I have received your note, through your brother, & enclose the r within. ThereⒶemendation is n really no biography to my career.

I have put in the only striking thing that occurs to me.—viz., that I fully expected the “Jumping Frog” to sell 50,000 copies & it only sold 4,000;1explanatory note & I only expected the “Innocents” to sell 3,000 copies but it astounded me by selling 85,000 copies in within 16 months—which, I am told, is the largest sale of a four-dollar book (price $ Ⓐemendation is $3.50 to $5—$4 about the average) ever achieved in America in so short a time.2explanatory note That is the only thing in my life that seems to me remarkable enough to merit public attention—

Besides, my idea is, that you only desire the mere name & one or two items—for your full biographies must be necessarily given to the men of permanent fame, like our generals & chei chiefⒶemendation poets & historians.3explanatory note