17 August 1871 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN, UCCL 00645)
Dear Sir:
I am here putting my new book on California &c., to press., & find that in it I have said in positive words that the famous episode Hank Monk anecdote has no truth in it refers to an episode which never occurred. 1explanatory note
I got this from a newspaper editor, who said he got it from you.2explanatory note I never knew of his telling a lie—but to make sure & will you please endorse his statement if you can—or deny it if you must?—so that I can leave my remark as it is; or change it if truth requires. 3explanatory note
Clemens had probably reached chapter 20 in the Roughing It proofs. In that chapter he repeated the famous anecdote about the hair-raising ride that Hank Monk gave Greeley in the stagecoach between Carson City, Nevada, and Placerville, California. In a footnote at the end of the chapter Clemens reported that the incident “never occurred” ( RI 1993 , 131–32, 136n, 866).
In 1869 Joseph Goodman had delivered to Greeley in New York a request from Monk for a railroad pass east “in memory of their celebrated mountain ride,” only to have Greeley exclaim: “‘Damn him! that fellow has done me more harm than any man in America! . . . there was not a damned word of truth in the whole story!’” (Joseph T. Goodman 1872; RI 1993 , 611). Goodman had probably told this story to Clemens when he read chapter 20 in manuscript (18 Apr 71 to OC, n. 2click to open link; RI 1993 , 866).
No reply from Greeley is known to survive.
MS, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN).
L4 , 445–446.
Before the MS was acquired by NN, it was in the collection of businessman and patron of the arts Gordon Lester Ford (1823–91).
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.