In annotations for Mark Twain’s letter of 2 Dec. 1867 to Elisha Bliss, the
editors state that Richardson’s BEYOND THE MISSISSIPPI had sold 75,000
copies by late 1869. (Online at marktwainproject.org). Beverly David in her
study of MARK TWAIN’S ILLUSTRATORS documents a number of illustrations that
Bliss reused from Richardson’s book in Mark Twain’s books.

Barb

On Friday, April 15, 2022, Bob Gill <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Having just reread Roughing It, I finally decided to tackle this book by
> Albert Richardson. It has some clear similarities; in essence, it’s like
> Roughing It without the touch of genius. And physically, the book seems to
> have been the template for Twain’s first two best-sellers, and probably The
> Gilded Age and A Tramp Abroad too. Interestingly, in the first 220 pages or
> so I’ve noticed two illustrations that were also used in Roughing It – one
> of which had nothing at all to do with Twain’s book, but was apparently
> just used to fill in some white space at the end of a chapter.
>
> What I wanted to ask about is this: I believe I’ve read that Beyond the
> Mississippi was the American Publishing Co.’s best-selling book before the
> company signed Mark Twain. Does anybody know if that’s true – and if so,
> how many copies Richardson’s book sold?
>
>  -- Bob G.
>