Mark Twain’s Letters: Volume 6 1874–1875 [Reprint 2020 ed.] 9780520929937

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THE MARK TWAIN PAPERS Mark Twain's Letters Volume 6:1874-1875

T H E MARK TWAIN PAPERS A N D W O R K S O F MARK TWAIN is a comprehensive edition for scholars of the private papers and published works of Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens). T H E MARK TWAIN LIBRARY is a selected edition reprinted from the Papers and Works for students and the general reader. Both series of books are published by the University of California Press and edited by members of the MARK TWAIN P R O J E C T with headquarters in The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Editorial work for all volumes has been jointly supported by grants from the NATIONAL E N D O W M E N T FOR T H E HUMANITIES, an independent federal agency, and by public and private donations, matched equally by the Endowment, to T H E F R I E N D S O F T H E B A N C R O F T LIBRARY

MARK TWAIN PROJECT EDITORS Frederick Anderson Dahlia Armon Paul Baender Howard G. Baetzhold Walter Blair Edgar Marquess Branch Robert Pack Browning Richard Bucci Louis J. Budd Anh Q. Bui Gregg Camfield Hennig Cohen Leon T. Dickinson Terry Firkins Victor Fischer Michael B. Frank John C. Gerber

William M. Gibson Hamlin Hill Robert H. Hirst Mary Jane Jones Lewis Leary Paul Machlis Francis V. Madigan Hershel Parker Robert Regan Franklin R. Rogers Lin Salamo Kenneth M. Sanderson Harriet Elinor Smith Henry Nash Smith Bernard L. Stein Albert E. Stone John S. Tuckey

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jo Ann Boydston Thomas C. Leonard Laura Cerruti Michael Millgate D o n L . Cook George A. Starr Frederick Crews G. Thomas Tanselle Charles B. Faulhaber Elizabeth Witherell

The following volumes have been published to date by the members of the Mark Twain Project:

T H E MARK TWAIN PAPERS Letters to His Publishers, 1867-1894

Edited with an Introduction by Hamlin Hill 1967 Satires & Burlesques

Edited with an Introduction by Franklin R. Rogers 1967 Which Was the Dream? and Other Symbolic Writings of the Later Years

Edited with an Introduction by John S. Tuckey 1967 Hannibal, Huck & Torn

Edited with an Introduction by Walter Blair 1969 Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts

Edited with an Introduction by William M. Gibson 1969 Correspondence with Henry Huttleston Rogers, 1893-1909

Edited with an Introduction by Lewis Leary 1969 Fables of Man

Edited with an Introduction by John S. Tuckey Text established by Kenneth M. Sanderson and Bernard L. Stein Series Editor, Frederick Anderson 1972 Notebooks Of Journals, Volume I

(1855-1873)

Edited by Frederick Anderson, Michael B. Frank, and Kenneth M. Sanderson 1975 Notebooks & Journals, Volume II

(1877-1883)

Edited by Frederick Anderson, Lin Salamo, and Bernard L. Stein 1975 Notebooks & Journals, Volume III

(1883-1891)

Edited by Robert Pack Browning, Michael B. Frank, and Lin Salamo General Editor, Frederick Anderson 1979

Letters, Volume 1:1853-1866 Editors: Edgar Marquess Branch, Michael B. Frank, and Kenneth M. Sanderson Associate Editors: Harriet Elinor Smith, Lin Salamo, and Richard Bucci 1988 Letters, Volume 2:1867-1868 Editors: Harriet Elinor Smith and Richard Bucci Associate Editor: Lin Salamo 1990 Letters, Volume 3:1869 Editors: Victor Fischer and Michael B. Frank Associate Editor: Dahlia Armon 1992 Letters, Volume 4:1870-1871 Editors: Victor Fischer and Michael B. Frank Associate Editor: Lin Salamo 1995 Letters, Volume 5:1872-1873 Editors: Lin Salamo and Harriet Elinor Smith 1997 Letters, Volume 6:1874-1875 Editors: Michael B. Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith 2002 T H E WORKS OF MARK TWAIN Roughing It Edited by Franklin R. Rogers and Paul Baender 1972 What Is Man? and Other Philosophical Writings Edited by Paul Baender 1973 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Edited by Bernard L. Stein, with an Introduction by Henry Nash Smith 1979 The Prince and the Pauper Edited by Victor Fischer and Lin Salamo, with the assistance of Mary Jane Jones 1979

Early Tales & Sketches, Volume 1 (1851-1864) Edited by Edgar Marquess Branch and Robert H. Hirst, with the assistance of Harriet Elinor Smith 1979 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer • Tom Sawyer Abroad Tom Sawyer, Detective Edited by John C. Gerber, Paul Baender, and Terry Firkins 1980 Early Tales & Sketches, Volume 2 (1864-1865) Edited by Edgar Marquess Branch and Robert H. Hirst, with the assistance of Harriet Elinor Smith 1981 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Edited by Walter Blair and Victor Fischer, with the assistance of Dahlia Armon and Harriet Elinor Smith 1988 Roughing It Editors: Harriet Elinor Smith and Edgar Marquess Branch Associate Editors: Lin Salamo and Robert Pack Browning 1993 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Edited by Victor Fischer and Lin Salamo with the late Walter Blair 2002 T H E MARK TWAIN LIBRARY No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger Edited by John S. Tuckey and William M. Gibson 1982 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Edited by John C. Gerber and Paul Baender 1982 Tom Sawyer Abroad • Tom Sawyer, Detective Edited by John C. Gerber and Terry Firkins 1982 The Prince and the Pauper Edited by Victor Fischer and Michael B. Frank 1983

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Edited by Bernard L . Stein 1983

Court

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Edited by Walter Blair and Victor Fischer 1985 Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians, and Other Unfinished Stories Foreword a n d Notes by Dahlia A r m o n and Walter Blair Texts established by Dahlia A r m o n , Paul Baender, Walter Blair, William M . Gibson, and Franklin R. Rogers 1989 Roughing It Editors: Harriet Elinor Smith and Edgar Marquess Branch Associate Editors: Lin Salamo and Robert Pack Browning 1996 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Edited by Victor Fischer and Lin Salamo with Harriet Elinor Smith and the late Walter Blair 2001

OTHER MARK TWAIN PROJECT PUBLICATIONS The Devil's Race-Track: Mark Twain's Great Dark Writings The Best from W h i c h Was the Dream? and Fables of M a n Edited by John S. Tuckey 1980 Union Catalog of Clemens Letters Edited by Paul Machlis 1986 Union Catalog of Letters to Clemens Edited by Paul Machlis, with the assistance of Deborah Ann T u r n e r 1992 Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain's Literary Manuscripts Available in the Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 2002 Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain's Manuscript Letters Now in the Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 2002 Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain's Previously Unpublished Letters 2002

Samuel L. Clemens and John T. Raymond, 1874 or 1875. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK).

THE MARK TWAIN PAPERS General Editor, R O B E R T H. H I R S T

Contributing Editors for this Volume ROBERT PACK BROWNING RICHARD BUCCI VICTOR FISCHER KENNETH M. SANDERSON

A Publication of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library

MARK TWAIN'S

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MICHAEL B. FRANK HARRIET ELINOR SMITH

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley • Los Angeles • London 2002

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HowelliT Editor Atlantic Monthly CA.

We ought to leave Boston ten oclock Friday morning1 therefore wont it be better to get Aldrich to defer his lunch not let him shirk out of the lunch altogether but simply defer it, 2 1 arrive at Parker House tomorrow evening answer paid3 S.L. Clemens 43

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'For the trip to Hartford that had been under discussion since midFebruary (27 Feb 74 to Howells, n. 2). In the event, Clemens returned to Hartford alone on Friday, 6 March, and the visitors deferred their arrival until the following day. The party consisted of Howells, Osgood, and Thomas Bailey Aldrich and his wife, Lilian. Previously it was believed that Elinor Howells went along (see MTHL, 1:15 n. 1 bottom, and Howells 1979b, 57 n. 3). It is clear, however, that her initial meeting with Olivia occurred during her visit to Hartford the following year, in late March (see 17 Nov 74 and 1 Mar 75, both to Howells, and 14 Mar 75 to Langdon). Lilian Aldrich's 1920 account of the 1874 visit, which further confirms Elinor Howells's absence then, provides details of the travel arrangements. The visiting party took the train from Boston to Springfield, where Clemens and Warner were waiting on the platform to "join their guests, and go with them the rest of the short journey." Clemens, "with his waving, undulating motion," approached and said: "Well, I reckon I am prodigiously glad to see you all. I got up this morning and put on a clean shirt, and feel powerful fine. Old Warner there did n't do it, and is darned sorry—said it was a lot of fuss to get himself constructed properly just to show off, and that that bit of a red silk handkerchief on the starboard side of the pocket of his gray coat would make up for it; and I allow it has done it." (Lilian W. Aldrich, 143-44)

The visit lasted until Tuesday, 10 March. Howells and Osgood stayed, as planned, with the Warners, while the Aldriches stayed with the Clemenses (see also 24 Mar 74 to Aldrich, n. 13, and Lilian W. Aldrich, 143-48,157-60). 2 On 2 March Aldrich wrote from Elmwood, James Russell Lowell's Cambridge, Massachusetts, home, which the Aldriches leased from July 1872 until July 1874, while Lowell was in Europe (CU-MARK): My dear Mr Clemens. Howells and Sothern are to lunch with me at my house in Cambridge on Friday the 6 th at one (1) o'clock. The whole thing will be a failure if you can not be on the ground at that hour. Will you come? Yours faithfully, T. B. Aldrich. Take the Mt Auburn or Watertown horse car at 12. at the Revere House.

On 6 March, Edward Askew Sothern (1826-81), an English comedian, was one day short of completing a three-week engagement at the Boston Theatre, most of the time in his famous role of Lord Dundreary (a witless peer) in Tom Taylor's Our American Cousin, which he had been playing and elaborating since 1858. By 5 March, when he was one of Clemens's competitors for the attention of the Boston public, he had switched to another of his regular roles, Sam Slingsly in John Oxenford's Brother Sam. (That morning Sothern gave a breakfast at the Parker House for Aldrich and Howells, among others.) It is not known whether Clemens attended Aldrich's lunch before returning to Hartford on Friday (Greenslet, 102-3, 109; "Amusements," Boston Evening Transcript, 13 Feb-7 Mar 74; "A Breakfast by Mr. Sothern," Boston Globe, 6 Mar 74,4). 3 Howells's answer, if any, is not known to survive.

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38

To Lilian Aldrich 9 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H)

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[on the back:] ROGERS «I N E L S O N , ART P H O T O G R A P H E R S , AND PORTRAIT P A I N T E R S , 2 1 5 , REGENT S ' LONDON, W.

To Mrs. T. B. Aldrich With regards not to be expressed in their full strength because of the overlooking eye of T. B. Sam'. L. Clemens Mark Twain. Hartford, Mch. 9,1874. 1 1 This photograph, taken in 1873, was a memento of the Aldriches' visit with the Clemenses (L5, 533 n. 3). "Copyright" is in an unidentified hand.

To Elisha Bliss, Jr. 9 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Karanovich)

Mch 9,1874. Friend Bliss— Damnation! Please send a cloth "Roughing It" to B. P. Shillaber, Chelsea, Mass. I wish people would ask for all the books at once, & save me a trifle of note-writing.1 Yrs Mark. ®

[letter docketed:] / [and] Twain [and] M. Twain | March 9 1874 ' T h e letter from humorist Benjamin P. Shillaber requesting a copy of Roughing It does not survive (see L4, 1 4 2 - 4 3 n. 1).

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged, 38

To Mr. McElroy 10 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CLjC)

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Mch. io. My Dear Mr. M c Elroy: Yes I remember the pleasant occasion well & also the gentleman & the lady. And I wish the three of us might have another opportunity to assemble around the festive lunch table after another Albany lecture— but it may *canA not be, for I have no presenti idea Aor intention, of ever standing on a lecture platform again. With many thanks, for the compliment of the invitation I am Ys Truly Sam'. L . Clemens' 1 Clemens delivered "Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands" in Albany on 10 January 1870, and "Artemus Ward, Humorist" on 28 November 1871. He may not have known McElroy (one of several McElroys in Albany in the early 1870s), who seems to have hoped that Clemens's recollection of a "pleasant occasion" and its participants would be sufficient entrée for a lecture invitation. The "gentleman" conceivably was one of the lecture committee members who served as Clemens's contacts in 1870 and 1871: Robert W. C. Mitchell, a bookkeeper, or Charles H. Burton, a dealer in vinegar and groceries. The "lady" has not been even tentatively identified (L4, 16 n. 2, 19 n. 1, 481 n. 9, 558; Albany Directory: 1870, 124; 1871, 33, 131-32; 1872, 40, 139; 1873,40, 143; Redpath and Fall, 5-6).

To Elisha Bliss, Jr. 11 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (Paraphrase: Parke-Bernet 1963a, lot 53)

A.N.S., "Mark," i p., i2mo; n Mar. 1874, to Mr. Bliss, his publisher, mentioning Warner, co-author of The Gilded Age.

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To the Editor of the London Standard 12 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (London Standard, 26 Mar 74)

T O THE EDITOR OF THE STANDARD. S I R , — T h e women's crusade against the rumsellers continues. It began in an O h i o village early in the n e w year, & has n o w extended itself eastwardly to the Atlantic seaboard, 6oo miles, & westwardly (at a b o u n d , without stopping by the way), to San Francisco, about 2500 miles. 1 It has also scattered itself along d o w n the O h i o & Mississippi rivers southwardly s o m e ten or twelve hundred miles. Indeed, it p r o m ises to sweep, eventually, the w h o l e U n i t e d States, with the exception of the little cluster of c o m m o n w e a l t h s w h i c h w e call N e w England. Puritan N e w England is sedate, reflective, conservative, & very hard to inflame. 2 T h e m e t h o d of the crusaders is singular. T h e y c o n t e m n the use of force in the breaking u p of the whisky traffic. T h e y only assemble before a drinking shop, or within it, & sing h y m n s & pray, hour after h o u r — & day after day, if n e c e s s a r y — u n t i l the publican's business is broken u p & he surrenders. T h i s is not force, at least they d o not consider it so. A f t e r the surrender the crusaders march back to head» quarters & proclaim the victory, & ascribe it to the powers above. T h e y rejoice together awhile, & then go forth again in their strength & conquer another whisky shop with their prayers & hymns & their staying capacity (pardon the rudeness), & spread that victory u p o n the battle» flag o f the powers above. In this generous way the crusaders have parted with the credit of not less than three thousand splendid triumphs, w h i c h some carping people say they gained their ownselves, without assistance f r o m any quarter. If I am one of these, I am the h u m blest. If I seem to doubt that prayer is the agent that conquers these rumsellers, I d o it honestly, & not in a flippant spirit. If the crusaders were to stay at h o m e & pray for the rumseller & for his adoption o f a better way of life, or if the crusaders even assembled together in a church & offered u p such a prayer with a united voice, & it a c c o m plished a victory, I w o u l d then feel that it was the praying that m o v e d Heaven to d o the miracle; for I believe that if the prayer is the agent that

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brings about the desired result, it cannot be necessary to pray the prayer in any particular place in order to get the ear, or move the grace, of the Deity. When the crusaders go & invest a whisky shop & fall to praying, one suspects that they are praying rather less to the Deity than at the rum-man. So I cannot help feeling (after carefully reading the details of the rum sieges) that as much as nine-tenths of the credit of each of the 3000 victories achieved thus far belongs of right to the crusaders themselves, & it grieves me to see them give it away with such spendthrift generosity.3 1 will not afflict you with statistics, but I desire to say just a word or two about the character of this crusade. The crusaders are young girls & women—not the inferior sort, but the very best in the village communities.4 The telegraph keeps the newspapers supplied with the progress of the war, & thus the praying infection spreads from town to town, day after day, week after week. When it attacks a community it seems to seize upon almost everybody in it at once. There is a meeting in a church, speeches are made, resolutions are passed, a purse for expenses is made up, a "praying band" is appointed; if it be a large town, half a dozen praying bands, each numbering as many as a hundred women, are appointed, & the working district of each band marked out. Then comes a grand assault in force, all along the line. Every stronghold of rum is invested; first one & then another champion ranges up before the proprietor, & offers up a special petition for him; he has to stand meekly there behind his bar, under the eyes of a great concourse of ladies who are better than he is & are aware of it, & hear all the secret iniquities of his business divulged to the angels above, accompanied by the sharp sting of wishes for his regeneration, which imply an amount of need for it which is in the last degree uncomfortable to him. If he holds out bravely, the crusaders hold out more bravely still—or at least more persistently; though I doubt if the grandeur of the performance would not be considerably heightened if one solitary crusader were to try praying at a hundred rumsellers in a body for a while, & see how it felt to have everybody against her instead of for her. If the man holds out the crusaders camp before his place & keep up the siege till they wear him out. In one case they besieged a rum shop two whole weeks. They built a shed before it & kept up the praying all night & all day long every day of the fortnight, & this in the bitterest winter weather too. They conquered.

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You may ask if such an investment & such interference with a man's business (in cases where he is "protected" by a licence) is lawful? By no means. But the whole community being with the crusaders, the authorities have usually been overawed & afraid to execute the laws, the authorities being, in too many cases, mere little politicians, & more given to looking to chances of re-election than fearlessly discharging their duty according to the terms of their official oaths. Would you consider the conduct of these crusaders justifiable? I do—thoroughly justifiable. They find themselves voiceless in the making of laws & the election of officers to execute them. Born with brains, born in the country, educated, having large interests at stake, they find their tongues tied & their hands fettered, while every ignorant whisky* drinking foreign-born savage in the land may hold office, help to make the laws, degrade the dignity of the former & break the latter at his own sweet will. They see their fathers, husbands, & brothers sit inanely at home & allow the scum of the country to assemble at the "primaries," name the candidates for office from their own vile ranks, &, unrebuked, elect them. They live in the midst of a country where there is no end to the laws & no beginning to the execution of them. And when the laws intended to protect their sons from destruction by intemperance lie torpid & without sign of life year after year, they recognise that here is a matter which interests them personally—a matter which comes straight home to them. And since they are allowed to lift no legal voice against the outrageous state of things they suffer under in this regard, I think it is no wonder that their patience has broken down at last, & they have contrived to persuade themselves that they are justifiable in breaking the law of trespass when the laws that should make the trespass needless are allowed by the voters to lie dead & inoperative. I cannot help glorying in the pluck of these women, sad as it is to see them displaying themselves in these unwomanly ways; sad as it is to see them carrying their grace & their purity into places which should never know their presence; & sadder still as it is to see them trying to save a set of men who, it seems to me, there can be no reasonable object in saving. It does not become us to scoff at the crusaders, remembering what it is they have borne all these years, but it does become us to admire their heroism—a heroism that boldly faces jeers, curses, ribald language, obloquy of every kind & degree—in a word, every manner of thing that pure-hearted, pure-minded women such as these are nat-

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urally dread & shrink from, & remains steadfast through it all, undismayed, patient, hopeful, giving no quarter, asking none, determined to conquer, & succeeding.5 It is the same old superb spirit that animated that other devoted, magnificent, mistaken crusade of six hundred years ago. The sons of such women as these must surely be worth saving from the destroying power of rum.6 The present crusade will doubtless do but little work against intemperance that will be really permanent, but it will do what is as much, or even more, to the purpose, I think. I think it will suggest to more than one man that if women could vote they would vote on the side of morality, even if they did vote & speak rather frantically & furiously; & it will also suggest that when the women once made up their minds that it was not good to leave the all-powerful "primaries" in the hands of loafers, thieves, & pernicious little politicians, they would not sit indolently at home as their husbands & brothers do now, but would hoist their praying banners, take the field in force, pray the assembled political scum back to the holes & slums where they belong, & set up some candidates fit for decent human beings to vote for.7 I dearly want the women to be raised to the political altitude of the negro, the imported savage, & the pardoned thief, & allowed to vote. It is our last chance, I think. The women will be voting before long, & then if a B. F. Butler can still continue to lord it in Congress; 8 if the highest offices in the land can still continue to be occupied by perjurers & robbers; if another Congress (like the forty-second) consisting of 15 honest men & 296 of the other kind can once more be created, it will at last be time, I fear, to give over trying to save the country by human means, & appeal to Providence.9 Both the great parties have failed. I wish we might have a woman's party now, & see how that would work. I feel persuaded that in extending the suffrage to women this country could lose absolutely nothing & might gain a great deal. 10 For thirty centuries history has been iterating & reiterating that in a moral fight woman is simply dauntless, & we all know, even with our eyes shut upon Congress & our voters, that from the day that Adam ate of the apple & told on Eve down to the present day, man, in a moral fight, has pretty uniformly shown himself to be an arrant coward. I will mention casually that while I cannot bring myself to find fault with the women whom we call the crusaders, since I feel that they, being politically fettered, have the natural right of the oppressed to re-

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bel, I have a very different opinion about the clergymen who have in a multitude of instances attached themselves to the movement, & by voice & act have countenanced & upheld the women in unlawfully trespassing upon whisky mills & interrupting the rum-sellers' business. It seems to me that it would better become clergymen to teach their flocks to respect the laws of the land, & urge them to refrain from breaking them. But it is not a new thing for a thoroughly good & well-meaning preacher's soft heart to run away with his soft head. Hartford, U.S., March 12.

Mark Twain.

1

On 22 December 1873, Diocletian (Dio) Lewis (1823-86), a physical education teacher, homeopathic physician, and temperance and women's rights advocate—who, like Clemens, had joined the Boston Lyceum Bureau's roster in 1869—delivered his scheduled lecture, "Our Girls," in Hillsboro, Ohio. Following his customary practice, he then offered Hillsboro an additional lecture, " T h e Duty of Christian Women in the Cause of Temperance" (also called "The Power of Woman's Prayer in Grog-shops"), which he delivered the next day. In it he exhorted the women of the community to take direct action to stop the sale of liquor, using the nonviolent confrontational tactics Clemens goes on to describe in this letter. Lewis had given this lecture nearly three hundred times since 1854, but with little lasting effect. The women of Hillsboro responded with alacrity, however, immediately organizing a campaign of prayer meetings, marches, and saloon occupations that within a few weeks reduced the local liquor trade from thirteen establishments to four. According to one recent account, The idea of the temperance Crusade spread, and within three months of the Hillsboro march, women had driven the liquor business out of 250 villages and cities. In Ohio 130 towns had experienced Crusades; Michigan had 36, Indiana 34, Pennsylvania 26, and New Jersey 17. By the time the marches ended, at least 912 communities in 31 states and territories had experienced crusades. (Bordin, 21-22) Another study estimated the number of women involved to be "between approximately 57,000 and 143,000," and called their effort "one of the major social movements of the nineteenth century" (Blocker, 24). Throughout it, Lewis continued to spread his temperance message. On 11 and 12 March 1874, for instance, he addressed large audiences at churches in New York City. A direct result of his efforts and the women's crusade of 1873-74 was the formation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which held its first national convention in Cleveland on 18 November 1874. On 4 June 1885 the Union Signal, the W C T U newspaper, reprinted Clemens's letter to the London Standard (Fredonia Censor: "How Dio Lewis Began," 11 Mar 74, 1; Lyceum: 1869, 2, 3; 1870, 3j 1872, 3; 1873, 5; Blocker, 7-26; Bordin, 15-26, 30-31, 36, 90; New York Tribune: "Views of Dio Lewis," 12 Mar 74, 8; "Brooklyn Fired with Enthusiasm," 13 Mar 74,1). 2 The 1873-74 temperance movement had relatively little impact in the New England states. Only eight crusades each were reported in Connecticut and Maine, with eleven in Massachusetts, two in Vermont, one in Rhode Island, and none in New Hampshire (Blocker, 25).

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3 Clemens's exact sources for "the details of the rum sieges" and the "3000 victories achieved thus far" have not been identified. Clearly he was following the regular newspaper reports of the temperance campaign, which were primarily responsible for

its growth from a local incident to a national movement. . . . Local newspapers in the first Crusade towns spread word of the movement through their exchanges and outof-town subscribers. Subscribers to the Fredonia Censor, for example, seem to have been the first persons . . . to learn of the new movement. (Blocker, 12)

In fact, Fredonia, where the Moffett household had lived since 1870, was the first town galvanized by Dio Lewis, who lectured there on 14 December 1873, eight days before his appearance in Hillsboro. Jane Clemens, Annie Moffett, and Mollie Clemens were among the crusaders who took to the streets the following day (Pamela Moffett apparently had not yet returned from her travels in the Midwest), though with less result than in Hillsboro. Annie, and presumably her grandmother and her mother as well, joined the Fredonia temperance society, which on 22 December 1873 became the first local group to call itself the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. They evidently kept Clemens apprised of local temperance activities, for later in 1874, in response to an 11 April request from his mother and after an August visit to Fredonia, Clemens donated sixteen volumes (comprising fifteen titles), including his own works, to the Fredonia organization's reading room. Bliss arranged for fourteen of these books to be sent to Pamela Moffett on 19 October (Blocker, 9-11; "Crusaders," 1-2; Skandera-Trombley, 110-11 [misreporting Pamela Moffett among the temperance crusaders], 114-15; Fredonia Censor: "Women's Temperance Union," 25 Feb 74, 3; " T h e Reading Room," 9 Dec 74, 3; W C T U 2001a-b; JLC to O L C and SLC, 11 Apr 74, CU-MARK; Gribben, 2:576; APC 1876a; Shepard). 4 Many Crusaders were "from the upper ranks of society": Over 90 percent of Crusader households were native white Americans of two generations' standing or more. . . . Undoubtedly this high social standing, coupled with a sense of righteous womanhood, permitted the Crusaders to feel a keen sense of the justice of their cause and their own moral superiority. They believed their work was in the best interests of society. Certainly this helps to explain their self-confidence and tactical militance. (Bordin, 31-32) 5

In some places Crusaders had to contend with crowds that "harassed them with 'lecherous comments and indecent proposals,' hurled various objects at them, and occasionally attacked them in force. . . . Unknown assailants attacked the homes of Crusaders and the homes, businesses, and persons of Crusade supporters." A few husbands "forcibly removed their wives from praying bands on the street" (Blocker, 76). 6 Clemens later condemned the crusade against rum (see 23 July 75 to PAM). "The "thrust and real importance" of the Crusade resulted from the fact that these women were experiencing power. . . . Their work was that of an effective pressure group, and in many instances they succeeded in forcing a male-dominated society to do what they wanted, at least temporarily. . . . The women themselves, the participants in the Crusade, saw it as a watershed, an experience that had changed their concept of themselves. . . . The Crusade was a liberating force for a group of churchoriented women who could not have associated themselves directly with the equal

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rights or suffrage movements. Talented and ambitious women began to break through the social constraints imposed by widely held notions of women's role in the first decades of the nineteenth century and began to build organizations that they themselves controlled. (Bordin, 32-33) 8 Benjamin Franklin Butler (1818-93), suspected of corruption during his controversial tenure as a Union general (1861-65), was equally suspect and controversial as a Republican representative from Massachusetts in the Fortieth through Forty-third congresses (1867-75). On 11 March the Hartford Courant had reprinted a New York Times editorial of the previous day protesting the "strong disposition at the national capital to award to that gentleman a remarkable degree of influence and prominence in matters for which nature and training have not conspicuously fitted him." The Times observed that "the country at large . . . is a trifle sick of Mr. Butler," who "is not a fit man to be a party leader," inasmuch as he

violates its pledges, breeds faction and division in its ranks, maligns its trusted men, loads it with detestable measures, and subordinates all its interests to an insane ambition. . . . We take the liberty of suggesting that the party and the country have had about enough of him, and of the self-seeking, the arrogance, the want of principle, and the generally low standard of political life which he represents. ("Butlerism," Hartford Courant, 11 Mar 74,1, reprinting the New York Times of 10 Mar 74) 9 A total of329 senators and representatives, including replacements, served in the notoriously corrupt Forty-second Congress (the Crédit Mobilier Congress), which adjourned on 3 March 1873. Fourteen of the "15 honest men" were the Liberal Republicans who opposed the corruption of the Grant administration: senators Lyman Trumbull (1813-96) from Illinois, Benjamin F. Rice (1828-1905) from Arkansas, Charles Sumner (1811-74) from Massachusetts, William Sprague (1830-1915) from Rhode Island, Reuben E. Fenton (1819-85) from New York, Carl Schurz (1829-1906) from Missouri, Thomas W. Tipton (1817-99) from Nebraska, Joseph R. West (1822-98) from Louisiana, and Morgan C. Hamilton (1809-93) from Texas; representatives Nathaniel P. Banks (1816-94) from Massachusetts, Austin Blair (181894) from Michigan, John F. Farnsworth (1820-97) from Illinois, Milo Goodrich (1814-81) from New York, and Joseph L. Morphis (1831-1913) from Mississippi. The fifteenth was Ozro J. Dodds (1840-82), Democratic representative from Ohio (Ross, 192-93; information courtesy of Louis J. Budd; Budd 1992, 1059). 10 This was Clemens's most unequivocal endorsement to date of women's suffrage. In mid-March 1867 he had addressed the issue in three articles in the St. Louis Missouri Democrat, satirizing opponents as well as proponents of female voting, but finally joining the opposition (SLC 1867e-g). In the last article, he conceded that

no one will say that it is not just and right that women should vote; no one will say that an educated American woman would not vote with fifty times the judgment and independence exercised by stupid, illiterate newcomers from foreign lands; I will even go so far myself as to say that in my experience only third-rate intelligence is sent to Legislatures to make laws.

Nevertheless, he judged that the ignorant foreign women would vote with the ignorant foreign men—the bad women would vote with the bad men—the good women would vote with the good

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men. The same candidate who would be elected now would be elected then, the only difference being that there might be twice as many votes polled then as now. And he concluded: I never want to see women voting, and gabbling about politics, and electioneering. There is something revolting in the thought. It would shock me inexpressibly for an angel to come down from above and ask me to take a drink with him (though I should doubtless consent); but it would shock me still more to see one of our blessed earthly angels peddling election tickets among a mob of shabby scoundrels she never saw before. (SLC 1867g) T h e n , in a letter of 25 March 1867 to the San Francisco Alta California, he remarked that his Missouri Democrat articles had "raised a small female storm, but it occurred to m e that it might get u n c o m m o n warm for one poor devil against all the crinoline in the camp, and so I antied up and passed out, as the Sabbath School children say" ( S L C 1867h). Since 1867, and prior to the present letter to the L o n d o n Standard, he had been merely tolerant of the suffrage movement, at best (see L4, 402, 4 1 0 , 4 1 8 n. 1, and L5, 7 9 - 8 1 ) .

