This volume in the Mark Twain Papers, like the fourteen volumes that precede it, was made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency. The Endowment has funded editorial work on Mark Twain’s writings, without interruption, since 1966, making both outright and matching grants to the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library. The Endowment provided funds for the present volume partly by matching a substantial gift to the Project from the Barkley Fund. We thank both the Endowment and the trustees of the Barkley Fund for their timely and generous support.

More than half of the Endowment’s recent grants to the Project were made feasible by gifts from individuals and foundations, each of which has been matched dollar for dollar. We wish to thank the following major donors to the Project, who have all given generously to it (often more than once) during the past few years: William H. Alsup; Jonathan Arac; Mr. and Mrs. John P. Austin; The Behring-Hofmann Educational Institute; Lawrence I. Berkove; Paul Berkowitz; The House of Bernstein, Inc.; Kevin J. and Margaret A. Bochynski; J. Dennis Bonney; Edgar Marquess Branch; Edmund G. and Bernice Brown; Class of 1938, University of California, Berkeley; June A. Cheit; Chevron Corporation; Jean R. and Sherman Chickering Fund; Chronicle Books; William A. and the late Mildred Clayton; Dana T. Coggin; Don L. Cook; Dow Chemical Corporation Foundation; Victor A. Doyno; Dorothy Eweson; the late Alice C. Gaddis; Launce E. Gamble; John C. Gerber; Dr. and Mrs. Orville J. Golub; Marion S. Goodin; Susan K. Harris; 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; James M. Hotchkiss, Jr.; Fred Kaplan; Ralph H. Kellogg; Dr. Charles C. Kelsey; Holger Kersten; Koret Foundation; Horst and Ursula Kruse; Irene and Jervis Langdon, Jr.; David C. Mandeville; Mark Twain Circle; Mark Twain Foundation; Robert Massa; the late Robert N. Miner; F. Van Dorn Moller; Jane New hall; Jeanne G. O’Brien and the late James E. O’Brien; Hiroshi Okubo; the late David Packard; The Pareto Fund; Constance Crowley Hart Peabody; Connie J. and David H. Pyle; the late Catherine D. Rau; Verla K. Regnery Foundation; Deane and Peggy Robertson; John W. and Barbara Rosston; Virginia C. Scardigli; Michael Shelden; John R. Shuman; L. J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation; Marion B. and Willis S. Slusser; Miriam and Harold Steinberg Foundation; Jeffrey Steinbrink; Thomas More Storke Fund; Koji Tabei; Mrs. Joseph Z. Todd; Gretchen Trupiano; the late John Russell Wagner; Mrs. Paul L. Wattis; and Alvin Ziegler.

