Osgood and I are “going for” the puppy G—— on infringement of trademark. To win one or two suits of this kind will set literary folks on a firmer bottom. I wish Osgood would sue for stealing Holmes's poem. Wouldn't it be gorgeous to sue R—— for petty larceny? I will promise to go into court and swear I think him capable of stealing pea-nuts from a blind pedlar.
Yrs ever,
CLEMENS.
Of course Howells promptly replied that he would read the story,
adding: “You've no idea what I may ask you to do for me, some day.
I'm sorry that you can't do it for the Atlantic, but I
succumb. Perhaps you will do Boy No. 2 for us.” Clemens,
conscience-stricken, meantime, hastily put the MS. out of reach
of temptation.
To W. D. Howells, in Boston:
July 13, 1875
MY DEAR HOWELLS,—Just as soon as you consented I realized all the atrocity of my request, and straightway blushed and weakened. I telegraphed my theatrical agent to come here and carry off the MS and copy it.
But I will gladly send it to you if you will do as follows: dramatize it, if you perceive that you can, and take, for your remuneration, half of the first $6000 which I receive for its representation on the stage. You could alter the plot entirely, if you chose. I could help in the work, most cheerfully, after you had arranged the plot. I have my eye upon two young girls who can play “Tom” and “Huck.” I believe a good deal of a drama can be made of it. Come—can't you tackle this in the odd hours of your vacation? or later, if you prefer?
I do wish you could come down once more before your holiday. I'd give anything!
Yrs ever,
MARK.
Howells wrote that he had no time for the dramatization and
urged Clemens to undertake it himself. He was ready to read
the story, whenever it should arrive. Clemens did not
hurry, however, The publication of Tom Sawyer could wait.
He already had a book in press—the volume of Sketches New
and Old, which he had prepared for Bliss several years
before.
Sketches was issued that autumn, and Howells gave it a good
notice—possibly better than it deserved.
Considered among Mark Twain's books to-day, the collection
of sketches does not seem especially important. With the
exception of the frog story and the “True Story” most of
those included—might be spared. Clemens himself confessed
to Howells that He wished, when it was too late, that he had
destroyed a number of them. The book, however, was
distinguished in a special way: it contains Mark Twain's
first utterance in print on the subject of copyright, a
matter in which he never again lost interest. The absurdity
and injustice of the copyright laws both amused and
irritated him, and in the course of time he would be largely
instrumental in their improvement. In the book his open
petition to Congress that all property rights, as well as
literary ownership, should be put on the copyright basis and
limited to a “beneficent term of forty-two years,” was more
or less of a joke, but, like so many of Mark Twain's jokes,
it was founded on reason and justice.
He had another idea, that was not a joke: an early plan in
the direction of international copyright. It was to be a
petition signed by the leading American authors, asking the
United States to declare itself to be the first to stand for
right and justice by enacting laws against the piracy of
foreign books. It was a rather utopian scheme, as most
schemes for moral progress are, in their beginning. It
would not be likely ever to reach Congress, but it would
appeal to Howells and his Cambridge friends. Clemens wrote,
outlining his plan of action.