Private & Conf.
{Copy.}
Buf. Nov. 28.
Friend Bliss:
My brother expects to start east in about 6 or 8 days.
I have put my greedy hands on the best man in America for my purpose & shall start him to the diamond fields of South Africa within a fortnight., at my expense. 1
I shall ‸write‸ a book of his experiences for next spring, (600 pp 8vo.,) ‸spring of ’72‸ & write it [ jo ] just as if I had been through it all myself, but will explain in the preface that this is done merely to give it life & sparkle. & reality.
That book will have a perfectly awful‸beautiful‸ sale.
1. Now Sir, will you pay ‸me‸ [10 ] per cent copyright on [it . ]?
2. Will you advance me a thousand dollars, ‸(or $1,500 if it should be necessary,)‸ now, for this purpose, with this distinct understanding, viz: That if the thing works & I manage to write the book on the diamond adventures, you are to deduct all of that thousand ‸or $1,500‸ dollars from the first quarter’s sales of said book; but if the project fails & I can’t get a book out of it, then you ‸ are ‸ to lose half of the thousand, ‸or fifteen hundred‸ dollars & I to lose the other half.
Say yes or no quick, Bliss, for I can this thing is brim-full of fame & fortune for both author [&] publisher. Expedition’s the word! ‸, & I don’t want any timidity or hesitancy now.‸ Hang it I can find you as many as several publishers 2
But whether my [ pro ] project & my terms find favor in your eyes or not, I am perfectly satisfied with the scheme & my man will be packing his trunk by this time tomorrow. And in another 24 hours he will be full freighted with my minute instructions & will have his name to the contract & off for Africa within a [fortnight], as I said.3
Yrs Truly
S. L. Clemens.
Keep all this a secret, even from Frank himself, now & henceforth—for I don’t want to furnish some other Hartford publisher with an idea, though I would really care ‸no‸ more than about 2 figs for his opposition. But keep it a secret. It is best to do it.
Mrs Fairbanks (my best critic) likes my new book well, as far as I have got.
P. S. I don’t care two cents whether there is a diamond in all Africa or not—the adventurous narrative & its wild, new fascination is what I want.
[on back of page 1 as folded:]Confidential.
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Riley is full of humor, and has an unfailing vein of irony which makes his conversation to the last degree entertaining (as long
as the remarks are about somebody else). But notwithstanding the possession of these qualities, which should enable a man to write a
happy and an appetizing letter, Riley’s newspaper letters often display a more than earthly solemnity, and likewise an
unimaginative devotion to petrified facts, which surprise and distress all men who know him in his unofficial character. He explains
this curious thing by saying that his employers sent him to Washington to write facts, not fancy, . . . What a
shame it is to tie Riley down to the dreary mason-work of laying up solemn dead-walls of fact! He does write a plain,
straightforward, and perfectly accurate and reliable correspondence, but it seems to me that I would rather have one chatty
paragraph of his fancy than a whole obituary of his facts. Riley is very methodical, untiringly accommodating, never forgets anything that is to be attended to, is a
good son, a staunch friend, and a permanent, reliable enemy. He will put himself to any amount of trouble to oblige a body, and
therefore always has his hands full of things to be done for the helpless and the shiftless. And he knows how to do nearly
everything, too. He is a man whose native benevolence is a well-spring that never goes dry. He stands always ready to help whoever
needs help, as far as he is able—and not simply with his money, for that is a cheap and common charity, but with hand and
brain, and fatigue of limb and sacrifice of time. This sort of men is rare. (SLC
1870, 726–27) Pinholes in the manuscript of this letter suggest that Clemens enclosed a clipping or clippings—possibly
information about South Africa, for example “The South African Diamond Field,” (Buffalo Express, 28 Nov 70, 2). He did not enclose his sketch about Riley, which he first recommended to Bliss in his letter of 20
December.
Clemens replied to Bliss’s letter on 2 December. He probably made this entire list well before he used
this envelope to preserve their initial diamond mine correspondence. By late November he had already written to James Redpath (12
November), Orion Clemens (5 November, 11 November, 21? November), Bliss (5 November, 7 November, 22 November), Charles H. Webb (26
November), and Mary Mason Fairbanks (5 November, 7 November [telegram; not extant], 19 November). November letters to
Benjamin Shillaber, Jane Lampton Clemens, Daniel Slote or Dan De Quille, Richard Stoker, James N. Gillis, Calvin H. Higbie, Harper’s Weekly editor George W. Curtis, and David Gray are not known to survive. Stoker, Gillis, and
Higbie all were potential sources of information for Roughing It—as was Dan De Quille (William
Wright), who, however, Clemens apparently had in mind in conjunction with the diamond mine book (2 Dec 70 to Riley, final postscript). Some of the missing letters may have announced, or
acknowledged congratulations upon, the birth of Langdon Clemens.
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L4, 251–54; MTMF, 141 n. 2, brief excerpt; MTLP, 42–44.
Provenance:For the MS, copy sent, see Mendoza Collection in Description of Provenance. The MS evidently remained among the American Publishing
Company’s files until it was sold (and may have been copied at that time by Dana Ayer; see Brownell Collection in
Description of Provenance). The Ayer transcription was in turn copied by a typist and both the handwritten and typed transcriptions
are at WU. For the MS, author’s copy, see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.
Emendations and textual notes:
jo just • joust
10 • [underscored twice]
it . • [deletion implied]
pro • pro- |
fortnight • fort-|night
