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Add to My CitationsTo Francis E. Bliss
10 June 1879 • 1st of 2 • Paris, France
(Transcripts by Albert Bigelow Paine and Dana S. Ayer:
CU-MARK and WU-MU, UCCL 01664)
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Paris, ] [June 10]/[’79]

[Dear] [Frank—]

[All] right—have just written Perkins that Tom Sawyer fills the Riley contract, & [instructed] him to have the [Co.] endorse all my [contracts] as [completed, & deduct $2,000 from copyrights] now due, in satisfaction of the Riley debt.

[What] I wanted the “yes or no” for, was on the [ artist’s ] [work]—of course I did not care where the plates were made. I have not a doubt that you can beat this French work which looks [very] shabby to me.

Dan Slote has the best process in the world, but I suppose [we] can’t use that, because (in his process) the pictures are not [transferred], but drawn on a hard mud surface. It looks like excellent wood [engraving,] whereas all these other processes are miserably weak & [shammy. How] clean & strong the Innocents pictures are!

Yes, will leave space for some pictures to be drawn at home, as you suggest. I shall have one full-pager made here by a fine [wood engraver] if he will cut it for [anything] under [$100,—]otherwise will send it over & let Dan Slote’s artist try [his] hand on it. It is a thing which I manufactured by pasting a popular comic picture into the middle of a celebrated Biblical one—shall attribute it to Titian. It needs to be engraved by a master.

[Ys Truly]

S. L. Clemens ]

Textual Commentary



glyphglyphSource text(s):glyph
No copy-text. The text is based on three transcripts. The first of two by Albert Bigelow Paine (Tr1—an original copy) was apparently typed directly from the manuscript, after which Paine must have marked the carbon (now lost) with both corrections from the manuscript and his own editorial changes. The second transcript (Tr2—of which both the original and carbon survive) was made from that marked copy and incorporates those revisions. Another handwritten transcript by Dana Ayer (Tr3) was later independently derived from the manuscript.
Tr1Transcript by Albert Bigelow Paine, CU-MARK
Tr2Transcript by Albert Bigelow Paine, CU-MARK
Tr3Transcript by Dana Ayer, WU-MU

glyphglyphPrevious publication:glyph MTLP, 116–17.

glyphglyphProvenance:glyphSee Paine Transcripts in Description of Provenance; see Brownell Collection in Description of Provenance for information about the Ayer transcript.

glyphglyphEmendations, adopted readings, and textual notes:glyph


• [witStart] Paris, (Tr1); [witStart] Paris, (Tr2); [witStart] Paris, (Tr3) Paris, (Tr1, Tr2) • Paris (Tr3)

June 10 (Tr2, Tr3) • June 10. (Tr1)

’79 (Tr1, Tr2) • 79 (Tr3)

[¶] Dear (Tr3) • [no ] Dear (Tr1, Tr2)

Frank— (Tr1, Tr2) • Frank. (Tr3)

[¶] All (Tr2, Tr3) • [greater level of indention adopted from Tr2 and Tr3] (Tr1)

instructed (Tr3) • instructing (Tr1, Tr2)

Co. (Tr1, Tr2) • Co (Tr3)

contracts (Tr2, Tr3) • comtracts (Tr1)

completed, & deduct $2,000 from copyrights (Tr1, Tr2) • completed, & deduct ‸deduct‸ $2000. from copy-|rights (Tr3)

[¶] What (Tr1, Tr2) • [no ] What (Tr3)

artist’s (Tr1) • artist’s (Tr2); artists (Tr3)

work (Tr3) • work, (Tr1, Tr2)

very (Tr1, Tr2) • ‸very‸ (Tr3)

we (Tr1, Tr3) • I (Tr2)

transferred (Tr2, Tr3) • transfered (Tr1)

engraving, (Tr1, Tr2) • engraving (Tr3)

shammy. How (Tr1, Tr2) • shammy | How (Tr3)

wood engraver (Tr1, Tr2) • wood-engraver (Tr3)

anything (Tr2) • any thing (Tr1); any-|thing (Tr3)

$100,— (Tr3) • $100— (Tr1, Tr2)

his (Tr1, Tr3) • is (Tr2)

Ys Truly (MTP) • Yr Truly (Tr1, Tr2); Yrs Truly (Tr3)

S. L. Clemens (Tr3) • S. L. Clemens. (Tr1, Tr2) • [witEnd] S. L. Clemens. (Tr1); [witEnd] S. L. Clemens. (Tr2); [witEnd] S. L. Clemens (Tr3)