To James Redpath per Telegraph Operator 13 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, copy received: Jacobs) BLANK N O . I .

863 THE W E S T E R N U N I O N TELEGRAPH C O M P A N Y .

THE RULES OF T H I S COMPANY REQUIRE THAT ALL MESSAGES RECEIVED FOR T R A N S M I S S I O N , SHALL BE W R I T T E N ON THE MESSAGE BLANKS O F T H E C O M P A N Y , U N D E R AND SUBJECT TO THE C O N D I T I O N S P R I N T E D T H E R E O N , W H I C H C O N D I T I O N S HAVE BEEN AGREED TO BY T H E SENDER OF T H E F O L L O W I N G MESSAGE. T H O S . T. E C K E R T , G E N ' L S U P ' T . L -Q IÖ N E W YORK. J DATED

Hartford Ct

RECEIVED AT

WILLIAM O R T O N , P R E S ' T , 1 , > GEO. H . M U M F O R D , SEC Y , J

N E W YORK. 187 M C H

4 13

TO James Redpath 36 Bromfield St Oh thunder & lightning Cant You telegraph & ask him what hour1 Clemens i2pd Lnx

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lg| [telegram docketed:] BOSTON L Y C E U M [and] Twain Mark | M a r 13. 1874

BUREAU, JAMES REDPATH. MAR 1 3

1874

1 Clemens wished to know when Charles Kingsley would arrive to begin his 14 and 15 March visit to Hartford. Kingsley, who was lecturing under Redpath's management, was coming from Troy, New York (Frances Eliza Grenfell Kingsley, 2:427).

To Thomas Bailey Aldrich 15 and 16 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MoSW)

(GC)

FARMINGTON AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Sunday: M y boy, you notice that at "No. i " (page 257) I started to mark out words, intending to try to re-arrange the p a r a g r a p h so as to make the man say there was gold dust there, and nuggets—but I saw in a moment that only an author can make his own people talk as they should talk. O f course I didn't mean to write a line that should be permanent, however,—I only wanted to make a rough draft for you to refine. You see I didn't get far—& so I didn't do much harm. 1 I see, now, that the thing for you to do is to make the corrections yourself (if the matter seems important enough to y o u — & I think it is important) & then send the M S to me for revision. May I suggest? [ S U G G E S T I O N S . ]a At No. 1—Leave out the words marked $ out by me. Let Nevins say there are nuggets, t o o — & leave them unmentioned—just as you prefer. 2 No. 3 (page 259)—fix the nugget business. 3 100 tons of 40-dollar ore $4,000 700 tons—$38,000 No 4—Strike out the last sentence of the paragraph, & go on to say that when their shaft was piercing deeper & deeper into the earth &

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38

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their rock growing richer & richer & their hopes &c &c & all that sort of thing, the lode began to grow narrow—6 feet wide at first it when it began to narrow—narrowed gfad relentlessly day by day for a fortnight & then was a thin seam like a knife-blade then "pinched out" & utterly disappeared—four weeks of drifting, shafting & all manner of prospecting failed to find it again & they gave up. Some said it was only a rich "chamber;" some said it was one of those infamous treacherous "pockets;" some said it was a good "chimney" & was down in there yet, somewhere—but no matter what its name or its nature might be they recognized the fact that it had got away from them, & that was the main grievance. But they had managed to get out close upon a thousand tons of forty-dollar rock before the calamity came, & after all expenses of mining & crushing were paid they found themselves nearly $30,000 in pocket. No. 5—they can turn the gold into greenbacks & hide them in the tent as you make them do, later on.4 (Concerning the silver ore, I wish to remark that I have made them take out 1,000 tons—that is enough "sorted" pay rock to take out in a month or two; they took out 3,000 tons, maybe, but only 1000 was pay rock. You may reduce its value to 830 a ton or raise it to $60, in order to get your aggregate sum to suit you, but don't let them but get it out of the 1000 tons. {NOTES.} x. The "wide/gash," or ancient river-bed. These ancient river-beds have several representatives in California; they are technically called "channels;" but they lie under the mountain-ranges—you can't see them, you discover them in by their little gravelly outcrop on the mountain side, & then you follow them in; or else select a other people take up claims, mile after mile along the range,—the channel being there but invisible—& they tunnel the mountain & prospect month after month till they find the hidden channel—& you bet a gold-bearing channel is a noble good thing. 2. But there would be nuggets in an ancient "channel"—it is the place where you are just dead sure to find them, if you find gold at all. [You suggest that the rushing waters "ground" the gold fiae to dust. But this channel gold is pure—absolutely alloyless—& therefore as malleable as pure lead—so I doubt if attrition would powder it. Even the smallest particle of "channel" gold has a rubbed, smoothe, worn

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look. Gold dust comes from the crumbling quartz outcroppings on the mountain-sides. It is bedded in the quartz rock like fly-specks, & when the quartz crumbles to pieces & frees it, it is really dust—it is washed down the mountain, is by the rains, is mingled with the soil by the way, & further down is mingled with the sands in the torrent's bed,— but it hasn't a worn look, its attri the attrition of its brief journey being imperceptible.]5 Mem—I substitute "dirt" for "clay" but—I don't know why, except that it is so much more natural & easy to liberate a gold-speck from mere dirt than from your unrelinquishing clay. But is it's no matter— did it before I thought.6 3. I repeat, there must have been nuggets there in such a river» bed—in fact in any gold-bearing river-bed, ancient or modern—because all the gold in quartz is not in specks, but there's an occasionaim! chunk. 4.—They couldn't tell much about a silver lode in a "month or two."

17

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38

Their lode cropped out aboveground like a curb-stone (else they would have been considerably more than a "month" or two finding it.) They would naturally select the richest spot in the outcrop, & then claim 300 feet along the length of the lode on each side of it, running north & south (the direction that all good silver lodes follow). Their working place being in the centre of a claim 600 feet long, & all solid rock & mighty hard rock, too, they couldn't work clear along & take out 300 feet of the lode & run into the next claim—at least they couldn't in a "month or two." 7 And besides, they wouldn't work along the lode at all—they would go straight down, where the central rich spot was, & work toward the centre of the earth. Don't you see? 5—They wouldn't hide silver ore—nobody would be muggins enough to steal that. They couldn't hide it in a tent—at least the ordinary tent would he not hold more than $1,000 worth of it—t & you don't mention that it was a circus tent, though of course you may have meant that. 6 — " & ore" marked out for above reasons.8 7—I know it is hypercriticism, but then your rough miners always abbreviate given-name^s—they might have called him Fred—though it is my opinion that they would have been offended with any syllable of so genteel a name & would have swapped it off for an invention more to their liking. 9 1 believe they would have called him "Spuny "Starwy" Now for TALK. MONDAY.

My Dear Aldrich: This long delay comes of a threatened domestic calamity. Three or four days ago labor pains came on & my wife was in imminent danger, for 10 hours, of a miscarriage—& the child not due for 3 months yet. 10 So I have been sitting by the bed ever since persuading the madam to lie still and never mind the racking back-aches that come of long, tiresome recumbency. She is still on her back, but we shall let her sit up a little tomorrow if she continues to improve. I've been wanting very much to get a moment's spare time wherein to write you about this thin & stop the purchase of the brewery; because you see this accident knocks our Boston visit rh relentlessly in the head & we've got to obey the doctor & stay at home. 11 We are ordered to leave for Elmira long before we had intended to. The doctor says we must start as early in April as Mrs. C. can travel—first week if possible.

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We are just as sorry as we can be to miss the visit to you, for we had promised ourselves a good time. Will you thank Mrs. Aldrich for her letter (I suppose she is back home now,) & say my wife will answer it as soon as she gets about again. I want those two women to preserve & strengthen their impressions of each other by frequent meeting. 12 You needn't read all the M S I've sent—just read what I have headed "Suggestions"—that's sufficient. I think it is marvelous that you have made so few mistakes about mining, & that what you have written about it sounds so easy-going & natural. We all send love to you & yours— Sam'. L. Clemens. 1 Although the actual pages Clemens referred to and enclosed with this letter have not been found, they clearly consisted of tear sheets of pages 257-64 from the March Atlantic Monthly, the first printing of chapter 7,"How John Dent Made His Pile and Lost It," of Aldrich's Prudence Palfrey. (Serialization began in January and ended in June.) Aldrich had asked for Clemens's advice on chapter 7, presumably during his 7-10 March visit to Hartford. Before James R. Osgood and Company published the book version of Prudence Palfrey in late May, Aldrich revised the chapter in response to the present letter and Clemens's letter of 25 March. In the absence of the actual enclosures, Clemens's suggestions are made intelligible chiefly by reconstructing what Aldrich did in response to them: see the next eight notes (Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1874b, d; BAL, 1:278). 2 Aldrich must have revised the passage on page 257 that Clemens marked number one, but in two stages. He followed Clemens's advice in his suggestion "No. 1" and in his "NOTES" numbered 1, 2, and 3 (later in this letter). But Clemens's letter of 25 March shows that when he saw the page proofs, he called for still more revision, which Aldrich evidently also did before the book was published:

"Dent," whispered George Nevins, impressively, "there is gold here." Then he sat motionless for a few minutes, taking in every aspect of the cañón. "But we will get no nuggetc, mind you," A"What gold there is over yonder,", he presently added, in i .the same, low voice, "That wide gash you sae in the mountain, running down through the valley like a cwath gut by come gigantic mowing-machine, is the ancient bed of a river, The little smooth pebbles that lie thick in the gulches, though we cannot see them from thio height, were mighty bowlders once. The rush of the water, which maybe hac not been here for thousands of years, ground them small. It treated the gold with no more distinction; what there ic in thic place ic pulverized, lying in dainty drifts or pock etc, two, ten, or twenty feet down on the pipe clay. But no nuggetc, John Dent." ,"is pulverized, lying in secret crevices, or packed away in the sands of the river-bed; troublesome hard work to get it, too. How neatly Nature stows it away, confound her!", "But there is gold?" "Tons—for the man that can find it »the rich spots»." ,"And nuggets?", "And nuggets." (Thomas Bailey Aldrich: 1874d, 257-58; 1874a, 108-9)

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38

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3 Clemens either skipped inadvertently from "No. 1" to "No. 3," or else the number two he wrote on the tear sheets needed no further comment in his letter. Aldrich did "fix the nugget business" when he revised the passage Clemens identified as number three on Atlantic page 259:

"Nevins has not mistaken the geological any more than he has the moral character of the cafton," writes John Dent in his journal under date of September 30 .October 12,, "Gold-dust has been found scattered all along the bed of the pre Adamite river, and in some instances lucky prospectors have struck rich pockets; but of those massive nuggets which used to drive men wild in the annus mirabUis '49, there are none here) and no likelihood of any) confound itl .we have seen none yet, though there is a story afloat about a half-breed finding one as big as a cocoanut! I am modest myself, and am willing to put up with a dozen or twenty nuggets of half that size. It does n't become a Christian to be grasping.. Mem. Digging for gold, however it may dilate the imagination in theory, is practically devilish hard work." (Thomas Bailey Aldrich: 1874d, 259; 1874a, 113-14) 4 Clemens must have marked as number four and number five the first and last paragraphs of a four-paragraph sequence on Atlantic page 261. Aldrich revised in accord with "No 4" and "No. 5" and "NOTES" 4 and 5:

John Dent's visions of wealth would have been realized in a month or two, but unfortunately the silver lode, as if repenting its burst of generosity, abruptly turned coy, and refused to lavish any more favors. It did woroe than that; it ran into the next claim. Just when their shaft was piercing deeper and deeper into the earth, and their rock growing richer and richer,—just as they had fallen into a haughty habit of looking upon each other as millionnaires,—the lode began to narrow. It was six feet wide when it began to narrow; from that point it narrowed relentlessly day by day for a fortnight, and then was a thin seam like a knife-blade,—then "pinched out" and utterly disappeared. After four weeks of drifting, and shafting, and all manner of prospecting, they failed to find it again, and gave up. Some said it was only a rich "chamber"; some said it was one of those treacherous "pockets"; and some said it was a good "chimney," and was down there yet, somewhere: but whatever its name or its nature might be, Dent, Nevins, and Twombly recognized the fact that it had got away from them, and that was the main grievance.. "It is a shame we cannot follow it ; " said Nevino; "but we—or rather you—have made a fair h a u l " ."Anyhow, we have made a fair haul," remarked Nevins, "thanks to you, Jack, for it was you who lighted on the thing.", "My luck is your luck and Twombly's," Dent replied. They had, as Nevins observed, made a fair haul. .They had managed to get out close upon a thousand tons of forty-dollar rock before the calamity came, and after all expenses of mining and crushing were paid, they found themselves nearly thirty thousand dollars in pocket.. fTheir pile was so large now,,—they had reduced it to greenbacks which they concealed on the premises,—and its reputation so much exaggerated, that they took turns in guarding the tent, only two going to work at a time. (Thomas Bailey Aldrich: 1874d, 261; 1874a, 121-22)

The Atlantic text made no mention of greenbacks. The gold was converted to "bank-notes" at a later point in chapter 7. This later passage was revised as follows: "It will never do for us to keep all this .dust, here," said Nevins; "there io at leact thirty thousand dollars. I could pick you out fifty men in Red Rock who would murder uc for a tenth of it." ,"we can't hide it as cunningly as we do the greenbacks.". (Thomas Bailey Aldrich: 1874d, 261-62; 1874a, 125)

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In the book the characters persist in deciding to convert the gold dust to "bank-notes" even though earlier they had reduced their silver "pile" to "greenbacks." 5 Clemens's " N O T E S " 1, 2, and 3 all apply to the revised passage reproduced in note 2. Aldrich adopted Clemens's "sands" in place of "pipe-clay" and eliminated all mention of attrition. 6 Aldrich made one change, accepting Clemens's substitution of "dirt" for "clay": In the morning, eating his breakfast, he had stuck his sheath-knife for convenience into the earth beside him; on withdrawing it he saw a yellow speck shining in the bit of slay ,dirt, adhering to the blade. (Thomas Bailey Aldrich: 1874d, 258; 1874a, 112) 7 For Aldrich's revision of this phrase, see note 4. Aldrich added a paragraph at the bottom of Atlantic page 260, doubtless attributable to Clemens, but which is not mentioned explicitly either in this letter or Clemens's letter of 25 March. Possibly Clemens asked for it in a notation on the tear sheets. He may also have called for it by annotating the page proofs when he read them on 25 March:

One fact was clear to both our Rivermouth friends,—Nevins was worth his weight in gold to them. .The piece of rock that John Dent had picked up on the mountain-side was, in fact, a fragment of silver-bearing quartz,—the zig-zag thread of blue which ran like a vein across the broken edge betrayed its quality to Nevins at a glance.. The next morning ,A week after this, it was noised through Red Rock that . . . (Thomas Bailey Aldrich: 1874d, 260; 1874a, 120) 8

Aldrich adopted this suggestion:

Those treasures had a«w become a heavy care to the young men. "We keep the dust am quoting from the journal—"in a stout candle-box set into the earth at the foot of the tent-pole, and one of us lies across it at night." (Thomas Bailey Aldrich: 1874d, 261; 1874a, 124) 9

Aldrich revised as follows:

"I knew he'd levant with the pile, some day. . . . Frederick King ,His true name was n't Dick King, I reckon, because he said it was. Cool Dick, was what they called him in Tuolumne County in '56." Several ears in the crowd pricked up at the words Frederick King „Cool Dick., It was a same ,pseudonyme, rather well known on the Pacific slope. (Thomas Bailey Aidrich: 1874d, 263; 1874a, 130) 10

The Clemenses' second daughter, Clara, was born on 8 June. The "long delay" was the week that had passed since Aldrich had asked Clemens for advice on chapter 7 of Prudence Palfrey. Speed was important because page proofs for the book would soon arrive (24 Mar 74 and 25 Mar 74, both to Aldrich). 11 Aldrich had facetiously offered to buy a brewery to induce Clemens to visit. The joke alluded to the unhappy first meeting of Clemens and Lilian Aidrich, which, according to her 1920 memoir, occurred in January 1872: Mr. Aldrich came home bringing with him a most unusual guest, clothed in a coat of sealskin, the fur worn outward; a sealskin cap well down over his ears; the cap half revealing and half concealing the mass of reddish hair underneath; the heavy mustache having the same red tint. The trousers came well below the coat, and were of a yellowish-brown color; stockings of the same tawny hue, which the low black shoe emphasized. May and December intermixed, producing strange confusion in one's preconceived ideas. Was it the dress for winter, or was it the dress for summer? Seemingly

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38

81

it all depended on the range of vision. If one looked up, winter; if one looked down, summer. But when the wearer spoke it was not difficult for the listener to believe that he was not entirely accountable for the strange gear. It was but too evident that he had looked upon the cup when it was red, for seemingly it had both cheered and inebriated, as the gentleman showed marked inability to stand perpendicular, but swayed from side to side, and had also difficulty with his speech; he did not stammer exactly, but after each word he placed a period. His sentences were whimsical, and host and guest laughed loudly, with and at each other. The hostess happened to be in the hall as Mr. Aldrich's key turned in the lock and host and guest entered. Obviously something very amusing was being said, interrupted for the moment by the words of introduction "My wife," and the gay laughter continued, dying down for a minute, to start up again; no intimation whatever given as to what name might be attached to this strangelooking personage. Winter disappeared with the removal of the guest's fur coat and cap, and summer, or at least early springtime, emerged in the violet tint of the carelessly tied neck-knot, and the light gray of under coat and waistcoat; but for the third one in the group a cold and repellent frost had steadily set in, stiffening and making rigid the face and figure of an inhospitable hostess, who cast reproachful glances at the blameless householder who had taken the unauthorized liberty of bringing home a guest to dinner. . . . When the hands of the clock pointed to the usual dinner hour, no maid appeared with the announcement that dinner was served, nor was there any answering notice or fellow sympathy to the eye that looked to the mistress of the feast, and then back to the clock, whose hands slowly moved to quarter past—half past—quarter of—and then the strange guest arose and said he thought he would go. The adieus were made and accepted, by one with icy formality, which the other member of the fraternity tried to make atonement for by an exuberant cordiality as he escorted his guest to the door. On his return to the library with unwonted sternness he asked why the dinner was three quarters of an hour late, and why the guest had not been asked to stay; his answer was hysterical tears, and in his bewilderment he heard: "How could you have brought a man in that condition to your home, to sit at your table, and to meet your wife? Why, he was so intoxicated he could not stand straight; he stammered in his speech—" With those words the tangled knot was cut. Quickly the answer came: "Why, dear, did you not know who he was? What you thought wine was but his mannerisms and idiosyncrasies, characteristics of himself, and born with Mark Ttoain." There was silence for the moment, and then louder grew the hysterical sobs, muffling and choking the voice: "Mark Twain! Was that Mark Twain! Oh, go after him, go after him; bring him back and tell him, tell him—O, what can you tell him!" But it was not until years afterwards that he was told. (Lilian W. Aldrich, 128-32)

The brewery allusion suggests that Clemens had already been told, at least by Aldrich. Clemens had bought his sealskin coat in September 1871 (L4, 525 n. 2). 12 Lilian Aldrich's letter, presumably thanking the Clemenses for their recent hospitality, does not survive. (For her account of the visit to Hartford, see 24 Mar 74 to Aldrich, n. 13.) Despite the friendly feeling Clemens here expressed for Lilian Aldrich, in an Autobiographical Dictation of 3 July 1908 he remarked that she was a strange and vanity-devoured, detestable woman! I do not believe I could ever learn to like her except on a raft at sea with no other provisions in sight. . . . I conceived an aversion for her the first time I ever saw her, which was thirty-nine years ago, and that aversion has remained with me ever since. She is one of those people who are profusely affectionate, and whose demonstrations disorder your stomach. You never believe in them; you always regard them as fictions, artificialities, with a selfish motive back of them. Aldrich was delightful company, but we never saw a great deal of him because we couldn't have him by himself. (CU-MARK, in MTE, 293, 295)

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Clemens could not have met Lilian Aldrich as early as 1869 ("thirty-nine years ago" in 1908). He first met her husband in late 1871 (L4> 304 n. 1), and met her soon after, as she herself recalled.

To Orion Clemens 18 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK)

("sic)

FARMINGTON AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Mch. 18. M y Dear Bro: T h e enclosed letter it is from a remarkable m a n — o l d N e d Wakeman, mariner for 40 year/,—or 50, more like it. He hung the mate (see "Roughing It") for killing the negro. It is a true story. I have written him that jyo« will edit his book & help him share the profits, & I will write the introduction & find a publisher. 1 Livy barely escaped miscarriage, but will be up again in a few days. Child not due for 3 months yet. Love to you both. Ys Sam. [enclosure:] Triunfo Mine. Feb 12th 1 8 7 4 . 2 j I write Mark Twain, Eqr Dear Sir. to say that all ray friends in Cal. and Else where, Says that you must write my Life, and make a Book out of it that will Bring me in a Considerable, they all AsayA that in your Hands it will be a good thing, and I write you this letter to tell you not to take Hold of any other Book until you have done with mine, the Public are anxious now about the Island World and I propose to End with i the most authentic account of all the Isles in the Pacific their Products, Climat Soil, looks manners and Custom of the Natives and where Situated 3 I will have the manuscript all Copyed in Plain good Hand writing, So you Can read it, it will be in a Book» from the Original. I have not tryed to alter it. I have left that for you to do, and will be at Staten Island by Ist o f m a y , 4 i f y o u m u s t s e e m e , andlthinkitwoulfd] be a good

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Idea, for me to have about 10 days with you. Just write me, at Lapaz, Lower Cal, 5 if you are free, to th take Hold of this matter, and you are of all I know, the most Proper person, it will amount to a good thing, and as you take an interest in me, and as you are well acquainted with the History of Cal. and the Sandwich Islands, I felt that you are the only One who Can Do me Justice in this matter it in your Hands will be all that Mary 6 wants, and in others Hands, it may be a miserable failure. Now Say that you will take Hold of it and I am a happy man, tis a Business transaction and you Can make your own terms. I want you and your way to write my life So I Shall Die Contented. I shall await an answer with much anxiety I will State that Mrs. Brocks, the wife of Mr Brocks 7 with whomb I am now Staying, is an Excellent writer both in Prose and Poetry, and She has read the manuscript through several Times, and tells t mej to make no alterations, but Place it before you Just as it is, that it is full of the most remarkable incidents thrilling adventures both on the Sea and Land She Ever heard of. I will State here that they are naked Truths, and when Clothed by your able AandA incomparable Pen, in Such Brilliant Robes that the readers will be unable to Judge the difference between facts and fiction, it will have a Big Sale. I Remain yours with Respect. E. Wakeman rg]

_

O. Clemens Esq i 40 W. 9 marked.:]

— th

st. | N e w York, [on flap:] (JLC^ [ post-

HARTFORD CT. MAR 18 6PM

1 Clemens's letter to Edgar Wakeman—the prototype for "Capt. Ned Blakely" in chapter 50 of Roughing It—is not known to survive. He had last assisted Wakeman in December 1872, when he was instrumental in a successful campaign to relieve the ailing seaman's financial distress (RI1993, 331, 6 7 7 78; L5, 2 3 3 - 3 5 ) . Clemens later reiterated his offer to help Wakeman find a publisher for his book, but he did not write an introduction for it, nor did Orion edit it. It was finally published in 1878 as The Log of an Ancient Mariner (see 25 Apr 74 to Wakeman, n. 1). 2 Between 16 January and 21 March 1874, Wakeman visited Baja California, as one of a series of voyages he undertook in an attempt to recover his health. This region, which stretches from Tijuana to Cape San Lucas, had been retained by Mexico after the 1 8 4 6 - 4 8 war with the United States. In The Log of an Ancient Mariner, he recalled "the town of Triumpho, where are twenty mines, all in good fruit" (Wakeman, 361, 369, 371; Hart 1987, 3 0 , 3 1 5 - 1 6 ) . 3 Three of the final four chapters of The Log of an Ancient Mariner were devoted to Hawaii and Samoa (Wakeman, 3 0 4 - 5 8 ) . Hawaii was newsworthy in

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1874, as it had also been in 1873, because of the precarious health of its king, William Lunalilo, who died of tuberculosis on 3 February without naming a successor. As recently as October 1873 Clemens had playifully cited the public's "inflamed desire . . . to acquire information" as a pretext for his London lectures on the islands (L5,448-49). Previously, in January 1873, he had given the New York Tribune two articles on Hawaii and Lunalilo. The New York Times of 27 March 1874 acknowledged, albeit backhandedly, the enduring influence of those articles in an analysis of Hawaiian politics following the contentious election of a new king, David Kalakaua: The King, whose death occurred three weeks ago, and whose body was buried day before yesterday, was that "Prince Bill" whose virtues and vices were set forth with great plainness of speech by Mark Twain, in his Tribune letters, after the characteristic fashion of that well-known writer. It ought to be said of him, as offset to Mark Twain's description, (which was written too much from the seat of the scornful,) that, although his naturally vigorous constitution had been too far undermined for any attempt at reformation to prolong his life, yet he succeeded in winning for himself the cordial good will, and even the honest respect, of the whole community, both native and foreign. ("The Sandwich Islands," 2) (L5, 557-73; New York Times: "King Lunalilo, of the Sandwich Islands," 18 Feb 74, 5; " T h e Late King Lunalilo," 27 Feb 74, 2.) 4 From mid-April until mid-August 1874, when he started back to California, Wakeman visited friends and family in New York and New Jersey, as well as in Westport (his boyhood home) and Saugatuck, Connecticut, but is not known to have met with Clemens (Wakeman, 371-73). 5 La Paz was about thirty miles north of Triunfo. 6 Wakeman's wife, the former Mary Lincoln, whom he had married "on Christmas eve, of the year 1854" (Wakeman, 222). She had written to Clemens in January 1873 (L5, 235 n. 4). 7 Both otherwise unidentified.

To Ainsworth R. Spofford 19 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CSmH) (SLCMT)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Mch 19. M y Dear Mr. Spofford: I am going to issue a pamphlet of Sketches,1 & I want to copyright both the contents of the pamphlet & the engraved design of the cover. Shall I simply send a dollar & then say on the Cover, "Cover & Contents entered in the office of the Librarian of Congress?" Y s Truly Sam'. L . Clemens.

85

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38 El [letter docketed:] Rep. Entry | Mch 2 1 2 1

Mark Twain's Sketches. Number One (25 Feb 74 to Fairbanks, n. 6). T h e reply from Spofford, librarian of Congress since 1864, does not survive, but he evidently informed Clemens that the cover and the contents would be covered by a single copyright. Clemens made formal application for it in his letter of 7 May 1874 to Spofford. 2

To William Dean Howells 20 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B)

(SLC/MT)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Mch. 20. Dear Howells: You or Aldrich or both of you must come to Hartford to live. Mr. Hall, who lives in the house next to Mrs. Stowe's (just where we drive in to go to our new house,) will sell for $16,000 or $17,000.' The lot-Ai is 85 feet front & 150 deep—long time & easy payments on the purchase. You can do your work just as well here as in Cambridge, can't you? Come, will one of you boys buy that house? Now say yes.2 Mrs. Clemens is an invalid yet, but is getting along pretty fairly. We send best regards. Ys Mark.

1

Ezra Hall was a prominent Hartford attorney. His partner, Franklin Chamberlin, had sold the Clemenses the Farmington Avenue property on which they were building their house. Hall's house was at 3 Forest Street, and Calvin and Harriet Beecher Stowe's was at 1 Forest Street; both were near the intersection with Farmington Avenue. John and Isabella Beecher Hooker's house, which the Clemenses were renting, was an easy walk away, at the opposite end of Forest, near its intersection with Hawthorn Street. It does not seem to have been numbered (L5, 271 n. 6, 480 n. 3; Geer 1873, 74, 80, 129; Van Why, 4-5). 2 Howells's response is not known to survive, but neither he nor Aldrich ac-

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cepted Clemens's invitation. On 21 March Howells gave a glowing account of Hartford in a letter to a friend: Did I speak in my last of the c h a r m i n g visit I'd had with Warner and M a r k Twain at H a r t f o r d . It seemed to m e quite an ideal life. T h e y live very near each other, in a sort of s u b u r b a n grove, and their neighbors are the Stowes and Hookers, and a great many delightful people. T h e y go in and out of each other's houses without ringing, and n o body gets m o r e t h a n the first syllable of his first n a m e — t h e y call their minister Jo« Twichell. I staid with Warner, but of course I saw a great deal of Twain, and he's a thoroughly good fellow. His wife is a delicate little beauty, the very flower and p e r f u m e of ladylikeness, w h o simply adores h i m — b u t this leaves n o word to describe his love for her. (Howells 1979b, 56)

Warner's home, apparently unnumbered, was on Hawthorn Street, near the Hooker house. Twichell lived at 6 Atwood Street, not in Nook Farm but only about three blocks away (Geer 1873, 135, 137, map; Van Why, 4 - 5 ) .

To Jerome B. Stillson 23 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS:NN-B)

(SLC/MT)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, H A R T F O R D .

3/23/74. M y Dear Stillson: 1 I have written a rather lengthy review of that unfortunate & sadly ridiculous book of Miss Cleveland's about Chappaqua. 2 1 wrote it simply to amuse myself, & now I ought to burn it—but if you wouldn't mind printing it in the Sunday World & strictly & religiously

concealing

the fact that I wrote it, you may have it for 10 cents.3 Shall I send it for your inspection? As Whitelaw Reid & I are not friends; 4 & t as I write books myself, I would not like to be known as a critic—it would look ungracious in this instance. I aim my moral, not at the poor girl herself, but at her injudicious friends (for permitting the publication.) 5 EvYs Saml. L . Clemens. 1

Stillson (1841-80), a native of Buffalo, was a former Civil War and Washington correspondent for the New York World and had been the newspaper's managing editor for about a year. Later in 1874 he became the World's Albany correspondent. In 1875 he moved to Denver, where he worked in real estate until 1877, when he joined the staff of the New York Herald, the post he held

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38

87

until his death of kidney disease ("Death of Jerome B. Stillson," New York Times, 27 Dec 80,5; "Jerome B. Stillson," New York World, 27 Dec 80,5; "Personal," Elmira Advertiser, 25 Mar 73, 4; "Personal," Hartford Courant, 1 May 73,2). 2 The Story of a Summer; Or, Journal Leaves from Chappaqua (1874), by Cecilia Cleveland, niece of the late Horace Greeley, whose country house and experimental farm in Chappaqua, New York, provided the book's setting. ' T h e Sunday World offered a variety of "entertaining but solid and profitable" features intended to appeal to the "large class of New Yorkers whose occupations deny them the luxury of more than a casual glance at the morning papers during the week." Included were theatrical gossip, health advice, art news, scientific notes, sports reporting, fiction and poetry, and "Feminine Personals" ("The Sunday World," New York World, 15 Mar 74, 5). 4 For details of Clemens's falling-out with Reid, see L5, 367-69. 5 In a prefatory note to her book, Cleveland explained: This little volume is in no sense a work of the imagination, but a simple record of a pleasant summer's residence at Chappaqua, embracing many facts and incidents heretofore unpublished, relating to one who once occupied a large portion of the public mind. Believing that it may interest many who care to know more of that portion of his busy life which was not seen by the public, but which pertained to his home circle, the author has been persuaded to print what was written merely for the amusement of herself and friends. (Cleveland, 7) In 1949 Dixon Wecter speculated that Cleveland had asked Clemens to "puff" her book ( M T M F , 185-86, n. 2 to letter of 24 March 1876, misdated 1874). N o evidence has been found to confirm that. Part of Clemens's pleasure in ridiculing her work may be traced to its publisher, George W. Carleton, who had offended him in rejecting The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, And other Sketches in 1867. The slight long rankled ( s e e L 2 , 1 3 - 1 4 n . 1).No version of Clemens's review, either published or unpublished, has been found, but The Story of a Summer did not escape unscathed. On 10 March 1874, for example, the Boston Evening Transcript published a long and sarcastic review by its New York correspondent, who regretted that "Miss Cleveland has been led into publishing such a book" (Fuller-Walker). And on 17 March the Hartford Courant's reviewer, possibly Charles Dudley Warner, found the book "entertaining and amusing" while deploring its gossipy absurdities, lamenting that it made him "a party to a revelation of private life that the public has no business to look into," and wondering how it "ever got into print" ("Literary Notices," 2).

