Hartford Oct. 7.
My Dear Pipes—
Am sorry, but the [lathch] string is hauled in for repairs. The house is in the hands of the carpenters & decorators for the season, & no visitors received but the butcher & the grocer.
I’ve read the squi◊b which somebody handed you. I think you should have known I did not write that. I think you did know I did not write it. I think you must have known at a glance that the writer of that silly & witless production carries on b his shoulders a gourd full of rotten oysters in place of brains. Now I ask you if it was either friendly or generous in you to send such a thing as that abroad over the country with my name attached to it?—I who have never harmed you, in word or thought or action.
Truly Yours
S. L. Clemens
Textual Commentary
Source text(s):Previous publication:
Sotheby Parke Bernet catalog, 23 May 1978, no. 4128, lot 209, partial publication; Sotheby’s catalog, 6 April 1983, no. 5021, lot 60, partial publication; eBay, January 2000, MS facsimile; MicroPUL, reel 2.
Provenance:
Todd M. Axelrod purchased the MS in 1983; in January 2000 it was offered for sale by Frogtown Books.
Emendations and textual notes:
lathch • [‘h’ partly formed]
