To Elisha Bliss, Jr.
31? May 1876 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS and transcript: CLU-SC and Wright 1876, p. i, UCCL 01337)
(SUPERSEDED)

Friend Bliss—

Will this do for an introductory page for Dan’s book?1

Ys

S. L. C

[enclosure:]

INTRODUCTORY.

One easily gets a surface-knowledge of any remote country, through the writings of travellers. The inner life of such a country is not very often presented to the reader. The outside of a strange house is interesting, but the people, the life, [&] the furniture inside, are far more so.

Nevada is peculiarly a surface-known country, for no one has written of that land who had lived long there [&] made himself competent to furnish an inside view to the public. I think the present volume supplies this defect in an eminently satisfactory way. The writer of it has spent sixteen years in the heart of the silver-mining region, as one of the editors of the principal daily newspaper of Nevada; he is thoroughly acquainted with his subject, [&] wields a practiced pen.2 He is a gentleman of character [&] reliability. Certain of us who have known him personally during half a generation are well able to testify in this regard.

[Mark Twain].

[Hartford], May, 1876.

[letter docketed:] [and] Saml L. Clemens | June ″76

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

Click to add citation to My Citations.

1 The manuscript of Clemens’s introduction to The Big Bonanza is not known to survive. The text is supplied here from the first edition (Wright 1876).

Click to add citation to My Citations.

2 William Wright (Dan De Quille) became local editor of the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise in 1862 and held the post until 1898 (L1, 277 n. 4).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Copy-text:

MS at CLU-SC, provides the text from “Friend Bliss” to “S. L. C” and the docket; transcript in Wright 1876, i, provides the remainder.

Previous publication:Anderson Galleries catalog, 10–11 November 1924, no. 1873, lot 225, paraphrase; MicroPUL, reel 1.

Provenance:Collection of William Harris Arnold, offered for sale by Anderson Galleries in November 1924.

Emendations and textual notes:

& • and

& • and

& • and

& • and

Mark Twain • MARK TWAIN

Hartford • Hartford