To William Wright (Dan De Quille)
26 March 1876 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS, in pencil: Axelrod, UCCL 01318)
(SUPERSEDED)

Mch 26

Old Daniel—

I wasn’t scolding in earnest—couldn’t, for the reason that nobody had made any mistake but [me.] 1

It did not discomfort me to observe that Overman had dropped, because I judged it could rise again;2 & I also judged that Mackey knew what he was talking about. When you or m Mackey think it is time to sell out the stock, just fire away whether you lose or make. You bought to make, but that is no reason why you should be any more infallible in your judgment than other men. If you sell at a loss, jam the remnant into stocks again & sail on, O ship of State, sail on, sail on!3 You needn’t take the torouble to ask me, when you think it best to sell, but just bang away.

I go to New York an hour from N now, to lecture 4 afternoons on my own hook & on my own risk & expense.4 Be gone a week. Can’t see Bliss till I get back, but have just written him to send you written authority & price of books.5

Yrs ever

Mark.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Wright had replied to Clemens’s letter of 7 March. That reply is not known to survive.

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2 The Overman mine was “one of the most noted and important in many respects on the Comstock” (Angel 1881, 616). In 1863, while living in Virginia City, Clemens had missed an opportunity to become a shareholder when Overman stock was on the rise (see L1, 260–61).

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3 The famous apostrophe to the Federal Union from Longfellow’s ode, “The Building of the Ship,” published in The Seaside and the Fireside (Longfellow 1850).

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4 See 17 Mar 76 to Redpath, n. 2. In addition to his formal lectures, Clemens “made a funny address” at a New York Press Club reception on the evening of 30 March (“New-York Press Club Reception,” New York Times, 31 Mar 76, 5).

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5 That is, so that Wright could participate in the subscription canvass for The Big Bonanza, as Clemens had advised him to do. The American Publishing Company issued the book in July 1876 (7 Mar 76 to Wright; APC 1866–79, 134).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Copy-text:

MS, in pencil, collection of Todd M. Axelrod.

Previous publication:AAA/Anderson Galleries catalog, 17–18 February 1938, no. 4374, lot 91, paraphrase; MicroPUL, reel 1.

Provenance:The MS was offered for sale in 1938 by the AAA/Anderson Galleries. By 1983 it was in the collection of Todd M. Axelrod.

Emendations and textual notes:

me. [¶] It • me.—| [¶] It