2 September 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y. (Transcript and MS: MTL , 1:175, and CU-MARK, UCCL 00499)
I Ⓐemendationfind that your little memorandum book is going to be ever so much use to me, & Ⓐemendationwill enable me to make quite a coherent narrative of the Plains journey instead of slurring it over & jumping 2,000 miles at a stride. The book I am writing will sell.1explanatory note In return for the use of the little memorandum book I shall take the greatest pleasure in forwarding to you the third $1,000 which the publisher of the forthcoming work sends me—or the first $1,000, I am not particular—they will both be in the first quarterly statement of account from the publisher.2explanatory note
In Ⓐemendationgreat haste,
Love to Mollie. We are all getting along tolerably well.
Orion Clemens Esq | 1227 Chesnut st. Ⓐemendation | St. Louis, Mo. Ⓐemendation across envelope end: Leave it in Mellon’s hands but give him 25 per cent—can you never get that necessity before your face?3explanatory note postmarked: buffalo n.y. sep 3
Clemens had received the memorandum book by 27 July, at which time he expected to begin writing what became Roughing It in “about a month” (27 July 70 to JLC and PAMclick to open link). His letters of 2 September to Fairbanks and 4 September to Bliss indicate that he began as planned and completed drafts of the first four chapters, which were clearly dependent on the memorandum book, between 28 August and 2 September. It is therefore apparent that he wrote the present letter on 2 September and sent it in the envelope postmarked 3 September. The letter itself survives, however, only in Albert Bigelow Paine’s transcription, which lacks a clear date. The memorandum book itself has not survived (see RI 1993 , 769–77).
Clemens’s gratitude helped inspire Orion to send additional material for the western book (11 Nov 70 to OCclick to open link).
A transcript in MTL , 1:175, is copy-text for the letter; MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK), is copy-text for the envelope. The rationale for emendations to remove MTL styling is given in Description of Texts.
L4 , 186–187.
The letter MS is not known to survive; for the envelope, see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.