Letters Vol. 2 [30]
When I get it done I want to see the man who will begin to read it and not finish it. If it falls short of the "Innocents" in any respect I shall lose my guess.
When I was writing the "Innocents" my daily stunt was 30 pages of MS and I hardly ever got beyond it; but I have gone over that nearly every day for the last ten. That shows that I am writing with a red-hot interest. Nothing grieves me now--nothing troubles me, nothing bothers me or gets my attention--I don't think of anything but the book, and I don't have an hour's unhappiness about anything and don't care two cents whether school keeps or not. It will be a bully book. If I keep up my present lick three weeks more I shall be able and willing to scratch out half of the chapters of the Overland narrative--and shall do it.
You do not mention having received my second batch of MS, sent a week or two ago--about 100 pages.
If you want to issue a prospectus and go right to canvassing, say the word and I will forward some more MS--or send it by hand--special messenger. Whatever chapters you think are unquestionably good, we will retain of course, so they can go into a prospectus as well one time as another. The book will be done soon, now. I have 1200 pages of MS already written and am now writing 200 a week--more than that, in fact; during the past week wrote 23 one day, then 30, 33, 35, 52, and 65. --How's that?
It will be a starchy book, and should be full of snappy pictures-- especially pictures worked in with the letterpress. The dedication will be worth the price of the volume--thus:
To the Late Cain. This Book is Dedicated:
Not on account of respect for his memory, for it merits little respect; not on account of sympathy with him, for his bloody deed placed him without the pale of sympathy, strictly speaking: but out of a mere human commiseration for him that it was his misfortune to live in a dark age that knew not the beneficent Insanity Plea.
I think it will do. Yrs. CLEMENS.
P. S.--The reaction is beginning and my stock is looking up. I am getting the bulliest offers for books and almanacs; am flooded with lecture invitations, and one periodical offers me $6,000 cash for 12 articles, of any length and on any subject, treated humorously or otherwise.
The suggested dedication "to the late Cain" may have been the humoristic impulse of the moment. At all events, it did not materialize.
Clemens's enthusiasm for work was now such that he agreed with Redpath to return to the platform that autumn, and he began at once writing lectures. His disposal of the Buffalo paper had left him considerably in debt, and platforming was a sure and quick method of retrenchment. More than once in the years ahead Mark Twain would return to travel and one-night stands to lift a burden of debt. Brief letters to Redpath of this time have an interest and even a humor of their own.
Letters to James Redpath, in Boston:
ELMIRA, June 27, 1871. DEAR RED,--Wrote another lecture--a third one-today. It is the one I am going to deliver. I think I shall call it "Reminiscences of Some Pleasant Characters Whom I Have Met," (or should the "whom" be left out?) It covers my whole acquaintance--kings, lunatics, idiots and all. Suppose you give the item a start in the Boston papers. If I write fifty lectures I shall only choose one and talk that one only.
No sir: Don't you put that scarecrow (portrait) from the Galaxy in, I won't stand that nightmare. Yours, MARK.
ELMIRA, July 10, 1871. DEAR REDPATH,--I never made a success of a lecture delivered in a church yet. People are afraid to laugh in a church. They can't be made to do it in any possible way.
Success to Fall's carbuncle and many happy returns. Yours,
When I was writing the "Innocents" my daily stunt was 30 pages of MS and I hardly ever got beyond it; but I have gone over that nearly every day for the last ten. That shows that I am writing with a red-hot interest. Nothing grieves me now--nothing troubles me, nothing bothers me or gets my attention--I don't think of anything but the book, and I don't have an hour's unhappiness about anything and don't care two cents whether school keeps or not. It will be a bully book. If I keep up my present lick three weeks more I shall be able and willing to scratch out half of the chapters of the Overland narrative--and shall do it.
You do not mention having received my second batch of MS, sent a week or two ago--about 100 pages.
If you want to issue a prospectus and go right to canvassing, say the word and I will forward some more MS--or send it by hand--special messenger. Whatever chapters you think are unquestionably good, we will retain of course, so they can go into a prospectus as well one time as another. The book will be done soon, now. I have 1200 pages of MS already written and am now writing 200 a week--more than that, in fact; during the past week wrote 23 one day, then 30, 33, 35, 52, and 65. --How's that?
It will be a starchy book, and should be full of snappy pictures-- especially pictures worked in with the letterpress. The dedication will be worth the price of the volume--thus:
To the Late Cain. This Book is Dedicated:
Not on account of respect for his memory, for it merits little respect; not on account of sympathy with him, for his bloody deed placed him without the pale of sympathy, strictly speaking: but out of a mere human commiseration for him that it was his misfortune to live in a dark age that knew not the beneficent Insanity Plea.
I think it will do. Yrs. CLEMENS.
P. S.--The reaction is beginning and my stock is looking up. I am getting the bulliest offers for books and almanacs; am flooded with lecture invitations, and one periodical offers me $6,000 cash for 12 articles, of any length and on any subject, treated humorously or otherwise.
The suggested dedication "to the late Cain" may have been the humoristic impulse of the moment. At all events, it did not materialize.
Clemens's enthusiasm for work was now such that he agreed with Redpath to return to the platform that autumn, and he began at once writing lectures. His disposal of the Buffalo paper had left him considerably in debt, and platforming was a sure and quick method of retrenchment. More than once in the years ahead Mark Twain would return to travel and one-night stands to lift a burden of debt. Brief letters to Redpath of this time have an interest and even a humor of their own.
Letters to James Redpath, in Boston:
ELMIRA, June 27, 1871. DEAR RED,--Wrote another lecture--a third one-today. It is the one I am going to deliver. I think I shall call it "Reminiscences of Some Pleasant Characters Whom I Have Met," (or should the "whom" be left out?) It covers my whole acquaintance--kings, lunatics, idiots and all. Suppose you give the item a start in the Boston papers. If I write fifty lectures I shall only choose one and talk that one only.
No sir: Don't you put that scarecrow (portrait) from the Galaxy in, I won't stand that nightmare. Yours, MARK.
ELMIRA, July 10, 1871. DEAR REDPATH,--I never made a success of a lecture delivered in a church yet. People are afraid to laugh in a church. They can't be made to do it in any possible way.
Success to Fall's carbuncle and many happy returns. Yours,