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To Unidentified 23 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: PHi)

(¡LC/MT)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, H A R T F O R D .

3/23/74 Gentlemen: Please send me „per express,A all these books, with bill for same. I don't know what "half-roan" binding is,1 but still I think I would prefer that. If it is your custom to make a reduction to authors, I am willing to take advantage of it—but if not, I do not wish to create a damaging precedent.2 Ys Truly Mark Twain. 1

A style of binding in which the spine and the four corners of the book were covered in red leather, and the sides, or boards, were covered in cloth or paper. The spine covering usually extended onto the boards for about a quarter of their width. Roan leathers, made from sheepskin, were used extensively in the nineteenth century (Roberts and Etherington, 127, 219). 2 During 1874 Clemens purchased books from at least two dealers: Estes and Lauriat, at 143 Washington Street, in Boston; and Scribner, Welford and Armstrong, at 654 Broadway, in New York. Either of these might have been the recipient of the present letter and the enclosed book list, now lost (bills of 1 May 74 and 2 Dec 74 from Estes and Lauriat, CU-MARK; 6-8 June 74 to Scribner, Welford and Armstrong).

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38

89

To Thomas Bailey Aldrich 24 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H and DLC)

(SLC/MT)

„Business

FARMINGTON AVENUE, HARTFORD.

3/24/74M y Dear Aldrich: All right, my boy, send along the proofs. 1 Never mind Bliss. I don't feel around him. W h e n you've a book ready, I'll only say, "I've the M S here, of a book by Aldrich. C a n you pay him 10 per cent royalty, or shall I carry it over the way, to Worthington, Dustin & Co?" 2 T h e same with a book by Howells. Precious little tortuous diplomacy required when one names his price with a stiff upper lip & mentions the hated rival over the way. /'II attend to the business details, & the framing of the contract, if you'll let me. 3 Bliss had contracted to pay me 10 p.c. on my next book (contract made 18 months ago) so I made him pay that on Roughing Gilded Age. He paid 7V2 p.c. on Roughing It & 5 p.c. on Innocents Abroad. 4 I only made him pay 7Y2 p.c. on Joaquin Miller's M o d o c book, because I don't think Miller much of a card in America. 5 There's an unknown cuss in N . Y. 6 who wants to write a book on a purely commercial subject & make a reputation—but I reckon the lack of a publisher was rather a stumbling block in his way. So I have commissioned him to write the book for me & am to pay him $2,000 when he hands me the M S for said book—500 pages octavo/*—that is 1800 pages of note paper MS. A He is to put his own name to it, & read the proofs. I'll make $10,000 out of that book, but not by publishing it as you & Howells publish. .Grief., There is one discomfort which I fear a man must put up with when he publishes by subscription, & that is wretched paper & vile engravings. I fancy the publisher don't make a very large pile when he pays his author 10 p.c. You notice that the Gilded Age is rather a rubbishy looking book; well, the sale has now reached about 50,000 copies—so the

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royalty now due the authorship is-$ js A about $i8,ooo 7 —yet the Company have declared only one ten per-cent dividend since the book was issued; 8 they would have declared at least 3 0 , 2 5 , per cent in dividends on 50,000 copies of a 7V2 p.c. book. Now I think seriously of printing my own next book & publishing it thro' this same subscription house. It will thus be a mighty starchy book, but I reckon I won't get so much money out of it.9

Homeward Bound, 1 0 Mrs. C. gets along very, very slowly. But a week hence, if she can travel, we'll leave for Elmira. I must get her away from household & building cares. She don't sleep worth a cent. We are also sorry about the "frustration" (as you call it—frustratification is the correct word) of our Cambridge plans. But then the best laid gangs of mice & men are often frustratified, 11 in the providence of Hope & Gratulation. God. But never mind—next fall we'll come—or rather you'll come here, for then you'll be no longer at Elmwood & you'd be too high« toned to receive country folk in the city, wouldn't you? 12 We did all most royally enjoy the visit of You Trinity here, & are exceeding glad that you folks enjoyed it, too. 13 Old Joe Twichell, that born prince of men, was in last night, & he is still gloating over the joys of that time. He says that next to being great one's self, is the luxury of meeting the great, face to face. You people made a rare sensation in this neighborhood. General Observations., Had a note from the Spectre 14 last night, jolly, splendid old soul. It speaks well for your good heart that you call him i Skeleton & Aso, please him with the harmless notion that there is something substantial about his ethereal get-up. I'm to run back to Hartford in the course of a few weeks, & then I'll try to come up & discuss those plans of yours over a jorum of lager (jorum's good.)

91

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38

And still no tidings from poor unnecessary but still delightful Keeler! I am getting well discouraged in that direction. 15 The Little Violinist's prayer struck water in my lower level, as the silver miner says when he is affected. Pretty sketch—good sketch. 16

,Ahoy!A All our crowd send greeting, good wishes & benediction— Including Ys Ever Mark. [in margin: Satchel has arrived. O. K] 1 7 P. S. Excuse brevity.

1 Page proofs for the book version of Prudence Palfrey (15 and 16 Mar 74 to Aldrich, n. 1). Aldrich's letter asking Clemens to examine the proofs is not known to survive. 2 This partnership between A. D. Worthington and Charles E. Dustin had dissolved by July 1873, spawning two rival subscription publishers for Elisha Bliss's American Publishing Company: A. D. Worthington and Company, at 4 High Street, and Dustin, Gilman and Company (with Julius S. Gilman), at 148 Asylum Street, the old firm's address, "over the way" from Bliss's offices at 116 Asylum Street (Geer: 1872, 59, 144,210; 1873,27, 34, 60, 69, 143). 3 The next book Aldrich had ready was Cloth of Gold and Other Poems, pub-

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lished in Boston by James R. Osgood and Company in October 1874 (BAL, 1:280). Clemens wished to persuade Aldrich and Howells to try subscription publishing, which promised far greater royalties than standard trade publishing (see L2, 120 n. 1, 121 n. 4, 162-63 n. 3). Neither man ever published a book with a Hartford firm, subscription or otherwise. 4 The "contract made 18 months ago" actually was the agreement of 22 June 1872, which provided for a 10 percent royalty on a book to replace the South African diamond mine book that Clemens had failed to write with John Henry Riley. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer eventually fulfilled that contract. Clemens received only half of the 10 percent royalty on The Gilded Age, with the other half going to Warner. For the contracts for all of the books Clemens mentioned here, see L2, 421-22, L4, 565-66, and L5, 631-36. 5 See L5, 416-17. 6 Possibly Clemens's friend Frank Fuller (7 Apr 74 to Mary F. Fuller). 7 In the spring of 1872, shortly after the publication of Roughing It, Clemens began to suspect that Bliss had cut his production costs by using substandard paper and badly executed engravings. By now he had become resigned to the fact that this practice was typical for subscription publishers (see RI1993,87782). No statement of Gilded Age sales has been found for the period after 28 February, but American Publishing Company records show that between 1 and 24 March, 7,589 copies were received from the bindery, a figure that should approximate the number sold. At an average cover price of $3.68, the authors were due roughly $2,793, in addition to the payments they had already received in mid-March ($12,833.95). The total royalty was therefore $15,626.95, to be divided equally (28 Feb 74 to Brown, n. 3; APC 1866-79, 100). 8

Since January 1873, at which time Clemens owned $5,000 worth of stock, the American Publishing Company had probably paid four quarterly dividends of 10 percent each (three dividends have been confirmed, not merely one, as previously stated: see L5, 310 n. 5; "Brief Mention," Hartford Courant, 30 Jan 73, 2; "Dividends," Hartford Times, 31 Mar 73, 2). The only payment due since the publication of The Gilded Age—for the quarter ending 31 December 1873—had been paid in January 1874. The next 10 percent dividend was imminent: on 1 April Clemens received a check for $500 from Elisha Bliss (check dated 1 Apr 74, C t H M T H ; "Brief Mention," Hartford Courant, 1 Apr 74, 2). 9 That is, in order to forestall another "rubbishy" book, Clemens would control and finance printing, limiting the American Publishing Company's role to subscription sales agent. He did not do this with his next book, Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old (1875), or any other book the firm published. 10 Clemens's musical notation approximates the rhythm and melody of the first line of "Homeward Bound" ("Out on an ocean all boundless we ride"), music by J. W. Dadmun (sometimes attributed to C.S. Harrington), words by William Fairfield Warren. Clemens had alluded to the same hymn in his notebook in late December 1866 ( N & J 1 , 262; Sears, 120, 219, 240, 600; McCaskey, 30; Chappie, 11; Julian, 1234). 11 "The best laid schemes o' mice and men / Gang aft a-gley" (Robert Burns, "To a Mouse"). 12 On 29 June 1874 the Aldriches left Elmwood, the house they were renting in Cambridge, and returned to their own house on Charles Street, in Boston.

Samuel L. Clemens, aged. 38

93

That fall they found tenants for their own house and moved to "a comfortable remodeled farmhouse in the little village of Ponkapog, which lies nestled o n the slope of Blue Hill, overlooking the Neponset marshes, twelve miles south of the city" (Greenslet, 110; 8 July 7 4 to Aldrich, n. 1). 13 "You Trinity" was Aldrich, Howells, and Osgood. In 1920 Lilian Aldrich recalled the high spirits of the 7 - 1 0 March visit, typified by the following incident on 8 March, after her first night as the Clemenses' guest, when as we were dressing and talking of the pleasant plans of the day, there was a loud and rather authoritative knock at the bedroom door, and Mr. Clemens's voice was heard, saying, "Aldrich, come out, I want to speak to you." The other occupant of the room wrapped her kimono round her more closely, and crept to the door, for evidently something of serious import was happening, or about to happen. The words overheard were most disquieting. Twain's voice had its usual calmness and slowness of speech, but was lacking in the kindly mellow quality of its accustomed tone, as he said: "In Heaven's name, Aldrich; what are you doing? Are you emulating the kangaroos, with hob-nails in your shoes, or trying the jumping-frog business? Our bedroom is directly under yours, and poor 'Livy and her headache—do try to move more quietly, though 'Livy would rather suffer than have you give up your game on her account." Then the sound of receding footsteps. Our consternation was as great as our surprise at the reprimand, for we had been unconscious of walking heavily, or of making unnecessary noise. The bedroom was luxurious in its appointments, the rugs soft on the floor; we could only surmise that the floor boards had some peculiar acoustic quality that emphasized sound. On tiptoe we finished our toilets, and spoke only in whispers, much disturbed in mind that we had troubled our hostess, and hoped she knew that we would not willingly have added to her headache even the weight of a hummingbird's wing. When the toilets were finished, slowly and softly we went down the stairs and into the breakfast room, where, behind the large silver coffee urn, sat Mrs. Clemens. With sorrowful solicitude we asked if her headache was better, and begged forgiveness for adding to her pain. To our amazement she answered, "I have no headache." In perplexed confusion we apologized for the noise we inadvertently made. "Noise!" Mrs. Clemens replied. "We have not heard a sound. If you had shouted we should not have known it, for our rooms are in another wing of the house." At the other end of the table Mark Twain sat, looking as guileless as a combination of cherubim and seraphim—never a word, excepting with lengthened drawl, more slow than usual, "Oh, do come to your breakfast, Aldrich, and don't talk all day." It was a joyous group that came together at the table that morning, and loud was the laughter, and rapid the talk. (Lilian W. Aldrich, 146-48) Mrs. Aldrich described other convivial breakfasts and dinners and the final gathering, on the evening of 9 March, "clustered about the blazing fire in the long red-curtained room" in the Clemenses' rented house: It was voted at dinner that the company would not disband until the genial morn appeared, and that there should be at midnight a wassail brewed. The rosy apples roasted at the open fire, the wine and sugar added, and the ale—but at this point Mrs. Clemens said, "Youth, we have no ale." There was a rapid exit by Mr. Clemens, who reappeared in a moment in his historic sealskin coat and cap, but still wearing his lowcut evening shoes. He said he wanted a walk, and was going to the village for the ale and should shortly return with the ingredient. Deaf, absolutely deaf, to Mrs. Clemens's earnest voice, that he should at least wear overshoes that snowy night, he disappeared. In an incredibly short time he reappeared, excited and hilarious, with his rapid walk in the frosty air—very wet shoes, and no cap. To Mrs. Clemens's inquiry, "Youth, what have you done with your cap?" there was a hurried search in all his pockets, a

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blank and surprised look on his face, as he said: "Why, I am afraid I have thrown it away. I remember being very warm and taking it off, carrying it in my hand, and now I do remember, at such a turn in the road, my hand feeling a strain of position, opening it and throwing away in the darkness something in my hand that caused the sensation." Then, in real anxiety, "'Livy, do you think it could have been my cap?" (Lilian W. Aidrich, 158-59)

'"•Unidentified. 15 Ralph Keeler, Clemens's friend and fellow journalist in San Francisco in the mid-1860s, had subsequently become an author and travel correspondent, a contributor to Every Saturday (which Aldrich edited), and a member of Aidrich's and Howells's Boston circle. Clemens is last known to have seen him at a luncheon in Boston in November 1871. Keeler was mysteriously murdered at sea off the coast of Cuba in December 1873, while working as a special correspondent for the New York Tribune. Aldrich published a tribute to him in the Tribune on 6 January 1874 and a poem recalling him, "Lost at Sea," in the Atlantic Monthly a year later. Howells memorialized him in the Atlantic for March 1874, expressing a reluctance, which Clemens shared here, to accept that Keeler was dead (L4, 484-85; Thomas Bailey Aldrich, 1874c, 1875; Howells 1874a; see also 20 Nov 74 to Howells [1st], n. 6). 16 Aldrich apparently had sent Clemens a manuscript copy of "The Little Violinist," a newly written sketch first published in 1877 in A Midnight Fantasy, and The Little Violinist. In it a six-year-old "infant violinist" feels "a pain in his heart" after a performance and just before dying offers this prayer: "Gracious God, make room for another little child in Heaven" (Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1877, 93; BAL, 1:294, 308). 17 Containing the page proofs (see note 1).

To Thomas Bailey Aldrich 25 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H)

(SLC/MT)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

3/25/74. Dear Aldrich— You see (page 109) you've got that ancient river-bed in your head, & you've got the modern river-bed in your head too, & you've gone & mixed the two together. But they won't mix,, any more than oil & water. Nevins could see the stream down in the cañón, & that is what I allow him to see; & he could judge there was gold there, by A(»w that stream,) byA the look of things—& I allow him to do that; but he couldn't see one of those "ancient" river-beds, because AitA is buried in the very

95

Samuel L. Clemens, aged, 38

heart of the mountain; & if one little end of it did stick out of the m o u n tain side that m a n couldn't see it a h u n d r e d yards, & if he could he wouldn't know what it was. T h a t paragraph has been an awful strain on my intellect, b u t I believe I am in a measure rational yet. As there would be a little gold all through the sand, I suggest "the rich spots," to justify the " t o n s " & the " c o n f o u n d her!'" Ys Ever Mark. Aldrich you better send another pro/of if you use language different f r o m what I have suggested. Merely to keep technicalities straight, you know. 2 Mrs. C. getting along tolerably well. We send our warmest regards. SLC. 1 An amplification of Clemens's earlier advice (see 15 and 16 Mar 74 to Aidrich, n. 2). Aldrich seems to have fully followed his advice, by amending page 109 of the book proofs (presumably enclosed here with Clemens's revisions, although now lost), only after receiving this letter. 2 See 8 July 74 to Aldrich, n. 1.

To William S. Andrews 28 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: VtMiM)

(SLc/MT)

FARMINGTON AVENUE, HARTFORD.

3/28/74. M y Dear Andrews: Dialect is your forte, not logic, by my my boy. You get u p a painstaking & excellent argument to show that if it weren't for me, ,[& it's mighty complimentary, I grant you,L you couldn't follow your lucrative lecturing, but would have to retijeet f r o m the platform/; that you use my stuff with happy effect & that it proves a kind of inexhaustible bank account to you. A n d then u p o n ,from A that able argument you draw the curious deduction that all this places m e in your debt! M y G o d , what a light the law has lost in you, my boy!'

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But chaff aside, old friend, I can't do the thing you wish me to do. I am buried up to the eyes in work, & that work AisA standing still; for my wife is ill & has been for some little time; we have to deny ourselves & close the house against all visitors. I am just waiting & watching for a time when I may venture to remove my tribe to Elmira, N. Y., for the summer & get away from the cares & worries of housekeeping. When I do get to work again I shall know how to make the most of the minutes. Hope to catch a glimpse of you at the Lotos as we pass through the city—as we hope to do within a fortnight, if the madam improves.2 Ys Ever / S . L . Clemens. IS W. A Andrews Esq | (Dialecter,) | Lotos Club | A2 Irving PlaceA | New York, [on flap:] (ghc/MT) [postmarked:] HARTFORD CT. MAR 2 8 6 P M 1

Andrews's standard lecture was "Dialect Humor," which included readings from Clemens's work. He occasionally asked Clemens for assistance in preparing his material (see L5, 208-9,434-35). 2 Clemens anticipated passing through New York City on the way to Elmira. Both he and Andrews were members of the Lotos Club (L5, 291-92).

To M. Jeff Thompson 28 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (St. L o u i s Missouri Republican, 28 A p r 74)

Farmington Avenue,! Hartford, March 28,1874. J My Dear General: 1 1 don't wonder that you failed to locate Col. Sellers & the Hawkins family. They were old friends of mine in Missouri, but I doubt if you ever stumbled on them. "Clay" is not me; in fact I dropped him in just as a make-shift, & have never been personally acquainted with him. 2 When you were slashing around on the Natchez I wonder you didn't come across my old friend Billy Youngblood, 3 who ought to have been standing watch & watch with Bob Smith in the pilot-house.

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38

97

Splendid fellow is Billy Youngblood. And so is old Ed. Montgomery, whom you mention. Ed. Montgomery is worthy to be an admiral of the blue. I ran the City of Memphis into a steamboat at New Orleans one night under his orders, & he never went back on me—shouldered the responsibility like a man.4 Warner tells me to write you, & say he has just written. I have no news that you would care to hear, because, although I was a soldier in the rebel army in Missouri for two weeks once, we never won any victories to speak of. We never could get the enemy to stay still when we wanted to fight, & we were generally on the move when the enemy wanted to fight. Our campaign is not even referred to in the shabby record which they call "history." But historians are mighty mean people any way.5 However, if you will drop in here & let this roof shelter you awhile, I will invent a few warlike passages that ought to content a soldier. Warner, the peaceful, is my next door neighbor. Warner has never been to war, & so he is a trifle dull in his experiences; but he means well. Come & you shall be introduced to him. Yours truly, Samuel L. Clemens. To Gen. M. Jeff. Thompson. 'Meriwether (Jeff) Thompson (1826-76), a native of Harpers Ferry, Virginia, lived in St. Joseph, Missouri, between 1848 and 1861, working as a grocer, surveyor, real-estate agent, and railroad president, and serving as mayor. A committed secessionist, in 1861 he became a brigadier general in the Missouri State Guard. Known for bombast and buffoonery but also for military shrewdness, Thompson spent much of the Civil War leading a force of irregulars in the swamps of Missouri and Arkansas, winning fame as the "Missouri Swamp Fox." Immediately after the war he was a grocer in Memphis, then in 1867 moved to New Orleans, where he became the chief engineer of the Louisiana Board of Public Works, the post he still held. Clemens answered the following letter from him, which Warner had passed along (CU-MARK): Rodney Miss. Friday Feby 20th 1874 Charles D. Warner Esq Care American Publishing Co Hartford, Conn. Dear Charlie On the steamboat from New Orleans to this place I found the first copy of Gilded Age that it had been my fortune to see 1 have this instant finished reading it, and feeling sure that your notices of me were meant in kindness, I thank you for them, though I might of been as well known in Missouri or Louisiana by a fictitious name— Many persons had mentioned the book to me and all have construed your notices of me as kindly, and I was exceedingly anxious to get a copy, not knowing that it was a joint work, and wondering what Sam Clemens had told on me, unless it had been

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the opening of the H & St Jo—or some of my steamboat adventures about the beginning of the war—but the moment I say ¡i.e., sawj your name I suspected something about the One Hundred and Two or Third fork of Platte, would appear. I remember your article in Putnam, now twenty one years ago, about me—and I must say that you have not improved much since then, for that was admirably written— I can at once distinguish many of your characters, but cannot locate the Hawkins' or Sellers, and suppose they are some of Clemens friends, as I presume him to be Clay, as I know you to be Philip— Henry Dakin, John Duff—Senator Pomeroy—Grayson, and others, I knew at first sight, and sometimes I have imagined that M r Gingy from Tennessee (that had the pretty daughters) and who tried to sell me the "rails" was Squire Hawkins—and probably Col Lievnan might have been Sellers— I will say nothing more about the Gilded Age now, but desire you to tell me what has become of Henry— You told me something about him when I met you in Chicago but it has escaped my memory— Your description of him is true to life, and I hope some rich widow has adopted him, and provided for him— You would probably like to know something about your friends of those days—and I will tell you first— I have been Chief State Engineer of Louisiana for the past six years, and still hold the position. I have all the public works, especially the fifteen hundred miles of Levees, under my charge and travel from one end to the other of this state almost monthly— My oldest daughter Katie is married and has one baby nearly a year old My son Harry Bob, that was the baby in those days is now over 21 years old, and is my Secretary and Assistant Engineer. He is not as tall as I but ten pounds heavier— I have two younger daughters that you never saw. One eighteen the other fifteen— Mrs Thompson has been in the insane asylum for several years— Ben Grayson lives at Fort Dodge, Iowa— M. L. Lievnan is still at Cameron, Mo— William Bullitt, is on the Waterworks in St Louis— Alfred Vaughn, became a Brigadeer in the Confederacy—his P.O. is LaGrange Tenn I saw Kingsley several times during the war in Little Rock, A r k John Severance is still in St Joseph, and is now Mayor—and has been for several termsBob Stewart is dead— In my travels up and down the river I meet many of Sam Clemens friends— On last Saturday, I came up on the Natchez, with Bob Smith and he was all anxiety to get the Guilded Age, and said Sam was sure to send him one— If I could have about a two or three hour talk with both of you, I could give you some wonderful stories, that each of you could dress up to advantage You could take my adventures by FIELD, and Sam could dress up those, by 'FLOOD—for I have many jokes on his old friends the steamboatmen,—I once captured the Platte Valley with Bill and Oscar Postal, on board— I came near catching the City of Alton, once at Commerce—and this day had to talk it all over with Capt Thorwegan of the "Great Republic"—who was on the "City of Alton" at the time— I also had command of the Marines & Gunners, on the RAMFLEET of Edd Montgomery, in the fight at Fort Pillow, and Memphis—and I am pretty well posted on the jokes of each army and navy as I am travelling nearly all the time, and try to make myself agreable wherever I go—— I have been on four different steamboats on this trip, and will probably be on four or five more before I get home—and on all of them some man from barber up to Captain swears by Sam Clemens— Let me hear from you Yours As Ever Address, New Orleans M. Jeff Thompson

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38

99

Clemens and Thompson probably met sometime between mid-February 1857, when Clemens is now known to have begun his apprenticeship as a Mississippi River pilot (see Branch 1992,2-3), and 13 February 1859, the completion date of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, alluded to by Thompson, but no details of their acquaintance have been recovered. (Clemens's father had been an early proponent of the railroad in the spring of 1846, a year before his death.) Warner spent 1853 and 1854 in Missouri, working as a surveyor for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, and met Thompson then, but no article by him on Thompson has been found in Putnam's Magazine or in his Complete Writings, published in 1904. In The Gilded Age, Thompson appears in chapters 16 and 17, both written by Warner. He is described as "one of the most enthusiastic engineers in this western country, and one of the best fellows that ever looked through the bottom of a glass," "popular" and "indomitable," with the habit of ending each day by singing "the Star Spangled Banner from beginning to end." No mention is made of "the One Hundred and Two or Third fork of Platte," tributaries of the Platte River, in Missouri, near the route of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad (SLC 1873-74, 152, 158,160, 161). Several of the allusions in Thompson's letter to Warner have been identified. John Duff was head of the firm that built the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad and a director of the Union Pacific Railroad. Alfred Jefferson Vaughan, Jr. (1830-99), a civil engineer, rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate infantry and lost a leg during the war. Samuel Clarke Pomeroy (1816-91), a Republican senator from Kansas (1861-73) who was the model for the corrupt Senator Dilworthy in The Gilded Age, by 1864 had acquired an interest in the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Robert Marcellus Stewart (1815-71), a Missouri state senator (1846-57) and governor (1857-61), was the chief organizer and a financier of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, and a Union supporter. Robert Smith was a Mississippi River pilot who served the Confederacy. The Platte Valley, a steamboat built in 1857 for Missouri River service, ran for a time between St. Joseph and Kansas City under the command of Captain William C. Postal, connecting with the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, and afterward was a Union transport vessel. The City ofAlton, built in 1860, was part of Grant's fleet and later served in the St. Louis-Memphis trade. The palatial steamboat Great Republic, built in 1867, was purchased in 1871 by Captain William H. Thorwegan and a partner. Joseph Edward Montgomery (18171902), a well-known captain and pilot under whom Clemens served (see note 4), in 1861 organized and assumed command of the Confederacy's Mississippi River defense fleet. On 10 May 1862 Commodore Montgomery led a partially successful engagement with Union boats near Fort Pillow, Tennessee. But on 6 June 1862 in an encounter at Memphis, Montgomery's fleet of eight steam rams was destroyed by a superior Union fleet in a little over an hour, resulting in the surrender of the city. Clemens recalled in chapter 49 of Life on the Mississippi that when Montgomery's "vessel went down, he swam ashore, fought his way through a squad of soldiers, and made a gallant and narrow escape" (SLC 1883a, 487). Montgomery was apprehended in 1864 trying to flee to Texas with hundreds of thousands of dollars in Confederate bonds and was imprisoned until the end of the war. Afterward he lived in St. Louis, New York, and Texas (Allardice, 219-20; Heitman, 2:179; LI, 70-71, 98 n. 3, 385, 387, 389; Holcombe, 901, 947-48; Warner 1904; Bryant Morey French, 138, 162, 195; L4, 168 n. 4; "Members"; Way: 1963, 12; 1983, 89, 197-98, 374; DAH,

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4:272; "War Hero Passes Away," Chicago Evening Post, 4 Aug 1902,1; "Commodore Montgomery—the Confederate Naval Hero and His Adventures," Chicago Sunday Tribune, 5 Apr 96, 37; Bowman, 97-98, 102; Milligan, 7 3 76). 2 The prototype for Colonel Sellers in The Gilded Age was James J. Lampton, Jane Clemens's first cousin (see 23 Sept 74 to Mackenzie, n. 2, and 8? Nov 74 to Watterson, n. 1). Clemens was acquainted with the Hawkins family of Hannibal and adopted the name of his childhood friend Anna Laura Hawkins for one of the principal characters in the novel. He later portrayed her as Becky Thatcher in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. But he drew more significantly on his own family in creating The Gilded Age Hawkinses, basing Judge Si Hawkins on his father, John Marshall Clemens, and Washington Hawkins on his brother Orion. No prototype for Clay Hawkins has been identified (see 10 May 74 to Howells, n. 2; Inds, 313, 322-24; and Bryant Morey French, 145-63). 3 William C. Youngblood was a pilot on the John J. Roe, on which Clemens served as a cub pilot in August and September 1857, although not under Youngblood. He was the uncle of Laura M. Wright, whom Clemens met and became enamored of in May 1858 {LI, 74, 114 n. 7, 387). Clemens remembered Youngblood in an Autobiographical Dictation of 31 August 1906: Youngblood was as fine a man as I have known. In that day he was young, and had a young wife and two small children—a most happy and contented family. He was a good pilot, and he fully appreciated the responsibilities of that great position. Once when a passenger boat upon which he was standing a pilot's watch was burned on the Mississippi, he landed the boat and stood to his post at the wheel until everybody was ashore and the entire after part of the boat, including the after part of the pilot-house, was a mass of flame; then he climbed out over the breastboard and escaped with his life, though badly scorched and blistered by the fire. A year or two later, in New Orleans, he went out one night to do an errand for the family and was never heard of again. It was supposed that he was murdered, and that was doubtless the case, but the matter remains a mysttry yet. (CU-MARK) 4 The incident occurred in late June 1860, while Clemens was piloting the City ofMemphis, then under Montgomery's command, as she was either entering or leaving port. Since it was the captain, not the pilot, who controlled the ship's movements at such a time, Montgomery's failure to order his pilot "to back" caused the incident ( L I , 98-99 nn. 3, 5). In chapter 49 of Life on the Mississippi (where he misidentified the boat as the Crescent City) Clemens expressed admiration for Montgomery's "heavenly serenity" in accepting responsibility (SLC 1883a, 487). Even earlier, in mid-January 1866, he had lauded Montgomery in a San Francisco letter to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, remarking that "whenever he commenced helping anybody, Captain Ed. Montgomery never relaxed his good offices as long as help was needed" (SLC 1866). 'Clemens alluded to his June 1861 experience with the Marion Rangers in letters to his family from Nevada, but did not repair the "shabby record" until December 1885 when he published "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed" in the Century Magazine (see LI, 121, 124, 127 n. 4, 135 n. 7, 146 n. 4, 211; SLC 1885).

