26 February 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Cornman, UCCL 01197)
I am not so situated as to be able to sell the Jumping Frog, because I am just on the point of issuing it in book form through my publishers here, all al along with all my sketches complete
Mess. Warren Choate & Co
Washington.1explanatory note
Clemens had included the “Jumping Frog” sketch in the ill-fated Sketches. Number One pamphlet. Warren Choate and Company, a firm of booksellers, stationers, and publishers, had evidently asked to purchase the rights to the story. Clemens did use it in his new sketchbook, Sketches, New and Old, but as the first part of a longer sketch (25 Feb 74 to Fairbanks, n. 6click to open link; 12 Feb–31 Mar 75 to Bliss, n. 1click to open link; Boyd, 142).
MS facsimile. The editors have not seen the MS, which was owned sometime prior to 1983 by Charles Cornman, who provided a photocopy to the Mark Twain Papers.
L6 , 394; Goodspeed’s Book Shop 1943, lot 44, excerpt.