30 May 1881 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, correspondence card: CU-MARK, UCCL 01961)
I signed the contract & sent it. And again, now, that clause about sharing losses comes troubling me. For although such a thing is exceedingly unlikely, there might be a loss instead of a profit—& I would have to pay my proportion of that loss & $6,200 besides! (the money which I stand pledged to pay to Howells & Clark whether the book pays or not.) Come, old man, add a codicil specifying that that $6,200 shall stand as a cash payment on my proportion of the loss. Now how No, I won’t require this—couldn’t if I wanted to!—but I submit it for consideration & prayer.
MS, correspondence card, CU-MARK.
MTLP, 137; MicroML, reel 4.
See Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.