To Elisha Bliss, Jr.
7 September 1869 • (1st of 2) • Buffalo, N.Y.
(MS: TxEU, UCCL 08611)

buffalo, Sept. 7, 186 9.

Friend Bliss—

Mrs. Wm Barstow, of Fredericksburg, Va., who applies to you for the Virginia agency of the book, is an old & valued friend of mine, and I want to you to manage to comply with her request, no matter if it can possibly be done. If you will make the appointment & send her all the books she wants & she fails to sell a book or pay a cent, I will be responsible & foot the bill out of my own pocket—for which promise this note may be retained as my guaranty. I have every confidence in her.1

Yrs Truly,

Samℓ. L. Clemens.

[letter docketed:] [and] Mark Twain | Sep 7/69

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1 As the next letter makes clear, Bliss received this letter from Kate D. Barstow herself, to whom Clemens had sent it, presumably enclosed in a cover letter, now lost.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Special Collections Library, University of Texas at El Paso (TxEU).

Previous publication: L3, 339–340; Parke-Bernet 1946, lot 120, brief paraphrase.

Provenance:The MS, inherited by Mrs. Robert I. Ingalls, Jr., of Birmingham, Ala., from her father, R. Jay Flick of Lenox, Mass., was sold to an unidentified buyer in 1946 (Parke-Bernet 1946, lot 120) and was eventually acquired by TxEU.