November 5 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisha Bliss directing books be sent to personal friends and journalists in London, Edinburgh, Ireland, France, and various places in America—two dozen or so. Among this list were Sam’s old friends in Nevada, Chicago and San Francisco, as well as those he had made acquaintance with in England. Sam specified them to receive the earliest copies, which resulted in a few reviews before the official publication date of Dec. 23 [MTL 5: 461]. The letter is now included here:
Friend Bliss:
Please send very early copies of the Gilded Age (Library style) to
✓ Tom Hood, 80 Fleet st. London
✓ Henry Lee, 43 Holland st. Blackfriars Road, London.
✓ G. W. Smalley, (N. Y. Tribune Bureau,) 13 Pall Mall, London.
✓ George Sauer, (N. Y. Herald Bureau,) 46 Fleet street.
✓ Publisher Figaro, Fleet street.
✓ Mr. Johnstone, Publisher Daily Standard, Shoe Lane, London.
✓ Shirley Brooks, Editor Punch, London.
✓ Mr. Russel, Editor Scotsman, Edinburgh.
✓ G. Fitz Gibbon, 1 Wellesley Terrace, Upper Street, Islington, London.
✓ Joseph T. Goodman, Virginia, Nevada.
✓ Joseph Medill, (“Tribune,”[)] Chicago.
✓ Frank Soulé & John McComb Care “Alta” San Francisco.
✓ Col. John Hay, Lotos Club, 2 Irving Place, N. Y.
✓ J. G. Croly, Daily Graphic, N. Y.
✓ G. W. Hosmer, “Herald,” N. York.
Middleton
✓ Mr. Abel, Proprietor “Sun,” Baltimore. Also, send extracts & advanced sheets to him—great friend of mine
✓ The same to Donn Piatt, “Capital” Washington.
✓ James Redpath, 36 Bromfield st. Boston.
✓ Clara Louise Moulton (Tribune Correspondent,[)] Boston.
✓ D. W. Howells &
✓ T. B. Aldrich Atlantic Monthly.
✓ Mrs. Jane Clemens, Fredonia New York.
✓ George A. Hawes, Hannibal, Mo.
✓ Thos. P. McMurry, Colony, Knox Co., Mo.
✓ Fred. Quarles, Waco, Texas.
✓ Mrs. A. W. Fairbanks, (care “Herald”) Cleveland, Ohio.
✓ Sam. Williams, on, “Bulletin,” San Francisco.
Middleton
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Also, send half Turkey copies of Innocents, Roughing It & Gilded Age, to
✓ Dr. Brown, 23 Rutland street, Edinburgh, Scotland.
✓ Frank D. Finlay, 4 Royal Terrace, Belfast, Ireland.
Charge them to me.
Send the earliest copies, & don’t forget. They are promised.
Also, send a half Turkey Gilded Age to
✓ Judge Thomas Sunderland, 1 Rue Scribe, Paris, France.
Don’t fail.
Ys
Mark. [MTPO]. See identifiers at source.
Royalty check with this date from American Publishing Co. for $1,315.08 for RI sales [MTP].
The New York Daily Graphic reported on arrangements for the London publication of The Gilded Age [Tenney 5] (Also on Nov. 8.)
D. Bliss writes of the dire financial situation at the time GA was published:
By the time The Gilded Age was published in November 1873, the speculative bubble had burst. In September 1873 the nation’s premier investment bank—Jay Cook & Co., which had financed the Union victory—collapsed. It had made too many risky loans for overvalued real estate and underutilized railroads. The country entered what was then called the Great Depression. The economy shrank for sixty-five straight months—sill an unbroken record. By 1876 half the nation’s railroads were bankrupt, and half the iron and steel foundries were closed. Three years later wholesale prices were down 30 percent. The Gilded Age conveys a powerful message about the perils of a culture obsessed with getting rich, a free market driven by risky speculation, and a government subservient to moneyed interests [xiv]. Note: Ironically, Clemens was deeply motivated his entire life by the desire to get rich and also driven by risky speculation.