101

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38

To Mary F. Fuller 7 April 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MoSW)

( S )

FARMINGTON AVENUE, HARTFORD.

4/7/74M y Dear Mrs. Fuller: Since Frank left I have been too busy with home matters to attend to any business. Mrs. Clemens' frail health is the cause. So I have left the matter of the "Granger" book alone till Frank shall return. If it is a good thing it will keep—but if it were the best thing in the world I would have to let it alone until his return, anyway. 1 The Modoc is well & hearty & joins us in warm regards & best wishesth for you & Frank. Sam'. L . Clemens. (gl

— —

—_

Mrs. Frank Fuller | 39 W. 26

st | New York, [on flap:] (sic)

HARTFORD CT. APR 0 5PM [and]

marked.']

[and]

th

[post-

NEW YORK CITY STATION E APR 0 OOOM

E

1 The " 'Granger' book," otherwise unidentified, may have been the work by an "unknown cuss" which Clemens alluded to in his 24 March letter to Aidrich. If so, it is likely that Fuller visited shortly before that date. Olivia had not yet recovered from her near miscarriage on 12 or 13 March.

To Chatto and Windus 8 April 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MB)

(GC)

FARMINGTON AVENUE, HARTFORD.

4/8/74Gentlemen: " D o d Grile" (Mr. Bierce) is a personal friend of mine, & I like him exceedingly—but he knows my opinion of the "Nuggets & Dust," & so

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I do not mind exposing it to you. It is the vilest book that exists in print—or very nearly so. If you keep a "reader," it is charity to believe he never really read that book, but framed his verdict upon hearsay. Bierce has written some admirable things—fugitive pieces—but none of them are among the "Nuggets." There is humor in Dod Grile, but for every laugh that is in his book there are five blushes, ten shudders & a vomit. The laugh is too expensive.1 Ys Truly Saml. L. Clemens. 1 In 1873 Andrew Chatto and W. E. Windus formed a partnership to succeed the late London publisher John Camden Hotten, who that spring had published Ambrose Bierce's first collection, The Fiend's Delight. By Dod Grile. In November 1 8 7 3 they published Nuggets and Dust Panned Out in California by Dod Grile. Collected and Loosely Arranged By J. Milton Sloluck. Bierce (1842— P1914), whom Clemens had known in San Francisco in the mid 1860s, was in London on the staff of Fun and had seen Clemens there in 1872 and doubtless in 1873 as well. Given that in April 1 8 7 4 Chatto and Windus were just publishing Clemens's revised version of The Choice Humorous Works of Mark Twain ( S L C 1874a), an arrangement Bierce may have helped facilitate, they must have hoped Clemens would provide a quotable, if belated, "puff" for Nuggets and Dust. For a more favorable comment on Bierce's work, see 1 Feb 75 to Stoddard ( E T & S 1 , 6 0 2 - 3 ; BAL, 1 : 1 0 9 6 , 1099; AD, 13 June 1906, C U M A R K , in MTE, 2 6 2 ; L5, 156 n. 5 , 1 5 7 n. 9).

To Jerome B. Stillson 9 April 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (Goodspeed's Book Shop: 1927?, lot 4633; 1930, lot 28)

Apl. 9, *74Dear Stillson—Will you please have all exchanges saved & put by for me that contain that silly item that I have "received & paid the bill for a complimentary supper given to me in Hartford"? In confidence, I am bringing a libel suit & I want these papers as evidence. Don't mention it1 Mark.

103

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38 1

The New York World's "exchanges" were copies of other newspapers it received in exchange for copies of its own issues. Clemens may have learned of this "silly item" from Charles Dudley Warner, the acting editor of the Hartford Courant (13 Apr 74 to the editor of the Courant, n. 1). Warner saw it in the New York Evening Post on 8 April ("Personal," 2) and must have consulted Clemens before reprinting it in the Courant on 10 April, with a disclaimer: A paragraph something like the following, which is from the New York Post, is going the rounds of the papers: Mark Twain recently received and paid the bill for a complimentary supper tendered him in Hartford.

Mr. Clemens has not received nor paid for any complimentary supper in Hartford. Where do such absurdities originate? ("Personal," 2)

To Orion Clemens 10 April 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK) Apl. 10. Dear Bro: A m expecting Mollie presently.1 There seems to have been an item in the N. Y. Eve. Post the other day, saying that I had paid for a complimentary dinner to myself. Keep perfectly quiet about this but get me a copy of that paper—don't cut out the item.2 There is going to be a libel suit, & 1 1 want that fact to be kept secret. Y r Bro Sam Eg Orion Clemens Esq | 40 W. 9 th st. j New York, [in upper left corner.] Private. | [rule] [on flap:] (SLC/MT) [postmarked:] N . Y. & BOSTON R . P . O . APR I O 3 1 Mollie Clemens was taking the train up from New York to ask Clemens for financial assistance (see 23 Apr 74 to OC, 10 May 74 to JLC, and 10 May 74 to OC). 2 Orion was still working as a proofreader on the New York Evening Post, under a foreman who, Clemens recalled, "swore at him & ordered him around 'like a steamboat m a t e ' " (9 Feb 79 to Howells, NN-B, in MTHL, 1:254). 3 That is, the New York and Boston railway post office, which operated over

104

Volume 6:1874-1875

the New Haven and Hartford Railroad and accepted mail at the Hartford railroad station. Clemens mailed his letter there while awaiting Mollie (Norona, 362-63, 381; Remele, l j Geer 1873, 308).

To James Redpath 10 April 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (Paraphrase: AAA 1925b, lot 24) 24.

CLEMENS (SAMUEL L.). TWO Autograph Letters Signed, "Mark" and both addressed to James Redpath. Together, 2 pieces. Comprises.—(1) . . . .' (2) 2pp. i2mo, April 10, 1874. The letter is headed "Later,"2 and relates to an article offensive to Clemens which appeared in one of the Boston papers, and of which he writes "I will try hard to make some newspaper sweat for this."3

1

The ellipses are editorially supplied, in place of the first letter, 23 Feb 74 to Redpath (1st). 2 The letter Clemens evidently wrote earlier on 10 April has not been found. 3 A version of the offensive article had appeared in the Boston Evening Transcript on 5 March, the earliest identified printing: "Some Hartford men tendered Mark Twain a welcome supper, and the bill, amounting to $208, was sent to him. He paid it, with the remark that h e ' d rigidly adhere to his own table hereafter" ("New England News," 2).

To James Redpath 11 April 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MacMinn) (SLC/MT)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Api. I I . Dear Redpath: You advised me wisely before—you must advise me again. You will know which is best—to publish a paragraph denying the soft im-

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 38

105

peachment, & word it so that it will travel—or bring a libel suit. T h e libel suit makes the wide publicity of the denial certain, but it might also cause an amount of newspaper mud to be flung at me that would make it a misfortune, in the end, rather than a help. How would it do to go for a blatant, characterless paper, & place the damages at three dollars, as being justly representing all the harm that such a paper is able to do a body? I think I'd enjoy that.1 Y s Ever Mark. 121

[letter docketed:]

BOSTON L Y C E U M BUREAU, JAMES REDPATH. APR 1 2 1 8 7 4

[and]

Twain Mark | Hartford | Ct | Apr. 111874 1 Redpath's reply does not survive, but in not bringing a libel suit Clemens may have followed Redpath's counsel as well as his own better judgment.

To the Editor of the Hartford Courant 13 April 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NNPM)

About My Banquet. To the Editor of the Courant: 1 I find the following in the Hartford Courant: o- i ~ I g u 0 1

" T h e New York Evening Post of Wednesday says: ^ M Twain has received & paid the bill for a „complimentaryA supper given him by his friends in Hartford. * This is an error. Mr. Twain has BO had no ¿neither received nor paid for any* ,had no, complimentary dinner or supper/ given him.

AMark

.12 Where do such absurd reports originate?"*2 "o \ « i . M »TS-SLAWE «V SATS BJT TWIS TWIH« «««WIHKg BtM(Ug , h 1,,r)£ " IT JOST «ioht» TSÜKS cvs*, Sv

312

Volume 6:1874-1875

lines 3 - 5 line 20

I WANT TO ADD . . . A LINE OR TWO]

YOURS EVER]

See 11 Dec 74 to Howells.

Howells replied (CU-MARK):

EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Dec. 11, 1874. My dear Clemens: Don't you dare to refuse that invitation to the Atlantic dinner for Tuesday evening. For fear you mayn't have got it, I'll just say that it was from the publishers, and asked you to meet Emerson, Aldrich, and all "those boys" at the Parker House at 6 o'clock, Tuesday, Dec. 15. Come! —This instalment is capital. I've just been reading it aloud to Mrs. Howells, who could rival Mrs. Clemens in her ignorance of Western steamboating, and she has enjoyed it every word—but the profane words. These she thinks could be better taken for granted; and in fact I think the sagacious reader could infer them. I have your printed letter of yesterday. Fire away; and when you get tired of the machine, lend it to me. With our united regards to Mrs Clemens, Yours ever W. D. Howells. The "printed letter of yesterday" was the present typewritten letter, which Howells meant he received on 10 December. For the profanity in the second installment of "Old Times" see 14 Dec 74 to Howells.

To H. O. Houghton and Company 11 December 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H)

(SLC/MT)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, H A R T F O R D .

Dec.

ii.

Gentlemen: I accept your invitation with pleasure, & shall arrive „at Parker HouseA at 6 on the 15 th & report 10 minutes later.1 Yrs Truly Sam'. L A Clemens Messrs. H. O. Houghton & Co. 1

The invitation to the Atlantic Monthly contributors' dinner, which Clemens here accepted, is not known to survive. Henry O. Houghton (1823-95) had gone into partnership with Edmund H. Bennett (1824-98) in 1852 as H. O. Houghton and Company, the printing firm that operated the Riverside Press, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bennett's active participation ended in 1855, although he remained a silent partner. In 1864 Melancthon M. Hurd became

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

313

Houghton's active partner in the printing company and also in a publishing house, Hurd and Houghton, in New York. By 1872 Houghton's older brother, Albert, had joined him and Hurd as majority partners in the latter firm, with Horace E. Scudder (1838-1902) and George H. Mifflin (1845-1921) as minority partners and Bennett as a silent minority partner. In late 1873 Hurd and Houghton purchased the Atlantic Monthly for $20,000 from James R. Osgood and Company, of Boston, acquired Every Saturday from Osgood at no cost, and became the publishers and printers (through the Riverside Press) of both magazines (Ballou, 3, 4, 6, 10, 28-30, 32, 38-57, 96-97, 129-31, 136, 163, 202-3,406).

To William Dean Howells 11 December 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H)

Hartford, Dec. n . M y Dear Howells: Mrs. Clemens is distressed to think you *couldA believe she could receive that book & not have the grace to sit down & write you thanking you for it. {She really believes that you think I wrote her note.] I tell her, never mind, she shall have the credit of writing some of my letters, but that don't seem to cover the difficulty. 1 Here I have been waiting to add two or three lines to article No. i when the proof should come, wholly forgetting that the proof has come & gone again, long ago! However, it is no matter; but I do wish I had thought about it sooner. 2 Mrs. Clemens was not much Awholly„ pleased with No. ig—which I had not time to re-write. N o w she disapproves of a considerable portion of No. 4, so I shall lick it into shape before I tackle No. 5. I have the madam's permission to treat myself to a holiday next Tuesday, the 15 th , & so I fo mean to be at that Atlantic dinner. Mrs. Clemens would go with me to Boston, but her mother is to arrive here that night. 3 With kindest remembrances to Mrs. H o w e l l s — — Yrs Ever Clemens

314

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1

See 8 Dec 74 to Howells, n. 4. Clemens returned the proofs of the first installment of "Old Times" with his 25 November letter to Howells, then wrote on 9 December proposing the addition he here abandoned. When he expanded the Atlantic series into Life on the Mississippi, in 1882, he reused the first installment as chapters 4 and 5, without adding any new material. 3 Mrs. Langdon and the Cranes spent Christmas in Hartford, but it is not known whether they arrived in mid-December or after their stay in New York on 22 and 23 December (see p. 328). 2

To George K. Warren 12 December 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Warren)

Hartford, Dec 12. Dear Sir: Be sure & see«« preserve the dark negative—the one that looks to the right. Everyboody prefers it to the other one with the high forehead. I wouldn't have it destroyed for anything. It will require no retouching. It cannot be improved, «0 it being perfect already.1 Ys Truly Sam'. L. Clemens 1 For the preferred photograph, taken at Warren's Boston studio in midNovember, see 2? Dec 74 to Miller. No copy has been found of the "one with the high forehead," which may have looked to the left.

315

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

To William Dean Howells 13 December 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B) H a r t f o r d , Sunday. M y D e a r Howells: I want you to ask M r s Howells to let you stay all night at the Parker H o u s e & tell lies & have an improving time, & take breakfast with m e in t h e m o r n i n g . I will have a good r o o m for you, & a fire. C a n ' t you tell h e r it always makes you sick to go h o m e late at night, or s o m e t h i n g like that? T h a t sort of t h i n g rouses M r s Clemens's sympathises, easily; the only trouble is to keep t h e m up. Twichell & I talked till 2 or 3 in the m o r n i n g , the night we s u p p e d at your house, 1 & it restored his health on account of his being drooping for some t i m e & m a d e h i m m u c h m o r e robuster t h a n what h e was before. Will M r s . Howells let you? 2 Ys Ever S.L.C. 1 2

On 13 November (see 14 Nov 74 to OLC, n. 1). She did (see pp. 317-20).

316

Volume

To William Dean Howells 14 December 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (TS: MH-H)

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shall be paid. If all right sign & send back & I will send copyright.

Clemens signed, noting, "It is satisfactory to me, Bliss" (CtY-BR). Bliss then drew up a separate "addition," dated 12 February, to "the contract now existing between Saml L Clemens & the American Publishing Co. dated Dec 29 1870," restating the new terms (CU-MARK). Once he had the manuscript for Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old in hand, probably in late March 1875, he attached the following statement to the "addition": We have received from S. L. Clemens the Mss. for book contracted for in contract dated Dec. 29, 1870, & also reed from S L Clemens & C Dudley Warner, the Mss for book contracted for in contract dated May 8, 1873—& we have endorsed the receipt by us of same on the respective contracts— There is no contract existing between S. L. Clemens & the Am. Pub Co., for a book or books, made prior to the latest above mentioned dates, on which the Mss. contracted for has not been delivered to us. Am Pub Co per E Bliss Jrprest

In writing that final paragraph, Bliss evidently overlooked Clemens's unfulfilled contract of 22 June 1872 (see 24 Mar 74 to Aldrich, n. 4). The fulfilled "contract dated May 8,1873" was for The Gilded Age. 3 Clemens and Osgood spent a day "driving about Warwickshire in an open barouche" in September 1872 (LS, 155). 4 Clemens had seen Osgood in Boston at the Atlantic Monthly dinner on 15 December 1874, and had returned to Hartford the next day. 5 The "index" was a handwritten list (headed "Contents") of eighty-one sketches Clemens proposed to include in the sketchbook. It was part of the Estelle Doheny Collection at Saint John's Seminary in Camarillo, California, until its sale in 1988. The manuscript is reproduced and discussed in ET&S1, 619-34. 6 Osgood replied (CU-MARK): JAMBS R OSGOOD & CO PUBLISHERS BOSTON NO. 1 3 1 FRANKLIN STREET, BOSTON. NEW YORK OFFICE, 7 I 3 , BROADWAY. LATE TICKNOR & F I E L D S , AND F I E L D S , OSGOOD, & CO. BOSTON, F e b . 1 6 1 8 7 5

My dear Clemens: Your letter of 12lh inst. is received to-day. Though it grieves me, it yet pleases me. I am pleased to have been the unconscious cause of benefitting a fellow-creature— such an experience being a rare one for a publisher! And I confess to some degree of delight in finding signs of weakness in so accomplished a business-man and successful

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

gambler as yourself: I wouldn't have believed that you could make such a contract, or having made, forget it! But age will tell. Seriously I am more sorry than I can tell to lose the book, particularly as I came so near getting it. But to show you that I bear no malice, I hereby invite you to that Nautilus Club dinner which was postponed from Jan 20 th on account of Underwood's illness. It will come off on Wednesday January February 24 th . Will you come? It will be Aldrich's last public appearance before crossing the Atlantic. Let me know as soon as you can. I should delight in that Mississippi trip, but it would be more possible for a rich man (like you) to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for me to leave home in March or April. But Howells must go—he needs a vacation and he would get such a lot of material. Yours truly J. R. Osgood

For Aldrich's trip, see 20 Feb 75 to Osgood, n. 1.

To Elisha Bliss, Jr. 12-28 February 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B)

Friend Bliss: Suppose you write to W m F. Gill, publisher, Boston, & say I have added "an Encounter with an Interviewer" to Athe index ofA a volume of my Sketches about to be issued, & ask him to send you a copy of Lotos Leaves to get it from, as I have told you that copies of the book were not (, because I find our mother cannot remain here with my wife, but must return to her own home & finish her building enterprise^—namely, her house.4 We are looking forward with the pleasantest anticipations to your visit, & we want you to give us just as many days as you can. We shall be utterly out of company, & you can choose your own rooms, & change them & take ours if they don't suit.5 Yrs Ever Mark. 1 Clemens replied to the following letter (CU-MARK), which answered his of 14? February:

Cambridge, Feb'y 16, 1875. My dear Clemens: I can't manage the trip, this winter. It's too bad, after talking it up, and getting you into the notion but it's quite beyond my range. I've been under the weather and on half-work the whole winter, so that I don't feel as if I had earned my salary, and I oughtn't to take three weeks or a month out for a pleasure-trip on the chance of making it up somehow. I ' m all the more bound because I shouldn't be questioned about it. At Bethlehem, I can keep writing something. Now, be as merciful as possible in your thoughts of me; I'll explain more fully when I see you at Hartford early in March. I'm delighted that you entered so thoroughly into the spirit of our family group. It shows Mrs. Howells and m e in our true relations of domination and subjection. But don't you think I've made a very successful stagger at looking knowing, and as if I just

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

391

gave way to humor her? And doesn't Winny look as the oldest daughter always does? And isn't it in character for Pilla not to have any eyes, and for Bua to run to lower lip? —The heliotypes are S3 a hundred. You send your negative to Osgood, and he heliotypes you, and takes the sum out of your copyright. —Wiley's letter is delightful. But my Uncle Sam can beat him in spelling. "I could of done it"—that's his style. No. 5 is first-rate. Yours ever W.D.H. We're both sorry about Mrs. Clemens. Isn't our visit going to be an affliction? Samuel Dean ("Uncle Sam") was one of Howells's four maternal uncles—the others were Alexander, Jesse, and William—all of whom had pursued careers as pilots, captains, and owners of steamboats on the Ohio River, based in Pittsburgh. "No. 5" was the May installment of "Old Times on the Mississippi" (Howells: 1975, 10, 12-13, 26-31; 1979a, 465; Emerson Gould, 636-37; Thurston, 121). 2 See the next letter. 3 Clemens wrote two more articles for his "Old Times" series, published in the June and August issues of the Atlantic. The "book for Bliss" probably was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, completed in July, rather than Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old, which was ready by the end of March. 4 Mrs. Langdon left for Elmira on 23 February, after a visit of nearly four weeks. T h e work on her house had been ongoing for several months. On 12 May 1874, the Elmira Advertiser had reported: " T h e Langdon House is to undergo numerous improvements, changes and enlargements during the coming summer" (untitled item, 4; George H. Warner to Elisabeth G. Warner, 23 Feb 75, C U - M A R K ) . 5 The Howellses planned to visit Hartford in March (1 Mar 75 to Howells, n. 1).

To James R. Osgood 20 February 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CLjC) Hartford, Feb. 20. M y Dear Osgood: Confound it, my Boston trip is knocked in the head. It would take so long to explain why, that I'll not attempt it, but only send regrets, do some private cussing, & wish the dinner party a happy time & Aidrich & family godsend & a glorious tour.1 Ys Ever Mark.

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1

Clemens again declined Osgood's invitation to a dinner at the Nautilus Club, now rescheduled for 24 February (12 Feb 75 to Osgood, n. 6). Aldrich and his wife sailed for Europe on 24 March, leaving their two young sons with relatives. They toured England, France, Italy, and Germany before returning home in October (Greenslet, 117-19; Lilian W. Aldrich, 161-62).

To Joseph H. Sprague and Others 21 February 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Hartford Courant, 23 Feb 75)

Hartford, Feb. 20th, 1875. 1 Gentlemen:—I accede to your request with pleasure. Many months ago I permanently quitted the lecture field, & said I would not appear upon a platform any more unless driven there by lack of bread. 2 By the spirit of that remark I am debarred from delivering this proposed lecture, & so I fall back upon the letter of it & emerge upon the platform for this last & final time because I am confronted by a lack of bread— among Father Hawley's flock. Most people lie by the spirit & the letter too, but I am not one of that kind; for I have been very carefully brought up. I wish to impose upon you the condition that the expenses of this enterprise shall be paid out of four or five private pockets (mine to be one of them), to the end that all of the money that comes in at the door shall go to Father Hawley's needy ones, unimpaired by taxes on its journey. I am glad to know that you are going to put the tickets at one dollar; for what we are after, now, is money for people who stand sorely in need of bread & meat, & so the object justifies the price. As this will probably be the last time I shall ever have the opportunity of hearing sound wisdom & pure truth delivered from the platform, I wish to buy a ticket to this lecture, & I herewith send money for the purchase. I am aware that I could get in for nothing, & still be acting in a measure honorably; but when I run my lecture over in my mind & realize what a very bonanza of priceless information it is, I find I cannot conscientiously accept of a free pass. Respectfully, Mark Twain. To Messrs. Joseph H. Sprague, George G . Sill, H. C . Robinson, & others. 3

393

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39 1

An entry that Twichell made in his journal, probably on 23 February, corrects Clemens's misdating: "I was to lecture for Father Hawley on Peru, and M. T. was to introduce me. But when it came to the 'scratch' I backed out and got M. T. to stand in my place. He made this letter of response in my study Sunday P.M. Feb 21 s "' (Twichell, 1:58). Twichell had traveled to Peru in 1874 to investigate the circumstances of Chinese laborers there. David Hawley, Hartford's city missionary, had been granted the honorary title "Father" out of affection and esteem (Strong, 85-86; L5, 288-90). 2 See 27-31 Jan 74 to Redpath, n. 1, and 3 Mar 74 to Redpath, n. 3. 3 The Hartford Courant published this letter on 23 February ("Mark Twain's Lecture," 2), with the following introduction: As was stated yesterday, Mr. Samuel L. Clemens has consented to give a lecture in this city, the entire proceeds of which are to be given to Father Hawley for the benefit of the needy poor whom he seeks to relieve. The letter of some of our citizens to Mr. Clemens inviting him to lecture again for this cause, and his characteristic reply, are printed below. LETTER TO MR. CLEMENS. HARTFORD, F e b . 1 9 t h , 1 8 7 5 . M R . SAMUEL L . C L E M E N S : —

Dear Sir: Two winters ago you gave a lecture here in behalf of our city poor, which was pecuniarily, and otherwise, a memorable success. The fact that while still comparatively a stranger among us you manifested such willingness to assist in a time of great necessity, suggests to us the possibility that now that you are an established citizen of Hartford, you may be willing to help the same good cause again. A favorable response to this invitation will be greatly appreciated by your fellow citizens. Very truly yours, JOSEPH H . S P R A G U E ,

GEORGE G . SILL,

HENRY C . ROBINSON,

NJ.

ROWLAND SWIFT,

AUSTIN DUNHAM,

BURTON,

WILLIAM L . GAGE,

F. B . COOLEV,

N . SHIPMAN,

WILLIAM W. TURNER,

F. A . BROWN,

YUNG W I N G ,

F. W. CHENEY,

GEORGE R BISSELL.

Clemens had previously lectured for the benefit of Hawley's "flock" on 31 January 1873. The signers of the present invitation were: Joseph H. Sprague, mayor of Hartford and president of the Atlas Insurance Company; George G. Sill, an attorney and lieutenant governor of Connecticut from 1873 to 1877; Henry C. Robinson (1832-1900), an attorney, mayor of Hartford from 1872 to 1874, and a director of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company and the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company; the Reverend Nathaniel J. Burton, pastor of the Park Congregational Church; Rowland Swift, president of the American National Bank; Austin Dunham (1805-77), president of the Willimantic Linen Company, partner in Austin Dunham and Son, wool merchants, and vice-president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company; the Reverend William L. Gage, pastor of the Pearl Street Congregational Church; F. B. Cooley, president of the National Exchange Bank and a trustee of Warburton Chapel; Nathaniel Shipman (1828-1906), a United States district court judge; the Reverend William W. Turner, a former teacher, steward, and, from 1854 to 1863, principal of the American Asylum for Deaf and Dumb; Flavius A. Brown, of Brown and Gross, booksellers; Yung Wing, the official in charge of a delegation of Chinese students sent by the Chinese Educational Commission to study in the United States, and a close friend of Twichell's; Frank W.

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Cheney, assistant treasurer of Cheney Brothers, Silk Manufacturers, and a director of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company and the National Fire Insurance Company; George P. Bissell, president of his own bank and a trustee of Warburton Chapel (Geer 1874, 34, 39, 52, 61, 70, 123, 129, 133, 137, 141, 182, 183, 185, 187, 188, 274, 275; Burpee, 1:436, 3:1314, 38, 41-42; Trumbull, 1:385, 428, 514, 573; L5, 289-90 n. 1, 522 n. 1; Strong, 85). For more on the lecture, see 6 Mar 75 to Seaver.

To Warren Choate and Company 26 February 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Cornman) Hartford, Feb. 26. Gentlemen: I am not so situated as to be able to sell the Jumping Frog, because I am just on the point of issuing it in book form through my publishers here, all al along with all my sketches complete Very Truly Yrs. Sam'. L . Clemens Mess. Warren Choate & Co Washington.1 1

Clemens had included the "Jumping Frog" sketch in the ill-fated Sketches. Number One pamphlet. Warren Choate and Company, a firm of booksellers, stationers, and publishers, had evidently asked to purchase the rights to the story. Clemens did use it in his new sketchbook, Sketches, New and Old, but as the first part of a longer sketch (25 Feb 74 to Fairbanks, n. 6; 12 Feb-31 Mar 75 to Bliss, n. 1; Boyd, 142).

395

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

To William A. Seaver 26 February 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: WU)

Hartford, Feb. 26 M y Dear Seaver:»; Yes sir! You shall know the figure; & to make sure it shan't be forgotten, I'll tell the manager of the affair to tell you also. If he forgets it I will kill him. 1 As this is honestly the last lecture I ever ever expect to deliver, I would like to see it corral as much cash as possible. I am under promise to give one other charity a lift, but I expect to succeed in begging off, as it is not in our town. 2 Bless you I don't ever fool away any chances to hunt you & John Hay up. You ought to know that. I had a whole family under my wing the last two times I was down there—so I didn't even try to go to my meals. Ys Ever Mark. 1 In a letter not known to survive, Seaver had offered to report the result of Clemens's upcoming charity lecture. 2 Unidentified.

To Elisha Bliss, Jr. 1 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK)

Mch i. Friend Bliss: I've put off the Miss. River trip till June, & shall write a new book meantime. 1 Raymond is stirring up a new sort of comment upon the novel. I re-

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ceived several private commendations from different States lately. Enclosed is the latest.2 Ys Mark. 13-

—

[letter docketed:]

—

-

/

1

See 20 Feb 75 to Howells, n. 3. Raymond was on tour with the Gilded Age play. N o enclosure survives with this letter. One of the "private commendations" survives separately, but there is no evidence that Clemens sent it to Bliss (see 1 Mar 75 to Gibbon, n. 1). 2

To Orion Clemens 1 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK)

Mch. I, My Dear Bro: Hoping that the Tennessee Land is now in hell, please pay the enclosed bill—but rigorously require Mr. Rice's receipt in full of all claims under that head

w h i c h receipt you s h o u l d f r a m e & send to h i m for

his signature. I do not care a cent whether his demand is just or not, I want it paid. I am nothing but a ceaseless prey to sharpers with imaginary claims against me & am only too glad to compromise when the opportunity offers. And be particular to tell this man that I would not have "benefitted" a penny by a sale of the land, having long before sworn in San Francisco washed my hands of the infernal rubbish for good & all. 1 1 do not suppose for a moment that I asked this man to sell the land—but no matter about that, I want him paid & shut up. I increase the check a trifle to pay far the Washington bank for collecting it2—which you will also explain to him. I shall not write him. Everybody well, here, & send love to you & Mollie. YrBro

Sam

397

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39 [enclosure:] CLINTON R I C E

ATTORNEY & COUNSELLOR AT LAW

P R A C T I S I N G IN ALL THE COURTS OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON, D . C .

P.O. L O C K BOX I 7 7 .

Washington, Feb'y 25th. 1875. Franklin Square Mr. Clemens. (Mark Twain) Dear Sir:— I endeavored to make a call upon you when you were last here, but found it impossible on account of illness in my family.3 My object in desiring to see you was to call to your mind the circumstance (which occurred in 1870,) of your having asked me to correspond with your brother Mr. Orion Clemens at St. Louis with reference to the disposition of a piece of property in Fentress County, Tennessee,-, and you urged me to attempt to make sale of it, as I was somewhat in the line of selling Southern property. I wrote Mr. O. Clemens, at your suggestion, and he forwarded me plats and Maps and description of the property, and afterwards addressed me several Communications in the premises. In January 1871, several weeks vor some, after my interview with you, and after I had secured a party who was likely to purchase the property, and had gone to an expense of $11.70. in finding such purchaser, I received a letter from your brother stating that he had effected a sale of the property, and desiring me to suspend further efforts in the premises. I did so and sent him my account for the above amount (saying nothing of my services) but, I have never received the Same, nor any part thereof;.] I suppose it is fair that I should be paid it, and that it is not out of place to make mention of it to you, who would most likely have been one of the beneficiaries of my efforts had I succeeded—or rather been permitted to succeed—in selling the property.4 The amount is Small in the eyes of a Millionaire—or in those of a man worth twice as much, but I haven't got such eyes about me—and am not like to have as long as Colonel Sellers, draws on this place so heavily as he does—and at sight, too. Since his last draw there has been no money here.5 Yours respectfully, Clinton Rice

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Orion Clemens, Esq | Keokuk | Iowa, [sideways, along left edge:] Preserve this man's letter, [postmarked:] HARTFORD CT. MAR I 6 P M 1 This particular renunciation came in late 1865 or early 1866, after Orion frustrated Clemens's arrangements for a sale (see LI, 326-27, 343). 2 The enclosed check (now lost) was written for an unknown amount more than the $ 11.70 requested by Clinton Rice (see the enclosure). 'Clemens's last known trip to Washington was in October 1871, while he was on a lecture tour (L4, 478). 4 Despite Clemens's vehement disclaimer, the circumstantiality of Rice's letter supports his version of events. His meeting with Clemens, which he loosely recalled as having occurred "several weeks, or some" before January 1871, might have occurred in July 1870, or, less probably, in February 1871, occasions when Clemens was in Washington lobbying for the passage of a bill of interest to the Langdon family. In 1870 Orion had engaged more than one agent in his attempts to profit from the Tennessee land. Nothing is known, however, of the sale he supposedly "effected" in January 1871—evidently just another of his ultimately fruitless efforts (see 10 May 74 to Howells, n. 2; 11 July 74 to JLC, n. 8; L4, 113-14, 138-39, 164-69, 177-78, 193, 325-26). 5 An allusion to the financial success of the Gilded Age play. Performances in Washington, from 1 through 6 February, were well attended ("Ford's Opera House," Washington, D.C., National Republican, 1 Feb 75, 4 [two items], 2 Feb 75, 4).

