Letter from Albert Bigelow Paine, New York, New York, to Edward Wagenknecht, 1931 January 4 : typescript signed, with corrections in ink.

Complimenting his book on Lillian Gish [i.e. Lillian Gish: An Interpretation]; comparing Mark Twain with Charles Dickens as subjects for a book; advising him to "wait for certain developments before you make a beginning"; stating that he has Twain's diaries and expects to publish "two volumes within the next two years"; granting permission to quote from any of his books on Twain, with proper credit; explaining what happened to Twain's unpublished manuscripts, how he "selected and published all that were anything nearly completed, or were of any real value", how what was left "were fragments, thrown aside because he recognized ... that they were poor," and that he believes the rest "has been burned, and very properly so"; reminding Wagenknecht that he has "covered every phase" of Twain's publishing history in his biography, "which is perhaps the reason why a number of congenitally untrustful persons have suspected me of dark concealment."