To Jesse C. Haney
14 November 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y.
(MS: CtHSD, UCCL 00534)

c

Buffalo, Nov. 14.

My Dear Haney:1

Can’t meddle with the Almanac business with a clear conscience—have had heaps of offers, but that belongs to Josh & I won’t touch it.2

I inclose picture. I don’t mind being caricatured myself, but don’t put in my baby.3 If I was sure it was going to live, I wouldn’t care, but its health is so precarious that I hardly dare utter a pleasantry about the little fellow lest he pass from us & leave it looking ghastly in print.

Good luck go with you & long life attend you.

Yrs Truly

Samℓ. L. Clemens.

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1 Haney (1829–1901) wrote and published handbooks on authorship, shorthand, memory enhancement, stammering cures, ventriloquism, horseshoeing, soap-making, and bartending. He also edited and published humor magazines, including, currently: Nick Nax for All Creation, the Comic Monthly, Merryman’s Monthly, and Haney’s Journal (“Death List of a Day,” New York Times, 6 Aug 1901, 7; Mott 1938, 43, 180 n. 120, 183–84, 185 n. 132; “Rare Chance!” Galaxy 11 [Jan 71]: “Galaxy Advertiser,” 14).

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2 See 13 Oct 70, 26 Oct 70, and 31 Oct 70, all to Bliss.

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3 The enclosed photograph has not been found, but was probably taken either in May or July (20? May 70 to Paige; 8 July 70 to OLC, n. 3). Haney published a “capital caricature” of Clemens, presumably based on the photograph, in the December 1870 number of the Comic Monthly (“Mark Twain,” Galaxy 11 [Jan 71]: “Galaxy Advertiser,” 14). No copy of the magazine has been found.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Katherine Seymour Day Collection, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford (CtHSD).

Previous publication: L4, 238; Goodspeed’s Book Shop 1936, item 52, with omission.