To John Gibbon 1 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MdHi)

@

>

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Mch. i . Dear Sir: 1 I thank you heartily for writing m e the letter—as heartily as you would thank the Commander-in-Chief for not only approving a military movement of yours which newspapers had condemned, but for taking the trouble to say so. T h e newspapers handled the "Gilded Age" pretty roughly, a year ago, when it first issued; but here lately several thoughtful m e n have, like yourself, sent m e their private c o m m e n d a tions of the book, & these I naturally value more than I do the opinions

399

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

of the mass of newspaper men—especially since I am rather more than half persuaded that if we never had had our present style of "journalism" we should never have seen our social & political morals sink to quite their present degradation. 2 Truly Yours Sam'. L . C l e m e n s . —.— John Gibbon, Esq, U.S.A., | Military Headquarters j Fort Shaw | M o n tana Ter'y. [postmarked:] HARTFORD CT. MAR I 6PM 1

Colonel John Gibbon (1827-96) was the commander of the Military District of Montana, stationed with the 7th Infantry at Fort Shaw, eighty miles north of Helena. Although at this time his troops were engaged primarily in preventing the local Indians from obtaining liquor and arms from Canadian traders, in 1876 they fought in the war against the Sioux that led to George Armstrong Custer's defeat at Little Big Horn. Clemens may have been familiar with Gibbon's Civil War record: he was a southerner and a West Point graduate who served with valor in the Union army as commander of the famous Iron Brigade, receiving commendations for gallant and meritorious service in several major battles. Ulysses S. Grant appointed Gibbon one of the three commissioners who negotiated the surrender at Appomattox (Lavery and Jordan, 1-2,43-67,126-27,143-59; Heitman, 452). He wrote Clemens on 15 February (CU-MARK): I have just laid down your "Gilded Age" and want to thank you not only for the pleasure you have afforded me, but for the benefit which I trust you have conferred upon the American people. It is not often one meets with works of fiction calculated to do the good which this one of yours aims at, and it is a popular way of reaching the sores of society which is without parallel, so far as I know, unless it is in Jules Verne's method of conveying philosophical truths. . . . I do not think old Pomeroy—I beg his pardon Dilworthy— himself could fail to recognise his likeness as drawn in the book. The Gilded Age is not only amusing and interesting, but exceedingly instructive and if it only does one half the good it is calculated to do you ought to be very proud of it, but prouder I hope of the good it works. 2 For the critical reception of The Gilded Age, see L5, 461-70. In the undated surviving fragment of his response to Clemens's letter, Gibbon remarked: "I see many complimentary notices of the work as placed upon the stage, and have not seen any of the adverse criticisms to which you refer. You may however, I think, rest satisfied that the Book is amply able to stand up under all the adverse criticisms the paper men may see fit to put upon it" (CU-MARK).

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To William Dean Howells 1 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B)

M c h . i. M y Dear Howells: 1 N o w you shall find us the most reasonable people in the world. We had thought of precipitating u p o n you G^eorge Warner & wife one day; Twichell & his jewel of a wife another day, & Chas. Perkins & wife another. Only those—simply members of our family, they are. But I'll close the door against t h e m all—which will "fix" all of the lot except Twichell, who will no more hesitate to climb in at the back window than nothing. And you shall go to bed when you please, get u p when you please, talk when you please, read when you please. Mrs. Howells may even go to N e w York Saturday if she feels that she must, but if some gentle, u n annoying coaxing can beguile her into putting that off a few days, we shall be more than glad, for I do wish she & Mrs. Clemens could have a good square chance to get acquainted with each other. But first & last & all the time, we want you to feel untrameled & wholly free f r o m restraint, here. T h e date suits—all dates suit. Yrs Evr Mark 1

Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK), which replied to his of 20 February: EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Feb. 28, 1875. My dear Clemens: Your giving up that river-trip has been such a blow to me that I have not been able to write until now. Mrs. Howells and I expect to appear at Hartford on Thursday, March 11, to afflict you very briefly. As Mrs. H. and Mrs. Clemens are both tearing invalids, don't you think it would be better not to give that ball this visit? Let us have just a nice sitdown, quiet time. Of course if the date named wont do, you can temporize: we're unsuspecting people. I want you to give me all the Pilot experiences you can in conscience. It'll help your book to have had them talked about beforehand. I know that our pay is small, comparatively.

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

401

We missed you dreadfully at the dinner, the other day, where we had a beautiful time. Yours ever W. D. Howells. Mrs. H. expects to go on to N. Y. the Saturday after her arrival in Hartford. T h e "beautiful time" was at the Nautilus Club dinner on 24 February (see 20 Feb 75 to Osgood).

To William Dean Howells 2 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H)

Tuesday M o r n i n g H e r e is t h a t critique. I see t h a t I d i d n ' t k n o w w h a t I was talking a b o u t in t r y i n g to give you s o m e a c c o u n t of i t . 1 1 wish you would f i n d out, if y o u can, w h e t h e r t h e Howellses, or Howells, will b e h e r e over Sunday. I w o u l d n ' t miss b e i n g here myself, if t h e y were to b e , for a g o o d deal. Yrs Joe Howells, didn't I tell you that this Jo Twichell couldn't be kept out? He was going to exchange with some N e w Jersey preacher Sunday the 14 th , till he heard that you are coming. N o w if you can manage to stay here Sunday & several days after, it would be so splendid of you. Meantime, you see, the weather would settle, & then Mrs. Howells could travel so much more comfortably.2 Y s Ever Mark 1

The "critique" that Twichell sent to Clemens does not survive. On about 1 March, Twichell pasted the original of it—a portion of a lengthy article by the Reverend William L . Gage, pastor of Hartford's Pearl Street Congregational Church—in his journal, identifying its source as the Chicago Advance of 25 February 1875. The excerpt—a laudatory description of several Hartford ministers, among them Horace Bushnell, Nathaniel J. Burton, and Edwin Pond Parker—included the following remarks about Twichell himself (after the paragraph on Parker):

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From him my mind runs to his intimate friend, our "glorious" brother Twichellj still profanely called Joe by those who know him best. That adjective and that pet name are at once the epitome and the eulogy of his character, and all that I might write would simply expand what those two words hint. One of the noblest of all the Bereans of Connecticut, his love and honor are in all our hearts. A rising name is his; a young man still growing, and every year giving us more and more proof of his rare nature. (Twichell, 1:62)

The Hartford Courant reprinted the Advance article as "The Hartford Ministers' Meeting" on Tuesday, 2 March (2), and it was presumably this reprinting, or just the "critique" portion of it, that Twichell enclosed with his note that day to Clemens. It is likely that Clemens forwarded the note to Howells immediately, but it is not known if he also sent the "critique." Bereans were members of a Protestant sect, of Scottish origin, that followed Calvinist doctrines. Twichell, Bushnell, Burton, and Parker were all Congregationalists. 2 According to the Hartford Courant of 2 March, "the most violent snow storm of the season began yesterday and continued all day and evening. Nearly a foot of snow fell. There was scarcely any business transacted, everybody who could keeping within doors." The newspaper reported train delays "on the Boston and Albany road." It snowed again on 10 March, the day before the Howellses arrived (Hartford Courant: "The Storm," 2 Mar 75, 2; "Brief Mention," 11 Mar 75, 2).

To William A. Seaver 6 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: WU)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

March 6. My Dear Seaver: We did the lecture last night, & snugly filled every seat in parquette, balcony & family circle, A& had some "standees,", but we didn't succeed in persuading twenty people to pay a dollar for a high-backed pine bench away up in the sky gallery^—& we had no cheaper tickets^ However, we had the biggest audience Hartford has seen this year. Mr. Rathbun (who was "business" man) told me last night as I left the Opera house that the clear gains seemed to be $1,233. „Several of us paid all the expenses out of ,ourA private pockets.* I guess that is a pretty good .result, for these stagnant times—especially as it was all the people that could get into the house ^(sky-parlor excepted) . We opened the box office last Tuesday morning, & I told my coachman to go down town &

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

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buy three seats for me. H e was there at ten, & they showed him that the rush had come & gone & SOa & there wasn't a „good, seat left, that was worth having. So we had to take a private box. 1 Thus gratifyingly endeth the earthly^ lecturing career of yours truly.2 With deep & abiding affection. Yours, old hoss, Mark. Is John Hay living? Love to him. 3 1 The Hartford Courant reported that Clemens's "Roughing It" lecture on 5 March was attended by "one of the largest and finest audiences of the season." The newspaper noted that the lecture, "rewritten for this occasion," had been "delivered night after night, and week after week, in London, to immense audiences composed of the best people in the kingdom":

The lecturer began by a description of the overland trip to Nevada, in a stage coach, then dwelt at length upon the characteristics of the mountainous region and the plains, narrating some personal experiences at Virginia City, including a duel, and giving a graphic picture of the lawless state of society there eleven or twelve years ago. He concluded with some facts about the famous bonanza of the Comstock lode, and an irresistibly funny story of his experiences with a Mexican "plug." The lecture abounded in graphic description and amusing anecdote, and was delivered in the remarkably comical manner which is peculiar to Mark Twain. No lecture that we have ever heard has been more provocative of mirth. The audience were kept the whole evening in one perpetual burst of laughter. No newspaper report could begin to reproduce its genuine and wholesome humor, or indicate how extraordinarily funny were some of its incidents. The lecture is without doubt the best Mr. Clemens has yet delivered in this city. The audience testified their approbation by frequent and hearty applause. . . . The people of Hartford owe Mr. Clemens the heartiest thanks for his generosity in thus contributing to the relief of the city's poor. Colt's band are also entitled to thanks for volunteering their services, as also Mr. Rathbun for his excellent management of the affair. The receipts were over 81200, all of which will be placed in Father Hawley's hands for the benefit of his "clients" as Mr. Clemens calls them. (Hartford Courant: "Mark Twain To-Night," 5 Mar 75,2; "MarkTwain's Lecture," 6 Mar 75,1)

Twichell, who attended with his wife, Harmony, was more discriminating in his praise, remarking in his journal: "M. T. lectured in the Opera House for the city poor. $1200.~ H and I sat in the box with Livy. The subject was 'Nevada'—a pretty fair performance for a lecture, but not at all equal to what he commonly does in private talk" (Twichell, 1:63). Julius G. Rathbun was a partner, with Julius A. Case, in Case and Rathbun, Hartford shirt manufacturers (Geer 1874, 45, 120). Seaver printed a report of the lecture in his "Personal" column in Harper's Bazar for 3 April (Seaver 1875d, in Appendix G). 2

Just over a month later Clemens gave another benefit performance. On 7 April, accompanied by Twichell, he visited the Connecticut Retreat for the Insane, on Washington Street in Hartford. There, Twichell noted in his journal, he "delivered to a hall full of patients and visitors his 'Nevada' Lecture—with great success." Twichell pasted in the journal the prompt notes that Clemens

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titled "Notes of a Lecture on 'Pioneer Times on the Silver Frontier.' By Mark Twain." (Twichell, 1:80-81; Geer 1874,293). They are reproduced at 75 percent of actual size on p. 405. N o newspaper account of the lecture has been found, but the icons can be identified with passages in Roughing/r or glossed by newspaper notices of previous performances (citations to RI1993 are provided here only for icons not already identified in Clemens's letter of 9 January 1874 to Stoddard). Reading from top to bottom in the left-hand column: Mono Lake and its belt of flies, evidently canceled; the duel between rival newspaper editors; alkali dust; sagebrush; the exorbitant cost ofhay; the "always level full" Nevada "sink," with its feeder river; the Washoe Zephyr, here with two hats blowing sideways in it. And from top to bottom in the right-hand column: the "jackass rabbit"; the absence of frogs and snakes in Mono Lake (247); the "sage hen"; Indians; the lack of lightning and dew; a tombstone representing the "first twenty-six graves in the Virginia cemetery," or the private graveyards said to be kept by Nevada desperadoes (318, 322); the "Map of Toll-Roads" (173); and the Mexican plug. 3 Hay had not answered a letter from Clemens, probably written around 12, but no later than 20, February, inviting him along on the since abandoned Mississippi River trip. He finally responded (CU-MARK): NEW-YORK TRIBUNE.

NEW YORK, M a r c h 15 187 5

Dear Clemens After thinking about it an hour or so I believe I did not answer your letter about going down the river. If I did I can tell you now why I did not accept. She is three days old and a voice beyond any sane price. . . . The ladies of the house discern in her the rudiments of great beauty. I am old and my vision is impaired. She is well and hearty. So is her mother. Of the two the mother is the handsomer and makes less row. Give my compliments to Mrs. Clemens. Yours sincerely John Hay

Clemens noted on the envelope, "Col. John Hay's first baby." This was Helen Hay (d. 1944) (Gale, 22).

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

Notes for Clemens's lecture of 7 April 1875. See 6 Mar 75 to Seaver, n. 2. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (CtY-BR).

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To Theodore F. Seward 8 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. ( B o s t o n Evening Journal, 13 M a r 75)

}

Farmington Avenue, Hartford, March 8,1875.

Thos. F. Seward, Esq.: Dear Sir—I am expecting to hear the Jubilee Singers to-night, for the fifth time (the reason it is not the fiftieth is because I have not had fifty opportunities), 1 & I wish to ask a favor of them. I remember an afternoon in London, when their "John Brown's Body" took a decorous, aristocratic English audience by surprise & threw them into a volcanic eruption of applause before they knew what they were about. I never saw anything finer than their enthusiasm. Now, John Brown is not in this evening's programme; cannot it be added? It would set me down in London again for a minute or two, & at the same time save me the tedious sea voyage & the expense. 2 1 was glad of the triumph the Jubilee Singers achieved in England, for their music so well deserved such a result.3 Their success in this country is pretty well attested by the fact that there are already companies of imitators trying to ride into public favor by endeavoring to convey the impression that they are the original Jubilee Singers.4 Very truly, Samuel L . Clemens. (Mark Twain.) 1 The Jubilee Singers, a group of African-American students from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, were known for their moving renditions of slave songs and spirituals. Theodore (not Thomas) F. Seward (1835-1902) was the group's current musical director, engaged to assist their regular conductor—George L. White, who was in poor health—on their second European tour, scheduled to begin in May. Previously Seward had studied music in Boston, then worked as an organist, music teacher, and editor of the Musical Pioneer and the Musical Gazette. About 1869 he had become interested in AfricanAmerican music and in 1871 was engaged to transcribe and edit the first collection of the songs of the Jubilee Singers, published in 1872 (Seward). By March 1873, when Clemens wrote an enthusiastic endorsement for the singers' first European tour, he had already heard them sing at least once, and probably twice. While in London that summer he heard them twice more. The present

Samuel L. Clemens, aged. 39

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concert in Hartford was their first in that city since their return from England (L5, 315-16, 414 n. 2; Marsh, 78-79; "Amusements," Hartford Courant, 8 Mar 75, 3). 2 "John Brown's Body" memorialized the famous abolitionist who wished to invade the South and liberate the slaves, but was hanged as a traitor after leading an 1859 attack on the United States armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). The original tune was a folk song, its words evidently composed by Union soldiers during the first year of the Civil War. (Julia Ward Howe adopted the tune for the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," published in the Atlantic Monthly for February 1862 [9:145].) In 1873 the song had awakened "special enthusiasm" in English audiences: at a performance hosted by Prime Minister William Gladstone and his wife for the royal family, Mrs. Gladstone requested an encore "as a special favor to the Grand Duchess Czarevna, whose imperial father-in-law had emancipated the serfs in Russia" (Marsh, 52). Below are the lyrics, as sung by the Jubilee Singers. The first lines of verses one, three, and four (and the chorus) are repeated twice before the second line is sung; the chorus is sung after every verse except the third. John Brown's body lies a mould'ring in the grave, But his soul's marching on. Glory, glory Hallelujah, His soul's marching on. He captured Harper's Ferry with his nineteen men so true, And he frightened old Virginia till she trembled through and through. They hung him for a traitor, themselves the traitor crew, But his soul's marching on. John Brown died that the slave might be free, But his soul's marching on. N o w has come the glorious jubilee, When all mankind are free.

(Marsh, 223-24; Marius, xix-xx.) Clemens had probably read the Jubilee Singers' intended program printed in the Hartford Courant on 6 March. On the morning after the concert the Courant noted: There was standing room only for late comers at the Opera House last evening on the occasion of the reappearance of the Fisk Jubilee singers, and the audience was as enthusiastic as it was numerous. Applause was profuse and encores frequent. In response to one recall the troupe sang "John Brown's Body" with great spirit and effect. Previous to its rendering, the director read a letter from a well known citizen of Hartford, describing the enthusiasm with which the piece was received in London and requesting that it should be added to the programme. The troupe has improved considerably since its last appearance, and its rendering of the slave songs is now as effective as could be well imagined. These excellent singers will always be welcome in Hartford. ("The Jubilee Singers," 6 Mar 75, 9 Mar 75, 2) 3

During their first tour the Jubilee Singers raised nearly ten thousand pounds for their university. The second tour was not as remunerative, primarily because of economic "hard times" (L5, 316 n. 1; Marsh, 86-99).

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4

Frederick J. Loudin, a soloist who had recently joined the group (Marsh, 114), had told an audience at Waterbury, Connecticut, about its financial struggles and the competition it faced: Mr. F. A. Loudin, whose splendid bass voice had given him a special claim upon us, made a neat little speech toward the close of the concert which, if it could be heard beforehand in your churches, would carry the day in favor of the "Jubilees," in the face of the crowd of catch-penny performances now seeking the eye and the ear of the public, and in spite of the hard times which he spoke of. ("The Jubilee Singers To-Night," Hartford Courant, 8 Mar 75,2)

(Clemens gave Loudin an autograph: "Very Truly Yr friend | Sam'. L. Clemens | Mark Twain | Hartford Mch 1875" [ORaHi].) Clemens's "companies of imitators" doubtless included a group that had appeared in Hartford on 18 January 1875, advertising itself as the "Famous Original Jubilee Singers! From Jackson University, Tennessee—(12 persons former slaves, male and female)." The Courant declared the singers "by no means equal to the original jubilee singers from Fisk university, upon whose reputation they seem to be traveling. . . . their concert certainly showed they were not endowed with equal musical gifts, nor have they apparently enjoyed equal opportunities for training" (Hartford Courant: "Amusements," 18Jan75,1; "The Jubilee Singers," 19Jan 75,2). Still another group of "jubilee singers," from the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, in Hampton, Virginia, had performed regularly since 1873, and appeared in New York City on 3 and 8 March (Odell, 9:340, 353, 364, 495, 506, 639). Clemens's enthusiasm for the Fisk Jubilee Singers did not diminish. In 1897 he described one of their performances in Lucerne, Switzerland: Then rose and swelled out. . . one of those rich chords the secret of whose make only the Jubilees possess, and a spell fell upon that house. It was fine to see the faces light up with the pleased wonder and surprise of it. . . . Arduous and painstaking cultivation has not diminished or artificialized their music, but on the contrary—to my surprise—has mightily reinforced its eloquence and beauty. Away back in the beginning—to my mind—their music made all other vocal music cheap; and that early notion is emphasized now. It is utterly beautiful, to me; and it moves me infinitely more than any other music can. (22 Aug 97 to Twichell, MTL, 2:645-46)

To Robert Watt 8 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Koslosky)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

M c h . 8. M y D e a r M r . Watt: 1 I haven't any biographical facts—gave t h e m all to Routledge, w h o p u t t h e m in " M e n of t h e T i m e . " 2 T h e r e ' s n o t h i n g else that I would like

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to see in print until I am dead—& then I shan't be reading much of the time. I could find more enjoyment in other ways where I hope to go hereafter; & if I should make a mistake & get to the other place, printed matter wouldn't stand the climate there. Shall not publish the Mississippi river book till a year hence. Iji enclose two scraps from this morning's local paper. I never lecture outside of my own town, now/j (& then I don't charge for my services, since they're for charity.) Ys Truly S . L . Clemens. [enclosures:]3 Father Hawley's Acknowledgment. To the E d i t o r of the

C o u r a n t : —

I take great satisfaction in acknowledging the receipt of $12.16 from J. G. Rathbun, Esq. the proceeds of the lecture given by Mark Twain, the object of which goes to supply me with funds to relieve the wants of the many poor who necessarily look to me for aid. And I would sincerely tender my heartfelt thanks to the lecturer for his generous offering; to the committee for their untiring zeal and efforts; to Colt's band, who contributed so much to the enjoyment of the occasion; and to all who by their patronage have done so much towards bringing about this glorious result. D. H a w l e y , City Missionary. Mr. J. G. Rathbun has deposited $1,216, the receipts of Mark Twain's lecture, with the Hartford Trust Company, to be handed over to Father Hawley for the benefit of the city's poor.

1

Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK): ROBERT WATT.

Copenhagen. February the 15th 1875. 4 1 . N 0 R R E G A D 1 , 2 . SAL.

My dear M' Clemens! I received your kind, interesting and long letter of the 26" January a few days ago, and thank you very much. It is realy very amiable on your part to write at such a length considering how very much you have got to do, and how sick and tired you sometimes must be of pen and ink.

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Jorgensen got your letter and called on me to let me read it, to him you enclosed a photograph of your new town house—so I had got none, but now, since you also send me one, I shan't quarrel with him. What a fine place it must be! and I shan't very easily give up the hope ofhaving the pleasure of calling on you there, to have a chat under the trees. I am always travelling about, but it will be more difficult to get M r Jorgensen across; still he thanks you very much for your kind proposal, and I am sure I am not less grateful myself. Allow me to congratulate you to the new baby!— How many now?— Have you been married for several years?— Yes! There is lots of questions I should wish to put, if I was not afraid of bothering you. But a propos. Is there not a real good biography of you to be had? Of course I can learn very much concerning your life from your books, but still I should like to have the other thing too; and might put it together with your portrait ef in the new danish edition of your works. Jorgensen tells me that the two volumes of Mark Twain "soon will be sold entirely out, and I shall then commence a good and elegant edition of Selected works" in at least 5 volumes, commencing with "Roughing it" or perhaps "Old times on the Mississippi"—and "to be continued". I thank you beforehand for the last named book; I have already enjoyed the two first chapters as M r Christensen in New York at once sent me "The Atlantic"; he knows I am watching everything that flows from your pen to swallow it on the spot. The other day too, I happened to get hold of the illustrated edition of your "Roughing it" dedicated to M r Higbie [American Publishing C°) I got it from a countryman who had been 23 years away from Denmark and who had spent several years in Nevada, where he still holds property. The book amused me very much, and so it did to get a talk with him, particularly because he had often seen you in Virginia City when you lived there. What an immense success "The gilded Age" is; I am sometimes writting for the theatre too, but if an author here can get a couple of thousands—(youW weekly "dramatical-wages") he considers himself a lucky man, who has "struck it rich".— Denmark is so very small. For that reason I often thinks about getting some of my books—from Egypt, Russia, Paris etc—translated in English and started in America, but when you are not on the place it never works well. A female friend in New York commenced to translate my "Paris during and after the second empire" 2 volumes; and "Brick Pomeroy'"' printed a few chapters in his "Democrat" and spoke well of them and me, but there it stoped. She could not find a publisher—and I must say the translation was not of much account either, so after all I was not so very sorry. The other day I published your "Three millionairs" in a paper, and sent you copies, and as a "redacteur" of our principal illustrated paper I have translated some of your smaller sketches and given some notes on "The gilded Age"— This is a regular "blind lead" with a vengeance!— I shall send it to you as a curiosity. It amused me to see that "The Nation" had mentioned the danish translation, and to read your remarks. I know "the critical authority"; The Nation-Men spoke very handsomely of my book on America ["Across the Atlantic" 3 volumes) but could .not, help giving me a little kick, in saying that it looked as if I had given puffs (reclames) for certain railway companies and steamboat lines.— You will see the compliment! And now, my dear M r Clemens, I shall say good night! Kindest remembrance! Truly yours Robert Watt.

Marcus M. (Brick) Pomeroy was the editor of the New York Democrat {L4, 422 n. 4). Watt's " 'Three millionairs'" probably was chapters 40-41 of Roughing It, in which the narrator and two partners lose their chance to become millionaires by failing to record a rich claim (RI1993, 256-70). For the two volumes of translations that "soon will be sold entirely out," see 15 and 16 July 74 to Watt, n. 1, and 26 Jan 75 to Watt, n. 2. By the end of 1875, Watt was producing his "good and elegant edition" of Mark Twain selections. On 6 December he wrote to notify Clemens that he was that day sending him "Vol I of your 'Selected Works', containing almost everything from 'Roughing It'—Vol II will

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contain 'The Innocents at Home,' and then follows all the Sketches" (CUMARK). The first two volumes of his Udvalgte arbeider [Selected Works] (Copenhagen: L. A. Jorgensens, 1875), which survive in the Mark Twain Papers, were in fact translations of the two-volume English edition of Roughing It, entitled "Roughing It" and The Innocents at Home, respectively (SLC 1872e). The collection of sketches that was to follow has not been identified. The Nation notice Watt alluded to appeared in the issue for 10 April 1873 (16:258): Hinsides Atlanterhavet. I. (New York: F. W. Christern.)—Mr. Robert Watt, editor of the Day's News, a lively daily paper published in Copenhagen, is the author of this book of American travels, written in the Danish language, whose title signifies "Beyond the Atlantic." Mr. Watt is a spirited and fluent writer. . . . Although it is evident the author has been painstaking in the collection of his facts, yet this part of his book is open to the criticism that its description of early settlements in the West is much too rose-colored. . . . In his closing chapter, however, on the men and women of America, the author reveals his appreciation of the best traits in the American character, showing that he has not in this respect permitted himself to be affected by stale European prejudices. We hope that in his second volume, which we shall be glad to read when published, he may be more careful to avoid the appearance of writing in the interest of certain steamship and railway companies, rather than in that of his countrymen alone. Even the appearance of evil is to be avoided. 2

See 22 May 74 to Bliss, n. 2. The "two scraps" from the Hartford Courant of 8 March (2) do not survive with the letter, but clearly were mentions of Clemens's 5 March charity lecture (see 21 Feb 75 to Sprague and others, and 6 Mar 75 to Seaver). Both are simulated here in line-by-line resettings. The second (which corrected the $12.16 reported in the first) was part of the daily "Brief Mention" column; it is possible that Clemens clipped a larger portion of the column, circling the relevant paragraph. 3

From Olivia L. and Samuel L. Clemens to Olivia Lewis Langdon 14 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: C t H M T H )

QLC)

Hartford March 14 th . 75 Darling Mother Clara's beautiful silver set came yesterday— It is just as exqui sitelyJta as it can be. When Susie's and Langdon's came we thought that nothing could be prettier,1 but Clara's I think is— The mug is such a rare, unusual shape— Clara was exceedingly pleased when we

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showed it to her, she handled it and was very much inclined to bang the m u g with the spoon but of course that she was not allowed to do— Susie too was very much interested— I had to get out her silver set so that she could look at hers at the same time—her napkin ring she has not seen yet I shall keep it until her birthday—Today Susie stoodat by one of the book cases shelves— I said "Susie "do you want a book?'-—she said "yes m a m m a , but I don't know which one I want" It sounded as if she was about twenty years old, and was looking for a book to r e a d M r and M r s Howells came Thursday noon, and left us yesterday (Saturday) noon—we had an exceedingly pleasant time with t h e m — Thursday I invited M r and M r s Perkins, and M a m m i e 2 — M r and M r s Twichell and M r and Mrs G. Warner to dine with them—we had a good time— 3 Friday evening we were invited to M r Perkins— Mrs Howells is not a bit like M r s Aldrich, she is exceedingly simple in her dress—she reminds m e in her manners a good deal of cousin Anna Brown, 1 and a little of the M r s Shipman that you met in Fenwick— 5 She is exceedingly bright—very intellectualy-but—sensible and nice, I liked her—-she is almost c o m m o n in her dress— She went into raptures over the table cover that Charlie brought f r o m Turkey. 6 T h o u g h t the house was the most delightful one that she was ever in—• We had a very satisfactory visit and hope that it will be often repeated— 7 Will Gillette may go to Elmira when M r Raymond does, to play in "Gilded Age"— I wish if he does Charlie would h u n t him u p and have him call at the house, perhaps he will call any way I invited him to^ 8 Good night—mother dear— Youth is going to add a word. I am so sorry that Ida does not get well faster—do make her be very careful— 9 Mother dear, the silver is exquisite beyond expression. I do not think I ever saw any before that was so beautiful. I was so aggravated to think the Howellses could have seen it if their train had been the 1.45 instead of the 12.30. 10 Ever SL.C •Langdon, the Clemenses' first child, had died on 2 June 1872 (see L5, 97-101). 2 Mary Russell Perkins. 3 The Howellses arrived in Hartford on Thursday, 11 March, and stayed for

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two nights. Twichell remarked in his journal that he and his wife, Harmony, enjoyed a "most delightful evening with some of the best people in the world"; on Friday morning he "took the children over after breakfast to see the Howellses, or rather to let the Howellses see them. They i.e the children behaved well" (Twichell, 1:66). Lilly Warner likewise found the Howellses agreeable, writing to her husband, George (who had just left on a business trip to Iowa), "The Howells went yester. noon, & we ran over to say goodbye. Such friendly folk as they are. I feel as if I knew them well" (14 Mar 75, CU-MARK). 4 Anna Marsh Brown, the daughter of Mrs. Langdon's twin sister, Louisa Lewis Marsh (L4, 43). 5 In August and early September 1872, while Clemens was in England, Mrs. Langdon stayed with Olivia at Fenwick Hall, a resort hotel in New Saybrook, Connecticut, popular with Hartford residents. The Mrs. Shipman she met there evidently was Mary C. Shipman (1834-1903), the wife ofJudge Nathaniel Shipman and already, or soon to be, a good friend of Olivia's (L5, 112-13, 146,153 n. 1; "Hartford Residents," Shipman Family, 1; 21 Feb 75 to Sprague and others, n. 3; Mary C. Shipman to OLC, 26 Mar 78, CU-MARK). 6 Charles Langdon visited Turkey in the spring of 1870, while on a lengthy study tour of the world with Professor Darius Ford, of Elmira College (L3} 350 n. 3; L4, 101 n. 4,140 n. 2). 7 This was Olivia Clemens's and Elinor Howells's first meeting (see 4 Mar 74 to Howells, n. 1). In a letter to his father the day after the visit concluded, Howells expressed his enjoyment, but without quite sharing his wife's pleasure in the house: We had a really charming visit, not marred by anything. The Clemenses are wholesouled hosts, with inextinguishable money, and a palace of a house, to which, by the way I really prefer ours,—and we met all the pleasant people whose acquaintance I made last year, except the Warners, who are now up the Nile. (14 Mar 75, MH-H, in MTHL, 1:70 n. 1) F o r t h e W a r n e r s ' travels, see 3 O c t 74 to Howells* n. 3.

