To William Dean Howells
22 August 1874 • Elmira, N.Y.
(MS: NN-B, UCCL 02472)

Elmira, Aug. 22.

Dear Howells:

I have just finished reading the Foregone Conclusion to Mrs. Clemens, & we think you have even outdone yourself.1 I should think that this must be the daintiest, truest, most admirable workmanship that was ever put on a story. The creatures of God do not act out their natures more unerringly than yours do. If your ‸genuine‸ stories can die, I wonder by what right old Walter Scott’s artificialities shall continue to live.2

But what I originally started to write about, was the fact that I saw Pope in Buffalo, who told [David ] Gray & me that he had received his first act & that it was a most noble & altogether perfect piece of work. I was not surprised, but I was gratified to see that he was not a swine who trampled calmly over pearls, mistaking them for paebbles. I argue well from his appreciation.3

I brought Mrs. Clemens back from her trip in a dreadfully broken down condition—so by the doctor’s orders we unpacked the trunks sorrowfully to lie idle here another month instead of going at once to Hartford & proceeding at once to furnish the new house which is now finished. We hate to have it gon longer desolate & tenantless, but cannot help it.

By & by, if the madam gets strong again, we are hoping to have the Grays there, & you & Aldrich ‸there, & your & the Aldrich house-holds & Osgood‸ down to engage in an orgy with them.4

Ys Ever

Mark.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 The third installment of Howells’s novel, in the Atlantic Monthly for September (see 21 June 74 to Howells, n. 1).

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2 For a survey of Clemens’s reading of and generally negative remarks on Scott, see Gribben, 2:612–18.

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3 On 12 August, the day the Clemenses left Buffalo, Howells notified Charles Pope that he had completed his translation of Sansone. As previously arranged, Pope sent his payment to Clemens, who was instructed not to forward it to Howells until Pope approved the work (Howells 1979, 64 n. 3; see 22? July 74 to Howells, nn. 1, 2).

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4 Howells, the Aldriches, and Osgood had visited Hartford in March 1874 (see 4 Mar 74 to Howells, n. 1, and 24 Mar 74 to Aldrich, n. 12).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B).

Previous publication: L6, 209–210; MTB, 1:510, excerpt; Paine 1917, 783; MTL, 1:222; MTHL, 1:21-22.

Provenance:see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

olc • [SLC rotated the stationery clockwise 90 degrees, so that the monogram appears on its side in the upper right corner]

David • David |David [ rewritten for clarity]