Editorial work on this volume in the Mark Twain Papers was again made possible by the continuing generosity of the American taxpayer, and by the support of reviewers, panelists, Council, and staff members of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency, which has funded the Mark Twain Project by outright and matching grants since 1966. We are grateful for that intellectual and material support, part of which the Endowment provided for the present volume by matching a major gift from the late Robert N. Miner, whose great generosity to the Project is acknowledged on a separate page in this volume.

The Endowment’s recent grants were also made possible by an outpouring of private support for the Mark Twain Project. We are grateful for the generosity of the following major donors: William H. Alsup; Jonathan Arac; Mr. and Mrs. John P. Austin; The Behring-Hofmann Educational Institute; The House of Bernstein, Inc.; J. Dennis Bonney; Edmund G. and Bernice Brown; Class of 1938, University of California, Berkeley; Chevron Corporation; Chronicle Books; Don L. Cook; the late Alice C. Gaddis; Launce E. Gamble; John C. Gerber; Dr. and Mrs. Orville J. Golub; Marion S. Goodin; Constance Crowley Hart; the late James D. Hart; William Randolph Hearst Foundation; Hedco Foundation; Heller Charitable & Educational Fund; Janet S. and William D. Hermann; Mr. and Mrs. Stephen G. Herrick; Kenneth E. Hill; Hal Holbrook; Holger Kersten; Koret Foundation; Horst and Ursula Kruse; Irene and Jervis Langdon, Jr.; Mark Twain Foundation; Bobby to Donny for the Mississippi; Jane New hall; Jeanne G. O’Brien and the late James E. O’Brien; Hiroshi Okubo; David Packard; The Pareto Fund; Mr. and Mrs. Noel Perry; Connie J. and David H. Pyle; Catherine D. Rau; Verla K. Regnery Foundation; John W. and Barbara Rosston; L. J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation; Marion B. and Willis S. Slusser; Thomas More Storke Fund; Koji Tabei; Mrs. Joseph Z. Todd; Gretchen Trupiano; the late John Russell Wagner; and Mrs. Paul L. Wattis.

We also want to thank the following recent donors for their timely gifts to the Project: Paul Alpers; Mr. and Mrs. Ward Anderson; Harold Aspiz; Roger Asselineau; John Edward Back; Julia Bader; Nancy and Howard Baetzhold; Brenda J. Bailey; David Barrow; Trenton Don Bass; H. H. Behrens; Dr. Leslie L. Bennett; Carol C. Bense; Mary K. Bercaw; Lawrence I. Berkove; Alice R. Berkowitz; Paul Berkowitz; Roger Berry; Marilyn R. Bewley; David V. Bianculli; Diane B. Bickers; Diane Birchell; John Bird; W. Edward Blain; William Makely in memory of Walter Blair; Kevin J. and Margaret A. Bochynski; Dennis A. Bohn; Dr. Richard J. Borg; Harold I. and Beulah Blair Boucher; Mr, and Mrs. Philip E. Bowles; Boone Brackett, M.D.; Philip and Katherine Bradley; The Brick Row Book Shop; Earl F. Briden; Richard Bridgman; Professor Stanley Brodwin; Timothy Buchanan; Louis J. and Isabelle Budd; Linda E. Burg; Richard Byrd; Gerald K. Cahill; Mr. and Mrs. Grant W. Canfield; Clayton