8 William H. Gillette (1853-1937), Lilly Warner's younger brother, had begun a long and successful career as an actor and dramatist. After graduating from Hartford Public High School in 1873, he studied acting in St. Louis and New Orleans, playing minor roles with a stock company. Assisted by Clemens's personal recommendation and financial support, he secured a role in Raymond's touring production of the Gilded Age play. According to Albert Bigelow Paine, The Sellers play was given in Hartford, in January (1875), to as many people as could crowd into the Opera House. Raymond had reached the perfection of his art by that time, and the townsmen of Mark Twain saw the play and the actor at their best. Kate Field played the part of Laura Hawkins, and there was a Hartford girl in the company; also a Hartford young man, who would one day be about as well known to playgoers as any playwright or actor that America has produced. His name was William Gillette, and it was largely due to Mark Twain that the author of Secret Service and of the dramatic "Sherlock Holmes" got a fair public start. Clemens and his wife loaned Gillette the three thousand dollars which tided him through his period of dramatic education. Their faith in his ability was justified. (MTB, 1:539)

If Gillette appeared in the 11 and 12 January Hartford performances, neither the Hartford Courant nor the Hartford Times mentioned him or "a Hartford girl." The troupe performed in Elmira on 31 March, and again on 15 May. Gil-

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lette received no mention on either occasion, but he may have been in the cast. He played the counsel for the defense during the run at the Globe Theatre in Boston from 19 April to 1 May, and on 6 May, when the play returned to Hartford, he again, "very creditably," played that role ("Col. Sellers," Hartford Courant, 7 May 75, 2). On 7 May, Twichell noted in his journal: Will Gillette, one ofour boys and one of our best was missing last winter i.e all we knew was that he was in New York—"studying"—they said. Itfinallytranspired that he had been on the stage all that time acting in "The Gilded Age"—M.T's play. (Geo. Warner told me that for the first part of the time he was foreman of the jury in the Trial Scene, and all he had to say—every word—was "not Guilty.") (Twichell, 1:96) Gillette played still a different part in New York in August (see 12 May 75 to Raymond, n. 1; Cook, 3, 7 - 8 , 10-13, 87, 90; Elmira Advertiser: " T h e Gilded Age," 30 Mar 75, 4; "John T. Raymond as Col. Sellers," 1 Apr 75, 4; " T h e Gilded Age," 15 May 75,4; Boston Advertiser: "Music and the Drama," 19 Apr 75, 2; "Amusements," 1 May 75,1). 9 Ida Langdon had recently given birth to a son (see 27 Jan 75 to Langdon, n. 1). 10 After the two days in Hartford, Howells returned to Cambridge, presumably taking the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad's 12:13 P.M. express to Boston, while Elinor took the 12:33 P.M. express to New York. Howells joined her there, with their children, in a week or ten days. Then, following a visit with Elinor's mother in New Jersey, the family went to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, arriving on 27 March ("Railroad Time Tables," Hartford Courant, 13 Mar 75, 3; Howells 1979b, 92-93).

To William Dean Howells 16 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H) Tuesday. M y Dear Howells: 1 Well, all that was necessary to make that visit perfect was to know that you & Mrs. Howells enjoyed it. Sunday morning Mrs. Clemens said, "Nothing could have been added to that visit to make it more charming, except days." And presently she said she felt fresher & stronger than usual" & I was able to say "You look it/'—which was the case. M y most secret reason for not going to the Aldrich lunch was that I g had got intellectual friction enough out of your visit to be able to go to work Monday. Which turned out to be correct—I wrote 4000 words yesterday.

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39 Today I am proposing to bang away again. I'll remember & not divulge the Longfellow matter.

I found it was the wet-nurse who had drank 2 0 0 bottles of the 2 5 2 — s o I have been making an a w f u l » row in the servants' quarters, this morning, & clearing the atmosphere. M y beer will be respected, now, I hope, for I do not wish to resort to bloodshed. 2 Old Twichell dropped in Saturday night in the hope that you had remained over. I guess that same hope moved him to cancel his "exchange." 3 Jolly times to you all & the A l d r i c h ^ j S — & the kindest remembrances from us to M r s Howells. Y s Ever Mark 1

Clemens answered the following letter ( C U - M A R K ) : EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

March 15, 1875. My dear Clemens: Your own feelings will give you no clew to our enjoyment of the little visit we made you. There never was anything more unalloyed in the way of pleasure—I was even spared the pang of bidding the ladies goodbye. I'm sorry you're not coming up to the Aldrich lunch, to which I found myself invited.— Don't say anything to anybody about the Longfellow book till you hear from me. Yours ever, W. D. Howells. T h e lunch, hosted by James Osgood, was a farewell to Aldrich, who was about to leave for Europe (see 20 Feb 75 to Osgood, n. 1). On 11 March Aldrich had suggested that if Osgood wanted to expand his guest list, he could invite "any of these gentlemen: Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, Mark Twain, Edwin Booth" (Anderson 1909, lot 28). Howells had learned of the existence of proofsheets— or privately printed copies—of "Morituri Salutamus," Longfellow's poem for the fiftieth anniversary of his class at Bowdoin. It was collected in The Masque of Pandora, which Osgood published in 1875 ( M T H L , 1:70 n. 3; Hart 1983, 507). 2 T h e wet nurse—Clara's fifth and last—was Maria McLaughlin (see 11 July 74 to JLC, n. 2). Clemens described her in 1906: No. 5 was apparently Irish, with a powerful strain of Egyptian in her. . . . She stood six feet in her stockings, she was perfect in form & contour, raven-haired, dark as an Indian, stately, carrying her head like an empress, she had the martial port & stride of a grenadier, & the pluck & strength of a battalion of them. In professional capacity the cow was a poor thing compared to her, & not even the pump was qualified to take on airs where she was. She was as independent as the flag, she was indifferent to morals & principles, she disdained company, & marched in a procession by herself. She was as healthy as iron, she had the appetite of a crocodile, the stomach of a cellar, & the

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digestion of a quartz-mill. Scorning the adamantine law that a wet-nurse must partake of delicate things only, she devoured anything & everything she could get her hands on, shoveling into her person fiendish combinations of fresh pork, lemon pie, boiled cabbage, ice cream, green apples, pickled tripe, raw turnips, & washing the cargo down with freshets of coffee, tea, brandy, whisky, turpentine, kerosene—anything that was liquid; she smoked pipes, cigars, cigarettes, she whooped like a Pawnee & swore like a demon; & then she would go up stairs loaded as described & perfectly delight the baby with a bouquet which ought to have killed it at thirty yards, but which only made it happy & fat & contented & boozy. No child but this one ever had such grand & wholesome service. The giantess raided my tobacco & cigar department every day; no drinkable thing was safe from her if you turned your back a moment. ( S L C

1906,36-38)

In 1907 he remembered her as Maria McManus, called her "a delight, a darling, a never failing interest," and claimed: "In the shortest month in the year she drank two hundred and fifty-eight pints of my beer, without invitation, leaving only forty-two for me. I think it was the dryest month I ever spent since I first became a theoretical teetotaler" (AD, 11 Apr 1907, CU-MARK). For Olivia's remarks on McLaughlin, see 18 Apr 75 to OLC, n. 2. 3 See 2 Mar 75 to Howells.

To Charles Warren Stoddard 17 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Jacobs)

Hartford, Mch. 17. 1

M y Dear Stoddard: Yrs rec'd last night. What a horrible time you have had of it! I cannot begin to appreciate it, though, because I never was bodily hurt in my life. But I had 8 cousins in one family every devil of whom had enjoyed from one to two broken arms before reaching puberty. Think of it!2 Just been writing Finlay, who is in Rome, & goes presently to Venice.3 I never hear of Webb's book, & I don't believe it sells at all.4 I feel persuaded that your book would sell, by subscription. When you've got it ready, call here on one of your journeys, & I think we'll find a Hartford publisher. I think it we very well worth your while to act upon this suggestion. About Mulford you surprise me. I wonder what has become of him.5

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged, 39

Wishing you better luck than you've been having, & a good time generally— Yrs Ever Mark Shall send this through Sir Thos. Hardy. 1 Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK), which replied to his of 1 February:

Venice 24th Feb 1875 Dear Mark Your letter makes me feel more comfortable and I'm ever so much obliged for it. Here goes for an answer to each of your questions as they appear in order. 11 was riding a blind horse across the Campagna at midnight last May. My friends were jogging on ahead of me; suddenly my horse went off the edge of a low bridge and I went with him. We struck together among ugly stones and rubbish, righted immediately, but my left arm was fractured just below the elbow and the joint suffered a double dislocation. For three months I believe I was in Hell! As it is I haven't got further than purgatory; I shall probably never regain the use of the arm; it is as stiff as a pump handle and even now is sometimes painful. I thought of the Langham-days while I was lying on my back in Rome with my arm buried alive in plaster of paris. ,11, Did I never tell you of a pretty little English girl who was a friend of Joaquin Miller and who lived down in Museum St at our old lodgings? She was very pretty and seemed to be a milliner, though she was most of the time at home. We were good friends and often dined together and had long talks about Joaquin and Mulford and Olive Harper; by the way Harper wrote her up in some paper and called her "Josie"— that is her name. She wasn't very proud but she was poor enough to make up for it; well, Mulford has married her and they are living somewhere in New England, I think, Sag Harbor perhaps. ,111, I've sent your message to Father Kroeger and he thinks you are such a bully fellow; you'd like him immensely; if you were to drop in on him at the Papal Palace in Loretto, he would give you some very good community wine (purer than is to be had out of the church, you know) and a bad cigar: Isn't the Italian tobacco market seedy, though? ,IV, I hope you had a tearing time with the Jesuit Father. As a class they are the most genial fellows in the world. They are men of the world—with a reserve! Y I'm so glad you liked my letter on San Marco: Do you know Mark I would like to make a selection from my letters when this course is run, and get the same into a big subscription book with the hope of clearing a little out of them. Would their chance be any poorer than that of our friends, whose book of Humor „which, is supposed to be found on every table at this moment?—I mean Webbs of cours^j! Can you advise me on this matter? I want to work my way home by India, China etc—-this will take money and the money has not yet made its appearance but perhaps it will. With best love for you, dear Mark, and for Mrs Clemens and the Modox Ever your friend C-W. Stoddard. P.S. I forgot to say in the right place that mene while I must return to England and see more of it: I dont want to go home yet, would you advise me to?

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I havent heard a word from Dolby since I left London. Hope he is alive and well. 1 have seen but the first of your articles in the Atlantic and I though^ of the old times when we used to sit up over thefirein the corner room and you drew such graphic off hand pictures of the Mississip'—by Jove! I wish they could be written just as you told them, voice and all. How is your book on England growing? I congratulate you heartily on your great dramatic success! Do it again. Love to Raymond when you see him! again as always yours, C.W.S. In a 1906 account of his accident, Stoddard explained that his irresponsible Italian guide had provided a horse that later proved to be blind, with "eyes like a couple of hard-boiled eggs" (Charles Warren Stoddard 1906a, 493). George Dolby was Clemens's English lecture agent. The book on England had stopped "growing" in early 1874, when Clemens used portions of the unfinished manuscript in Mark Twain's Sketches. Number One (see 25 Feb 74 to Fairbanks, n. 6). For additional glosses of Stoddard's allusions, see notes 4 and 5. 2 Clemens's maternal aunt, Martha Ann Lampton (1807-50), married John Adams Quarles (1802-76), and they had eight children who survived infancy, born between 1826 and 1844. Clemens spent his boyhood summers on the Quarles farm in Florida, Missouri, with these cousins, who delighted in playing pranks (Lampton 1990, 57; MTB, 1:10-12, 30-34). 3 Francis Dalzell Finlay, proprietor of the Belfast Northern Whig, had met Stoddard while staying in London as Clemens's guest in December 1873 (L5, 529). i John Paul's Book. The sense of triumph in Clemens's remark is attributable to an old conflict with Webb that still rankled (see 8 Apr 75 to Webb, n. 1). 5 Prentice Mulford and Joaquin Miller both lived for a time in a lodging house at 11 Museum Street in London, where Stoddard also stayed while Miller was in Rome. On 3 November 1873 Miller wrote Stoddard about Josie Allen, another Museum Street lodger: "I am glad you like Miss Allen. . . . She is a little thing that I am trying to bring up to the light of the sun and I hope not altogether for selfish purposes. I need not tell you she has been unfortunate; hence, as a Christian knight you will treat her the more gently" (CSmH, in Walker 1969, 342). Olive Harper (1842-1915), a California journalist, novelist, and poet, described Allen in one of her 1873 European travel letters for the San Francisco Alta California: My Josie is a treasure, a pretty little London girl, and one thoroughly well versed in everything about this great city. There is nothing she does not know, and as she is always at hand, I have only to ask her and she will tell me the entire history of everything of renown, and things that nobody else knows. She can tell you the date of every historical event, and in the next breath inform you where the best bargains in second-hand rag-shops are to be obtained. She is well educated, a perfect little lady, and as perfect a little Bohemian. (Harper) Mulford and Allen married in the spring of 1874, and in July of that year returned to America, evidently settling in Sag Harbor, New York, his native town. The marriage did not last: reportedly they separated when Mulford refused "to let his pretty wife continue posing in the nude for commercial artists, a practice which he discovered when he received a picture of her naked figure in a package of cheap cigarettes" (Walker 1969,341-42,346-48,355; Charles Warren Stoddard 1905, 97-99; Marberry, 120-22; Mulford 1874a, 1874b). See also Stoddard's amusing sketch about his stay at 11 Museum Street and his own relationship with Allen: Charles Warren Stoddard 1903, 277-320.

419

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

To Densmore, Yost and Company 19 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Transcript: CtY-BR)

HARTFORD, MARCH 1 9 , 1 8 7 5 . GENTLEMEN:

PLEASE

DO NOT USE MY NAME

IN ANY

WAY.

PLEASE DO NOT EVEN DIVULGE THE FACT THAT I OWN A MACHINE. I HAVE ENTIRELY STOPPED USING THE TYPE-WRITER, FOR THE REASON THAT I NEVER COULD WRITE A LETTER WITH IT TO ANYBODY WITHOUT RECEIVING A REQUEST BY RETURN MAIL THAT I WOULD NOT ONLY DESCRIBE THE MACHINE, BUT STATE WHAT PROGRESS I HAD MADE IN THE USE OF IT, ETC., ETC. I DON'T LIKE TO WRITE LETTERS,

& SO I DON'T WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW I OWN

THIS

CURIOSITY-BREEDING LITTLE JOKER. 1 YOURS TRULY,

Saml. L. Clemens. 1

For Clemens's first typewritten letters, see 9 Dec 74 to O C and 9 Dec 74 to Howells. Although James Densmore had withdrawn from his partnership with George Washington Yost, the firm they founded to market the Remington Model I typewriter still operated as Densmore, Yost and Company, General Agents, located at 707 Broadway in New York. On 18 March 1875 James Martin, the Boston agent who had sold Clemens his typewriter the previous November, sent him the following request (CU-MARK): I have received a letter from our people in New York, asking me to try and get them some letters, from parties using the machines, to be published in a grand new circular, which they are getting up. These pamphlets are to be used by all the agents, all over the country; and they want to get as many letters as they can from prominent people using the machines. Can you say anything for us? If you can say anything for our side of the case, I shall take it as a great favor, if when you feel like it you will do so. Machines are now being used by a great many people, and are getting quite largely introduced.

On the back of Martin's letter Clemens wrote: "About the Type-Writer. New invention. I bought one six months ago. Never heard of it before. Refused to let my name be used because it would breed correspondence from idle, questionasking people. S.L. C." The present letter, Clemens's refusal, presumably went to Martin for forwarding to the general agents. Densmore, Yost and Company printed it as the first of nine letters in their advertising circular, the source of the text reproduced here. All of the letters in the circular were typeset in capital and lowercase letters, although it is clear that many of them were written on the Remington typewriter, which had capitals only. In 1905, Harper's Weekly reprinted Clemens's letter in an article about his early use of the typewriter, describing it as "an old typewritten sheet, faded by age," with "the sig-

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nature of Mark Twain" (SLC 1905). It is therefore presumed that Clemens typed his refusal, even as he professed to have "entirely stopped using the typewriter." The version reproduced here has been restored to the form of the typed original, in capitals except for the handwritten signature.

To Charles J. Langdon 19 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Transcripts: MTL, 1:251-52, and CU-MARK) Mch. 19,1875. Dear Charlie,—Livy, after reading your letter, used her severest form of expression about Mr. Atwater—to-wit: She did not "approve" of his conduct. This made me shudder; for it was equivalent to Allie Spaulding's saying " M r . Atwater is a mean thing;" or Rev. Thomas Beecher's saying "Damn that Atwater," or my saying " I wish Atwater was three hundred million miles in 1" 1 However, Livy does not often get into one of these furies, God be thanked. In Brooklyn, Baltimore, Washington, Cincinnati, St. Louis & Chicago, the play paid me an average of nine hundred dollars a week. In smaller towns the average is $400 to $500. 2 This is Susie's birth-day. Lizzie 3 brought her in at 8.30 this morning, (before we were up) hooded with a blanket, red curl-papers in her hair, a great red japonica in one hand (for Livy) & a yellow rose-bud nestled in violets, (for my buttonhole) in the other—& she looked wonderfully pretty. She delivered her memorials & received her birth-day kisses. Livy laid down her japonica to get a better "holt" for kissing— which Susie presently perceived & became thoughtful: then said sorrowfully, turning the great deeps of her eyes upon her mother: "Don't you care for you wow?" Right after breakfast we got up a rousing wood fire in the main hall—(it is a cold morning) illuminated the place with a rich glow from all the globes of the newell-chandelier, spread a bright rug before the fire, set a circling row of chairs, (pink ones & dove colored) & in the midst a low invalid table, covered with a fanciful cloth, & laden with the presents—a pink azalia in lavish bloom, from Rosa; a gold inscribed Russia-leather bible from Patrick & Mary; a gold

Samuel L. Clemens, aged. 39

421

ring (inscribed) from " M a g g y C o o k ; " 4 a silver thimble (inscribed with motto & initials) from Lizzie; a ranting mob of Sunday-clad dolls from L i v y & Annie, 5 & a Noah's Ark from me containing 2 0 0 wooden animals such as only a human being could create & only G o d call by name without referring to the passenger list. T h e n the family & the seven servants assembled there & Susie & the " B a y " 6 arrived in state from above — t h e Bay's head being fearfully & wonderfully decorated with a profusion of blazing red flowers & overflowing cataracts of lycopodium. Wee congratulatory notes accompanied the presents of the servants. I tell you it was a great occasion & a striking & cheery group—-taking all the surroundings into account & the wintry aspect outside.

1 Charles Langdon's letter has not been found. Clemens preserved a version of this or a similar incident in an Autobiographical Dictation of 22 February 1906. There he recalled that his father-in-law, Jervis Langdon, employed Dwight Atwater ( 1 8 2 2 - 9 0 ) as a "humble helper" and "general utility" assistant, but that he was so "constitutionally slow" that sometimes "the occasion for his services had gone by before he got them in": Mr. Langdon never would discharge Atwater, though young Charley Langdon suggested that course now and then. Young Charley could not abide Atwater, because of his provoking dilatoriness and of his comfortable contentment in it. . . . Young Charley had many and many a time tried to lodge a seed of unkindness against Atwater in Livy's heart, but she was as steadfast in her fidelity as was her father, and Charley's efforts always failed. Many and many a time he brought to her a charge against Atwater which he believed would bring the longed-for bitter word, and at last he scored a success—for "all things come to him who waits." I was away at the time, but Charley could not wait for me to get back. He was too glad, too eager. He sat down at once and wrote to me while his triumph was fresh and his happiness hot and contenting. He told me how he had laid the whole exasperating matter before Livy and then had asked her, "Now what do you say?" And she said, "Damn Atwater." Charley knew that there was no need to explain this to me. He knew I would perfectly understand. He knew that I would know that he was not quoting, but was translating. He knew that I would know that his translation was exact, was perfect, that it conveyed the precise length, breadth, weight, meaning, and force of the words which Livy had really used. He knew that I would know that the phrase which she really uttered was, "I disapprove of Atwater." He was quite right. In her mouth that word "disapprove" was as blighting and withering and devastating as another person's damn. (CU-MARK) Alice (Allie) Spaulding was one of Olivia's closest Elmira friends. Thomas K. Beecher was the Langdon family's pastor ("Death of Dwight Atwater," Elmira Advertiser, 2 Jan 90, courtesy of the Mark Twain Archives and Center for Mark Twain Studies at Quarry Farm, Elmira College). 2 Clemens divided the profits from the Gilded Age play equally with Raymond. 3 Lizzie Wills, Susy Clemens's "English nurse" (SLC 1 8 7 6 - 8 5 , 5). T h e birthday was Susy's third.

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4

Rosina Hay, Patrick and Mary McAleer, and Margaret Cosgrave. Annie Moffett, who had been visiting since 25 December 1874. 6 Clara Clemens: see 8 July 74 to Aldrich, n. 1. 5

To William Bowen 20 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: TxU-Hu) Hartford Mch 20. Dear Will: Here is an odd thing. Looking among some checks (white) of a New York bank, this morning, I came across a red one—& behold it is that old check I sent you for Sam six weeks ago. You returned it with explanatory letter. I immediately (as I supposed) sent it back to you, requiring that you take Sam's judgment upon the question of accepting the check or returning it to me. I have looked through the stubs of two check books, & there is only one that corresponds to this—that is, has your name & the amount, $ 2 0 — & it corresponds in all particulars, being check No. 41 of the new year. Therefore I never re-enclosed this check to you at all, & you never reminded me of my blunder. 1 That was a bad business; because it made me judge Sam upon fake premises—or it at least I would have entire judged him presently; for only a day or two ago I was saying to myself, " S a m Bowen knows that I don't want that money, from him or anybody else who is cramped, but if he is a true Bowen he will sell his shirt to pay it when the month of his promise is up." Now do you see? A week or two from now I should have been saying, Well, poor Sam is a wreck, for the family pride is gone out of him." Confound you, Will, why didn't you tell me I had forgotten to enclose the check? I was once dead broke for several months, & sewed up bursted grain sacks on the San Francisco wharves for a starvation living (when I was already sufficiently famous to be welcome in the best society of the city & State) rather than borrow money; 2 & I hate to see Sam Bowen show himself to be less a man; but still this check is his, not mine, & therefore it is my imperative duty to forward it instead of quietly tearing

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

423

it up & keeping shrewdly still mum about it. It is for him to say whether it shall be accepted or returned. Therefore, just you tender it to him, & explain.3 Look here/—are these the facts?—viz: The J. M . White in 1840, went to St Louis in 3 days 23 hours; the Eclipse (in 1853) in 3 days 21 hours; the Gen. Lee (in 1870) in 3 days 19 hours 20 minutes, [in margin: What was the stage of the river each time—& was it rising, or falling?] Are those dates & statistics correct?4 I expected to go down the river in February, but have or March, but have put it off for the present. Y s Ever Sam. Don't mention any of these contents to people. 1 In a letter now lost, Samuel A. Bowen (William's younger brother, who was still a steamboat pilot), had asked Clemens for a loan of twenty dollars (Daniel B. Gould, 138). Around 6 February 1875, Clemens enclosed a check for him in a letter to William that is not known to survive. William returned the check, concerned that his brother would never make repayment. 2 This marginal employment probably came in late 1864 or the second half of 1865, two periods when Clemens was in desperate straits in San Francisco (sec RI1993, 701). 3 The reenclosed check has not been found, but Samuel Bowen did in fact cash it. When he wrote Clemens on 26 April 1876 to ask for another loan, he claimed he had repaid the twenty dollars, but Clemens noted on the envelope: "Keep this precious letter from a precious liar" (CU-MARK). 4 Clemens intended this information for his "Old Times on the Mississippi" series. Bowen's initial response was part of a letter of 29 March, on the letterhead of "Bowens' Insurance Agency," at 122 Olive Street, in St. Louis (CUMARK): Dear Sam Your letter 20th to hand this A M—having just returned from Jfeff City where I have been for past week securing legislation of gen'l insurance interest. Confound the check I wish it had stayed lost. I have told you about Sam and the value of his promises. You say "tender it to him" which you will understand, removes my Agency in the matter, and the Twenty Dollars from you, I fear. I am sorry you put me here, but as I have tried to save you, and you still insist, I obey orders hoping I may be agreeably disappointed at the end of the month. J M White run was in 1844 3 dys 23 hours 30 min to St Louis E/clipse in 1853 3 dys 21 hours to Louisville R E Lee (not Genl) 3 dys 19 hours 20 min to St Louis, in 1870 The river was very high at each start but meeting a fall on way up. Those river articles are delightful, especially that last one, giving the details of a Pilot's duties and the very many things he must know. Sam I fear you are losing

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Capital by not making a "Roughing it" of your river life—it would sell well for it5 fajicts and be a splendid field for your fancy, to spread out over. I take it that "Bixby" is the "Mr B" in your mind while writing these. Dont fear my mentioning "contents to people." Make such enquiries as I may be able to answer, relying on me for "mum"—which I am better at, than formerly! I am sorry you did not take that trip down the river—you told me of a proposed journey in Feb and I guessed that would be the route You did not venture to name it, I therefore said nothing but would not have been surprised to hear of you in this vicinity at any time I am glad to hear from you—write more—nobody likes to hear from you, as well as I.! If my course with this check dont please you say so at once. Im worried about it— but have not the time to consider it as fully as I would like before acting 20 Dolls wont hurt either of us so here goes, in obedience to you.! Good bye Sam, with love to your wife & babies|?| Yours ever Will

(On the envelope of Bowen's letter Clemens wrote "Race.") Bowen provided corrections and additional figures in a telegram of 15 May: "Eighteen forty four J. M. White three days six hours forty four minutes in fifty two Eclipse three six four Same A. L. Shotwell three three forty Same reindeer three twelve forty five sixty nine dexter three six twenty" (CU-MARK). Clemens used some of the information in his final "Old Times" installment, in the Atlantic Monthly for August 1875 (SLC 1875/, 192). In praising "Old Times," Bowen doubtless alluded specifically to the fourth installment, in the A tlantic for April (available by mid-March), although his description could have applied equally to installments two and three. The St. Louis Times reprinted the Atlantic, at least selectively (see 13? Feb 75 to Wiley, n. 1).

To Elisha Bliss, Jr. 24 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK)

M c h . 24. F r i e n d Bliss— Called twice to suggest that W m H . Wright ( " D a n de Quille") i city editor of the Virginia City (Nevada) " E n t e r p r i s e " is a good m a n to write a stirring & t r u t h f u l b o o k about the "big bonanza," because he has been city editor o n thatj5 paper m o r e t h a n 14 years, & knows it all—& everybody. 1 If you like the idea, d r o p h i m a line. I came near writing h i m myself the other day, b u t waited»* to see how t h e notion might strike you. T h e book ought really to b e T h e Story of the Comstock L o d e , with all the strange & romantic f o r t u n e s & incidents connected with it, & make the

425

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

Bonanza the grand climax. It is a marvelous subject.2 The first big compliment I ever received was that I was "almost worthy to write in the same column with Dan de Quille." Since Anna Dickinson don't sign the contract, I think you are the lucky party—not she.3 Ys Clemens. ¡3 [letter docketed:] / [and] Sam'l Clemens | Mch. 24 "75 1

Wright was the senior reporter and local editor for the Virginia City, Nevada, Territorial Enterprise when Clemens joined the staff in 1862. Clemens filled Wright's place during his absence on a trip home to Iowa, and afterward the two men worked together, becoming close friends and, for a time, roommates. After Clemens left for San Francisco in 1864 they fell out of touch, and they had exchanged no correspondence—except for Clemens's wedding announcement—in the intervening years. Wright was still employed on the Enterprise, working long hours for a meager wage and writing fiction and humor on the side to supplement his income (LI, 277 n. 4; L4, 62; Lewis, xii, xiv; Berkove 1988, 2). 2 From 1861 through 1874 the mines of the Comstock lode, located on the east side of Mount Davidson near (and under) Virginia City, produced more than $ 150 million in gold and silver bullion. In October 1874, a rich vein of silver—considered the "true heart" of the lode—was discovered, and soon came to be known as the "great bonanza" because of its immense value, estimated as high as $ 1.5 billion. This discovery and the attention it was drawing to Nevada persuaded Clemens of the appeal of the book he proposed here (Wright 1876, 365-66; Annual Cyclopaedia 1874, 593). 3 See 8-10 July 74 to Dickinson, nn. 1, 2.

To William Wright (Dan De Quille) 24 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-BANC) (SLC/Mj)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, H A R T F O R D .

