1 After an initial refusal, Clemens had agreed to contribute “An Encounter with an Interviewer” to Lotos Leaves, a collection of “original stories, essays, and poems” published for the Lotos Club of New York in late 1874 by William Fearing Gill (1844–1917), a Boston publisher of anthologies, novels, and books for education and amusement, who obtained a copyright on the book in his own name (SLC 1875; L5, 436). Clemens now wanted to reprint the piece in Sketches, New and Old, which he was preparing for Bliss, listing it as item fourteen in his “index” of the volume (see the previous letter, n. 5). For Gill’s reply, see 10 Apr 75 to Bliss. The preparation of Sketches, New and Old is discussed in detail in ET&S1, 617–45.

2 This American Publishing Company docket and the renegotiated contract for the sketchbook, signed on 12 February, provide the likely span of dates for this letter (see the previous letter, n. 2).