To Joseph L. Blamire
10 July 1872 • New Saybrook, Conn.
(MS: Routledge, UCCL 00764)

Hartford, Conn, July 10th 1872

Received from Messrs George Routledge and Sons of London by the hands of their American Agent Joseph L. Blamire of 416 Broome street, New York, the sum of Two Hundred and Fifty Dollars in payment for a copy of my book “Innocents Abroad” with revisions, additions, and preface (or prefaces) made by me for them at their request for republication of said book in London. 1 And I do hereby sell to said George Routledge and Sons all right and title to said additions, revisions, preface or prefaces for republication in London, England; but this payment carries with it no privilege or right whatsoever for the importation or sale of said book into or within the United States of America, nor does it prevent me from using the said revisions, additions, or prefaces in the United States of America should I at any time desire to use the same in my American Edition of said Book. 2

Samℓ. L. Clemens.

Fenwick Hall, Saybrook Pt, July 10.3

Joseph L. Blamire Esq

Dr Sir: Am spending the summer at this quiet a watering place, & am not feeling a bit industrious; but I like your suggestion so much that I mean to write the other preface at the very earliest feasible moment—& I thank you for it, too.4

Ys Truly

Samℓ L. Clemens

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1 Blamire had enclosed this receipt for Clemens to sign in a letter dated 9 July (CU-MARK), in which he replied to a letter from Clemens of 6 July, now lost:

UCLC31813

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2 Clemens never used the revised English text in later American editions, although he authorized the Routledge volumes as the basis for Christian Bernhard Tauchnitz’s Continental edition in 1879 (Tauchnitz to SLC, 19 Feb 79, CU-MARK; SLC 1879).

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3 The postmarks on Blamire’s 9 July letter show that it arrived in Hartford on the morning of 10 July and was forwarded to New Saybrook that same evening. It is possible that Clemens did not receive it, however, until the next morning, and that he subscribed the date “July 10” in order to match the date at the head of the receipt.

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4 Clemens’s first preface—along with his marked copy of The Innocents Abroad—had been shipped on the steamship Idaho, which left New York on 26 June and arrived in Queenstown on 7 July. The Routledges must have sent Blamire a cablegram almost immediately, confirming receipt of the book and requesting a second preface (see note 1; 10 July 72 to Blamire, n. 1; “Departure of Foreign Mails,” New York Tribune, 25 June 72, 2). On 13 July Blamire cabled back, “Twain promises second preface” (ViU).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. The MS is in Volume A–H of George Routledge and Sons’ “Agreement and Copyright Receipts,” folio 186.

Previous publication: L5, 116–17; Grenander 1975, 1.

Provenance:Blamire presumably forwarded the MS to the Routledges in London.