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3/23/74
Gentlemen:
Please send me ‸per express,‸ all these books, with bill for same. I don’t know what “half-roan” binding is,1 but still I think I would prefer that.
If it is your custom to make a reduction to authors, I am willing to take advantage of it—but if not, I do not wish to create a damaging precedent.2
Ys Truly
Mark Twain.
Explanatory Notes
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1
A style of binding in which the spine and the four corners of the book
were covered in red leather, and the sides, or boards, were covered in
cloth or paper. The spine covering usually extended onto the boards for
about a quarter of their width. Roan leathers, made from sheepskin, were
used extensively in the nineteenth century (Roberts and Etherington, 127, 219).
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2
During 1874 Clemens purchased books from at least two dealers: Estes and
Lauriat, at 143 Washington Street, in Boston; and Scribner, Welford and
Armstrong, at 654 Broadway, in New York. Either of these might have been
the recipient of the present letter and the enclosed book list, now lost
(bills of 1 May 74 and 2 Dec 74 from Estes and Lauriat, CU-MARK; 6–8 June 74 to
Scribner, Welford and Armstrong).
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MS, Simon Gratz Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
(PHi).
Previous publication:
L6, 88.
Provenance:
The Simon Gratz Collection was donated in 1917.