‸PRIVATE.‸
Elmira, July 22/76.
Friend Bliss:1
Of course I can neither confess nor deny your underlings’ New York gossip without knowing what it is. But come—we are all a good deal alike, I judge. I listen to a director of the company & others, & under irritated impulse, talk & act unwisely, & get sorry at leisure. You tell hard things about me to entertain a group (the worst of it being that they are mainly true, although not pleasant things to remember,) & for a day I am angry & ready to do or say anything that comes handy; by that time I begin to imagine that I am fooling away time & tongue on a matter that is not very prodigious—& I am so there an end for the time being. As regards Williams, we will dismiss that with the single & simple remark that what I said to him occupied but short space & will bear repeating in any presence, since it was to no one’s prejudice. But come—if I have said as injurious things about y a truce to this—if it is good matter to talk about together, but not to write about.
You write as if you supposed I was mightily concerned about the company & its [ management ] expenses. I was ‸am‸ concerned just this far, exactly: The business seems to be a great big unpaying thing, whereas the reverse would be the case if it were shrunk up, perhaps. I don’t know it, I simply suggest it. And with the suggestion I stop. I have My duty as a director & [stockholder] ends there. I shall not lose any sleep about it one way or the other.
But there is a matter in which I am strongly interested. You told me, several times that a subscription ‸house‸ could not run two books at once & do justice to either of them. I saw no reason to disbelieve that, & I never have disbelieved it. Therefore I am solicitous about Tom Sawyer .—more so than I would be about another book, because this is an experiment. I want it run by itself, if possible, & pushed like everything. Can this be done?—& when? Give me your ideas about it. What do you think of canvassing in September & October & iss[u]ing 1st Nov.? Shall you be canvassing any new book then?
You must not think that I never wanted to attend a director’s meeting. It is a mistake. My notices always arrived too [late. This] is why I wrote twice requesting that my notice be mailed a day earlier.2
I wouldn’t have aggravated you if I had known you were going to be sick—I don’t pick out such times purposely, but only by accident.
I think that if you offer a prize of $1000 (I to pay the money myself but not be known in it) for the canvasser who shall sell the largest number of Tom Sawyers in six months (putting it in the circulars but not in the newspapers,) it might have a good effect. Or make two $500-prizes of it—one for east of the east line of Ohio & the other for west of that line. What do you think of it?
I shall start the proofs back with this mail.
If Confidentially, I shall have a business proposition to make to you ‸individually‸ in the fall when I return. , if Tom Sawyer sells as well as I think it is going to. I foresee advantage in it, & I think you will, also. I came near making it once before, but was restrained by a feeling which has well nigh ceased to exist, ‸now,‸ & seems likely to cease altogether & [speedily. I] think I was a fool that unwise that I did not make it when I first thought of it. If I chance to have occasion to run to Hartford in the meantime, I can get my data together & make the proposition then. I have figured upon it for hours, to-day, & if I had had any wit I would have done the same thing long ago. I shall be ready to talk with you about it at any time that we can get together.
Meantime I hope you will say nothing about the matter to anybody—& I shall not. I mark my letter “Private” for this reason.
Ys Truly
Samℓ. L. Clemens
Those chapters are a nice clean proof—please do it again.
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Clemens had last been at the American Publishing Company on 6 July. He and Bliss both were wary of True Williams’s alcoholism (see 18 Jan 76 to Howells and 6 July 76 to
Bentley, n. 1). For “the other directors” of the firm, see 24 June 76 to the board of directors, n. 1.
Copy-text:Previous publication:
MTLP, 100–102; MicroML, reel 4.
Provenance:See Mendoza Collection in Description of Provenance.
Emendations and textual notes:
management • management [false ascenders/descenders]
stockholder • stock-|holder
late. This • late. This [probably intended to be run-in; ‘late’ alone on a short line at bottom of page; ‘This’ flush left at top of the next page]
speedily. I • speedily.—|I
