7 March 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y. (Buffalo Express, 8 Mar 70, UCCL 05162)
PERSONAL.
The paragraph now going the rounds of the press to the effect that I am going to withdraw from Buffalo &Ⓐemendation the Buffalo Express is entirely foundationlessⒶemendation. I am a permanency here. I am prospering well enough to please my friends & distress my enemies, & consequently am in a state of tranquil satisfaction. I will regard it as a favor if those journals that printed the item referred to will also mention this correction.1explanatory note
“Mark Twain.”
Buffalo, March 7.
The Express published this “correction” at the head of its editorial columns on 8, 9, 10, and 11 March. Presumably Clemens’s request that it be copied was widely granted. The Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, which seems to have started the offending rumor in January (2 and 3 Mar 70 to Langdon, n. 7click to open link), printed the correction, appending these remarks:
We give the above very cheerfully. “Mark” is so original a genius that his shortest items are worth copying, and he always tells us something new. In the above, for example, he gives us not only a new word, but a new idea. We never heard a man styled a “permanency” before. And for the first time, also, we learn that “Mark” has “enemies.” We supposed he was everybody’s friend and vice versa. (“Personal,” 8 Mar 70, 3)
The Cleveland Herald also amended its January item with a paraphrase of Clemens’s letter (“Notes and Comments,” 10 Mar 70, 2).
“Personal,” Buffalo Express, 8 Mar 70, 2.
L4 , 89; In addition to the copy-text, “Personal,” Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, 8 Mar 70, 3; “City and Neighborhood,” Elmira Advertiser, 9 Mar 70, 4, excerpt; “Notes and Comments,” Cleveland Herald, 10 Mar 70, 2, paraphrase.