4 and 5 January 1871 • Buffalo, N.Y. (Transcript, paraphrase, and MS: AAA 1927, lot 244, and
CU-MARK, UCCL 00555)
paraphrase: to Mr. Bliss of the American Publishing Co. . . . stating he is sending him the Mss. for these “Sketches” and writing Ⓐemendationthat he wants the one about the liar to be first one in the book;1explanatory note paraphrase: Also, that he wants his brother to make copies of the “Sketches” before they are sent to the artist. 2explanatory note
P. S.
Dear Bliss=
The curious beasts & great contrasts in this Pre-duluge Ⓐemendation article3explanatory note offer a gorgeous chance for the artist’s fancy & ingenuity, I think.
Send both sketches to Mullen—he is the man. Ⓐemendation to do them, I guess. Launt Thompson, Albemarle Hotel, will find him when wanted.4explanatory note
One of two manuscripts enclosed here, this sketch concerned a spectacular liar Clemens had met in the Sandwich Islands in 1866. He soon withdrew the manuscript, however, deciding to publish it as “About a Remarkable Stranger” in the April 1871 Galaxy. The manuscript does not survive (22 Feb 71click to open letter, 4 Mar 71click to open letter, both to OC).
Orion finished making these security copies, which have not been found, during the second week of January (OC to SLC, 25 Jan 71, CU-MARK).
An offshoot of, or selection from, the Noah’s Ark book that Clemens had been working on for almost five years and that Bliss had been privy to at least since January 1870. Clemens had first broached the idea for an article on the subject in a letter to his sister in August 1869. He called this sketch “Pre-flood show” in the draft table of contents he prepared for the sketchbook, probably sometime in December 1870. He soon retrieved this manuscript as well: it has not been found, and was never published (22 Jan 70 to Blissclick to open letter; L3 , 312; ET&S1 , 574–79; 22 Feb 71 to OCclick to open letter).
On 25 January, Orion wrote Clemens that Bliss was in New York, searching for Mullen, as Clemens had suggested (22 Dec 70 to Blissclick to open letter). Having employed Mullen as one of the illustrators of Albert D. Richardson’s Beyond the Mississippi (1867), Bliss was reluctant to rehire him, put off by Mullen’s pawning of wood blocks to buy whiskey, and his “charging fancy prices.” But, Orion reported, Bliss promised “to get him to do some of the work” (CU-MARK). After the western book (Roughing It) displaced the sketchbook later in January, Bliss hired Mullen to help illustrate it ( RI 1993 , 857–58).
Transcript and paraphrase, AAA 1927, lot 244, is copy-text for 295.14–296.2; MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK), is copy-text for the remainder. The auction catalog describes (and misdates) the transcribed and paraphrased MS as ‘Autograph Letter Signed by “Mark Twain” to Mr. Bliss of the American Publishing Co., one page, 8vo, Jan. 4 [1875].’ The quotation marks around the pseudonym are catalog style and almost certainly not indicative of how Clemens signed his name.
L4 , 295–296; MTMF , 118 n. 2, excerpt, in addition to the copy-text.
The present location of the MS for 295.14–296.2 is not known; for the CU-MARK MS see Mendoza Collection in Description of Provenance.