C. Carmichael; Professor James E. Caron; Paul Carrara; June A. Cheit; Jean R. and Sherman Chickering Fund; Patricia Christensen; Fred Clagett; Mrs. Wanda Clark; William A. and the late Mildred Clayton; Edwina B. Coffing; Dana T. Coggin; Hennig Cohen; Marvin M. Cole; James L. Colwell; Bob Comeau; Mrs. Shirley Larson Cook; Nancy Cook; Wayne and Germaine Cooper; Cornell University Library; Ruth Mary Cordon-Cradler; Joan and Pascal Covici, Jr.; James M. Cox; Frederick Crews; Harry W. Crosby; Charles L. Crow; Sherwood Cummings; Sally J. Letchworth in memory of Susan Letchworth Dann; Beverly (Penny) David; Carlo M. De Ferrari; Edgar and Elinor De Jean; Mrs. Wilma Cox DeMotte; Joseph E. Doctor; Carl Dolmetsch; William G. Donald, Jr., M.D.; Edgar L. Dow; Dow Chemical Corporation Foundation; Victor A. Doyno; Jon A. Dubin; William J. Duhigg, Jr.; Dennis Eddings; Sanford S. Elberg; Everett Emerson; Allison R. Ensor; William W. Escherich; Mrs. Eric Eweson; Joel M. Fisher; Shelley Fisher Fishkin; Gerald L. and Norma J. Flanery; George R. Flannery; Margaret Anne Fraher; Peter L. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D.; Friends of Caxton; Robert E. Futrell; Louis G. Gambill; Joe Gannon; Guy G. Gilchrist; Jerry S. Gilmer, Ph.D.; Jay E. Gillette; Dorothy Goldberg; Gloria R. Goldblatt; Stephen L. Golder; Shoji Goto; Mr. William J. Graver; C. Gordon Greene; Ralph J. Gregory; Kenneth L. Greif; Jean F. Guyer; Frank W. Hammelbacher; Peter E. Hanff; Robert N. and Arlene R. Hansen; John Mitchell Hardaway; Mrs. Mercedes Haroldson; Paul C. Harris, Jr.; Susan K. Harris; William N. Harrison; Peter D. Hart; Mr. and Mrs. David P. Hawkins; Miss Quail Hawkins; Juan C. Hayes; E. Dixon Heise; Katherine Heller; Katherine Heller and Rolf Lygren Fund; Betty and Carl Helmholz; H. S. Henderson; Judith B. Herman; Aurora and Jim Hill; Charles J. Hitch; Sandra Hjorth; Patricia A. Holland; Professor and Mrs. Richard H. Holton; Walter Hoops; James M. Hotchkiss, Jr.; George J. Houle; Professor Kay S. House; Goldena Howard; Lawrence Howe; George Lowman Howell; W. Robert Howell; David S. Hubbell, M.D.; Justine Hume; Hiroyoshi Ichikawa; Masago Igawa; Dr. M. Thomas Inge; Jane A. Iverson; Iwao Iwamoto; Dr. Janice Beaty Janssen; Robert Jenkins, M.D., Ph.D.; Alastair Johnston; Fred Kaplan; Nick Karanovich; Lawrence Kearney; Dennis and Hene Kelly; Lynn Kelly; Dr. Charles C. Kelsey; Dr. Derek Kerr; Howard Kerr; Harlan Kessel; Dr. David B. Kesterson; Mr. and Mrs. Dudley J. Kierulff; Dr. J. C. B. Kinch; John K. King Books; Michael J. Kiskis; Paul and Elisa Kleven; Robert E. and Margarete Knudsen; Larry Kramer; Mr. and Mrs. S. L. Laidig; Lucius Lampton, M.D.; Baldwin G. and Ormond S. Lamson; Mr. and Mrs. H. Jack Lang; J. William and Jeanne Larkin; Jennifer S. Larson; Roger K. Larson, M.D.; Richard W. LaRue; Jacklyn Lauchland-Shaw; Mary-Warren Leary; Philip W. Leon; Joan V. Lindquist; William S. Linn; Robert Livermore; Joseph H. Towson for Debbie L. Lopez; Frederic B. Lovett; George J. Houle in memory of Matthias (Matt) P. Lowman; Lolita L. Lowry; Karen A. Lystra; Peter McBean; Senior United States District Judge Thomas J. MacBride, Eastern District of California; William J. McClung; Joseph B. McCuliough; Coleman W. McMahon; Hugh D. McNiven; Laura McVay; Wilson C. McWilliams; James H. Maguire; George F. Mahl; Thomas A. Maik; Steven Mailloux; David C. Mandeville; Mila Mangold; Mark Twain Society, Inc.; Miss Jean E. Matthew; Ronald R. Melen; Dr. Jeffrey A. Melton; Thomas M. Menzies; Eileen N. Meredith; Elsa Meyer Miller in memory of Elsa Springer Meyer; Jay and Elise Miller; Victoria Thorpe Miller; Michael Millgate; R. E. Mitchell, M.D.; Tokuhiro Miura; F. Van Dorn Moller; James M. Moore; Rayburn S. Moore; Frank and Gabrielle Morris; Ron Morrison; Steven G. Morton; Ann Elizabeth and Robert Murtha; Alan Nadritch; Makoto Nagawara; Koichi Nakamura; Suzanne Naiburg; Frances M. Neel; Fred M. Nelsen; Ralph G. Newman, Inc.; Robert S. Newton; Emily V. Nichols; Cameron C. Nickels; Sandy Niemann; Charles A. Norton; L. Terry Oggel; Koji Oi; Peter K. Oppenheim; Chris Orvin; David C. Owens; Hershel Parker; Mary Jane Perna; Frederick D. Petrie; Thelma Schoonmaker Powell; Linda Propert; Randall House Rare Books; R. Kent Rasmussen; Allen Walker Read; Reader’s Digest Foundation; Robert Regan; Miss Elizabeth Reid; Maryanne and Thomas Reigstad; Richard W. Reinhardt; Arno W. Reinhold; Elinor Reiss; Louise Burnham Rettick; Mrs. Barbara H. Riggins; The Riverdale Press; Taylor Roberts; Dr. Verne L. Roberts; Mrs. Kip Robinson; Mr. and Mrs. S. R. Rose; Bernard M. Rosenthal; Brandt Rowles; Sharon L. Ruff; Linda Haverty Rugg; Lynne M. Rusinko; E. Penny Salanave; Kenneth M. Sanderson; Gary D. Saretsky; Evelyn H. Savage; Katherine Schmidt; Timothy and Sue Schulfer; Lucy W. Sells; Caroline Service; Carol Sharon; Irene W. and Thomas J. Shephard, Sr.; Laura Beth Sherman; John R. Shuman; Oscar Alan Sipes; Ward B. Skinner, D.D.S.; Richard Skues; Mr. and Mrs. Robert Thomas Slotta in memory of Caroline Harnsberger; Elinor Lucas Smith; Gene Snook; David N. Socholitzky; Betty Jean and Jim Spitze; Marjorie H. Sproul; Verne A. Stadtman; J. D. Stahl; George Starr; Horace D. Stearman; Richard T Stearns; Dwight C. Steele; Jeffrey Steinbrink; Carol Steinhagen; Jody Steren; Janet P. Stone; Albert E. Stone; Edward W. Swenson; Eleanor H. Swent; G. Thomas Tanselle; Barbara W. Taylor; Harry Tennyson; Jeffrey and Evelyne Thomas; Eloyde J. Tovey; Col. Robert T. Townsend; Dorothy Tregea; Frederic B. Tankel in memory of Donald G. Tronstein; Masao Tsunematsu; Charles S. Underhill; Marlene Boyd Vallin; Patrick J. Vaz; Robert W. Vivian; Sally Walker; Willard D. Washburn; Jeanne H. Watson; Abby H. P. Werlock; Mr. and Mrs. F. A. West; John and Kim Wheaton; John Wiesemes; T. H. Wildenradt; Christine Williams; Use B. Williams; Frederick B. Wilmar; James D. Wilson; Merilynn Laskey Wilson; Edward O. Wolcott; Harold A. Wollenberg; Tom and Amy Worth; Laurel A. and Jeffrey S. Wruble; Jin-Hee Yim; Mary A. Young; Alvin Ziegler; Jim Zwick; and Kate Zwirko.

