To Whitelaw Reid
28 March 1873 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: DLC, UCCL 00892)

Hartfd, Mch. 28

My Dear Reid—

Cheque for $15 received. Bless you I’ll write short Foster articles all the time1—you pay more for them than you do for L long ones about Cunard Companies & gold medals, which you don’t pay anything for! But I’m not finding any fault—I wrote for the love of it.2

Hope to spend Saturday previous to May 17 in New York. [ Sl Self] & family of 4 persons3 sail for England May 17 to stay four months. Shall have my book done & take a copy in MS over & publish simultaneously in England.4 Some people think I have no head for business, but it is a lie.

I have a nice putrid anecdote that Hay will like. Am preserving it in alcohol—in my person.

Ys Truly

Samℓ. L. Clemens

[letter docketed:]

Dear Hay: I think you can make a nice min’. ¶ about the personal and literary news in this. Please return it. WR 5

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 See 7 Mar 73 to Reid (2nd). On 26 March Reid’s secretary, Donald Nicholson, sent Clemens this check “for your letter on the Foster case” (Whitelaw Reid Papers, DLC).

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2 The Tribune had published “British Benevolence” on 27 January (see Enclosure with 25 January 1873 to Whitelaw Reid). Reid responded to this good-natured hint by sending a check on 2 April, remarking, “I am sorry the Cunard business was overlooked” (Whitelaw Reid Papers, DLC).

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3 Olivia, Susy, Susy’s nursemaid (Nellie), and Clara Spaulding.

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4 See 28 Feb 73 to Bliss, n. 1. The English edition of The Gilded Age was typeset from proofsheets of the American edition. It is possible, but not likely, that a fair copy of the manuscript served as printer’s copy for the last nine chapters (see 27 July 73 to Bliss, n. 2).

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5 Donald Nicholson first took down this note from Reid to John Hay in shorthand, and then transcribed it in longhand. (For an example of Nicholson’s shorthand, see 7 Mar 73 to Reid [2nd].) Reid recommended that Hay write an editorial paragraph to be set in minion type (the equivalent of seven-point type), the smaller of the two sizes used on the editorial page (Pasko, 70, 378). Reid replied to Clemens on 2 April, “We are going to have a little paragraph about your book and trip in a few days. Good luck go with you” (Whitelaw Reid Papers, DLC). The paragraph corrected a mistaken report that Bret Harte was about to sail for Europe, adding the observation that since

one of our Great American Humorists is due in Great Britain and Mr. Harte cannot go, Mr. Mark Twain will sail on the 17th of May, taking with him the MS. of his new volume, which will be published simultaneously in both worlds. It has sometimes been insinuated that Mr. Clemens is not a good business man. He authorizes us to contradict this in the most unreserved manner. (“It has been ...,” New York Tribune, 2 Apr 73, 4)

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Whitelaw Reid Papers, Library of Congress (DLC).

Previous publication: L5, 324–325; Cortissoz, 1:273, excerpts.

Provenance:The Whitelaw Reid Papers (part of the Papers of the Reid Family) were donated to DLC between 1953 and 1957 by Helen Rogers Reid (Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid).

Emendations and textual notes:

Sl Self • Slelf