To Ainsworth R. Spofford
19 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: CSmH, UCCL 01065)

Mch 19.

My Dear Mr. Spofford:

I am going to issue a pamphlet of Sketches,1 & I want to copyright both the contents of the pamphlet & the engraved design of the [ cover. Shall ] I simply send a dollar & then say on the Cover, “Cover & Contents entered in the office of the Librarian of Congress?”

Ys Truly

Samℓ. L. Clemens.

[letter docketed:] Rep. Entry
Mch 212

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

Click to add citation to My Citations.

1 Mark Twain’s Sketches. Number One (25 Feb 74 to Fairbanks, n. 6).

Click to add citation to My Citations.

2 The reply from Spofford, librarian of Congress since 1864, does not survive, but he evidently informed Clemens that the cover and the contents would be covered by a single copyright. Clemens made formal application for it in his letter of 7 May 1874 to Spofford.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino (CSmH, call no. HM 40092).

Previous publication: L6, 84–85.

Provenance:see Huntington Library in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

cover. Shall • cover.—|Shall