To Elisha Bliss, Jr.
7 September 1869 • (2nd of 2) • Buffalo, N.Y.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00348)

Friend Bliss—

[ J ] I guess Mr. Wilder ought to have a book—I think he ought.—don’t you? Will you send him one—& drop him a line, or do something?1

Our books have come, & they are splendid. We’ll come out in the papers with notices at the times specified, & will mention the Rochester agent.2

A most excellent old friend of mine, Mrs. Wm H. Barstow, of has written me from Fredericksburg, Va., asking for the a Virginia agency for the book, & I have written her a letter to be sent to you, seconding her request. She is out of luck & among strangers, with 3 small children to look after, & as I [ sl ] knew her in her better days, before she acquired a worthless husband, I want her to have an agency. She is an educated, cultivated lady, & has a deal of vim & enterprise in her, if trouble hasn’t broken her spirit. I know her well enough to be [ personal ] be willing to let you send books to her without any cash in advance & be [personally & responsible financially] responsible for those books myself. You will hear from her shortly, no doubt.3

Yrs

Clemens

[letter docketed:] [and] Mark Twain | Sep 9/69

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens evidently enclosed a request, now missing, from the unidentified Mr. Wilder.

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2 Two of the Buffalo newspapers reviewed The Innocents Abroad on 16 October, evidently around the “time specified” by Bliss. Neither mentioned his Rochester agent, who was identified in advertisements for the book (see 27 Sept 69 to Bliss, nn. 3, 4).

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3 Clemens ultimately had to make good on his guarantee to Bliss when Kate D. Barstow was unable to pay for all of the copies of Innocents sent to her. Barstow had been trained as a school teacher before going to Nevada Territory. She married William H. Barstow there, possibly in 1863 when he was one of the school trustees for Storey County (their eldest child was born early in 1864). Clemens knew both of the Barstows before their marriage. He first met William in the fall of 1861, when Barstow was assistant secretary of the Council of the first Nevada Territorial Legislature. In 1862 Barstow was partly responsible for offering him a regular position on the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. During much of the 1870s, Barstow was without work, as he apparently was at the time Clemens wrote this letter (L1, 201 n. 8, 231; in CU-MARK: Elisha Bliss, Jr., to SLC, 15 Feb 70; SLC to Elisha Bliss, Jr., 23 Feb 70, in MTLP, 32–33; Kate Barstow to SLC, 16 Oct 81).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).

Previous publication: L3, 340–341; LLMT, 131, brief quotation.

Provenance:see Mendoza Collection, p. 587.

Emendations and textual notes:

J • [possibly miswritten ‘I’]

sl • [‘l’ partly formed; possibly ‘h’]

personal • [‘l’ partly formed]

personally & responsible financially • personally & | responsible & financially