21 June 1871 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00619)
Am very glad, indeed, you think so well of the book.1explanatory note I mean to make it a good one in spite of everything—then the illustrations will do the rest. When the prospectus is out I believe Bliss will sell 50,000 copies before the book need be actually issued.
Mollie, Sammy’s nervous twitchings & shakings are worse than I have ever seen them before——caused by a foment for constipation. Pamela very uneasy.2explanatory note
I am sending Bliss 3 articles at a slim slim price, $100 or $125 for the whole lot, (according to condition of his exchequer,) —⅓ their value—told him to pay the money to Orion in one-tenth instalments, weekly till the amount is exhausted. Orion can also draw small amounts from time to time as he requires them requirements demand.
As usual, I am running two households—one up here on the farm (Livy is here, lu all the time, now,) & one in Buffalo. Three servants in Buffalo & two here. One of the latter—the cook—I pay $5 a week, & the other, $2. I also pay a man $2 a week to make fires on—for sometimes the mornings & evenings are a little chilly.3explanatory note Mr & Mrs. Crane stay here with us, & we do have perfectly royal good times.
Orion Clemens Esq | 149 Asylum st | Hartford | Conn. return address: if not delivered within 10 days, to be returned to postmarked: elmira n.y. jun 21 letter docketed by OC: writing for me
The recently delivered Roughing It manuscript (up through about chapter 51).
Samuel Moffett’s condition had recently deteriorated at the Elmira Water Cure, where the foment had evidently been prescribed for him (11 June 71 to JLCclick to open letter).
Two of the three servants still in Buffalo were, almost certainly, a housekeeper and the coachman. Probably the Clemenses had brought Ellen White, who had served as both housekeeper and cook, to Elmira with them. The second Elmira servant, presumably there to help Olivia with the baby, may have been the Buffalo nurse, Margaret, whom Clemens had described as “staunch & true” in March (14 Mar 71 to Craneclick to open letter). Conceivably this was the same Margaret, described in similar complimentary terms, who was with the Clemenses in Hartford by December 1871 and remained with them until May 1872 (3 Dec 71 to OLCclick to open letter; 17 May 72 to Annie Moffett, NPV).
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L4 , 411–412.
see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.