New York, Dec. 28.
Friend Bliss—
My room-mate in the Quaker City, Dan. Slote, 121 William street, has sold about 200 copies of the book to his ‸personal‸ friends (the agent1 here lets him have them at 20 per cent. off,) & he has given wa away 12 or 15 copies at his own expense. I suggest to him that he keep a lot in his own office to supply his friends with, & tell him you will not object to let him have them at canvassers’ rates (which is 40 per cent off, I believe.) This cannot interfere in the least with canvassers or general agents, & will only pick up odd chances that they could not come at. So, if you are willing, you may send Dan 50 copies of (cloth,) & half a dozen [half-Turkey. ] ‸at canvassers rates.‸ It is Dan’s picture in the book that attracts his friends.2 He knows everybody in New York. Dan
You need not charge Dan anything in advance—let him pay for the books after he sells them—[(charge ]them to me if they must be charged to anybody—I will be responsible. I want Dan to get even on the copies he has given away. He will not sell a copy to a bookseller or to anybody but personal friends. I shall be glad if you will let him have all the books he wants at canvassers’ price—to be paid for after the books are sold. I know Dan Slote pretty well, after traveling 6 months with him.
Yrs
Mark.
[on back of letter as folded:]
Dan knows every body, & thinks he could have sold 500 copies by this time if he had had them.
He knows the agent here, well, & has got his books from him, heretofore.
Write Dan, if you choose.
[letter docketed:]
auth
[and] Mark Twain |
Dec 28/69
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L3, 442–443; Christie 1981, lot 54, excerpt; Neville, lot 526, excerpt.
Provenance:The MS, part of the estate of Marjorie Wiggin Prescott, was sold in February
1981 by Christie, Manson & Woods to Maurice F. Neville Rare
Books, who in turn sold it in 1983 to Todd M. Axelrod.
Emendations and textual notes:
half-Turkey. • [deletion implied]
(charge • [no closing parenthesis]
