ALS signed “S. L. Clemens,” four pages, 5 x 8, Florence, Italy, January 1, 1893. Letter to Frederick J. Hall. In full: “Ours of Dec. 19 is to hand, & Mrs. Clemens is deeply distressed, for she thinks I have been blaming you or finding fault with you about something. But most surely that cannot be. I tell her that although I am prone to write hasty & regretable things to other people, I am not a bit likely to write such things to you. I can't believe I have done anything so ungrateful. If I have, pile coals of fire on my head, for I deserve it!
I wonder if my letter of credit isn't an incumbrance? Do you have to deposit the whole amount it calls for? If that is so, it is an incumbrance, & we must withdraw it & take the money out of soak. I have never made drafts upon it except when compelled, because I thought you deposited nothing against it & only had to put up money that I drew upon it; & that therefore the less I drew the easier it would be for you.
I am dreadfully sorry I didn't know it would be a help to you to let my monthly check pass over a couple of months. I could have stood that by drawing what is left of Mrs. Clemens's letter of credit, & we would have done it cheerfully.
I will write Whitmore [business agent] to send you the "Century" check for $1,000, & you can collect Mrs. Dodge's $2,000 (Whitmore has power of attorney which I think will enable him to endorse it over to you in my name). If you need that $3,000, put it in the business & use it, & send Whitmore the Company's note for a year. If you don't need it, turn it over to Mr. Halsey & let him invest it for me.
I've a mighty poor financial head, & I may be all wrong—but tell me if I am wrong in supposing that in lending my own firm money at 6 per cent I pay 4 of it myself & so really get only 2 per cent? Now don't laugh, if that is stupid.
Of course my friend declined to buy a quarter interest in the L.A.L. for $200,000.I judged he would. I hoped he would offer $100,000, but he didn't. If the cholera breaks out in America a few months hence, we can't borrow or sell; but if it doesn't, we must try hard to raise $100,000. I wish we could do it before there is a cholera scare. I have been in bed two or three days with a cold, but I got up an hour ago & I believe I am all right again. How I wish I had appreciated the need of $100,000 when I was in New York last summer! I would have tried my best to raise it. It would make us able to stand 1,000 of LAL per month, but not any more, I guess. You have done magnificently with the business, & we must raise the money somehow, to enable you to reap the reward of all that labor.” At the top of the first page, Clemens adds a handwritten postscript which reads, “P.S. It was a long letter I wrote to Gilder, at the same time that I wrote one to President Cleveland's little daughter Ruth. I sent this ‘P.S.’ the next day. SLC.”
In very good condition, with even toning over text of all pages from previous display and a few small pencil marks.
After seeing initial financial success from the 1885 publication of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Samuel Clemens’s Charles L. Webster publishing company began to falter. With only one successful publication in the eight years since Huck Finn, revenues were minimal. The company’s only real project was the Library of American Literature (L.A.L.), a costly, voluminous work that was paid for by customers through installments, making it impossible for the company to catch up with expenses. Compounded by Clemens’ enormous investment in the failed Paige typesetter, he and manager/co-owner Frederick J. Hall were forced to declare bankruptcy a year later. Nearing the end of the road, the famously inept businessman-author admits, “I've a mighty poor financial head,” but continues to encourage his partner and attempt to keep up his financial assistance. Desirable in both its publishing content and humor (“If I have, pile coals of fire on my head, for I deserve it!”), the letter also holds an interesting postscript mentioning President Cleveland’s little daughter Ruth, for whom the candy bar ‘Baby Ruth’ was named. A wonderful, lengthy letter in the hand of the renowned author just a year before admitting defeat in his publishing venture. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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