Francis Edgar Bliss (1843–1915), treasurer of the American Publishing Company of Hartford, was the son of Elisha Bliss, Jr. (1821–80), the firm’s secretary and chief executive officer ( L2 , 245 n. 3).

Bliss’s progress report has not survived, but evidently it did not suggest any departure from the plan to publish Clemens’s book in March 1869. Clemens had delivered his manuscript, together with various photographs to be used in illustrating it, to the American Publishing Company in August 1868, expecting publication later that year. But by mid-October, after a second visit to Hartford, he had agreed to a postponement of several months, chiefly in order to provide time to illustrate. His contract with the company was signed on 16 October, and specified that electrotyping—that is, final preparation of the printing plates—was to be completed within six months, by mid-February 1869 ( L2 , 169, 239 n. 2, 421–22). On 10 November 1868, the Hartford Courant summarized the situation: “Mark Twain’s new book—‘New Pilgrim’s Progress’—will be issued about the middle of next March. It was the intention to get it out this fall, but in order to more profusely illustrate it, delay was decided upon” (“Our Publishing Houses,” 2). The first copies of The Innocents Abroad were not, in fact, ready until July 1869.

Used during shaving for wiping soap and whiskers from the razor (Carter).

In addition to Frank—Elisha Bliss’s son by his first wife, Lois, who had died in 1855—the Bliss family consisted of Elisha’s second wife, Amelia, whom he had married in 1856, and their three children: Walter (1858–1917), Emma (b. 1860), and Almira (b. 1865). Clemens had stayed with the Blisses while in Hartford in August and October 1868 to work on his book ( L2 , 239 n. 2, 245, 257–58 n. 1).

Clemens had canceled “Mark” with a double line.