To Orion Clemens
27–30 October 1879 • Hartford, Conn.
(Transcript: Orion Clemens to Jane Lampton
Clemens, 3 November 1879, CU-MARK, UCCL 01703)

My Dear Bro:

I like the MS. very much. I have penciled some emendations & suggestions in it here and there. You have spoken lightly here and there; don’t do that; keep your strain keyed up in all its parts to the dignity which is the general characteristic of the whole.

And put the bread & butter idea clear out of your head. Write your treatise for the love of it, not for what it will bring. The bread & butter thought is simply fatal to literary work. Write with the idea that you are on a salary, that the salary is secure, & that you need not bother about it; consider & remember that Livy & I never bother about it, Perkins don’t bother about it, nobody bothers about it. Therefore why should you?

Oct. 29.

All right. I will return both batches of MS. to you together when you notify me.

I shall be at the Grant banquet & festivities in Chicago the 12th & 13th of November, and would run over to Keokuk, but shall have to rush home immediately, for my [proof-reading] will have to stand still (& my book, too) while I am gone.

Yr. Bro.

Sam.

Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

Transcript in Orion Clemens to Jane Lampton Clemens, 3 November 1879, CU-MARK, UCLC 30117.

Previous publication: MicroPUL, reel 1.

Provenance:See Moffett Collection in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

proof-reading • proof-reading