We are likewise grateful to the following donors for their timely gifts to the Project, all of which have also been matched by the Endowment: Dr. John E. Adams; Sid and Jan Allison; Paul Alpers; Mr. and Mrs. Ward Anderson; Harold Aspiz; Roger Asselineau; John Edward Back; Julia Bader; Nancy and Howard G. Baetzhold; Brenda J. Bailey; Dwight L. and Nancy J. Barker; Benjamin Samuel Bancorp; Mr. and Mrs. Donald P. Barron; David Barrow; Trenton Don Bass; Jay D. Bayer; H. H. Behrens; Barbara Belford; John B. and Ann W. Bender; the late Dr. Leslie L. Bennett and the Bennett Family Trust; Carol C. Bense; Jodie Ann Bagnios; Mary K. Bercaw; Hannah M. Bercovitch; Alice R. Berkowitz; James R. Bernard; Roger Berry; R. J. Bertero; Marilyn R. Bewley; David Bianculli; Diane B. Bickers; Diane Birchell; John Bird; Donald P. Black and Robert L. Black, M.D., in memory of their father, Harold A. Black; W. Edward Blain; William Makely in memory of Walter Blair; Burton J. Bledstein; Mary Boewe; Dennis A. Bohn; Dr. Richard J. Borg; Harold I. and Beulah Blair Boucher; Betsy Bowden; Mr. and Mrs. Philip E. Bowles; Boone Brackett, M.D.; Philip and Katherine Bradley; Sandra Wentworth Bradley; The Brick Row Book Shop; Earl F. Briden; Richard Bridgman; the late Stanley Brodwin; Timothy Buchanan; Louis J. and Isabelle Budd; Linda E. Burg; Richard Byrd; Gerald K. Cahill; Mr. and Mrs. Grant W. Canfield; Lawrence G. Carlin; Clayton C. Carmichael; Professor James E. Caron; Paul Carrara; CD Squared; C. D. Christensen; Patricia Christensen; Fred Clagett; Mrs. Wanda Clark; Edwina B. Coffing; Hennig Cohen; Marvin M. Cole; James L. Colwell; Bob Comeau; Mrs. Shirley Larson Cook; Nancy Cook; Alice and Robert Cooper; 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; Theresa Demick; Mrs. Wilma Cox DeMotte; Barbara Deutsch; Jean Pond Dever; Joseph E. Doctor; Carl Dolmetsch; William G. Donald; Edgar L. Dow; Marie S. Doyle; Jon A. Dubin; William J. Duhigg, Jr.; Richard A. and Sherry T. Dumke; Dennis Eddings; Matthew J. Ehrenberg; Sanford S. Elberg; Everett Emerson; Allison R. Ensor; William W. Escherich; Ann Cahill Fidanque; Joel M. Fisher; Shelley Fisher Fishkin; Gerald L. and Norma J. Flanery; George R. Flannery; Willis and Maria P. Foster; Margaret Anne Fraher; the Reverend Don Fraser; Peter L. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D.; Friends of Caxton; Robert E. Futrell; Louis G. Gambill; Joe Gannon; Michael D. Gastaldo; Guy G. Gilchrist; Jay E. Gillette; Jerry S. Gilmer, Ph.D.; Dorothy Goldberg; Gloria R. Goldblatt; Stephen L. Golder; Lowell Gorseth; 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; Mr. and Mrs. Robert T. Harnsberger; Mrs. Mercedes Haroldson; Paul C. Harris, Jr.; 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. Sleet Henderson; Judith B. Herman; Aurora and Jim Hill; Charles J. Hitch; Sandra Hjorth; Mary Jo Hobart-Parks; Elizabeth Hoem; Mrs. Carl J. Hoffman; Raymond Holbert; Patricia A. Holland; Professor and Mrs. Richard H. Holton; Walter Hoops; Jason G. Horn; 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; M. Thomas Inge; Jane A. Iverson; Iwao Iwamoto; Dr. Janice Beaty Janssen; Robert Jenkins, M.D., Ph.D.; Alastair Johnston; Yoshio Kanaya; Nick Karanovich; Lawrence Kearney; Dan Keller Technical Services; Dennis and Hene Kelly; Lynn Kelly; 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; Jeremy