To Elisha Bliss, Jr.
21 October 1874 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: Mather, UCCL 11532)

Oct. 21.

Friend Bliss:

Mrs. Moulton is a pleasant body & one you might write directly to, or go & see her., if you prefer. If there’s nothing in it, there’s no harm done. I would like to see them all quit the “trade”—still, if they prefer to stick to the ‸“trade,”‸ nobody is much damaged but themselves. I hope you will sell a pile of Howells’s book when it comes out—& Harte’s. The effect will be good.1

Mrs. Moulton is still stringing out her summer at Pomfret, Conn. , where ver

We are going to try to make the play run 200 nights in New York2

Yrs

Mark.

[letter docketed:] [and] Sam’l Clemens. | Oct. 21 ″74

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1 Howells and Bliss, with the intercession of Charles Dudley Warner, had been negotiating for a history of Venice to be published as a subscription book by the American Publishing Company. They did not come to terms, however, and Howells did not write the book. Bliss published Harte’s Gabriel Conroy in 1876 (see Howells 1979, 55–56, and 5 July 75 to Howells, n. 4).

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2 See 11 Jan 75 to Raymond, n. 1.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, collection of William G. Mather.

Previous publication: L6, 260.