(For Mr. Chatto
Hartford, May. 1./80.
Dear Sirs:
I never attend to any business of my own myself—either with my publisher or other parties—because I know I shall get it all wrong. My lawyer attends to everything that is business, for me. Therefore you must do me the charity to consider that when I promised to attend to the electros & advance-sheets I was not in my right mind. I never do so thoughtless & dangerous a thing when I am “at” myself.
Of course I meant to perform all I promised. I frequently warned Bliss to forward clean, thoroughly revised & corrected prooefs to you; therefore it is likely that I also ordered the electros in the beginning, & then dismissed the matter from ‸(what I call)‸ my mind. I don’t know. If memories were merchandize, I think mine might bring ten cents—& swindle the purchaser.
How this world is given to blundering! We fixed a date for Tom Sawyer to issue; I Bliss was behindhand, you were not; the Canadian pirates copied your book, brought it out two months ahead of us, flooded the U. S. with it, & cost me ten thousand dollars.
Truly Yrs
S. L. Clemens
[letter docketed:] Twain. Mark. | [double rule] | A Tramp Abroad | [double rule] | Entd at Customs | in C&W’s name | as proprietors of his | copyright | as agents for | M. Twain. | [rule]
Source text(s):Previous publication:
MicroPUL, reel 1.
Provenance:The archives of Chatto and Windus have been on deposit at UkReU since the late 1970s and early
1980s and make up a part of its collection of Records of British Publishing
and Printing. Chatto and Windus was purchased by the Random House Group in
1987.