Mch. 24. 1 Dear Dan: I have just dropped this note to my publisher: "Friend Bliss—Called twice to suggest that there is money in a

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book about the Big Bonanza if tackled immediately—& likewise to suggest that Wm H Wright ("Dan de Quille',') of the Virginia City "Enterprise" is the a good man to write a stirring & truthful history of it book about it, because he has been City Editor of that paper more than 14 years, & knows it all—& everybody. "If you like the idea, drop him a line." I gave Bliss the idea, also, that the book ought really to be The Story of the Comstock Slv Silver Lode, with all the strange & romantic fortunes & incidents connected with it,—& let the Bonanza be the grand climax. It is a superb subject. And I added: "The first big compliment I ever received was that I was almost worthy to write in the same column with Dan de Quille." 1. In case Bliss writes you, Dan— 2.—And you do not own the Bonanza yourself— 3—And you like the notion of writing the book— I will observe that the usual royalty paid by subscription houses is 4 per cent on the retail price of the book. So you should get that—& one or two per cent more, if you can. The book should be 500 or 600 pages 8vo, & sell for $3.50 up to $5 per copy. I get 5 per cent on Innocents Abroad & it has paid me $25,000 or $30,000.1 get 7 V, per cent on Roughing It. It has sold something over 100,000 copies, & consequently has paid me about the same aggregate that Innocents has.2 I make give the above items for your guidance. If you should write a book will you come & stay in my house while you read your proofs, Dan? Yrs Ever Mark. 1 Clemens did not mail this letter for several days (see 29 Mar and 4 Apr 75 to Wright). 2 See 22 May 74 to Bliss, n. 2. American Publishing Company bindery records indicate that by the end of February 1875, about 114,000 copies of The Innocents Abroad and 88,363 copies of Roughing /rhad been bound. Although the average cover price per book sold during this period is not known, a surviving statement for the second half of 1875 records an average price of only $3.56. Even a slightly higher estimated average—$3.60—would have yielded a royalty of only $20,292 from Innocents and $23,593 from Roughing It (APC: 1 8 6 6 - 7 9 , 102-10, 195, 203; 1876b; see L4, 176 n. 4).

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

To Orion Clemens 27 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK)

Hartford, M c h 27. M y Dear Bro: N o , I must not invest in that property. You have been contented there only a little part of your time, & your life-history is ample evidence that you may tire of it completely at any moment & want to be moving. I hardly know whether I would rather own the mortgage that is on the place or the place itself. They seem to be of about equal value—as investments. Why not have Mr. Stotts sell Mollie a life interest in the place for an annual sum—say your present rental. If your house-renters are going to quit, the property will not be worth a cent more than the interest on a thousand dollars. 1 Would not that arrangement shield you & Mr. Stotts from the government? You are perfectly safe from government prosecution, as it stands; & I should suppose his homestead would be exempt, but don't know. 2 We are under too heavy an expense to be venturing upon outlays that amount to much. I must send M a $ 2 0 0 today, & as much more, presently, for I am a good deal behindhand with her, I think. 3 We look for the bills, tomorrow, for the furniture of a guest room, our bedroom, the study, & odds & ends in other rooms. These cannot fall short of $5000; & we are purposing to pay off the 816000 which we still owe on our ground, & thus free ourselves of debt. 4 I say these things to show you why it is that we seem to be considering pennies & respecting nickels. One don't get out of debt without doing just that sort of thing, disagreeable as it is. If you like the idea of changing dem republican rule into democratic rule, go it! There is something enormously ludicrous about it— to me. Even colossal. To speak of going to hell to avoid our August heats, sounds feeble in its presence. If you will let me make a suggestion, it is this: the present era of incredible rottenness is not democratic, it is not republican, it is national. This nation is not reflected

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in Charles Sumner, but in Henry Ward Beecher, Benjamin Butler, Whitelaw Reid, W m M. Tweed. Politics are not going to cure moral u l cers like these, nor the decaying body they fester upon. 5 Affly # Yr Bro. Sam. P. S. I will help you with money from time to time as necessity requires. Enclosed is $ioo. 1 The letter (now lost) from Orion which Clemens answered must have renewed an 1874 request that Clemens buy the farm near Keokuk owned by William Stotts, Mollie Clemens's father. Orion and Mollie had been raising chickens there since the spring of that year, paying rent to Stotts because Clemens had refused then to purchase it. In an Autobiographical Dictation of 5 April 1906 Clemens claimed that he had sent Orion "three thousand dollars cash" to buy the farm, implying that he had done so when first asked (CU-MARK, in MTA, 2:324). This claim is not supported by Clemens's 1874-75 letters or by any other presently available documents (see 23 Apr 74 to OC, n. 1, and 10 June 74 to OC and MEC, n. 3). 2 Possibly a reference to a tax liability on the Stotts farm. 3 These are the only specific support payments to Jane Clemens mentioned in Clemens's extant letters for 1874-75. How much additional money he provided is not known, at least in part because hundreds of his letters to his mother were burned, at his direction, after Mollie's death in 1904 (see McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenance). 4 The Clemenses had probably ordered their guest room furniture in New York in September 1874; it had arrived in January 1875. The $16,000 they allegedly still owed on their "ground" cannot be explained: surviving records indicate that they had paid a total of $ 13,000 for the lot on which they built their house and had no remaining debt. See Clemens's claim in the next letter that he had not been in debt for ten years (3 July 74 to OLC, n. 3; 20 Sept 74 to Parish; 12 Jan 75 to Howells; L5, 270-71). 5 Charles Sumner (1811-74), a senator from Massachusetts from 1851 until his death, used his considerable gift for oratory in a tireless crusade against slavery and injustice, becoming one of the most revered statesmen of his day. Henry Ward Beecher was on trial for adultery in a civil suit brought by the husband of his alleged paramour (see 29? July 74 to Twichell, n. 2). Benjamin Butler's honesty had been questioned throughout his career (see 12 Mar 74 to the editor of the London Standard, n. 8). William M. Tweed was head of the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine in New York City, infamous for committing flagrant graft and fraud during the early 1870s. Clemens's inclusion here of Whitelaw Reid, the zealously pro-reform editor of the New York Tribune, was clearly the result of personal animus: in the spring of 1873 Clemens had decided Reid was "a contemptible cur" for objecting to his request that Edward House review The Gilded Age for the Tribune. Only a few months before that offense, Clemens had praised Reid for his opposition to the Tweed Ring and the Grant administration (LS, 262, 367-69, 573 n. 17; Duncan, 65).

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

To David Gray 28 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NHyF)

Hartford, Mch. 28. M y Dear David: Oca Mrs. Gray's brave letter excited our admiration of her character as much as it grieved us that she should need to make the sacrifice which is the testimony of her fortitude. To have to give up your home is only next in hardship to having to give up your babies.1 Ten days ago I had a great tree cut down, which stood within five steps of the house, because I thought it was dead; & it turned out that it was all perfectly sound except one big branch near the top. A stranger would not think we had not trees enough, still; but I find myself keeping away from the windows on that side because that stump is such a reproach to me. That maple was part of our home, you see; & it is gone. How one can abide parting with all of his home So I comprehend & realize one little fraction of what it is to part with all of one's home. But we must & we will hope that some happy turn will enable you to take that sign from off your door-post & keep your home. We will not consent to think of a stranger sheltering himself in that nest. There is only one harder thing than being homeless, & that is, being in debt. So it is some little comfort to know that if you lose the home you will save at least save yourself from that other distress—a distress so exquisite, so respiteless, so relentless, that it stands out by itself, among tortures of the mind, like cancer among the tortures of the body. I suffered it once, ten years ago, & I think I have forgotten all the circumstances of that time but that one.2 It remains St. Peter's still, strong & black, after Rome has melted into the level Campagna, & even the mountains are become vague & hazy. Mr.», & Mrs. Howells were here the other day, & the only pang about their visit was that it was too short.3 What a perfectly delightful multitude those two people are! They fill the whole house & all the region round about with a mighty comfortable pleasantness. But you know what they are; at least you know Howells; I forgjiet whether he said she was at your house or not. In the spring, if you can only come

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here, & Mrs. Clemens's strength continues to improve as it does now, Howells will come down, & Mrs. H., too, if she can, & we shall have a restful good time—& you will see the Twichells. (I speak of the Spring as if it were not already here—& it is, but only in the almanac.) 4 Day before yesterday the most notable feature of the furniture for my study came at last, & the place looked almost complete. But alas for human hopes & plans, I had to move out yesterday & write in a bedroom; & tomorrow I shall move my inkstand permanently into a corner of the billiard room. If ever the babies get beyond fretting & crying (the nursery adjoins the study), then I shall move back again. Yesterday I began a novel. I suppose I am a fool, but I simply couldn't help it. The characters & incidents have been galloping through my head for three months, & there seems to be no way to get them out but to write them out. My conscience is easy, for few people would have fought against this thing as long as I have done. I certainly won't finish it, though, until I shall have completed one of my other books.5 Mrs. Clemens sends her love to you two, & will write soon. She is threatened with dipththeria to-day & can't go into the nursery—she don't enjoy that. Yours Ever Mark. 1

Martha Gray's letter, which informed the Clemenses that she and her husband were forced to sell their house, has not been found. In April 1873, David Gray, co-owner of the Buffalo Courier, had suffered "financial embarrassments that had come upon him, in connection with his newspaper interest." Presumably, these difficulties had not "come out, all right," as he had hoped (Lamed, 1:139). 2 In the fall of 1865 Clemens fell into debt while living in San Francisco (RI 1993, 405,701; LI, 324-25). 3 See 14 Mar 75 to Langdon. 4 Although the temperature was as low as twenty-nine degrees on the morning of Sunday, 28 March, "beautiful spring weather" had been noted three days earlier, and "Blue birds made their appearance on Saturday" (Hartford Courant: "Brief Mention," 26 Mar 75, 2, 29 Mar 75, 1; Hartford Times: "The News," 29 Mar 75, 2). 'The new novel has not been identified. The "other books" were Sketches, New and Old, which Clemens was about to submit to the American Publishing Company, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which he finished in July 1875.

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

To Dean Sage 28 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Lamb) Hartford Mch 28. M y Dear Sage— You've got the date right; but we shan't want to go outside ofyour own door-yard till we shove for Hartford—not even to attend prayer meeting. Don't want to dine with anybody but you; don't want any social intercourse that will take us outside of your snuggery. We are coming for a reposeful, tranquilizing, rejuvenating private debauch, & a clandestine good time. We appreciate your good intentions, but they are misguided, my boy, & evince a vast misapprehension of the peculiar lusts of your guests & your own attractions. The cheerful jug, the contemplative cigar, holy conversation, & isolation from the world—these are the things that are precious to us; & all things else hold we to be valueless.1 We will telegraph you what time to expect us at your office.2 Truly yours S. L . Clemens 1

Clemens and Twichell planned to visit Sage and his wife at their Brooklyn home in mid-April (see pp. 446, 449, and 22 Apr 75 to Sage). Sage (1841— 1902), an 1861 graduate of Albany Law School, worked for H . W. Sage and Company, his father's New York lumber firm. An avid sportsman, he owned an exceptional library of books on angling, and he contributed articles on the subject to the Atlantic Monthly, the Nation, and other magazines. Clemens probably first met the Sages through the Langdons or through Ttoichell, all close friends of theirs. Like his father, Henry W. Sage, Dean Sage was a generous benefactor of Cornell University (L4,474 n. 2; AD, 23 Feb 1906, C U - M A R K , in MTA, 2:137-39). 2 Before May 1875 H . W. Sage and Company was located in New York at 110 Front Street, evidently the office, and at the foot of East Thirty-second street, evidently the lumberyard. By 1 May 1875, at the latest, the office had moved to 67 Wall Street (Wilson: 1874, 1135; 1875, 1158).

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To William Wright (Dan De Quille) per Telegraph Operator 29 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Transcript: CU-BANC)

Hartford Conn March 2 9 . 7 5 To Dan De Quille Ent. ofs. You have a splendid good thing. Meddie with no Western publisher, nor with Worthington either. Do not let Ralston have the pamphlet unless he allows you to add it to the book.1 Make bargains of no kind until you get my letters.2 S'aml L . Clemens. 1 Clemens answered a 22 March letter from Wright that has not been found (see the next letter). It is clear, however, from Wright's letters to his sister, Lou Wright Benjamin, that he wrote to Clemens for advice about two proposed works: a paperback ("the pamphlet") about the Comstock lode and its developers, and a collection of sketches. San Francisco publisher A. L . Bancroft and Hartford subscription publisher A. D. Worthington had expressed interest in the sketchbook. William C. Ralston (1826-75) was the founder and president of the Bank of California whose speculations with the bank's funds, especially in the Comstock mines, brought about its collapse in August 1875. He was one of several prominent businessmen and mine owners who had urged Wright, widely acknowledged as an authority on the mines, to write a work about the Comstock that would increase their fortunes by attracting investors while memorializing their own roles in the development of the bonanza (see the next letter, nn. 5, 9). Wright was uncomfortable with the pressure from Ralston and the other would-be backers, but was tempted by their offer to pay the publishing costs. On 24 January he wrote to his sister (CU-BANC):

The matter of my book is pushed and crowded upon me every day. All I have to do to make money if all else fails is to turn clown and publish a book. I can get all the money I want. Many men with their pockets overflowing would almost turn them wrong side out for the sake of having a paragraph in the book about themselves, when if I were sick and destitute and not likely to print a book would not give me a single dollar. I am beginning to receive short histories of what this man and what that man did on certain trying occasions, for it is thought that my book will give all that has ever happened on the Pacific Coast. Yesterday I received an account from the head man of Wells, Fargo & Co. and this Coast of how he crossed the mountains in some big storm. I have not read it yet, but I have no doubt I might make a hero of him and not half try. Before trying however I think I should get his check for about $500 worth of the books, which is a good way of securing the success of a "work of merit" in these desperate days. In case I start in on a book I shall go after the rich men of this Coast for enough to make me

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safe and then shall make them print the book and give me all of the profits of it. There is no use of doing things by halves. If they are bound to have a book I will give them a book—red-hot. I want to be in a position to snap my fingers at the critics who are sure to go after me and my book and to have money to hire newspapers to let me give the critics as good as they send. Later in the same letter he described his second project, which would not require wealthy patrons: "It will be nothing more than a collection of little sketches already published, with some new ones and all of the old ones a good deal enlarged." Wright described both books again in a letter to his sister of 28 March ( C U - M A R K ) : I have written to Mark Twain about a publisher for my book and about the whole business. I expect an answer shortly. Meantime A. L. Bancroft & Co., of San Francisco are anxious to either publish the book or to have the management of its sale on this coast. 1 shall give them no answer till after hearing from Mark. . . . I have not yet finished a single sketch for the book, though 1 am getting the material together and doing what I can toward it when I can spare time from the book I am now engaged upon. Two books and the local columns of the paper is a big job to have on hand at one and the same time. . . . Although to be in paper covers, it is likely to be quite a book. I have finished the underground regions of the mines and am about done with the mills and processes by which the silver is extracted from the ores. I have yet to write a description of the "bonanza mines" and an account of the discovery and early history of the Comstock, with something of the present appearance of Virginia City, etc. We expect to print 10,000 the first edition. It will be a big help toward selling the second book—the sketches—as I put in a little something pleasant wherever I can, dry as is the subject. 1 think I should call it "The Big Bonanza." In fact, Wright's book on the mines did not appear in "paper covers." The American Publishing Company, Clemens's publisher, issued it by subscription in 1876 as The Big Bonanza: An Authentic Account of the Discovery, History, and Working of the World-Renovmed Comstock Lode of Nevada. Wright did not publish a separate volume of sketches. 2 That is, Clemens's letters of 24 March, and 29 March and 4 April. As the next letter indicates, he had not yet mailed the first and he sent this telegram before he began writing the second.

To William Wright (Dan De Quille) 29 March and 4 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Transcript and MS: Morris and Anderson, CU-BANC)

Hartford M a r c h 29. Dear D a n — Wonders never will cease. W h e n the postman came this morning I recognized your handwriting & said to my wife, " N o w you shall see that human sympathies can stretch their influences further across a

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continent (with unbroken force), than the telegraphic spark can. ( T h e spark must be repeated midway). I will tell you the contents o f this letter without breaking the seal; & yet I have held n o communication with this friend in eleven years. T h i s letter will ask advice & information of m e about publishing a b o o k concerning the C o m s t o c k lead, one feature of w h i c h shall b e a chapter or t w o about the B i g Bonanza. T h e reason this letter has been written, is, that less than five days ago, I wrote to Dan suggesting that he write this very book! M y mind suggested it to his m i n d , for my letter to h i m has not been mailed, yet because I have also written my publisher & a m waiting for his answer before I start D a n o n a b o o k w h i c h m a y possibly not b e wanted. 1 T h e n I broke the seal & read passages to her w h i c h showed that I had correctly stated what the contents would be. N e x t I went & got m y o w n letter out of the pigeon-hole & surprise N o . 2 came! to wit: Your letter to m e was dated M a r c h 22; mine to y o u was dated M a r c h 2 4 — t w o days later. S o it was your mesmeric current that had flowed across the mountains & deserts three thousand miles & acted u p o n me, instead of m i n e flowing westward & acting u p o n you. So you were the originator of the idea. N o w as I dropped my work & b e gan to act on the very instant that the notion occurred to me, (that is, on the very day, possibly the very moment y o u were writing m e — f o r I called the carriage & went d o w n to m y publishers on the 22d, & again on the 23 d , & then wrote y o u on the 24th (because I despaired of catching the publisher in) three things are plainly established—namely: Ist M e s m e r i c sympathies can flash themselves 3000 miles within the space o f 12 h o u r s — p o s s i b l y instantly. ( W h a t hour of the day did y o u write me?) 2 d T h e y c o m e clear through, & don't have to be repeated at way stations between, like land telegraphy. 3 d — T h e y travel f r o m west to east, not f r o m east to west. However, this point o n N o . 3 is not well taken, because there isn't any proof that they don't travel westwardly u p o n occasion. I m e a n to get m y letter f r o m Bliss, so y o u can see b y the postmark that I did write h i m on the 24th & a m not n o w stacking u p a fanciful lie for you. 2 K e e p this present letter o f mine. M a y b e w e can utilize it in s o m e way. 3

Samuel L. Clemens, aged, 39

435

publishing risks. Can't you make the old good soul regard that as a fair equivalent for release from responsibility? Because, don't you see, there ain't any risk. I am a large stockholder & director in our publishing house, & have some influence.4 And besides, if our folks don't want the book, I will very easily find a subscription house that will want it. (I say subscription, because only insane people publish in the old author« robbing way.) I want you, t© Aabout August, toA canvas Virginia & Gold Hill yourself. Why not? It is but small sacrifice of dignity, & then the returns are large. You will clear about $1.75 on each book. Reserve other Nevada camps for yourself, too—that is, be General Agent for the whole State, & sublet to canvassers at 40 per cent off, you receiving the books from here at 50 per cent off & clearing 10 per cent from your underlings' work. H i Include that Ralston mining pamphlet in the book, & make Jones & the other big fish take hundreds of copies & agree to require only one copy of you until you shall have finished canvassing—so as not to glut & kill the market. 5 1 will try to make the publishers supply you with all the books you want (not to be sold outside of Nevada) at a trifle above cost. The retail prices will be $3.50; $4, & $5, according to binding. [in margin: The book to be same size as Roughing It.] The cost of a 83.50 copy is only Si.20. So if we can only manage to get them at $1.30 or $1.40, you'll make a neat thing out of the 3 or 4000 you sell to the big fish.6 Let the big fish take the cheap copies—the $3.50 ones; your profit will be just about they same, & they will get more books for their money. Dan, there are more ways than one of writing a book; & your way is not the right one. You see, the winning card is to nail a man's interest with Chapter 1, & never let up on him for an instant till you get him to the word "finis." That can't be done with detached sketches; but I'll show you how to make a man read every one of those sketches, under the stupid impression that they are mere accidental incidents that have dropped in on you unawares in the course of your narrative. M y letter of the 24th gives the correct idea of what the book should be. It isn't any more trouble to write that book than it is to report an inquest.7 Drop your reporting & come here, right away. Whatever money you

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need, get it of Joe, or telegraph me. 8 Come Don't get it of any reluctant devil who will make you feel under obligations to him. Don't get it of Mackey unless you choose, „(if you have any delicacy about asking him,) because, he is already doing so handsomely. But if he prefers to lend it, all right.9 Only remember that you need go no further than Joe or me. You know old Joe Goodman pretty well—& I know myself. But do not mention to anybody that I make this proposition, because it is better in the eyes of the world that you seem entirely independent. Come right along at once. It exasperates me to think of your slaving away all night long, when there is no earthly occasion for it. To write a book felicitously a man needs to be delightfully circumstanced & entirely free from cares, interruptions & annoyances. Here you shall stop at the best hotel, & every morning I will walk down, meet you half way, bring you to my house & we will grind literature all day long in the same room; then I'll escort you halfway home again. Sundays we will smoke & lie. When you need money you will know where to get it. If ever you feel dedicate about taking it of me, there's the publisher, who will cheerfully advance it. If you write the book out there, it will not be more than one-half as good as it will if you write it here. Atmosphere is everything! If you prefer to write at night, you may write all night here, if you want to—there's a most noble divan in my study to stretch your bones on when you get tired. Besides, when it comes to building a book I can show you a trick or two which I don't teach to everybody, I can tell you! You may think I'm an old fool, Dan, but I warn you I'm a mighty sound one in some things. Bring Joe along with you. What is the use of his staying out there till May? Joe can tell you what an inspiration it is to write in the same room with another fellow. He wrote loads of poetry while I wrote Roughing It—& between whiles we played "66." We'll play billiards, here, or "66," whichever you prefer. 10 You shall use all your old best sketches in your book & use them to better advantage than you are planning for, now. Bring along lots of dry statistics—it's the very best sauce a humorous book can have. Ingeniously used, they just make a readier smack his chops in gratitude. We must have all the Bonanza statistics you can rake & scrape. You shall get up a book that the very children will cry for. I telegraphed you, the moment I got your letter, I was so afraid

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

437

you would commit yourself to some Stenhouse or Bancroft or Worthington. 11 Now as to royalty. N o publisher likes to buy a pig in a poke, of course; so let us leave that alone until we can show the completed M S . to the defendant—then strike for all he will stand, of course. He shall not have it for less than 5 per cent (what I get on Innocents Abroad,) & we will try to get as much more as possible. You need never pay me back any borrowed money unless you get it out of the book. Now you pack up & come along & go to work. Telegraph me. [first 3 lines ofpage (about 12 words) torn away to cancel] By George it was good to hear of old Steve & Daggett & Mackey once more! Give them my ancient love unimpaired. 12 T h e reason I don't demand that you eat & sleep in my house all the time you are here, Dan, is partly because you mightn't want to, but mainly because my wife's health is so unsettled that at times we can't venture to have company, she is so apt to torture herself with fears that her table is not all it ought to be, or the servants lax, or that she is failing to make the guest comfortable. She feels so about her own mother. There is only one guest in the world who gives her not the slightest dread, & that is Joe Goodman. He makes eternal sunshine for her, & she detests the day that he has to leave. [/air 6 lines ofpage (complimentary closes signature, and first postscript) torn away] P. P. S.—Bring lots of photographs of mills, machinery, dumps, or anything that will make a picture, for we always try to cram our books full of pictures. Bring p^hotographs of the men who have made the biggest fortunes out of the Bonanza, (Joe among the rest—& Dennis? 13 & Mackey) & get little bi personal histories „sketches, of their coast histories out of them, to use with the portraits, & hint that their glorification will be gauged by the number of books they take.14 Strike them hard—HARD—HARD! [in margin: Don't be afraid of Stenhouse's book. 15 Bosh!] Apl. 4—Sunday. I delayed my letter in order that I might see my publisher, & meantime my wife was taken down with dipththeria, & so I dropped everything to look after her. I sent for my publisher twice, & he had his long trips for

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nothing, because I was out, both times—about the only two times I have been out in three weeks. But the third time I sent for him I had sense enough to stay in. He liked the idea of the book, & said he had dropped you a line about it.16 So I said that that was all I wanted to know; & that all in good time you should show him a MS that would make him stand & deliver a good royalty or else I was much mistaken in my author. Ys Ever Saml L. Clemens 1

Clemens presumably mailed his 24 March letter with the present one, possibly in a single envelope, on 4 or 5 April. 2 Clemens did not send Wright the 24 March letter to Bliss, but he might have had Bliss display it after Wright came to Hartford in May 1875 (see pp. 487-88). In any event, in his 24 January letter to his sister, Wright had already expressed a belief in what Clemens called "mesmeric sympathies": "It appears to me that all this mind often is mingled as the air and again is separated when mind stands before mind and there passes between the two minds volumes of thought without any trouble about the words or any need of words" (CUB ANC). Both Clemens and Wright later published accounts of the striking circumstances described here. In 1889, Wright discussed "Thought Telegraphy" in his correspondence for the Salt Lake City Tribune: Some time ago I wrote a letter to a literary friend in the East. In about three days I received a letter from that friend. Our letters had crossed each other, and both were about a certain matter. Soon came another letter—a very long one—in which he (the friend) said that he knew my letter was written before his had time to reach me. He said he was so sure he knew the contents of my letter that he took it home unopened and said to his wife: "Here is a letter from a man from whom I have not had a letter in five years. Now I will tell you what it is about before opening it." He was correct in his guess and wrote me about twenty pages about "mind-telegraphy," as he called it. (Wright 1889)

(In fact, as Clemens's present letter, his "very long one," shows, his and Wright's initial letters did not actually cross in the mail.) Clemens's "Mental Telegraphy" appeared in Harper's Monthly in December 1891. He cited the exchange of letters with Wright as "the oddest thing that ever happened to me," and claimed it was the experience that first called his attention to the phenomenon whereby "mind can act upon mind in a quite detailed and elaborate way over vast stretches of land and water" (SLC 1891, 95, 97). The article included descriptions of several similar incidents involving himself and his acquaintances. 3 The text of the letter up to this point survives only in Wright's handwritten transcription, preserved by his descendants, while the remaining portion survives in manuscript in the Dan De Quille Papers in The Bancroft Library (see the textual commentary). The two parts have been combined here in accordance with strong evidence—including Wright's 1889 report that the letter was "about twenty pages"—that they belonged to a single letter. Wright probably made his transcription in 1893, when he received a request for a copy of

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

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Clemens's letter from Richard Hodgson, secretary-treasurer of the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research, who wanted to "complete the evidence" about the incident (Hodgson to Wright, 30 Aug 92 and 4 Apr 93, CUBANC). The manuscript of the second part consists of sixteen pages numbered 7 to 21, plus a last unnumbered leaf. A word count of the surviving manuscript suggests that the missing six pages contained about 500 words— the approximate number in Wright's transcription (475), plus perhaps another one-fourth of a page (about 20 words), lost when Wright failed to transcribe the bottom of page 6. (The second segment of the present text begins at the top of page 7 in mid-sentence.) * See 24 Mar 74 to Aldrich, n. 8, and L5, 310 n. 5. 5 In addition to Ralston, the "big fish" backing the pamphlet were John P. Jones, James G. Fair, and John W. Mackay. Jones (1829-1912), a native of England who spent his youth in Cleveland, went to California at the start of the gold rush, then in 1867 moved to Nevada, where he became superintendent and later part owner of the Crown Point mine. In 1873 he was elected to the United States Senate from Nevada, a post he held for thirty years. Seaver reported in his "Personal" column in Harper's Weekly for 2 May 1874 that Jones was the possessor of the largest income of any person in America, if not in the world, his annual revenue amounting to $6,000,000. He is the owner of a silver mine more productive than any on earth. His part of the profits recently amounted to $250,000 a month, and have just been doubled by the discovery of a new vein. (Seaver 1874g, 375)

Fair (1831-94), originally from Ireland, was the superintendent and a principal owner of the Consolidated Virginia and California mines. In partnership with Mackay (see note 9), he had a controlling interest in a number of other mines, quartz mills, and was worth $30 or $40 million (Lewis, xiii; Wright 1876, 403-5). 6 Bliss typically sold books to his agents for half their cover price—$ 1.7 5 for a $3.50 book {L5, 115 n. 2). For a discussion of how much profit he realized, see 8 Apr 75 to Webb, n. 3. 7 Clemens of course described his technique in writing Roughing It—which had not been in any way the easy task he claimed here (see RI1993, 797-867). "Joseph T. Goodman, the former editor and co-owner of the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, was now living in San Francisco on the considerable fortune he had made from his Comstock investments and from the sale of the Enterprise in 1874 {LI, 242 n. 2; RI 1993, 650-, "Death Calls Discoverer of Mark Twain," San Francisco Chronicle, 2 Oct 1917, 8). 'John W. Mackay (1831-1902), to whom Wright ultimately dedicated The Big Bonanza, was born in Ireland and came to America as a boy. (Clemens consistently misspelled his name.) In 1851 he went to California, where he mined near Downieville, and then, in 1859, moved on to Nevada, where he worked for wages. In an 1897 interview, Clemens recalled that when he first met Mackay in Virginia City in 1862, the "future millionaire" had just started in the brokerage business and had less money than Clemens himself (Budd 1977, 78). Within a short time he began to amass a fortune, first from the Hale and Norcross mine, and then, in partnership with James G. Fair and others, from the Consolidated Virginia and California mines, in which the big bonanza strike of October 1874 was made. He was now worth $50 or $60 million.

