To Elisha Bliss, Jr.
2 December 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y.
(MS: Craven, UCCL 00548)

‸{Copy.}‸ 1

[ ‸Don’t overlook the P. S. S. Post Scripts.
‸ ]

[Buf.] Dec. 2.

Friend Bliss:

I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll not take advantage of your perm consent to pay me 10 [per cent], but I’ll do [this.2 You’re ]to pay me 8½ [ per cent ], & advance me three tho another thousand dollars (in addition to the fifteen hundred,) any time I demand it during 1871, this thousand also to come out of my first earnings on the African [book. ‸OVER.
{I have been looking into the matter, & my man might need more [than the] [$1500, though I’ll not demand the extra $1,000 ]from [you, unless he demands it of me, ]by & bye.}‸ ]And further:

If my man don’t get back & I can’t write the African book for you, I’ll write you a [600 page ]8vo. book in place of it, which you are to pay me 8½ [per cent ]copyright on & you to subtract all that $1500 or $2500 from f my first receipts on that book.

How’s that?

‸1.‸ Don’t you see? You get a book, in any event.

2. You pay 8½ p. cent. copyright in any event.

3. I lose alone risk that advance-money on my man. If nothing comes of it, I lose it all, you none of it.

That extra

I would not publish a book through you ‸(or any other person)‸ at a copyright which I believed would preclude your getting your fair & full share of the profits of the enterprise.

Write or telegraph.3

[ Ys Yrs ‸Yrs.‸ ]

[ ‸S. L.‸ Clemens. ]

[P. S. Keep this whole thing a dead secret—else we’ll have somebody standing ready to launch a book right on our big [tidal ]wave & swim it into a success when it would otherwise fall still-born.]

[P. P. S.] If this suits, preserve draw a written contract, or else take proper measures to make this fully & legally binding on both of us in its present form.4

Clemens.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 See the textual commentary.

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2 Bliss had actually rejected Clemens’s request for a ten percent royalty on the diamond mine book—while pretending to defer to his judgment in the matter (28 Nov 70 to Bliss, n. 2).

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3 Bliss’s 5 December telegram reached Clemens the following day: “All right to go ahead will write tomorrow” (CU-MARK). His follow-up letter of 6 December is not known to survive.

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4 On 6 December Bliss drew up a contract formalizing the terms Clemens proposed (Contract for Diamond Mine Book). He probably enclosed it in his letter that day. Clemens did not see it until 17 December, when he returned to Buffalo after a week in New York City (Bliss to SLC, 20 Dec 70, CU-MARK).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, collection of Mrs. Robin Craven. This MS, one of two manuscript copies in Clemens’s hand, each marked “{Copy.}”, was the original and almost certainly the one Clemens sent to Bliss. (Although it lacks the customary American Publishing Company dockets, its provenance confirms that it must have been in the American Publishing Company’s files.) Clemens may have marked it “{Copy.}” when he made the fair copy (CU-MARK), intending to send the fair copy and keep the original. Instead, he sent the original, but without deleting the word “{Copy.}”. Probably after he had made the fair copy, Clemens continued to revise the original, adding two postscripts, only one of which he then transferred to the fair copy. The CU-MARK fair copy is missing the postscript at 257.23–25 (‘P.S. . . . still-born.’). For his own record, he wrote on the fair copy of the letter as folded:

Letter No. 2 to Bliss (a basis of contract, or a contract in its present form if he
signifies willingness.)

lightrule

Diamond.

lightrule

Otherwise it shows only minor differences from the Craven MS. These differences, most of them stylistic, may result from haste in copying or deliberate variation in the record copy only. The more complete Craven MS has therefore been chosen as copy-text, but a full historical record of variants is provided here.

Previous publication: L4, 256–258; AAA/Anderson 1934, lot 124, excerpt; MTLP, 44–45.

Provenance:A handwritten transcription made by Dana Ayer (probably between 1909 and 1919) clearly derives from the Craven MS as does a Brownell typescript (both are at WU; see Brownell Collection in Description of Provenance). The Craven MS was part of a collection sold in 1934, and it was later offered for sale by Brentano’s (undated listing, CU-MARK). It was thereafter acquired by Mrs. Craven’s father, Sidney L. Krauss. For the CU-MARK MS, see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

‸Don’t . . . P.S.S. Post Scripts.| ‸ • ‸Don’t . . . P. ‸ost‸ S. S. ‸cripts.‸ | ‸ (Craven); [not in] (CU-MARK)

Buf. (Craven) • Buffalo (CU-MARK)

per cent (Craven) • per cent. (CU-MARK)

this. You’re (Craven) • this. | [¶] You’re (CU-MARK)

per cent (Craven) • per cent. (CU-MARK)

book. ‸OVER. | [¶] {I . . . bye.}‸ (Craven) [‘OVER’ in capitals, not underscored] • book. {I . . . bye.} (CU-MARK)

than the (Craven) • than (CU-MARK)

$1500 . . . $1,000 (Craven) • $1,500 . . . $1000 (CU-MARK)

you, . . . me, (Craven) • you‸ . . . me‸ (CU-MARK)

600 page (Craven) • 600-page (CU-MARK)

per cent (Craven) • per cent. (CU-MARK)

Ys Yrs ‸Yrs. • Ysrs ‸Yrs. (Craven); Yrs (CU-MARK)

S. L.‸ Clemens. (Craven) • S. L. Clemens. (CU-MARK)

P. S. . . . still-born. (Craven) • [not in] (CU-MARK)

tidal • tidlal (Craven)

P. P. S. (Craven) • P. S. (CU-MARK)