細節
The Property of
A LADY
CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE ("Mark Twain"). Autograph letter signed ("Clemens," postscript signed "Mark") to "Friend Bliss" (Elisha Bliss, of Clemen's Hartford publishers), Buffalo, N.Y., 20 December [l870]. 4 pages, 8vo, in bright purple ink on lined paper, recipient's dated docket on page 4.
"Have just read over, approved & signed that contract & it will go to you to-night. Riley [John Henry Riley, a California journalist and acquaintance] is my man -- did I introduce him to you in New York? He sails Jan. 4 for Africa. Just read about him in my Galaxy Memoranda for a month or two ago -- have forgotten which month, but it is headed 'Riley - Newspaper Correspondent.' Riley is perfectly honorable & reliable in every possible way -- his simple promise is as good as any man's oath. I have roomed with him long & have known him years. He has 'roughed it' in many savage countries & is as tough as a pine-nut. He is the very best man in the entire United States for this mission -- & when he comes back & tells me his story in my study (for he is a splendid talker,) I'll set it down red hot, & that book will just make the 'Innocents [Abroad]' look sick! He is to talk to me 2 hours a day, week after week & month after month till I have pumped him entirely dry, I boarding him free in my house & paying him $50 a month beside. I'll get two 600-page books out of his experiences, see if I don't. And if you make the first one go, we won't have any trouble about who shall publish the second one. I mean to keep Riley travelling for me till I wear him out! All this is 'mum.'
A long postscript relates to financial arrangements; Twain asks that Bliss forward the check for $1,500 to him in New York "made payable to the order of J.H. Riley, & I will forward it to him at Washington, as he desired me to do...." Twain queries, "How is my brother [Orion] getting along, & what sort of a home has he got into?"
A LADY
CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE ("Mark Twain"). Autograph letter signed ("Clemens," postscript signed "Mark") to "Friend Bliss" (Elisha Bliss, of Clemen's Hartford publishers), Buffalo, N.Y., 20 December [l870]. 4 pages, 8vo, in bright purple ink on lined paper, recipient's dated docket on page 4.
"Have just read over, approved & signed that contract & it will go to you to-night. Riley [John Henry Riley, a California journalist and acquaintance] is my man -- did I introduce him to you in New York? He sails Jan. 4 for Africa. Just read about him in my Galaxy Memoranda for a month or two ago -- have forgotten which month, but it is headed 'Riley - Newspaper Correspondent.' Riley is perfectly honorable & reliable in every possible way -- his simple promise is as good as any man's oath. I have roomed with him long & have known him years. He has 'roughed it' in many savage countries & is as tough as a pine-nut. He is the very best man in the entire United States for this mission -- & when he comes back & tells me his story in my study (for he is a splendid talker,) I'll set it down red hot, & that book will just make the 'Innocents [Abroad]' look sick! He is to talk to me 2 hours a day, week after week & month after month till I have pumped him entirely dry, I boarding him free in my house & paying him $50 a month beside. I'll get two 600-page books out of his experiences, see if I don't. And if you make the first one go, we won't have any trouble about who shall publish the second one. I mean to keep Riley travelling for me till I wear him out! All this is 'mum.'
A long postscript relates to financial arrangements; Twain asks that Bliss forward the check for $1,500 to him in New York "made payable to the order of J.H. Riley, & I will forward it to him at Washington, as he desired me to do...." Twain queries, "How is my brother [Orion] getting along, & what sort of a home has he got into?"