Knight; Robert and Margarete Knudsen; Larry Kramer; Leland Krauth; 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 Signe Larson; Roger K. Larson, M.D.; Richard W. LaRue; Jacklyn Lauchland-Shaw; Mary-Warren Leary; Philip W. Leon; Andrew Levy; Joan V. Lindquist; William S. Linn; Robert Livermore; Albert Locher; 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; Patricia Murphy McClelland; William J. McClung; Joseph B. McCullough; Mac Donnell Rare Books; Coleman W. McMahon; Hugh D. McNiven; Laura McVay; Wilson C. McWilliams; James H. Maguire; George F. Mahl; Thomas A. Maik; Steven Mailloux; Linda Maio; Mila Mangold; Michael Maniccia; 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; Dr. and Mrs. I. W. Monie; James M. Moore; Rayburn S. Moore; Frank and Gabrielle Morris; Ron Morrison; Steven G. Morton; Ann Elizabeth and Robert Murtha; Charles J. Naber; Alan Nadritch; Makoto Nagawara; Koichi Nakamura; Suzanne Naiburg; Frances M. Neel; Fred M. Nelsen; David A. Nelson; Leta H. Nelson; Ralph G. Newman, Inc.; Robert S. Newton; Emily V. Nichols; Cameron C. Nickels; Sandy Niemann; Charles A. Norton; Patrick and Cathy Ober; Harold P. and Olive L. Oggel; the Olive L. Oggel Trust: Terry, Steve, and Jeff Oggel; Terry and Linda Oggel; Koji Oi; Peter K. Oppenheim; Chris Orvin; R. Overbey; David C. Owens; Hershel Parker; Kenneth D. and Nancy J. Parker; Mary Jane Perna; Frederick D. Petrie; 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; James Richardson; Hans J. Riedel; 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; Norman J. and Claire S. Roth; Brandt Rowles; Sharon L. Ruff; Linda Haverty Rugg; Lynne M. Rusinko; Barbara Ryan; Susan J. Sager; Mrs. Leon E. Salanave; Kenneth M. Sanderson; Mrs. Elaine R. Santoro; Gary D. Saretsky; Elinor P. Saunders; Evelyn H. Savage; Barbara E. Schauffier; Katherine Schmidt; Thelma Schoonmaker; Timothy and Sue Schulfer; Judith A. Sears; Lucy W. Sells; Caroline Service; Carol Sharon; Virginia M. Shaw; Thomas J. Shephard, Sr.; Laura Beth Sherman; Polly A. Siegel; Oscar Alan Sipes; Michael J. and Marsha C. Skinner; Ward B. Skinner, D.D.S.; Richard Skues; David E. E. Sloane; Mr. and Mrs. Robert T. Slotta in memory of Caroline Thomas Harnsberger; Elinor Lucas Smith; Jonathan C. Smith; Gene Snook; David N. Socholitzky; Colleen A. Spadaro; Marseille Spetz, M.D.; Ronald M. Spielman; Betty Jean and Jim Spitze; Marjorie H. Sproul; Verne A. Stadtman; J. D. Stahl; George A. Starr; Horace D. Stearman; Richard T. Stearns; Dwight C. Steele; Carol Steinhagen; Jody Steren; Albert E. Stone; Janet P. Stone; Louis Suarez-Potts; Edward W. Swenson; Eleanor H. Swent; G. Thomas Tanselle; Barbara W. Taylor; Harry Tennyson; Jeffrey and Evelyne Thomas; Burt Tolerton; Eloyde J. Tovey; Col. Robert T. Townsend; Dorothy Tregea; Frederic B. Tankel in memory of Donald G. Tronstein; Masao Tsunematsu; Edward L. Tucker; Charles S. Underhill; Marlene Boyd Vallin; Thomas S. Van Den Heuvel; Patrick J. Vaz; Ellen M. and Michael Vernon; 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; the late James D. Wilson; Merilynn Laskey Wilson; Herbert A. Wisbey, Jr.; Edward O. Wolcott; Harold A. Wollenberg; Thomas R. Worley; Tom and Amy Worth; Laurel A. and Jeffrey S. Wruble; Jin-Hee Yim; Mary A. Young; David Joseph and Yoko Tanabe Zmijewski; Jim Zwick; and Kate Zwirko.

