February 12 Thursday – Dr. John Brown wrote:

My dear friend—I have been all too long in thanking you for the 3 goodly volumes, so full of good sense & good feeling & good fun & good knowledge of men & things—I am quite surprised at the fulness of meaning in them—as contrasted with most modern books—I wish I had a month of a desert, comfortable island, with them & the Bible—& milk & fruit & eggs & “the delicious juices of meats & fishes”—& a dog & a barrel of ripe Bass—then I would steadily eat through your 3 vols—I was rash in abusing the wood cuts—some are very full of power & beauty—& some excruciatingly Comic—You are happy with the wifie & the Megalopis & your segar & idleness—& home—Be thankful, every night you lie down on your bed, for having that wife & child—A Dr Stearns Dr to a retreat for the Insane, near Hartford—called on me today—I am to see him again & will send out a haggis & a pair of bagpipes & a stick of brimstone as emblematical of Scotland—He knew about that dear boy of yours—We are all fairly well—We Liberals, have got terribly licked & Russell is bemoaning himself—but, as John Bright says “ah well! the great ship may roll from side to side, but it moves on”—The Cause of truth & freedom & goodness & knowledge & temperance & brotherly kindness & Charity, is God’s Cause & therefore will win, at any odds—Your old friends here often speak of you—we are thinking of having a Mark Twain Club, & practicing the Wondrous Whistle—as a ticket of membership—

      I am going to publish a new Vol of Odds & Ends, & mean to have an essay called “Megalopis—her father & mother & nurse & self—a study”—

      Goodbye, my dear friends, bless you—& don’t forget, your old friend—&—

      Ever Affly, / JB. [MTPO]. Note: Sam had sent IA, RI, and GA the previous Nov.

Rufus Hatch (1832–1893), vice president and managing director of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, wrote and asked if copies of Clemens’s books might be provided for the 35 libraries of the company’s ships [MTP]. Note: see Feb. 19 to Bliss.

Edgar Wakeman wrote to Clemens:

I write to say that all my friends in Cal. and Else where, Says that you must write my Life, and make a Book out of it that will Bring me in a Considerable, they all say that in your Hands it will be a good thing, and I write you this letter to tell you not to take Hold of any other Book until you have done with mine, the Public are anxious now about the Island World and I propose to End with the most authentic account of all the Isles in the Pacific their Products, Climat Soil, looks manners and Custom of the Natives and where Situated I will have the manuscript all Copyed in Plain good Hand writing, So you Can read it, it will be in a Book, from the Original. I have not tryed to alter it. I have left that for you to do, and will be at Staten Island by 1st of may if you must see me, and I think it woul[d] be a good Idea, for me to have about 10 days with you. Just write me, at Lapaz, Lower Cal, if you are free, to take Hold of this matter, and you are of all I know, the most Proper person, it will amount to a good thing, and as you take an interest in me, and as you are well acquainted with the History of Cal. and the Sandwich Islands, I felt that you are the only One who Can Do me Justice in this matter it in your Hands will be all that Mary wants, and in others Hands, it may be a miserable failure. Now Say that you will take Hold of it and I am a happy man, tis a Business transaction and you Can make your own terms. I want you and your way to write my life So I Shall Die Contented. I shall await an answer with much anxiety I will State that Mrs. Brocks, the wife of Mr Brocks with whomb I am now Staying, is an Excellent writer both in Prose and Poetry, and She has read the manuscript through several Times, and tells [me] to make no alterations, but Place it before you Just as it is, that it is full of the most remarkable incidents thrilling adventures both on the Sea and Land She Ever heard of. I will State here that they are naked Truths, and when Clothed by your able and incomparable Pen, in Such Brilliant Robes that the readers will be unable to Judge the difference between facts and fiction, it will have a Big Sale. I Remain yours with Respect. / E. Wakeman [MTPO].