Clemens, Samuel L.

Autograph letter signed ("S.L. Clemens"), 4 pages bifolium (8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.; 210 x 130 mm), [Hartford, CT], 4 October 1881, to his Boston publisher James R. Osgood, regarding an advertisement for the upcoming publication of Prince and the Pauper, and the selling of  the printing rights to foreign publishers; light toning, short centerfold split, 2 small stains. Mounted within a mat with a portrait of Clemens and a facsimile of his Mark Twain signature.  

The Prince and the Pauper and "a man and a baron."  Clemens sends his approval to his Boston publisher and friend James R. Osgood for an advertisement for Prince and the Pauper, which was due to be issued in January 1882 (Clemens had completed the novel in February 1881). He then moves on to money matters regarding the foreign publication of the book: "Now as to that £75, we must talk about that when you come Thursday. You see, Tauchnitz has always bought & paid for my books, like a man & a baron, & it ain't going to be equilateralerally [sic] quadrangular to sell to another continental dam publisher without first giving him a competitive chance."  Clemens thanks Osgood for the trouble he took at the suggestion of Mrs. Clemens with a work called "Day Dreams of a Schoolmaster." Clemens claims it is "imaginary book" that he ttributes to the American theologian James Freeman Clark.  Such a book by D'Arcy W. Wentworth on classical eduction was in fact published in Edinburgh in 1864.