Explanatory Notes        Apparatus Notes (Ⓐ)

Source: CU-MARK ([CU-MARK])

Cue: "Experience has not taught me very much; still it"

Source format: "MS, draft form letter"

Letter type: "form letter"

Notes:

Last modified: 2002-12-04T00:00:00

Revision History: RHH 2002-12-04 was undated to unknown

Published on MTPO: 2022

Print Publication:

This edited text supersedes the previously published text
MTPDocEd
To Sir or Madam
1877–1880 • Hartford, Conn.? (MS, draft form letter: CU-MARK, UCCL 00593)

⟦Form.⟧

(For replying to seekers after “opinions,”)
(otherwise compliments.

Dr Sir or Madam:

Experience has not taught me very much; still it has taught me that it is not wise to criticise a piece of literature, except to an enemy of the person who wrote it; then, that enem if you praise it, that enemy admires you for your honest manliness, & if you dispraise it he admires you for your sound judgment.

Ys Truly
S L C1explanatory note
Textual Commentary
Source text(s):

MS, draft form letter, CU-MARK.

Previous Publication:

MTB , 1:506; MicroPUL, reel 8.

Provenance:

See Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.

Explanatory Notes
1 The date and place of writing of this draft form letter have not been discovered. Presumably it was written sometime between 1877 and 1880: the ink matches a type that Clemens used for letters written during those years. So far as is known, the manuscript, which remained in his possession, was never printed.
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