To George Bentley
per Fanny C. Hesse
12 February 1877 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: IU-R, UCCL 12342)

February 12, 1877

slc/mt

Geo. Bentley Esqr

Dear Sir,

Your kind note of Jany 29. is received, and I beg to thank you for taking so much pains with Mr Harte’s matter.

I will notify him of what has been done.1

The next time I write a miscellaneous article, I shall put off its publication in the magazine here, long enough to give an advance copy ample time to reach you. I found that the order which I gave, to send me an advance copy of my last Atlantic article to be forwarded to you, never reached Mr Howells at all, and consequently received no attention. I wrote the order in the margin of the proof, thinking Mr Howells would see it. But he sent the proof to the printer without observing my corrections etc.2

Truly Yours,

Samℓ. L. Clemens

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1Neither Bentley’s “note,” nor any letter to Harte mentioning the “pains” that had been taken on his behalf, has been found. In early December Clemens had tried unsuccessfully to interest Bentley in publishing Harte’s short story “Thankful Blossom” in Temple Bar magazine; it appeared in four installments in December in the New York Sun (5 Dec 1876 to Bentley, n. 2; Harte 1876b). Bentley may have replied that he could not republish in England an article that was already under copyright in the United States.

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2Clemens refers to “The Canvasser’s Tale,” in the Atlantic Monthly for December 1876 (23 Aug 1876 to Howells, n. 4; 29 Dec 1876 to Conway, n. 2).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, signed by SLC, Papers of Richard Bentley and Son, IU-R.

Previous publication:

MicroPUL, reel 1.

Provenance:

Purchased between 1951 and 1961.