per Charles Warren Stoddard
12 December 1873 • London, England (MS: Routledge, UCCL 01003)
All right, any thing you say will be satisfactory to me. I am absolutely sure that you wont sell three hundred more copies at twenty five shillings than you will at thirty five. I dont fancy that you can popularize the high priced edition. I’m afraid it is only the low priced editions that will have a large sale; but as I say, the price is the publishers affair not the authors & I’ll endorce what ever action you take2explanatory note
per C. W. S.
Robert Warne Routledge (1837–99), a partner in his father’s publishing firm since 1858, was primarily concerned with the financial side of the business (Boase, 6:505; Mumby, 97, 136, 147).
Routledge had written to Clemens earlier on 12 December:
After giving the matter careful consideration and consulting people who can assist in the sale of “The Gilded Age” we have come to the conclusion that it will be best to publish the first edition at 25/6 instead of 31/6: the late Lord Lytton adopted this price for his last novel, and we think it a good one, the object being to attract purchasers and not throw the book entirely into the circulating libraries. The preface came to hand today & is now in the printers’ hands. (Agreement Book A–K:183, Routledge)
The American Publishing Company’s Gilded Age cost between $3.50 and $5.00, depending on the binding. Advertisements published before the three-volume Routledge edition was issued gave its price as 31s. 6d. ($7.88). By the time of publication, however, Routledge had lowered the price to 25s. 6d. ($6.38) (Athenaeum: “George Routledge & Sons’ First List of New Books for the Coming Season,” 4 Oct 73, 448; “Mark Twain and Charles Warner,” 13 Dec 73, 788; “Mark Twain and Charles Warner,” London Morning Post, 22 Dec 73, 8). This high price marked a new approach on Routledge’s part: he sold his editions of The Innocents Abroad and Roughing It—each title divided into two volumes—for merely 1s. ($.25) per volume. Clemens wrote his new preface for the English edition on 11 December and sent it to Routledge on the same day; it is reproduced in Preface to the Routledge Gilded Age click to open letter (see also 13 and 15 Dec 73 to OLCclick to open letter).
MS, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
L5 , 511–12.
preserved in the Routledge archives since receipt.