Our thanks go also to the members of the Council of The Friends of The Bancroft Library for their efforts on our behalf: Thomas B. Worth, chair; William H. Alsup, Cindy Arnot Barber, Kirsten Bickford, A. T. Brugger, June A. Cheit, John C. Craig, Carol Hart Field, Rita Fink, Edwin V. Glaser, Oakley Hall, Peter E. Hanff, E. Dixon Heise, Janet S. Hermann, Thomas High, Charles Hobson, Andrew Hoyem, Lawrence W. Jordan, Jr., Lawrence Kramer, Robert Livermore, Rollin Post, Connie J. Pyle, David Robertson, George Sears, and Katharine Wallace. Special thanks go also to Kelly Penhall-Wilson, development assistant to the Council.

We are indebted to the generations of scholars who pioneered in finding, copying, 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 still indispensable books, and are sometimes the only source now known for letters collected here. Wecter’s Mark Twain to Mrs. Fairbanks (1949) and The Love Letters of Mark Twain (1949) were the first editions to publish Mark Twain’s letters in accord with modern scholarly standards, both in annotation and transcription of the manuscripts. Henry Nash Smith and William M. Gibson’s Mark Twain–Howells Letters (1960) established a new and higher standard for publishing letters. Frederick Anderson assisted Smith and Gibson in that work and, until his death in 1979, was the Series Editor for the Mark Twain Papers, which included among its first volumes Hamlin Hill’s Mark Twain’s Letters to His Publishers, 1867–1894 and Lewis Leary’s Mark Twain’s Correspondence with Henry Huttleston Rogers, 1893–1909. We have profited from all of these pioneering efforts in ways too numerous to bear mention in the notes.

Research for the documentation of Mark Twain’s letters has continued to require assistance of many kinds. For valuable aid over many years we are grateful to the staff of The Bancroft Library, especially Acting Director Peter E. Hanff, Alyson K. Belcher, Anthony S. Bliss, Audrey Cree, Franz Enciso, David Kessler, Bonnie Hardwick, Cynthia Hoffman, and William M. Roberts. Special thanks go to Jo Lynn Milardovich and the cheerful and efficient staff of the Interlibrary Borrowing Service in the Main Library. Their efforts found many rare and valuable resources that have notably enriched the annotation. We are also indebted to Daniel L. Johnston of the Photographic Service in the Main Library for his extraordinary care in producing many of the photographs published here, and to Mamie Jacobsen, also of the Photographic Service, for expediting our many requests. We are also indebted to Wendy Mitchell, formerly of the Graduate School of Education of the University of California, for invaluable advice about fundraising.