Despite the great financial stringency of recent years, the University of California has continued to provide a home, and support, for the Project. For their help in securing repeated exemptions from indirect costs (thus materially reducing the cost of editing borne by the Endowment grants) we wish especially to thank Linda R. Rutkowski, Lynn E. Deetz, and Joseph Cerny, Vice Chancellor for Research. For both tangible and intangible support we also thank CD. Mote, Jr., Vice Chancellor for University Relations, and Carol T. Christ, the Vice Chancellor and Provost. The newest members of the Mark Twain Project’s Board of Directors have likewise been indispensable to its survival within the larger institution. We thank especially Peter Lyman, University Librarian, Charles B. Faulhaber, Director of The Bancroft Library, and Peter E. Hanff, now Deputy Director after more than five years as Acting Director of The Bancroft, as well as Jo Ann Boydston, Don L. Cook, Frederick Crews, Michael Millgate, George A. Starr, G. Thomas Tanselle, and Elizabeth Witherell. Each has contributed significantly, though in different ways, to our ability to remain “stubborn for a long time” about editing Mark Twain’s papers and works.

Our thanks go as well to the Council of The Friends of The Bancroft Library for their continued moral support of this enterprise: Cindy Arnot Barber, chair; William P. Barlow, Jr., Peggy Cahill, Kimo Campbell, Dorian Chong, Gifford Combs, Charles B. Faulhaber, Carol Hart Field, Rita Fink, Ann Flinn, Victoria Fong, Roger Hahn, Peter E. Hanff, E. Dixon Heise, Martin Huff, Lawrence Kramer, Allan Littman, Robert Livermore, William Petrocelli, Bernard M. Rosenthal, George Sears, Julia Sommer, Katharine Wallace, and Thomas B. Worth. We owe special thanks as well to Kelly Penhall-Wilson and Leela Virassammy, past and present coordinators for The Friends.

We are grateful for moral as well as practical support from our many colleagues in the Library, especially Charles B. Faulhaber and Peter E. Hanff, already mentioned. For wisdom, advice, and uncounted acts of assistance we also thank Willa K. Baum, Bonnie L. Bearden, D. Steven Black, Anthony S. Bliss, Walter V. Brem, Jr., Bonnie Hardwick, Cynthia A. Hoffman, Timothy P. Hoyer, David Kessler, Ann Lage, Lauren Lassleben, Mary L. Morganti, Jacqueline M. Mundo, Paul T. Payne, Daniel Pitti, Merrilee Proffitt, Teri A. Rinne, William M. Roberts, Patrick J. Russell, Paul Shen, Susan E. Snyder, Andrew C. Spalaris, and Jack von Euw. Jo Lynn Milardovich and the hard-working staff of the Interlibrary Borrowing Service helped us to obtain many rare and remote works that proved essential to the annotation. We are also indebted to Daniel L. Johnston and Marnie L. Jacobsen of the Library Photographic Service for cheerfully filling, with unvarying excellence, our requests for photographs.

All editors of Mark Twain are permanently indebted to the generations of scholars who pioneered in the tasks of locating, copying, collecting, and publishing his letters—particularly 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 works of scholarship, and are sometimes the only known source for letters reprinted 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 for annotation and transcription, although just eleven years later, Henry Nash Smith and William M. Gibson’s Mark Twain–Howells Letters (1960) established new and even higher standards. Frederick Anderson assisted Smith and Gibson in that work and, until his death in 1979, served as 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, published in 1967 and 1969, respectively. We have profited from all of these books in ways too numerous to bear mention in the notes.

The Mark Twain Papers in The Bancroft Library are the archival home for nearly a third of the three hundred letters published in the present volume. Mark Twain’s own private papers were brought to the University of California in 1949—a result of Dixon Wecter’s irresistible persuasiveness and the accommodating generosity of Clara Clemens Samossoud. Subsequent gifts and purchases over the years have added substantially to this massive cache of private documents. 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 S. 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 (4 August 1873 to Edmund H. Yates) was purchased with funds from the James F. and Agnes R. Robb Memorial Fund in The Bancroft Library. Special thanks go also to William P. Barlow, Jr., for affording us unlimited access to his vast and ever-growing collection of manuscript and book auction catalogs, which are not infrequently the sole available source for letter texts included here, or in the previous four volumes of Mark Twain’s Letters. We are likewise indebted to Todd M. Axelrod, executive director of the Gallery of History in Las Vegas, who generously gave us direct access to the nearly one hundred and thirty letters he has collected (four letters in this volume alone, several more in each of the previous volumes).

