Vol 3 Section 0953
Meantime please have a copy made of the lawyer’s opinion (1894-or ’95) concerning my competency or incompetency to sell or transfer the copyright-renewals of my books. Please send it to 26 Broadway so that I may find it there when I come.
Is there a cause in the Bliss-Harper contract providing for renewals? [MTP: eBay Mar. 28, 2002].
Sam then took the train for Elmira. He had planned on returning to N.Y.C on Sunday, Sept 20.
September 12 Saturday – Sam was at Quarry Farm in Elmira, where he advised Livy that H.H. Rogers was handling the negotiations with George B. Harvey of Harper & Brothers, and the American Publishing Co. [Sept. 14 to Rogers].
September 13 Sunday – The New York Times ran a squib on p.3, Sept. 19, “Mark Twain Getting Over Bronchitis,” which reported his attack of this day. Twain “has been indisposed all the week,” and on the 19th was “feeling quite well.”
September 14 Monday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers and Emilie R.
Rogers.
Your telegram [not extant] from Boston conveying Harvey’s acceptance at nine dollars [see Sept 15 from Rogers] has just been telephoned up here to the hilltop from town, & has made me immensely comfortable. Things do certainly point to a pull-off, & I guess it will happen; but there isn’t anybody that could make it happen but you.
I took the telephone myself, & no one knows about it but me—& won’t, for the present. I am superstitious, & shan’t make a noise till we are out of the woods. I told Mrs. Clemens night before last that you were handling the matter, & that that was particulars enough for the present. She was quite satisfied with that, & will shut down the inquiry-mill until the business is finished.
She is getting along pretty well, & is as grateful to you as I am.
…
Dear Mrs. Rogers: / ask him what message he sent to them (coming down in the elevator) [MTHHR 536].
Sam’s notebook: “Frank & ‘Wally’ Bliss his sons; Harry Harper; Col. George Harvey / Duneka. ” [NB 46 TS 24].
September 15 Tuesday – H.H. Rogers wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam, after sending him two telegrams about Duneka of Harper & Brothers, and Frank Bliss of American Publishing Co. coming to an agreement. Harper would purchase 1,800 sets of the 2,500 Hillcrest Edition from Bliss at $9 per set
[MTHHR 537, Appx. F].
Studio published a portrait of Mark Twain by Ugo Catani [Tenney 38].
September 16 Wednesday – Wilbur D. Nesbit wrote from the Tribune office, Chicago, to Sam. “I enclose herewith a clipping of some verses that recently appeared in my column in The Tribune. I hope you’ll not be offended at them; and along with about everybody else in the world I certainly wish you would find ‘Tom’ and ‘Huck’ and brighten things up for us once more…” [MTP].
September 17 Thursday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mr. Eaton: “Dear Mr. Eaton I could not do it at any price. I have a thousand pardons for my tardiness—I have been away from home. Sincerely Yours
SL Clemens” [MTP: Christie’s East, 22 Feb. 1995, Item 326]. Note: may be Frank L. Eaton.
Sam also replied to George Gregory Smith’s Sept. 5 letter about the Villa situation and the falling-through of a lease agreement with the Misses Barlow on Villa Papiniano:
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.