The Mark Twain Papers in The Bancroft Library is the resident archive for nearly one third 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. Subsequent gifts and purchases over the years have added substantially to the original papers. For gifts of letters and other documents used in this volume we are grateful to the late Violet Appert, Mrs. Dorothy Clark, Robert Daley, Marie Snow Doyle, Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Gunn, the late Mrs. Eugene Lada-Mocarski, Jervis Langdon, Jr., Mrs. Robert S. Pennock, and Mrs. Bayard Schieffelin. One letter in the volume was purchased through The Bancroft Library’s Joseph Z. and Hatherly B. Todd Fund. Other repositories of letters published here are: the Boston Athenaeum; the Boston Public Library and Eastern Massachusetts Regional Public Library System; the Cape Ann Historical Association in Gloucester, Massachusetts; the University of Chicago Library; the Chicago Public Library; the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County; the Ella Strong Denison Library of the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, California; the Robert Hutchings Goddard Library of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts; the James S. Copley Library in La Jolla, California; the Dartmouth College Library in Hanover, New Hampshire; the Roesch Library at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio; the Detroit Public Library; the Houghton Library of Harvard University; the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, California; the Rare Book Room of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign; the Library of Iwaki Meisei University in Iwaki City, Japan; the Linderman Library of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; the Library of Congress; the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut; the Montana Historical Society in Helena; the Nevada State Historical Society in Reno; the New York Historical Society in New York City; the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, in New York City; the University Library of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; the Green Library of Stanford University; the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, Connecticut; the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin; the United States National Archives and Records Service of the National Archives Library in Washington, D.C.; the Vassar College Library in Poughkeepsie, New York; the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia; Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri; the Memorial Library of the University of Wisconsin in Madison; and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University. We are grateful for the unfailing cooperation of these libraries, who have given permission to publish their holdings, and have provided photocopies and answered questions about the provenance of their collections. We are likewise grateful to the following for permission to examine, photocopy, and publish letters and documents in their collections: Barbara Gunnison Anderson; Todd M. Axelrod; Fred D. Bentley; Royden Burwell Bowen, Jr.; William G. Bowen; Mrs. Robin Craven; Robert Daley; Chester L. Davis, Jr.; Alan C. Fox; Mrs. Paul W. Franke; Mr. and Mrs. Roy J. Friedman; Hallmark Cards; Mrs. T. V. Hedgpeth; Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs; Wayne M. Joseph; Nick Karanovich; the Rowfant Club of Cleveland, Ohio; Robert T. Slotta; Alberta Gunnison Stock; and Marion Gunnison Weygers. We also thank Chris Coover of the Books and Manuscripts department at Christie’s, New York, and Jay Dillon, formerly of Sotheby’s, New York, as well as Selby Kiffer and other members of the staff of the Books and Manuscripts department at Sotheby’s, for their generosity and helpfulness in permitting us to examine and proofread letters temporarily in their care.

In the course of transcribing, annotating, and tracing the provenance of the letters we have been assisted by a great many individuals. We have benefitted from the unfailing generosity of Carlo M. De Ferrari, Tuolumne County historian; Jervis Langdon, Jr., of Elmira, New York; Gretchen Sharlow, Herbert A. Wisbey, Jr., Mark Woodhouse, and Jan Kather of the Center for Mark Twain Studies at Quarry Farm and the Mark Twain Archives, Elmira College, Elmira, New York; Professor Douglas H. Shepard in Fredonia, New York; and Beverly J. Zell at the Mark Twain House in Hartford. We received further invaluable help from: John Ahouse at the University Library of the University of Southern California; Lisa Backman and Catharina Slautterback of the Boston Athenaeum; William P. Barlow, Jr.; Professor David Barrow at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb; JoAnne E. Barry of the Philadelphia Academy of Music Archives; Fred Bauman and Jennifer Brathovde at the Library of Congress; Carol Beales, Ron Vanderhye, and Marian Holleman at the James S. Copley Library; Mary F. Bell of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society in Buffalo; Professor Lawrence I. Berkove at the University of Michigan in Dearborn; Professor Edgar M. Branch; Kelli Ann Bronson, Christine Fagan, Sara S. Hodson, Frances Rouse, Elsa Lee Sink, and Jennifer A. Watts of the Huntington Library; Linda Brown of the Paterson (New Jersey) Public Library; Jerry Bruce of the Lancaster County