Hartford, Oct. 7, 1881.
Messrs. Chatto & Windus—
Dear Sirs:
Your notes for £874.16.9 have arrived from friend Conway, for which please accept my thanks. The sale has been flatteringly large, & the result correspondingly gratifying. Conway seems to think I was likely to change publishers for light inducement; but I have explained his mistake to him.
Osgood will get the pictures & advance sheets to you in ample time, & there will be no misunderstandings & no trouble about anything—but the late Bliss was a fool; & if he were not dead I would add that t he was also a persistent liar & a rascal; but I never allow myself to say harsh things about a dead person.
I told my nephew, C. L. Webster, to write & ask you if you wanted duplicates of the brass stamps which are to be used in printing the covers of the “P. & P.” But you need not answer him, for I perceive that the time is too short, now. The suggestion was only born of personal vanity, since these stamps were made by a process of my own invention, whose merits are cheapness & celerity of production.
Osgood was here yesterday, & I got him to write you about the Continental reprint of the “P. & P.,” & one or two other matters. (Got him to write because I was lazy & he good-natured.) Taŭchnitz has always paid for my books, & has always asked for them before publishing; but I do not think he has ever paid as much as £75 for one of them. I cannot be certain, but that is my impression.
Truly Yours,
S. L. Clemens
Source text(s):Previous publication:
Gates 1939, 78–79; Clemens 1941, 1-2, 24; MicroPUL, reel 2.
Provenance:
Purchased from Sotheby’s, London, on 29 June 1916.
