Mark Twain Project :: Letters :: : an electronic text

To Elisha Bliss, Jr.
4 and 5 January 1871 • Buffalo, N.Y.
(Transcript, paraphrase, and MS: AAA 1927, lot 244, and
CU-MARK, UCCL 00555)

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[Jan. 4.]

[paraphrase: to Mr. Bliss of the American Publishing Co. . . . stating he is sending him the Mss. for these “Sketches” and [writing ]that he wants] the one about the liar to be first one in the book;1 [paraphrase: Also, that he wants his brother to make copies of the “Sketches” before they are sent to the artist.] 2

P. S.

Buf. Jan. 5.

Dear Bliss=

The curious beasts & great contrasts in this [Pre-duluge ] article3 offer a gorgeous chance for the artist’s fancy & ingenuity, I think.

Send both sketches to Mullen—he is the [man. ] to do them, I guess. Launt Thompson, Albemarle Hotel, will find him when wanted.4

Yrs

Mark.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 One of two manuscripts enclosed here, this sketch concerned a spectacular liar Clemens had met in the Sandwich Islands in 1866. He soon withdrew the manuscript, however, deciding to publish it as “About a Remarkable Stranger” in the April 1871 Galaxy. The manuscript does not survive (22 Feb 71, 4 Mar 71, both to OC).

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2 Orion finished making these security copies, which have not been found, during the second week of January (OC to SLC, 25 Jan 71, CU-MARK).

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3 An offshoot of, or selection from, the Noah’s Ark book that Clemens had been working on for almost five years and that Bliss had been privy to at least since January 1870. Clemens had first broached the idea for an article on the subject in a letter to his sister in August 1869. He called this sketch “Pre-flood show” in the draft table of contents he prepared for the sketchbook, probably sometime in December 1870. He soon retrieved this manuscript as well: it has not been found, and was never published (22 Jan 70 to Bliss; L3, 312; ET&S1, 574–79; 22 Feb 71 to OC).

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4 On 25 January, Orion wrote Clemens that Bliss was in New York, searching for Mullen, as Clemens had suggested (22 Dec 70 to Bliss). Having employed Mullen as one of the illustrators of Albert D. Richardson’s Beyond the Mississippi (1867), Bliss was reluctant to rehire him, put off by Mullen’s pawning of wood blocks to buy whiskey, and his “charging fancy prices.” But, Orion reported, Bliss promised “to get him to do some of the work” (CU-MARK). After the western book (Roughing It) displaced the sketchbook later in January, Bliss hired Mullen to help illustrate it (RI 1993, 857–58).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

Transcript and paraphrase, AAA 1927, lot 244, is copy-text for 295.14–296.2; MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK), is copy-text for the remainder. The auction catalog describes (and misdates) the transcribed and paraphrased MS as ‘Autograph Letter Signed by “Mark Twain” to Mr. Bliss of the American Publishing Co., one page, 8vo, Jan. 4 [1875].’ The quotation marks around the pseudonym are catalog style and almost certainly not indicative of how Clemens signed his name.

glyph Previous publication: L4, 295–296; MTMF, 118 n. 2, excerpt, in addition to the copy-text.

glyph Provenance:The present location of the MS for 295.14–296.2 is not known; for the CU-MARK MS see Mendoza Collection in Description of Provenance.

glyph Emendations and textual notes: AAA 1927 is copy-text for 295.14–296.2 MS is copy-text for ‘P. S. . . . Mark.’ (296.3–11)

Jan. 4. • [reported, not quoted]

writing • writes

Pre-duluge • [sic]

man. • [deletion implied]