To Orion Clemens
29 June 1871 • Elmira, N.Y.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00628)

Elmira 29th

Dear Bro:

From a remark of either yours or Mollie’s in a letter to Pamela it would seem that I have sent “one of three articles” to Mr. Bliss. I sent all 3 in one envelop—no more are to go. Haven’t the 3 arrived?1

Ma has been making mischief, I fear—& without good grounds. I said I would not be stupid enough to offer an opinion, or even try to form an definite & conclusive one, upon a matter which a man had put all his mind & heart on for four years & I had only looked into for 2 hours. I said I wanted to see the machine working in the water first. My opinion upon ‸of‸ the machine’s merits would now ‸(in the machine’s incomplete stage)‸ be worth nothing at all—my crude conjectures about it are certainly worth less than nothing.

Fools who never wrote a book are always giving me their infernal advice about how to write a book—& with this exasperation always before me I am slow to let on to know more about another man’s business than he knows himself. I may have conjectured considerable to Pamela—I don’t remember, now—but my main idea was that I was not competent or worthy to express an opinion, at all.2 Love to Mollie

Ys affly

Sam.

P. S. Wrote 2 chapters of the book to-day—shall write chapter 53 to-morrow.3 My [ ‸ new ‸ ] lecture is the best one I ever wrote I [think. ]—the one about characters I have met. Have now one, & shall perhaps have 2 Boston engagements at $250 a night. Charge the same in Phila. & N. Y. and Brooklyn4

Orion Clemens Esq | 149 Asylum st | Hartford | Conn. [return address:] if not delivered within 10 days, to be returned to [postmarked] elmira n. y. jun 30

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 See 21 June 71 to Bliss. On 4 July, Orion replied: “There is some mistake as to somebody’s meaning about the MSS. They have all three arrived, and I never meant to be understood otherwise. I have read them all” (CU-MARK).

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2 Jane Clemens and Pamela Moffett had evidently passed along Clemens’s reservations about Orion’s boat invention, expressed in a letter to them (now lost). On 4 July, Orion assured Clemens:

The letter you refer to did no great harm. After a day’s sky-colored absent-mindedness I considered that your opportunities for judging of the concern were not so good as mine, and went ahead. . . .

I knew when I showed you the machine, it must produce some kind of an impression. It might or might not be favorable. In my own view, even after all the study I have given the subject there are some points in relation to which I, like yourself, will not feel entirely satisfied till I see a little working model in the water. (CU-MARK)

Clemens had seen Orion’s invention while in Hartford in early June (7 June 71 to OC and MEC).

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3 The two chapters, which Clemens evidently numbered 51 and 52 at this time, probably later became chapter 54 (which Clemens had perhaps begun but put aside earlier in the month) and chapter 55 of Roughing It. Clemens’s chapter 53, which he hoped to complete in one day, probably became chapter 56 in the published book (RI 1993, 857).

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4 Clemens received $250 in Boston on 1 November and in Philadelphia on 20 November. He received $150 for his second Boston lecture on 13 November, for a Brooklyn appearance on 21 November, and for his New York City lecture on 24 January 1872 (Redpath and Fall 1871–72, 3–6, 13–14).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

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

Previous publication: L4, 423–424; MTLP, 68 n. 1 top, brief excerpt.

Provenance:see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

‸ new ‸ • [written off edge]

think. • [deletion implied]