(Copy.)
‸Private.‸
Hartford, Dec. 12/81.
Dear Mr. Gilder—
The newspaper custom of shooting a man in the back & then calling upon him to come out in a card & prove that he was not engaged in any infamy at the time, is a good enough custom for those who think it justifiable. Your correspondent is not stupid, I judge, but purely & simply malicious. He knew there was not the shadow of a suggestion, from the beginning to the end of “A Curious Experience,” that the story was an invention; he knew he had no warrant for trying to persuade the public that I had stolen the narrative & was endeavoring to palm it off as a piece of literary invention; he also knew that he was asking his closing question with a base motive—else he would have asked it of me, by letter, not spread it before the public.
I have never wronged you in any way, & I think you had no right to print that communication; no right, neither any excuse. As to publicly answering that correspondent, I would as soon think of bandying words in public with any other prostitute.
Truly Yours
S L Clemens
Source text(s):Previous publication:
MicroML, reel 4.
Provenance:
See Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.