Library in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Nancy A. Buckland of the Jackson (Michigan) Public Library; Linda Cary of the Edgar County Genealogy Library in Paris, Illinois; Eleanore R. Clise of the Geneva (New York) Historical Society and Museum; Philip N. Cronenwett and Kathleen E. O’Neill of the Dartmouth College Library; Professor Leon T. Dickinson; Judith Dobzynski of the Sciappa Branch Library in Steubenville, Ohio; Cathy Henderson and other members of the staff at the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin; Fred W. Jenkins of the Roesch Library at the University of Dayton; Amanda C. Jones of the Ulster County Historical Society in Kingston, New York; Christine M. Leety of the Scranton (Pennsylvania) Public Library; Linda J. Long and Sara Timby at the Green Library of Stanford University; William H. Loos of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library in Buffalo, New York; William Luck of the Lancaster County Historical Society in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Danielle C. McClellan and Patricia C. Willis of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University; Professor Joseph B. McCullough of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Nancy S. MacKechnie of the Vassar College Library; Cairie Marsh and Judy Harvey Sahak of the Ella Strong Denison Library of the Claremont Colleges; Judith A. Meier of the Historical Society of Montgomery County in Norristown, Pennsylvania; Eric N. Moody of the Nevada State Historical Society; Eva S. Moseley at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America of Radcliffe College; Marta G. O’Neill of the Special Collections Division at the Chicago Public Library; Patricia A. Parker of the Jamestown (New York) Post-Journal; Michelle L. Rainey of the University of Virginia Library in Charlottesville; Diana Royce of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford; Mary Russell of the Monroe C. Gutman Library of the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University; the Reverend John Ledyard Fletcher (Jack) Slee; Linnita Sommer of the Museum Association of Douglas County in Tuscola, Illinois; Charles S. Underhill; Janet Whitson of the Rare Book Room at the Detroit Public Library; and the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Throughout the process of design and typesetting for this volume we have had expert assistance from the University of California Press. We would especially like to thank Sam Rosenthal, who guided the book safely and surely through the production process; Doris Kretschmer, Fran Mitchell, and Marilyn Schwartz, who helped speed the book in various ways; and Sandy Drooker, who created the dust jacket. Our typesetters, Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services, Oakland, California, have again provided expert and essential help with the typographical transcription of Mark Twain’s letters. In addition to LeRoy Wilsted and Christine Taylor, we are indebted to Jennifer Brown, Kimberly Cline, Melissa Ehn, Nancy Evans, Stephen Fraser, Craig Friedman, Melody Lacina, Bronwen Morgan, Rosemary Northcraft, Janet Stephens, and Kim Zetter. Allen McKinney of Graphic Impressions, Emeryville, California, has again provided excellent halftones for all the photographic facsimiles in this volume, with the assistance of Tom Beidler.

We thank Professor Noel Polk at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg for his thoughtful and thorough inspection of this volume for the Modern Language Association’s Committee on Scholarly Editions, which granted its seal of approval in 1995.

Finally, we wish to thank our present and former associates in the Mark Twain Project for their many indispensable 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. Former colleague Dahlia Armon prepared transcriptions of nearly half the letters in the volume and did research into the 1869–70 lecture tour. Robert Pack Browning read transcriptions against manuscript letters at a number of collections, both public and private. Former colleague Richard Bucci read transcriptions of manuscript letters at several sites across the country and shared his research into the provenance of Mark Twain’s letters. Kenneth M. Sanderson brought his expertise to bear on the establishment and checking of letter texts. Harriet Elinor Smith contributed informed help, as always, particularly on the history of composition for Roughing It. The Union Catalog of Clemens Letters (1986) and the Union Catalog of Letters to Clemens (1992), edited by our former colleague Paul Machlis—the latter with the assistance of Deborah Ann Turner—were each vital to the orderly preparation of this volume. Graduate intern David Glenn Briggs performed the editorial work of proofreading and checking with care and enthusiasm. Simon J. Hernandez was indefatigable in tracking down sources for obscure publications. Several other students—Kandi Arndt, Beth Bernstein, Courtney Clark, Ashley D’Cruz, Deborah Goldberg, Julia Pastor, Severine Tymon, and Sandra Yue—assisted with a variety of clerical and editorial tasks, greatly facilitating our work. Brenda J. Bailey, our administrative assistant, juggled office business and essential proofreading with energy and enthusiasm. For the contributions of all of these colleagues and friends, we are indeed grateful.

V.F.   M.B.F.   L.S.