Gentlemen,—­Concerning The Yankee, I have already revised the story twice; and it has been read critically by W. D. Howells and Edmund Clarence Stedman, and my wife has caused me to strike out several passages that have been brought to her attention, and to soften others.  Furthermore, I have read chapters of the book in public where Englishmen were present and have profited by their suggestions.

Now, mind you, I have taken all this pains because I wanted to say a Yankee mechanic’s say against monarchy and its several natural props, and yet make a book which you would be willing to print exactly as it comes to you, without altering a word.

We are spoken of (by Englishmen) as a thin-skinned people.  It is you who are thin-skinned.  An Englishman may write with the most brutal frankness about any man or institution among us and we republish him without dreaming of altering a line or a word.  But England cannot stand that kind of a book written about herself.  It is England that is thin-skinned.  It causeth me to smile when I read the modifications of my language which have been made in my English editions to fit them for the sensitive English palate.

Now, as I say, I have taken laborious pains to so trim this book of offense that you might not lack the nerve to print it just as it stands.  I am going to get the proofs to you just as early as I can.  I want you to read it carefully.  If you can publish it without altering a single word, go ahead.  Otherwise, please hand it to J. R. Osgood in time for him to have it published at my expense.

This is important, for the reason that the book was not written for America; it was written for England.  So many Englishmen have done their sincerest best to teach us something for our betterment that it seems to me high time that some of us should substantially recognize the good intent by trying to pry up the English nation to a little higher level of manhood in turn. 
                    Very truly yours,
                              S. L. Clemens.

The English nation, at least a considerable portion of it, did not wish to be “pried up to a higher level of manhood” by a Connecticut Yankee.  The papers pretty generally denounced the book as coarse; in fact, a vulgar travesty.  Some of the critics concluded that England, after all, had made a mistake in admiring Mark Twain.  Clemens stood this for a time and then seems to have decided that something should be done.  One of the foremost of English critics was his friend and admirer; he would state the case to him fully and invite his assistance.

To Andrew Lang, in London: 

[First page missing.]

1889 They vote but do not print.  The head tells you pretty promptly whether the food is satisfactory or not; and everybody hears, and thinks the whole man has spoken.  It is a delusion.  Only his taste and his smell have been heard from—­important, both, in a way, but these do not build up the man; and preserve his life and fortify it.