13 March 1873 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: ViU, UCCL 00887)
This is from the man Kendall whom we once shipped out to California to die, but who baseleyⒶemendation went back on us.1explanatory note For he still lives, as Harte knows to his cost, since this is the same virtuous hypercritical Kendall who “exposed” the said Harte in the San Francisco Chronicle.2explanatory note
He seems to still afflict me with his perilous friendship—wants me to get him a show in the Eastern Magazines. I have had his poems on hand for a month, intending to return them to him “with thanks,” but have neglected it so long that it requires cheek to do it, now—& besides this ill-constructed chronic starveling needs charitable treatment more than he deserves. He is down, & although I would like to hit him, even in that position it seems like “going for” crippled game & I sort of hate to do it.
Now you will probably not want his poetry—& if so, just be kind enough to mail it back to him, either with or without explanations, for I would dearly like to see him get up your private history with Kendallian embellishments & deliver it seething hot in the Chronicle—& indeed I have so set my heart upon this than thatⒶemendation I cannot think you will have the heart to disappoint me. I would do as much for you, any time.
But if you should prefer to print the poetry, do so; but in that case I beg that you will “improve” it here & there, as Harte used to do for him, & that will answer the same purpose & produce the same result. I wait with impatience, not to say feverish greed.3explanatory note
Clemens evidently enclosed a letter from poet W. A. Kendall, along with the poems mentioned in the next paragraph. (For Clemens’s previous efforts on Kendall’s behalf, see 7 Jan 72 to Howellsclick to open link.)
On 15 December 1872 Kendall published an attack on Harte in the San Francisco Chronicle, belittling his talent and accusing him of embezzling funds intended for contributors to the Overland Monthly (Kendall 1872). On 26 December Harte enclosed a copy of Kendall’s article in the following letter (CU-MARK):
Harte had seen the review in the London Spectator for 7 December 1872 (1557–58) of Hotten’s Stories of the Sierras, which included Joaquin Miller’s “Last Man of Mexican Camp,” together with eight stories and poems by Harte. (His “new story” has not been identified.) Harte had been in Elmira on 23 December (when he saw Charles Langdon) to deliver his lecture, “The Argonauts of ’49” (“Bret Harte,” Elmira Advertiser, 24 Dec 72, 4). He expected to see Clemens on 3 January in Hartford, where he was scheduled to lecture that evening (22 Mar 73 to Larned, n. 3click to open link). A week after Kendall’s attack on Harte was published, the San Francisco News Letter and California Advertiser remarked on his ingratitude, claiming that not even a dog would “gnaw the hand that fed” it, as Kendall had done (“W. A. Kendall,” 21 Dec 72, 8; see also 7 Jan 72 to Howells, n. 5click to open link). In 1878, after Clemens had quarreled with Harte, he told Howells that John Carmany, publisher of the Overland, as well as the contributors had believed Kendall’s charge (27 June 78 to Howells, MH-H, in MTHL , 1:235; information courtesy of Gary Scharnhorst).
Harte must have revised Kendall’s poetry before publishing it in Outcroppings and the Overland Monthly (Harte 1866; 7 Jan 72 to Howells, n. 5click to open link). Howells never published Kendall in the Atlantic.
MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU).
L5 , 317–19; Anderson, Gibson, and Smith, v, 10–12.
deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 17 December 1963.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.