To
Francis E. Bliss
24 January 1877 • Hartford, Conn. (MS facsimile, correspondence card, in pencil: CU-MARK, UCCL 01163)
24 January 1877 • Hartford, Conn. (MS facsimile, correspondence card, in pencil: CU-MARK, UCCL 01163)
Jan. 24 /77
slcFriend Bliss—
Statement & check for $83-odd received. You may send me that Bret Harte piece of paper to keep as evidence of his indebtedness to me.1explanatory note About how many of Tom Sawyer will Can you furnish me a statement of Saw Tom Saywyer by Feb. 1?2explanatory note
Lockwood the Baltimore tailor has arrived with his suit not his suite.3explanatory note
Yrs Truly
SLC
Explanatory Notes
1 On this same day Frank Bliss had sent Clemens a check for $83.52 in payment of royalties
on “sales of the old books to Jan 1. 77,” adding, “‘Tom S’ having been out but short
time have not made up the a/c for it” (CU-MARK). Bliss's statement showed $1,136.49 payable to Clemens on sales of The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, The Gilded Age, and Sketches, New and Old during the final quarter of 1876. Deducted from this amount were $52.97 for “Sundry
items chgd since Aug 1” and $1,000 covering, clearly by arrangement with Clemens,
Bret Harte's post-dated check meant to partially repay advances made to him by the
American Publishing Company for Gabriel Conroy (Scrapbook 10:76a–b, CU-MARK; for Harte's indebtedness to the company, see AutoMT2, 634–35, and Harte to SLC, 24 Dec 1875, in Harte 1997, 125–26). On 26 January Frank Bliss sent Clemens “the Brett Harte dft as you wish—have
written on the back of it that it was charged to you, so as to make Harte's indebtedness
to you clearer” (CU-MARK). At some point Clemens also made a direct loan of $700 to Harte, who acknowledged
it grudgingly in a letter of 1 March 1877 (see 27 Feb 1877 to PAM, n. 3).
2 On 26 January Frank Bliss replied: “Can make up sales of ‘Tom Sawyer’ print as soon
after Feby 1st as we can get the binders bill in, will hurry them up all I can, but
they are bound to be slow as they have been this month stringing along till near the
end” (CU-MARK). On 9 March 1877 Bliss sent Clemens a statement of sales of Tom Sawyer “from the beginning to March 1st 1877,” showing that 15,037 copies in various bindings
had been sold, earning Clemens a royalty of $4,327.92 (Scrapbook 10:80, CU-MARK).
3 In 1871 Clemens and Henry C. Lockwood of Baltimore disputed ownership of a patent
garment strap invention. The matter was settled out of court, Clemens agreeing to
manufacture the article, and Lockwood receiving the right to a share of the profits.
Manufacture was never begun, and Lockwood now brought suit for $10,000 for breach
of contract. The suit was heard in the Superior Court of Connecticut in Hartford,
beginning on 30 January 1877 and ending on 20 March. For Clemens's report of the final
disposition of the case, see 23? Mar 1877 to Howells (6 Oct 1871 to Leggett, L4, 462–66; 20 July 1872 to Bliss, L5, 124; “The Courts,” Hartford Courant: 27 Jan 1877, 2; 10 Feb 1877, 2; 13 Feb 1877, 2; 10 Mar 1877, 2; 17 Mar 1877, 2).
MS facsimile, correspondence card, in pencil, CU-MARK.
MicroPUL, reel 1.
The present location of the MS is not known; the photocopy in CU-MARK was provided in 1972 by St. Mary’s Seminary in Perryville, Missouri (MoPeS). The postcard was evidently one of “eight items of autograph material” donated to MoPeS in 1944 by Estelle Doheny. It is not clear whether this “material” consisted of manuscripts or photocopies. By 1982 the MoPeS archive contained only a photocopy of this letter.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.