All other original letters published here are owned, and have been made available to the editors both directly and in photocopy, by the following repositories or individuals, to whom we and the reader are indebted: Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts; Mr. and Mrs. Fred D. Bentley, Sr.; the Boston Public Library and Eastern Massachusetts Regional Public Library; the British Library; the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society Archives; the Cincinnati Historical Society; Columbia University; the Connecticut Historical Society and the Connecticut State Library, Hartford; the James S. Copley Library, La Jolla, California; Robert Daley; Chester L. Davis, Jr.; the East Sussex Record Office; the Detroit Public Library; Robert M. Dorn; the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.; Russell Freedman of Second Life Books, Lanesborough, Massachusetts; the Houghton Library of Harvard University; David Howland; the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California; the Rare Book and Special Collections Library of the University of Illinois, Urbana; the University of Iowa; the late Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs; Nick Karanovich; the Seymour Library of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois; the Linderman Library of Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; the Library of Congress; the Litchfield Historical Society, Litchfield, Connecticut; the Mark Twain Archives and Center for Mark Twain Studies at Quarry Farm, Elmira College; the Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site, Stoutsville, Missouri; the Mark Twain Home Foundation, Hannibal, Missouri; the Mark Twain House, Hartford; the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston; the Moray District Council, Elgin, Scotland; the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City; Rosemary Morris and Marjory Anderson; the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the New York Historical Society, New York City; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Princeton University; Reed College, Portland, Oregon; the Rush Rhees Library of the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; Routledge and Kegan Paul, London; Charles W. Sachs of the Scriptorium, Beverly Hills; Saint Mary’s Seminary, Perryville, Missouri; Bruce Schwalb; the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford; the Strathclyde Regional Archives, Glasgow; the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas, Austin; Jean Thompson; the Vassar College Library, Poughkeepsie, New York; Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont; the Clifton Waller Barrett Library at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville; the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland; the Memorial Library of the University of Wisconsin, Madison; the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Washington University, St. Louis.

A great many librarians and scholars have assisted us in transcribing, annotating, and tracing the provenance of these letters. We owe particular thanks to the following: John Ahouse, Curator of American Literature, University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Harold Augenbraum, Director, Mercantile Library of New York; Frederick W. Bauman, Manuscript Reference Librarian, Library of Congress; Lawrence I. Berkove, Department of English, University of Michigan, Dearborn; Amy Bolt, Reference Librarian, Library of Michigan, Lansing; Lisa Browar, formerly Assistant Director for Rare Books and Manuscripts and Acting Curator of the Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, now head of the Lilly Library, Bloomington; Michaelyn Burnette, Humanities Librarian, Collection Development and Reference Services Department, University of California, Berkeley; Undine Concannon, Archivist, Madame Tussaud’s, London; Marianne Curling, Curator, and Beverly Zell, Photograph Librarian, Mark Twain House, Hartford; Margaret Daley, Liverpool Record Office; Michael Donnelly, Archives Assistant, Maritime Archives and Library, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool; Gina Douglas, Librarian and Archivist, Linnean Society of London; Inge Dupont, Head of Reader Services, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City; Eric Flounders, Cunard Line, London; Patricia Higgins, Researcher, Offley, Hitchin, Hertfordshire; Sara S. Hodson, Curator of Literary Manuscripts, Huntington Library, San Marino, California; Margaret D. Hrabe, Public Services Assistant, Special Collections/Manuscripts, Alderman Library, University of Virginia; Julian Hunt, Local Studies Librarian, County Library and Museum, Buckinghamshire; JoAnne Jager, Local History Librarian, Lansing Public Library; Marilyn Kierstead, Special Collections Librarian, Reed College Library, Portland, Oregon; E. Bruce Kirkham, Department of English, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana; John Lancaster, Head of Special Collections, and Donna Skibel, Archives Associate, Amherst College Library; Robert A. McCown, Special Collections and Manuscripts Librarian, University of Iowa; Karen Mix, Special Collections, Mugar Library, Boston University; Virginia Moreland, College Librarian, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia; Leslie A. Morris, Curator of Manuscripts, and Melanie Wisner, Houghton Reading Room, Houghton Library, Harvard University; Kelly Nolin, Reference Librarian, Connecticut Historical Society; John D. O’Hern, Director and Curator, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira; Kermit J. Pike, Library Director, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland; Diana Royce, Librarian, Stowe-Day Library, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford; P. R. Saunders, Curator, Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum; Gary Scharnhorst, Department of English Language and Literature, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; Jeffrey Kaimowitz, Curator, and Alesandra M. Schmidt, Assistant Curator, Reference and Manuscripts, Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford; Martha Smart, Reference Assistant, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford; Michael Shelden, Department of English, Indiana State University, Terre Haute; Virginia Smith, Reference Librarian, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston; Linda Stanley, Manuscripts and Archives Curator, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; E. Gordon Williams, Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society; Diane Wishinski, State of Vermont Department of Libraries, Montpelier; Vincent Giroud, Curator of the MacDonald Collection, Danielle C. McClellan, Public Services Assistant, Stephen Parks, Curator of the Osborn Collection, and Patricia Willis, Curator of the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Laetitia Yeandle, Manuscripts Librarian, Folger Shakespeare Library.

