12–28 February 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B, UCCL 02486)
Suppose you write to Wm. F. Gill, publisher, Boston, & say I have added “an Encounter with an Interviewer” to the index of a volume of my Sketches about to be issued, & ask him to send you a copy of Lotos Leaves to get it from, as I have told you that copies of the book were not (as is customary) sent to the several authors, although the contributions were gratis.
Just see what he’ll say to that!1explanatory note
letter docketed: ✓ and Mark Twain | Feb. ″752explanatory note
After an initial refusal, Clemens had agreed to contribute “An Encounter with an Interviewer” to Lotos Leaves, a collection of “original stories, essays, and poems” published for the Lotos Club of New York in late 1874 by William Fearing Gill (1844–1917), a Boston publisher of anthologies, novels, and books for education and amusement, who obtained a copyright on the book in his own name (SLC 1875; L5 , 436). Clemens now wanted to reprint the piece in Sketches, New and Old, which he was preparing for Bliss, listing it as item fourteen in his “index” of the volume (see the previous letter, n. 5). For Gill’s reply, see 10 Apr 75 to Blissclick to open letter. The preparation of Sketches, New and Old is discussed in detail in ET&S1 , 617–45.
This American Publishing Company docket and the renegotiated contract for the sketchbook, signed on 12 February, provide the likely span of dates for this letter (see the previous letter, n. 2).
MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B).
L6 , 383–384.
The MS was owned by businessman William T. H. Howe (1874–1939); in 1940 Dr. Albert A. Berg bought and donated the Howe Collection to NN.