To Elisha Bliss, Jr.
8–13? October 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00543)

. . . .

[cross-written on envelope of enclosure:]

I have no comments to make—this deadbeat that coolly refused to honor my written request that he would give Bret Harte a book & look to you for restitution, suits me for an agent if he suits you; I have not a word to say for or against him. I simply won’t answer his letters or pay any attention to him. If he is the best [ g ] agent for the coast, it is “business” to employ him. But if otherwise, & you employ somebody else, I wish you would He did well [with ]the book—& would have done A GOOD DEAL better if he had any sense about handling newspaper people. Think of an agent refusing to give copies to the chief papers! He is an infernal fool.1

Clemens.

If you keep him you better send books to the papers yourself.

Mr S. C. Clemens

Editor “Express”

Buffalo

N.Y.

[return address:] book & stationery house of h. h. bancroft & company, san francisco, cal. office in new york, 113 william st. office in london, 10 warwick square, e.c. office in paris, 5 rue neuve st. augustin. [postmarked:] san francisco cal. sep 29

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Only the envelope of the letter from Hubert H. Bancroft (West Coast agent for The Innocents Abroad) to Clemens is known to survive. Clemens wrote this note on that envelope and presumably enclosed it (with Bancroft’s letter inside) in a letter to Bliss—possibly his letter of 13 October, or some earlier letter (now lost). Bancroft’s letter was postmarked in San Francisco on 29 September. Assuming a transit of nine days, Clemens probably received it in Buffalo by 8 October, about the time he returned from Fredonia. For his fuller account of Bancroft’s refusal, see 26 Nov 70 to Webb.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

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

Previous publication: L4, 204–205.

Provenance:see Tufts Collection in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

g • [partly formed]

with • wi with [corrected miswriting]