To William Dean Howells
12 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: MH-H, UCCL 01232)

May 12.

My Dear Howells:1

All right, I’ll send the No. along, & e alter it in the proof if I find it needs it.2

[ I’m I’ve] written Harkins.3

That’s a superb notice for the play. Raymond put that “Well I won’t” in & I can’t get him to ei take it out. Your closing stab will reach his vitals, for the reason that he can’t do a pathetic thing—he isn’t man enough.

He writes to-day asking me to give him the rest of this season in consideration of what he has done for me & my rep my pocket & my reputation! And he fits the language & the manner to the thing—i.e. groveling appeal for charity.

His letter would make a dog blush. But I guess there is some villainy under it somewhere.4

I believe it will be lovely weather here one of these days—& then you’ve got to dig out & come.

Your criticism of the play says exactly what I want. It glorifies Sellers & shows that the play would be simply worthless without him. And you see, the thing I want to do when the proper opprortunity offers, is to pile that play onto the thief Densmore’s shoulders! But for Raymond, I’d have done it in the begin[n]ing.5

In a hurry to catch the postman,6

Ys Ever

Mark.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens answered the following response (CU-MARK) to his letter of 7 May:

UCLC32161

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Howells enclosed proofsheets of his review of the Gilded Age play for the June Atlantic. They are transcribed in Reviews of the Gilded Age play.

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2 This “No.”—the seventh and last of “Old Times on the Mississippi”—was scheduled for the July Atlantic, but was delayed until the August issue.

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3 On 22 May Harkins answered Clemens from Wilmington, Delaware:

Your letter has just reached me, as I have been on the move ever since I saw you. I thank you for your kindness and will call on Mr Howells the first leisure day I have on return home.

It is possible I may have to play a couple of weeks at the Theatre on my reutrn in which case I will not be able to see him before the middle of June (MH-H)

Clemens either gave or sent this letter to Howells, who preserved it among his papers. It is not known whether he and Harkins ever met, but Howells did not write a play for him.

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4 Raymond’s letter has not been found: see the next two letters.

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5 Clemens here repeated the claims he had made in his letter of 3 November 1874 to the editor of the Hartford Evening Post, that he alone created Sellers, and that although he rewrote Densmore’s script three times, he was ready—even eager—to assign him credit for the other features of the play.

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6 Clemens may also have been in a hurry to prepare for his evening’s activity—participation in a spelling match at Twichell’s Asylum Hill Congregational Church. Clemens and Twichell were on opposing teams. Clemens made a humorous speech to introduce the “orthographical solemnities” and also provided one of the prizes (see Clemens’s “Spelling Match” Speech for a full account).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Houghton Library, Harvard University (MH-H, shelf mark bMS Am 1784 [98]).

Previous publication: L6, 477–79; MTHL, 1:83–84.

Provenance:see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

I’m I’ve • I’mve