Details
CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE. Autograph letter signed ("Saml. L. Clemens") to his publisher Elisha Bliss, Jr. ("Friend Bliss"), Elmira, New York, 1 August [1869]. 3 pages, 8vo, in pencil on two sheets of lined paper, two slight and mostly marginal fold tears, two small marginal ink spots, with a few pencilled crossings-out by Clemens, docketed.
"THE INNOCENTS ABROAD"
"...I suppose you are right about sending the books to the newspapers the first thing [review copies of The Innocents Abroad, Twain's second book, published at the end of August or early September], -- you are old in the business & ought to know best -- though I thought maybe it would have been better to get all your machinery in trim first. However, after so long a time to get ready in, you must surely be about as ready as it is possible to be in this world, anyhow. I wrote you a wicked letter, & was sorry afterward that I did it, for it occurred to me that perhaps you had very good reasons for delaying the book till fall which I did not know anything about. But you didn't state any reasons, you know -- & I have been out of humor for a week. I had a bargain about concluded for the purchase of an interest in a daily paper [the Cleveland Herald] & when everything seemed to be going smoothly, the owner [Abel Fairbanks] raised on me. I think I have got it all straightened up again, now, & therefore am in a reasonably good humor again. [Clemens was already considering a share in the Buffalo Express, which he did buy.] If I made you mad, I forgive you..." Printed in Letters, ed. V. Fischer, M.B. Frank, and D. Armon, vol. III, pp. 286-287.
"THE INNOCENTS ABROAD"
"...I suppose you are right about sending the books to the newspapers the first thing [review copies of The Innocents Abroad, Twain's second book, published at the end of August or early September], -- you are old in the business & ought to know best -- though I thought maybe it would have been better to get all your machinery in trim first. However, after so long a time to get ready in, you must surely be about as ready as it is possible to be in this world, anyhow. I wrote you a wicked letter, & was sorry afterward that I did it, for it occurred to me that perhaps you had very good reasons for delaying the book till fall which I did not know anything about. But you didn't state any reasons, you know -- & I have been out of humor for a week. I had a bargain about concluded for the purchase of an interest in a daily paper [the Cleveland Herald] & when everything seemed to be going smoothly, the owner [Abel Fairbanks] raised on me. I think I have got it all straightened up again, now, & therefore am in a reasonably good humor again. [Clemens was already considering a share in the Buffalo Express, which he did buy.] If I made you mad, I forgive you..." Printed in Letters, ed. V. Fischer, M.B. Frank, and D. Armon, vol. III, pp. 286-287.