j. langdon,
office of j. langdon
& co. miners and dealers in
j. d. f. slee,anthracite and
bituminous coals. 6 baldwin st.
t. w. crane,
c. j. langdon.elmira, n.y., Aug 2, 187 0
Friend Bliss—
You know I already had an off‸er‸ o of ten per cent from those same parties in my pocket when I stipulated for 7½ with you. I simply promised to give them a chance to bid,; I never said I would publish with them if theirs was the best bid. If their first offer had been 12½ [I would ]merely have asked you to climb along up as near that figure as you could & make money, but I wouldn’t have asked anything more. Whenever you said that you had got up to what was a fair divide between us (there being no risk, now, in publishing for me, while there was, before,) I should have closed with you on those terms. I never have had the slightest idea of publishing with anybody but you. (I was careful to make no promises to those folks about their bid.)1
You see you can’t get it out of your head that I am a sort of a rascal, [ a ]but I ain’t. I can stick to you just as long as you can stick to me, & give you odds. I made that contract with all my senses about me, & it suits me & I am satisfied with it.2 If I get only half a chance I will write a book that will sell like fury provided you put pictures enough in it.
Yes, we’ll put the portrait in the new book.3
Say—when does [Franks ]wedding come off?4
Ask Frank when if he is going to get up the annual account of sales for me which you spoke of?5
We still sit up with Mr. L. He is somewhat worse again.
Yrs
Mark.
[letter docketed:] 
[] and Mark Twain | Aug 2/70
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L4, 179; MTLP, 37.
Emendations and textual notes:
I would • I would I would
a • [partly formed]
Franks • [sic]
