Library at Harvard University; Lewis F. Rauco of the State Library of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg; Helen M. Ray of the Franklin (Pennsylvania) Public Library; I. Richard Reed of the Niagara County Department of History in Lockport, New York; Richard W. Reeves of the Free Public Library in Trenton, New Jersey; Professor Tom Reigstad of State University of New York, College at Buffalo; David J. Roarty of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Anne M. Rogers of the Paris-Bourbon County Library in Paris, Kentucky; M. Patricia Schaap of the Livingston County History Research Office in Geneseo, New York; Howard T. Senzel of the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence; Deborah L. Sisum of the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution; David J. Sleasman of the University of Pittsburgh Libraries; Diana Speis of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society in Youngstown, Ohio; Edward Swovelan of the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka; John K. Thiele of the Maiden (Massachusetts) Public Library; Brian Walsh of the Pawtucket (Rhode Island) Public Library; Betty J. Widger of Ravenna, Ohio; Carla R. Wilson of the Youngstown State University Library; Theodore O. Wohlsen, Jr., of the Connecticut State Library in Hartford; and H. Scott Wolfe of the Historical Collections of the Galena (Illinois) Public Library District.

Throughout the process of design and typesetting for this volume we have had expert assistance from several people at the University of California Press: Fran Mitchell, who patiently guided the book through the production process; Albert Burkhardt, who developed the design of the book; and Sandy Drooker, who created the dust jacket. Our typesetters, Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services, Oakland, California, provided knowledgeable help in developing and applying the typographical aspect of the transcription system used to represent the texts of Mark Twain’s letters. In addition to LeRoy Wilsted and Christine Taylor, we are indebted, for his continuing advice and assistance, to Burwell Davis, and, for their meticulous care and remarkable accuracy in setting the book into type, to Nancy Evans, Sharilyn Hovind, Melody Lacina, Rosemary Northcraft, Jan Seymour-Ford, Janet Stephens, and Kim Zetter. Allen McKinney, Webster Holliday, and Ken Mack of Graphic Impressions, Emeryville, California, provided excellent photographs for the illustrations and manuscript reproductions.

We would like to thank Steven Mailloux of the English Department of Syracuse University for reading a transcription against the original manuscript at Syracuse. And we are grateful to Michael Millgate, who provided many helpful suggestions during the course of an insightful inspection of the volume for the Modern Language Association’s Committee on Scholarly Editions, which granted its seal of approval in 1991.

Finally, we wish to thank our associates in the Mark Twain Project for their many willing contributions, not only in their areas of special expertise about Mark Twain, but also in all of the painstaking efforts of checking, collating, and proofreading. Robert Pack Browning provided careful readings of transcriptions of letters at a number of far-flung collections, both public and private. Richard Bucci made available his research concerning the surviving photographs of Olivia L. Langdon and the provenance of Mark Twain’s letters. Lin Salamo prepared the volume’s index. Kenneth M. Sanderson brought his fine eye for detail and his expertise with Mark Twain’s handwriting to bear on the establishment of letter texts and also was instrumental in gaining access to several letters in private collections. Harriet Elinor Smith offered helpful and informed advice at every stage of the preparation of the printer’s copy and throughout the production process. As always, the Union Catalog of Clemens Letters (1986), edited by our former colleague Paul Machlis, was indispensable to the orderly preparation of this volume. Janice Braun, another former colleague, provided careful readings of transcriptions of letters owned by Yale University. Beth Bernstein carried out a range of research assignments, including the checking of a substantial portion of the annotation. Several other students—Kandi Arndt, Scott Bean, Shawna Fleming, Carol Kramer, Jane Murray, Deborah Ann Turner, and William R. Winn—assisted with a variety of clerical and editorial tasks, greatly facilitating our work. Dorothy (“Sunny”) Gottberg, our tireless administrative assistant, handled office business with her accustomed enthusiasm and dispatch. For the efforts of all of these colleagues and friends, we are especially grateful.

V.F.   M.B.F.   D.A.