Lucerne, Aug. 20/78.
My Dear Frank—
I find it is no sort of use to try to write while one is traveling. I am interrupted constantly—& most of the time I am too tired to write, anyway. Since Twichell has been with me I have invented a new & better plan for the book. Therefore I shall tear up ‸a great deal of‸ my present batch of MS. & start fresh. I shan’t be able to go to work in earnest until we settle down in Munich in November. Up to this time all of my prophecies have failed—so I won’t venture any more. I will only say that when I do get to work, I will mail my chapters to you as fast as I write (& approve) them.)
I have instructed Twichell to keep the title & plan of the book a secret. I will disclose them to you as by letter, presently, or through Twichell—but I do not want them to get into print until the book is nearly ready to issue from the press. They are in themselves a joke—& a joke which the public are already prepared for is no joke at all.
I have been fighting the rheumatism for two months, & have about got the best of it, now, I suppose.
With kindest regards to your father & yourself,
Ys Truly
S. L. Clemens
My address for a ‸few‸ months or will be “Care of Edward M. Smith, Esq., Lang’s Hotel, Heidelberg, Germany.”
Source text(s):Previous publication:Chicago Book Auction catalog, 25 January 1933, no. 30, lot 45, partial publication; MTLP, 109, partial publication.
Provenance:The MS, part of the E. W. Evans collection, was offered for sale by Chicago Book Auction in 1933. Sometime before 1939 it was
purchased by businessman William T. H. Howe (1874–1939). In 1940 Dr. Albert A. Berg bought and donated the Howe Collection
to NN.
