To James Gordon Bennett, Jr.
17 November 1875 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: Axelrod, UCCL 10499)

Nov. 17.

My Dear Sir:

The book I have is one which I urged Mr. House some five years ago to write—or rather, it is one written in place of that. It seems to be all about that War out there, so it may be the Herald letters collected. I cannot let it pass out of my possession, however, because House entrusted it to me without giving me that privilege.1 But there is a copy in New York, in the hands of Mr. Geo. Simmons, [Army ] Building, & no doubt you can see that one. I think Mr. Young knows Simmons.2

Ys Truly

Samℓ. L. Clemens

[bottom one-half inch of page cut away] 3

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens answered the following letter from Bennett, owner and editor of the New York Herald, whom he had met in 1867 (CU-MARK; L2, 115–16, 107 n. 2, 121):

UCLC32232

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The book was The Japanese Expedition to Formosa, in which House had incorporated his 1874 Herald correspondence (see 10 Apr 75 to Bliss, n. 1). In a 13 November 1874 letter to Clemens from Japan, House had complained that although the Herald had “printed pages of my matter, I have never had the first line of acknowledgment, or anything else from them” (CU-MARK).

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2 Only one George Simmons, a clerk, was listed in the New York City directory, place of employment unspecified. By the “Army Building” Clemens meant the headquarters of the Division of the Atlantic, at 33 West Houston Street. Since 1872 John Russell Young had been a New York Herald foreign correspondent (Wilson 1875, 1231, “City Register,” 12; Appleton’s Dictionary, 138; L5, 383 n. 1).

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3 The small marks still visible on the manuscript suggest that Clemens drew a paraph under his signature and added Bennett’s name.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, collection of Tod M. Axelrod.

Previous publication: L6, 591–92.

Emendations and textual notes:

Army • [‘y’ over miswritten ‘my’]