20 March 1872 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS draft and transcripts: CU-MARK, WU,
and Anderson Galleries 1917, lot 85, UCCL 11848)
Private.Ⓐemendation 1explanatory note
The more I think over our last Tuesday’s talk about my copyrightⒶemendation or royalty, the better I am satisfied. But I was troubled a good dealⒶemendation, when I went there, for I had worried myself pretty well into the impression that I was getting a smaller ratio of this book’s profits than the spirit of our contract had authorized me to promise myself; indeed, I was so nearly convinced of it that if you had not been so patient with my perplexities,Ⓐemendation & taken the pains to show me by facts & figuresⒶemendation & arguments that my present royalty gives me fully half & possibly even more than half the netⒶemendation profits of the book, I would probably have come to the settled conviction that such was not the case, & then I should have been dissatisfied. I am glad you convinced me, for I would be sorry indeed to have come away from your house feeling that I had put such entire trust & confidence in you to finally lose by it. But everything is plain & open,Ⓐemendation now. And after thinking it all overⒶemendation, I feel that, the result being the same, you will readily assent to the altering of our contract in such a way that it shall express that I am to receive half the profits. Any friend of mine can represent me in the matter. Charley Warner will do as well as another. I will ask him to do it.Ⓐemendation
I am at last easy & comfortable about the new book.Ⓐemendation I have sufficient testimony,Ⓐemendation derived through many people’s statements to my friendsⒶemendation, to about satisfy me that the general verdict gives “Roughing It” the preference over “Innocents Abroad.” This is rather gratifying than otherwiseⒶemendation The reason Ⓐemendation given is, that they like a book about America because they understand it better. It is pleasant to believe this, because it isn’t a great deal of trouble to write books about one’s own country.Ⓐemendation
We are wellⒶemendation &Ⓐemendation flourishing—all four of us.
The manuscript of this letter has not been found, but it was undoubtedly a fair copy of Clemens’s original heavily revised draft (the previous letter). The present text is based on that draft and two transcriptions of the fair copy, only one of which (a typescript) is relatively complete. For details about differences in wording and punctuation in the draft and transcriptions, see the textual commentary. Notes on the draft are not repeated here.
No copy-text. The text is based on three sources:
P1 is a draft in CU-MARK of the fair copy letter Clemens sent Bliss (see pp. 65–66 and the previous commentary). P2 and P3 each derive independently from the fair copy MS, whose present location is not known. P2 is a typewritten transcript—probably made by George Brownell from a hand transcription of the fair copy by Dana S. Ayer (now lost)—in the Rare Book Department, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison (WU). P3 is a partial transcript published in a 1917 catalog, when the MS was offered for sale. The catalog describes the letter as an “A. L. S., 4 pp. 8vo. Elmira, Mar. 20, 1872. Signed ‘Clemens.’ Marked ‘Private.’”
L5 , 68–69.
The MS evidently remained among the American Publishing Company’s files until it was sold (and may have been copied at that time by Ayer; see Brownell Collection in Description of Provenance).
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.