Original (English)

TO CLARA CLEMENS GABRILOWITSCH WHO STEADILY UPHELD THE AUTHOR'S PURPOSE TO WRITE HISTORY RATHER THAN EULOGY AS THE STORY OF HER FATHER'S LIFE AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT Dear William Dean Howells, Joseph Hopkins Twichell, Joseph T. Goodman, and other old friends of Mark Twain: I cannot let these volumes go to press without some grateful word to you who have helped me during the six years and more that have gone to their making. First, I want to confess how I have envied you your association with Mark Twai