Throughout the typesetting and physical production of this volume we have had essential guidance and assistance from the University of California Press. We are especially appreciative of Sam Rosenthal, who saw the book through the intricacies of the production process; Doris Kretschmer, our sponsoring editor; and Sandy Drooker, who designed and prepared the dust jacket. As in the past, we have benefited from the punctilious work of the expert and knowledgeable staff at Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services, Oakland, California. We again thank Christine Taylor and LeRoy Wilsted, and we renew those thanks for Kimberly Cline, typesetter par excellence, as well as Jennifer Brown, Jeff Clark, Melissa Ehn, Nancy Evans, Stephen Fraser, Melody Lacina, Beth Lee, Julie Lefevre, Rosemary Northcraft, and Heather Rudkin. Allen McKinney of Graphic Impressions in Emeryville, California, together with his assistant Tom Beidler, again provided the exceptionally fine halftones for the photographs published here.

We thank David Chesnutt for his thoughtful, careful, and highly appreciative inspection of this volume for the Modern Language Association’s Committee on Scholarly Editions, whose seal of approval appears on the copyright page.

Finally, we express our abiding gratitude to colleagues and former colleagues in the Mark Twain Project for their indispensable help at every stage of editing and production. Richard Bucci traveled to several archives in the East, where he expertly compared original letter manuscripts with our transcriptions. Robert Pack Browning helped secure formal permission to publish letters owned by other institutions and individuals. Victor Fischer provided authoritative guidance and limitless patience in helping us to establish the texts. Michael B. Frank contributed his expertise in styling and checking the annotation, and he was among those who carefully proofread the entire volume. Kenneth M. Sanderson applied his exceptional skill in reading Mark Twain’s handwriting to improve the accuracy of the transcriptions. The Union Catalog of Clemens Letters (1986) and the Union Catalog of Letters to Clemens (1992), edited by Paul Machlis—the latter with the assistance of Deborah Ann Turner—were essential to the preparation of this volume. Four student interns participated in both research for, and proofreading of, the texts published here: David G. Briggs, Anh Bui, Ashley R. D’Cruz, and Louis Suarez-Potts. Brenda Bailey, administrative assistant to the Project, shielded us from the bureaucracy and the telephones, always with her customary efficiency and good cheer.

L.S.   H.E.S.