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Wright described Mackay as an "unassuming" man, as well as "one of the most kind-hearted and generous," whose knowledge of the Comstock was unsurpassed (Wright 1876, 363-66, 399-401). And Seaver agreed: in his "Personal" column in Harper's Weekly for 27 November 1875 he claimed that Mackay, despite his estimated income of $831,000 a month, was the "most modest and retiring of all of the California millionaires" (Seaver 1875h). 10 Goodman had stayed with Clemens in Elmira in the spring and summer of 1871 (L4, 378, 386; RI1993, 840-42). Sixty-six is a card game played with a deck of twenty-four cards, in which the object is to score 66 points out of a possible 130. For Goodman's advice to Wright, see 29 Apr 75 to Wright, n. 1. 11 Wright wrote his sister on 24 January (CU-BANC): Mr T. B. H. Stenhouse is in this city. He is a Mormon—an ex-Mormon, I should say. He has written a big book on the Mormons. His wife has also written a book of 600 pages on the business, handsomely illustrated and all that, with preface by Harriet Beecher Stowe. You may stand in awe of all these people, but I don't. I have know^j Mr & Mrs Stenhouse for 10 yrs ¡orj 11 years. I was at their house in Salt Lake City in 1863 and ate of their "grub.". . . Stenhouse has been prying round to know "what literary labors I am engaged in outside of those upon my papers." I told him none and tell him truth. Thomas Brown Holmes Stenhouse (1825-82) was the author of The Rocky Mountain Saints: A Full and Complete History of the Mormons, from the First Vision ofJoseph Smith to the Last Courtship of Brigham Young. . . and the Development of the Great Mineral Wealth of the Territory of Utah (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1873). From 1864 to 1869 he was the editor and proprietor of the Salt Lake City Telegraph. His wife, Fanny (b. 1829), wrote Expose of Polygamy in Utah: A Lady's Life among the Mormons (American News Company, 1872) and TellltAll: TheStory ofa Life's Experience in Mormonism: An Autobiography, which had a preface by Stowe and was issued by the Hartford subscription publisher A. D. Worthington in 1874. During the 1873-74 season she lectured on "Polygamy in Utah" for James Redpath's Boston Lyceum Bureau (.Lyceum 1873, 7). 12 Stephen E. Gillis, formerly on the Enterprise staff, and Rollin M. Daggett, who in 1874 succeeded Goodman as the newspaper's editor in chief (LI, 29192 n. 3,310-11 n. 3). 13 Denis McCarthy had already made and lost a fortune in the 1860s before the big bonanza strike of October 1874 brought him new riches, some of which he used to purchase the Virginia City Evening Chronicle ("Death of D. E. McCarthy," Virginia City Evening Chronicle, 17 Dec 85, 2; Angel, 326-27). 14 The Big Bonanza is illustrated with numerous engravings, including portraits of Mackay, Fair, and Jones. Wright did not bring all of the photographs to Hartford, however, but wrote for them during the summer. Fair responded to such a request on 5 August 1875: "I am glad the pictures I had taken for you pleases you—I done the best I could. . . . I have no picture of a car load of Bars—I would get one taken but the artist is on a glorious bust & in Carson— Mr Mackey—Mr James and Ralston were glad to hear from you & know of your good progress with your Book" (CU-BANC; see also S. L. Jones to Wright, 13 Aug 75, CU-BANC). I. E. James (b. 1830) was a mining surveyor and railroad engineer who settled in Virginia City in 1860 and supervised construction of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad in 1870. In The Big Bonanza, Wright described him as "the man who has done nearly all of the intricate surveying that

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has been required in the leading mines on the Comstock lode. Although one of the most modest and unassuming men on the Pacific coast, with him nothing in the way of engineering appears to be impossible" (Wright 1876, 167, 400, 404,407; Angel, 587). 15 Wright may have feared that Stenhouse, whose Rocky Mountain Saints included a history of Utah mining, was planning to write a book about the Comstock lode. 16 Bliss's letter has not been found.

To Charles Henry Webb 8 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NBuU-PO)

(gLC/MT)

FARMINGTON AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Apl. 8. M y Dear Webb: 1 First—Bliss has never made a single reflection upon you in my hearing—not one. N e x t — a s to advising. I could have advised you, but you come so late. All I can advise now, is, do not go to law until you have tried all other ways & f a i l e d — & then don't—because you've nothing to fight with but a mere verbal contract, & that is the weakest of all weak weapons. If you had only come sooner I could have given you priceless advice, viz.,—Never make a verbal contract with any man. Under a written contract the author gets his money & his account of sales regularly, & there is no suspicion & no bad blood. Well, no serious bad blood, at any rate. There's always a remedy. But under a verbal one the author has none. You have none. N o n e in the world. You can get a shyster of a lawyer to take your c a s e — & W s e it for y o u — a t your expense. But a reputable lawyer will advise you to keep out of the law, make the best of a foolish bargain, & not get caught again. I may not be much of a comforter, but I'm doing the best I can, when I advise you to worry through on friendly terms with the publisher & not go from the frying pan into the fire by appealing to the law & almost inevitable defeat. M y contract on "Roughing It" was strongly drawn; but when 90,000 copies had been sold I came to the conclusion that an assertion of Bliss's which had induced me to submit

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to a lower royalty than/1 had at first demanded, was an untruth. I was going to law about it; [in gray ink: PHUO ai^W] 2 but after my lawyer (an old personal friend & the best lawyer in Hartford) had heard me through, he remarked that Bliss's assertion being only verbal & not a part of a written understanding, my case was weak—so he advised me to leave the law alone & charged me $250 for it.3 I know how impulsive & belligerent your spirit ^ used to be before you performed the wisest act of your life at the marriage alt^ar;4 but as you have altered since then, I feel safe in suggesting that you consider well before you quarrel & appeal to the law. I don't know anything about the Columbian Co., but if Bliss is bossing it I am perfectly satisfied that your account of sales has been correctly rendered. 5 It is a mighty tough year for books. The Innocents Abroad & Roughing It, both put together, have not paid me much over $3,000 in the past 12 months. They are old books, they have never had a black eye; I have not lost in reputation •• consequently the serious falling off can be reasonably attributed to nothing but the prevailing business prostration. But I think that the next 3 months will show a different state of things. ,with my books & yours too.6 Therefore I am venturing to bring out a new book 7 —a thing I could not have been hired to do during any part of the past 1 2 months, for it would have been a sort of deliberate literary suicide. So I've become Sam'. J? Clemens to your waning memory! I'll just address this brief note to G . R. Webb, & see how^ow like it to have your name coldly mutilated! Yrs S. L . Clemens over P. S. It's a pretty long letter, & I proposed to mark out all the surplusage but found it too much trouble. We've the diphtheria in the house & can't fool away much time in graceful & perspicuous composition. 8 1

Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK):

(CHW)

2 5 3 CLINTON AVENUE BROOKLYN

April 7 th , 1875 Dear Mark,— I don't know whether or not I've ever done any favor for you, but, if I have, do one for me!

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

443

Help me out of having a disgusting legal row with Bliss. (My fondness for fight has vanished since I married a peaceable little woman.) Briefly the plain facts are thus: E. B. Jr agreed to publish a Book for me in the fall of '73. Verbally he said he'd illustrate it as well as he did yours and give me the same copyright, and sell—great Caesar, CTCTC?thousands!!ITIT1 Well it went on, and he slobbered and spit all over me, and fooled along without giving me a square contract, & turned me over to a little one horse concern (The Colombian) and all this while he's been skipping round like a flea—one could n't pin him anywhere. When I finally wrote him very flat-footedly—dropping the incidental remark that I wished he would n't discuss me quite as freely as I learned he did—he erected himself on his ear, and I've not heard from him since. Now I'm loth to have a nasty legal business of it, & sue him and injunct (that's a good word, I guess) the other fellow. But I don't believe the Colombian's statement of sales—and I don't want to have anything to do with such a breed of dogs—and how can you help or advise me out of it without compromising your relations or putting yourself to overmuch trouble? There was no written contract between us—not even a definite verbal agreement. Apropos, if E. B. Jr has ever gone to you with anything calculated to stir your "bile" towards me—he lies. It was the loose way he let his tongue play round the heads of men to whom he ought to be friendly, that led me to repress the talk I knew he made about me. This of course is all between you, me, and Boss Tweed Yours C.H.Webb Webb addressed the envelope to "Saml F. Clemens Esq | Hartford | Conn. | % | Mr. Twain," and o n it Clemens noted: From Webb. (Mem—"The whirligig of time brings round its revenges." [)j He ve swindled me on a verbal publishing contract on my first book (Sketches), „(8 years ago), & now he has got caught himself & appeals to me for help. I have advised him to do as I did—make the best of a bad bargain & be wiser next time. Apl. 8, 1875. Webb's dispute with Elisha Bliss was over the publication and reported sales of John Paul's Book, Moral and Instructive: Consisting of Travels, Tales, Poetry, and Like Fabrications (1874). N o sales records of the Columbian Book Company, a subsidiary of the American Publishing Company, have been found. For details of Clemens's settlement of his "bad bargain" on The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, And other Sketches, which Webb had published in 1867, see L4, 2 4 7 - 4 8 , 2 4 9 n. 2 , 2 7 4 , 2 8 1 , 2 8 2 n. 4. Clemens's quotation ("The whirligig . . . revenges.") was from Twelfth Night, act 5, scene 1. 2 Clemens wrote these words at the top of a blank page, apparently as a title. H e then crossed them out, turned the sheet upside down, and used it for manuscript pages 3 and 4 of this letter. T h e words now appear upside down near the bottom of page 4. Their significance has not been determined. 3 Clemens had agreed to a royalty of 7.5 percent on Roughing It in the belief that this figure represented half the profit. In March 1872, shortly after the book's publication, he began to suspect that Bliss had overstated his manufacturing costs. H e threatened to sue, but Bliss satisfied h i m and his attorney, Charles Perkins, that 7.5 percent "did represent half profits up to a sale of 5 0 , 0 0 0 " (24 Oct 80 to O C , C U - M A R K , in MTLP, 125; for details see L5, 6 5 69, and RI 1993, 8 7 7 - 8 1 ) . If the cost of manufacturing a $ 3 . 5 0 book was

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$ 1.20, as Clemens had recently told Wright (29 Mar and 4 Apr 75 to Wright), and Bliss sold books to his agents for one-half their cover price, then the profit on a $3.50 book was $.55, and a "half profit" was $.275, or 7.86 percent of the cover price. According to this calculation, Clemens's royalty was only $.0125 per book less than Bliss claimed. 4 Webb had been married to the former Elizabeth W. Shipman, of Brooklyn, since October 1870. 'Elisha Bliss had no known management role with the Columbian Book Company. Richard Woolworth Bliss, his younger brother, had been its secretary, treasurer, and manager since its founding in 1870 (L4, 217 n. 2; Geer: 1871,283; 1872, 289; 1873, 292; 1874, 293). 6 American Publishing Company bindery records indicate that between 1 April 1874 and 30 March 1875, 4,016 copies of The Innocents Abroad and 3,337 copies of Roughing It were bound. At an average cover price of about $3.60, Clemens would have earned $723 from Innocents (5 percent royalty) and $901 from Roughing It (7.5 percent royalty). That the "business prostration," which had begun with the panic of September 1873, continued to prevail is confirmed by the fact that "the number of failures in the United States for the nine months ending September 30, 1875, was 5,334, and the aggregate liabilities were $ 131,172,503. This is greater in number than has ever been recorded before during the same period" {Annual Cyclopaedia 1875,292). This may help explain why between 1 April and 30 June 1875 ("the next 3 months") only 619 copies of Innocents and 504 copies of Roughing It were bound, a significant falling off from the demand during the previous twelve months (APC 1866-79, 101-15, 195, 203; 28 Feb 74 to Brown, n. 3). 1 Sketches, NewandOld, issued in September 1875. 8 Olivia had been ill for about a week.

To Elisha Bliss, Jr. 10 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK)

Saturday P.M. Friend Bliss: I forgot half of my errand today. I wanted to show you Jfi House's printed MS & talk about it. I enclose it now. Take care of it. He writes as if he had made his entire book only a military report upon that small & entirely uninteresting riot out there which the Gf Japaneseies have an idea was a " War." If that proves to be the case it won't sell as many copies as Webb's book, I am afraid. I have written him that you will fulfill

445

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

your contract & publish it if he says so, but that no one in this country will be likely to either buy or read an account of that war. I suggested that he write the sort of book I once mapped out for him. Don't write House without first talking with me. / As soon as you get a chance, drop in on me. 1 Perhaps you'd better keep Gill's letter for future reference. That "whirligig of time" will bring round another revenge by & by I suspect.2 Yrs Clemens gg [letter docketed:] Sam'l Clemens | Apr. 10 "75 1 In the summer and fall of 1874 Edward H. House had corresponded for the New York Herald on Japan's incursion into Formosa, begun that spring to punish native tribes for acts of murder and piracy. House included his Herald material in a book-length monograph, The Japanese Expedition to Formosa, which he printed in Tokyo in 1875. He sent an early copy to Clemens for transmission to Bliss, hoping that Bliss would accept it as the book on Japan for which they had been negotiating, partly through Clemens, since 1871 (see 22 May 74 to Bliss, n. 1). Bliss's American Publishing Company did not publish it or anything else by House. House did publish a travel volume and a novel, both about Japan, with other firms, however (seeL4, 389 n. 1, 713; House, iii, 1-2, 6; Annual Cyclopaedia 1874, 125-26, 428-31). 2 William F. Gill had written a letter (now lost) refusing Clemens permission to reprint "An Encounter with an Interviewer" in Sketches, New and Old (see 12-28 Feb 75 to Bliss, n. 1). Clemens's quotation from Twelfth Night here suggests that the "half" of his errand which he did not forget was to discuss Webb's complaint, also referred to indirectly in the first paragraph (see the previous letter).

To John S. H. Fogg 11 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MeHi) (SLC/MTJ)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, H A R T F O R D .

Apl. II. Dear Sir: 1 I publish only through one house, " T h e American Publishing Company," of this city. Theirs is a uniform edition.

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The only good likeness of me that has been in print is one which first appeared in the London Graphic & afterward (July 4, '74) in Appleton's Journal.2 I am dear Sir Ys Sincerely Sam'. L. Clemens 'This letter survives among the papers of John Samuel Hill Fogg (182696), a Boston physician (see the textual commentary). After polio confined him to a wheelchair in 1873, Fogg devoted himself, with the assistance of his wife, Mary, to building a manuscript collection that finally included five thousand autograph letters and documents. He made a special point of including a photograph of the writer with each letter he collected. It is very likely, therefore, that Clemens here answered an inquiry that was intended to produce a letter for Fogg's collection as well as a photograph to accompany it (biographical information courtesy of the Maine Historical Society). 2 The London Graphic's "good likeness," an engraving from a photograph taken in London by Charles Watkins, appeared on 5 October 1872. A similar, but not identical, engraving—possibly prepared from the Graphic or from a Watkins print furnished by Clemens—accompanied George T. Ferris's biographical sketch in Appletons' Journal for A]\x\y 1874. It is reproduced on p. 447 (see 22 May 74 to Bliss, n. 2, and L5, 162, 194-95 nn. 2, 6).

N o LETTERS written between 11 and 18 April have been found. On Tuesday, 13 April, Clemens and Twichell began a visit to Brooklyn, where they stayed at the home of Dean Sage. The following day, the two visitors attended a session of the adultery trial of Henry Ward Beecher, which was of particular interest to the Sage family because Dean's father, Henry, had been a trustee of Beecher's Plymouth Church for nearly two decades and employed Beecher's son William in his lumber company (Clifford E. Clark, 247). Twichell, who described the occasion at length in his journal, noted that William F. G. Shanks, city editor of the N e w York Tribune, recognized Clemens, and escorted them to the Tribune seats just under the Judge's desk and in the very centre of the Court where we could see everything to the best advantage. This brought us into close proximity to all the principal participants in the Trial. . . . The excitement was such as to be painful. It was very trying to me to

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

447

Engraving f r o m Appletons' Journal (4 July 74, 16). See 11 Apr 75 to Fogg, n. 2.

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see Mr. B. subject to such questioning. He appeared well—innocent—unafraid—at ease, and yet his bearing and style of answering did not somehow come up to my idea. He was a little as though speaking to an audience. I was immensely drawn out to him, and wished for his sake that I was a better man—good enough to sit there and pray for him. . . . Dean Sage came over at noon and lunched with us at the Club, and went to the afternoon session with us. The Judge (Neilson) on being introduced to Mark asked him up to a seat on the bench, but he would not go. At the close of the p.m. session when the Court adjourned I saw Mr Beecher shake hands with Mr Beach of the opposing counsel, and (being very near) heard him say to him, "Sometime I'll tell you all about it," or that substantially. I shook hands with Mr Beecher, and told him who I was, but he replied that he knew me without being told. I never was present on an occasion when I experienced such a powerful sense of the tremendous nature of the issue. (Twichell, 1:80, 82-84) In its coverage of the day's proceedings, the N e w York Tribune of 15 April reported Clemens's and Twichell's attendance: '"Mark Twain' and his friend, the Rev. Joseph H. Twitchel, were seated among the Plymouth members for a time, but moved forward to seats at THE T R I B U N E table to obtain a better view of the witness and the crossexamining counsel" ("The Tilton-Beecher Trial," 3). Twichell pasted a clipping of the Tribune article in his journal, beside the following excerpt from the N e w York Sun of the same date: Yesterday was a momentous day in the trial of Mr. Beecher, the crossexamination of the defendant by Mr. Fullerton being devoted to the most vital of the scandal episodes and documents. Anticipation of the importance of the proceedings drew not less than ten times as many persons to the court house as the trial room could hold, and the excluded nine-tenths of the applicants for admission displayed their tickets and clamored in the hallway. A company that was noteworthy as to some of its components gathered within the railing. Mark Twain shambled in loose of coat and joints and got a seat near the plaintiff's table. He closely resembles Mr. Moulton, and was mistaken by many for that much-watched attendant. Mr. Moulton arrived soon afterward, and when the two were brought together the likeness bore the test of juxtaposition. Mr. Moulton was in features, hair, and expression an enlarged counterpart of Mr. Clemens. The Rev. Joseph M. Twitchell, Mark TWain's companion in the travels of the "Innocents Abroad," was with the humorist. ("Ragged Edge in Earnest," 2; Twichell, 1:86) Underneath this clipping Twichell wrote, "This was a great joke on M. T. who had been greatly disappointed in Moulton's appearance and

449

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

disliked his looks exceedingly." (Twichell was not in fact on the voyage that led to The Innocents Abroad.) On 15 April, Clemens and Twichell lunched at Delmonico's with Sage, John Hay, and William Seaver, then returned to Hartford that evening. Upon his return, Clemens found a letter from Howells (CUMARK): EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

April 14, 1875. My dear Clemens: Here is the united prayer of Mrs. Howells and myself that, when you come up to attend the Lexington Centennial, you and Mrs. Clemens come to our house, which though humble will receive you with open doors and a cordial welcome. I don't know that I need add anything except that I "mean business." Tell us what day and hour to expect you. We got home from Bethlehem yesterday after a most satisfactory fortnight of unbroken spring weather. I telegraphed this afternoon for your sixth installment of Atlantic copy. Yours ever W. D. Howells.

Howells's telegram, requesting the June installment of "Old Times on the Mississippi," is not known to survive. On 17 April Clemens, without Olivia, left for a three-day visit to Cambridge. There he wrote the next letter.

* To Olivia L. Clemens 18 April 1875 • Cambridge, Mass. (MS: CU-MARK)

EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC M O N T H L Y . T H E R I V E R S I D E P R E S S , C A M B R I D G E , MASS.

Mond Sunday Livy Darling: We are having a jolly good time here, I can tell you, & mighty sorry I am that you are not here. 1 You must come next time, sweetheart. 2 1 enclose an impromptu by little Winnie Howells. Sheie always writes an elaborate poem in honor of her father's birth-day, & fits it to the oc-

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casion—but this time she forgot it until the night before & so had to choose a foreign subject & the first that suggested itself.3 She painted a harebell in water colors at the top of the page, which I have rudely copied. If this child hasn't genius I don't know one that has. I do hope you ain't lonely tonight my child. Always lovingly Sam'. [enclosure:]

Sweet flower what makes thee hold thy head so low, Lift up unto the sky thy fair pale face, Thou that art the noblest flower on earth, Lift & show the passers by thy grace. over Then as I looked & pondered O'er my thoughts, The harebell raised its wondering eyes to me,

451

Samuel L. Clemens, aged. 39 A n d said, "he putteth d o w n the mighty from their throne, A n d he exalteth those of low degree." Winnie. st

March I , 1875. [Written & c o m p o s e d by Winnie Howells, in honor of her father's birth-day. She is a child of eleven years—daughter of W. D. Howells.] Mrs. Sam'. L. Clemens. | Farmington avenue | Hartford, | C o n n [return address:] THE ATLANTIC M O N T H L Y , THE R I V E R S I D E P R E S S , C A M B R I D G E , MASS. [postmarked:] C A M B R I D G E STATION MASS, APR 1 9 1

The "jolly good time" included an attempt to attend the centennial celebrations at Concord and Lexington that commemorated the 19 April 1775 battle of the minutemen against British troops. In 1910, in "My Mark Twain," Howells recalled that he and Clemens had received special invitations that included transportation from Boston, but they decided to depart from Cambridge instead. When they arrived at the station, they found the train so packed with celebrants that they could not board. After various futile efforts to find transportation to Concord, Clemens began to suffer "acute indigestion, which gave his humor a very dismal cast." A last chance, Howells wrote, came when Clemens chased after a coach with a group of students on top "but luxuriously empty inside. . . . The unequal match could end only in one way, and I am glad I cannot recall what he said when he came back to me." The two men returned to Howells's house, where they warmed themselves in front of a roaring fire, and then, absurdly and ineffectually, tried to hoax Mrs. Howells with the claim that their trip had been a success. Howells concluded, "I think the humor of this situation was finally a greater pleasure to Clemens than an actual visit to Concord would have been" (Howells 1968,280-82). 2 Olivia explained her absence in a letter of 23 April to Elinor Howells: Don't dream for one instant that my not getting a letter from you kept me from Boston— I am too anxious to go to let such a thing as that keep me— A wet nurse that is tractable and good when I am in the house but who gets drunk when I go away, together with other irresponsible doings by this same nurse when I am not present, lead me to feel that I had better stay closely with my baby until she is weaned, which will not be until next October— (MH-H)

For Clemens's account of this wet nurse, see 16 Mar 75 to Howells, n. 2. 3 Howells's thirty-eighth birthday was 1 March.

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To Dean Sage 22 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Craven)

Hartford, Apl. 22. My Dear Mr. Sage: I should have written before this to make my thanks to you & Mrs. Sage for what was simply a perfect visit.1 There is no stronger term in the dictionary than that, I believe, & a weaker one would not describe the good time we had. The reason I sow have not testified my appreciation sooner, is, that I found a telegram here from Mr. Howells when I got back, asking for [the] June article (which I supposed was already in his hands) 2 —so I was busy enough for two men (though it was a mere matter of revising, & re-writing passages & paragraphs,) up to my leaving for Boston on Saturday. Twichell & I were to do the Centennial together; but he had a remorseful streak after his loose career & indecent conversation in Brooklyn & while under the spell of it he concluded to stay at his post on Sunday. He preached twice that day, left here at midnight, took an early breakfast in Boston, infested Concord & Lexington all day & reached Hartford after midnight that night, so as to be on hand early next day—for he had an opportunity to bury a Chinaman with some Congregational orgies & would Ji not have missed it for the world.3 Howells & I fooled around all day & never got to the jS Centennial at all, though we made forty idiotic attempts to accomplish it. As our failures multiplied he strongly recalled your Indians to me & I kept observing to myself that he was a "dam fool." I learned afterward that he was clandestinely making the same remark about me all the time—& if you could have heard his wife ridicule us when we got home, you would have judged that each of us "in his rude untutored way, had approximated the truth." Which reminds me that Howells had not yet read your MS., but was enjoying a lively hope that it would fill an aching void in the Atlantic which he has long been praying might be supplied by somebody who could write about wood & water sports without being dreary.4

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

453

Mrs. Clemens joins me in cordial remembrances & regards to you & Mrs. Sage, & she hopes you will ignore those Twichells & give us a visit the next time you can get away from home—& I heartily hope the same. With kindest remembrances to your father's & brother's households,5 I am Yrs Truly Sam'. L. Clemens 1

Sage had married Sarah Augusta Manning, the daughter of a Brooklyn merchant, in 1865. For Clemens's visit, see pp. 446,448. 2 Installment six of "Old Times on the Mississippi." 'Twichell wrote to Clemens on Sunday night, 18 April: "Perhaps I shall not see you at Concord to-morrow, and so I write to tell you—and I grieve to do it—that you will in vain expect me in Cambridge Tuesday. I must return by the earliest train Tuesday morning" (CU-MARK). One of the reasons for his change of plans was the death of twelve-year-old Ts'au Kia Tsioh, a student of the Chinese Educational Commission in Hartford (often called the "Chinese Mission"). "Poor little fellow," Twichell wrote, "he's a long way from home, and I feel a tender kindness for him." The Chinese Educational Commission, established in Hartford by the Chinese government in 1872, brought more than a hundred boys to the city for a fifteen-year program of Chinese and Western studies intended to prepare them for government service. Twichell was asked to officiate at the funeral on Tuesday, 20 April, by his good friend Yung Wing, the commissioner who handled the details of the mission. He carefully avoided offense to Chinese sensibilities by suppressing his desire to "preach the Gospel," instead making "the occasion a text on which to expound our common brotherhood in these mortal conditions and experiences" (Twichell, 1:90-93; Wing, 173, 183-90). 4 On 23 April Twichell noted in his journal: "Received from Mr. W. D. Howells a note saying that the article on Salmon Fishing by Dean Sage which was forwarded through me a fortnight since was accepted and would soon appear in 'The Atlantic Monthly.' I sent the note to Dean" (Twichell, 1:94). The article, "Ten Days' Sport on Salmon Rivers," appeared in the August issue; it recounted Sage's adventures on a fishing trip to New Brunswick, Canada. In the previous paragraph of this letter Clemens alluded to a passage about two Native American guides: On one occasion when Peter had made several futile attempts to gaff a fish, André, who was standing near me, remarked as though to himself, "Peter dam fool." Not five minutes later André, despite my remonstrances, allowed the canoe to drop down directly through a part of the pool where we had seen a fish jump, when Peter, turning around to me, said in a whisper, "Dat André dam fool." Both, in their rude, untutored way, had approximated to the truth. (Sage, 147) 5 Henry W. Sage (1814-97) and his wife, the former Susan E. Linn, had one son besides Dean, William Henry (1844-1924), who in 1869 married Jennie Gregg Curtin; by 1875 they had at least two children: Katherine Curtin and

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Henry Williams (1872-1938). Dean and Sarah Sage had three children at this time: Susan Linn, Henry Manning ( 1868-1933), and Sarah Porter. According to the New York directory effective 1 May 1875, Dean and William lived at 770 St. Mark's Avenue, in Brooklyn, while Henry W. Sage lived on the same street at number 755 (Wilson 1875, 1158).

To Mary Mason Fairbanks 23 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CSmH) Hartford, Apl. 23. Dear Mother: Bang away! I deserve it as well as another. 1 1 never never forget you until my conscience warns me that I am guilty as to letters—of course then I have got to set about forgetting you in order to have peace & happiness again. And then to hear you talk! You who keep aggravatingly flitting around right under our noses & yet won't take a train for 3 or 4 hours & run up here & see your children! You've got nothing on your hands— no responsibilities, no cares, nothing to do, & we are brim full! I should think your conscience would give you "rats," as Paul says. We have determined to try to sweat it out, here in Hartford, this summer, & not go away at all. That is Livy's idea, not mine; for I can write ten chapters in Elmira where I can write one here. I work at work here, but I don't accomplish anything worth speaking of. Livy wants to go to Cleveland, but she can't. To carry the household would be like moving a menagerie; & to leave it behind would be like leaving a menagerie ac behind without a keeper. You mustn't suppose I am not trying to work. Bless you I peg away all the time. I allow myself few privileges; but when one is in the workaday world, there's a million interruptions & interferences. I can't succeed except by getting clear out of the world on top of the mountain at Elmira. I mean to try to go down the Mississippi river in May or June, & in that case shall try to stop a night in Cleveland en route. 2 [Is the Kennard House a good hotel?#] But there's nothing certain about it-—except that at the last moment Livy will put her foot on it.3

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

455

I went to Boston & staid 3 days, at a fearful expense of valuable time, to see the Concord Centennial, but it did not come there—so all that was lost. And I went to the Beecher trial with Jo Twichell, expecting to have a chance to rout out Charley & see what he was doing & how he was coming all along, 4 but I ended by doing hardly one of the forty things I went down there to do. Well, I don't somehow seem to accomplish anything. But look here—the real question is, When are you coming here? That is the point. Please don't evade it, but speak up. You shall see two of the loveliest grandchildren you ever had in your life. And you shall see Livy in mighty good health, t o o — & the house the same. Send Charlie & Mollie to u s — & then maybe you'll come! We send bushels of love—& longings for your presence. Sam'. 1

The letter that Clemens answered does not survive. See 29 Nov 74 to Redpath, n. 2. 3 Fairbanks replied (CU-MARK):

2

"Is the Kennard House a good Hotel?" Is that question intended to disparage my house? Ohio has but one Hotel suited to jyowr needs, and that is five miles out of Cleveland on the Lake Shore. If you were coming to canvass the entire state I should insist upon your getting back here to sleep at night. Neither can you get through Cleveland in one n i g h t — It is a long city—has grown since you were here. T h e Mississippi will wait for you, and Livy is a dear, good, reasonable woman, and if she lets you come at all, would prefer to have you take proper rest here at this Wayside Inn. If only she would come with you, and stay while you went on to the scenes of your "former greatness," I should be the happiest of mothers. I am unreconciled to your not coming to us this summer, like a patriarch, with your herds and flocks and little ones. O h I should so enjoy you all!—and I would be the loveliest grandmother Susie and Clara ever saw. [m margin: D o say you'll come & see us this summer. We all want you—all of y o u — It is nothing to move a caravan now-a-days.] If you could write in the inspiring atmosphere of Elmira mountain, what could you not do here in our "Sunset pavilion," or under our whispering pines? I am in a sort of ecstacy this morning for the hand of enchantment has touched everything with a new beauty. Last night there was a heavy rain and this morning the sun is laughing through every rain-drop— Diamonds and Emeralds hang from every limb and leaf—the cherry trees have burst into flower and look like huge bridal bouquets in all this wildwood of evergreens—the willows and the alders and the silver poplar make a sort of lace-work of pale green and grey between my eyes and the farther evergreens—and beyond, the lake goes sailing by in a sheet of peacock green—and still beyond is the grey line of sky which always seems to me the threshold of the undiscovered c o u n t r y — Mr. Fairbanks is in N . Y. or Philadelphia— We go east on the slightest pretext of business because we have two nice children there. Mollie writes to me in her letter of Saturday, to get "English Statesmen" & "English Radical L e a d e r s " — She has enjoyed them so much & knows I will. Think of it!—in my heart she still nestles like the little Red Riding hood of the Nursery R h y m e s — She is a simple little maid yet in looks & manners. I cannot bear to have you forget her. It just occurs to m e — Is Mr. TVichell coming to General Assembly? I wish he would. I am to

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have four delegates— Press him to come and bring you as layman, I'll certify to your being qualified and I'll give you my best rooms. Don't burden your conscience now by neglecting to write to me. Face the undertaking as one of your duties. It is a shame for you not to let me hear of you all, at least once a month, because among all your mothers no one holds you and yours more tenderly than I— Mary M. Fairbanks Cleveland May 10^/75

Mary Paine (Mollie) Fairbanks, now eighteen and evidently away at school, had been reading English Statesmen, prepared by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1875), and English Radical Leaders, prepared by R.J. Hinton (1875), the first two volumes in a series entitled Brief Biographies of European Public Men, edited by Higginson and published by G. P. Putnam's Sons (New York). The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church met in Cleveland on 20 May. Twichell, a Congregational minister, did not attend (Annual Cyclopaedia 1875, 641). 4 No recent New York correspondence by Charles Mason Fairbanks has been found in his family's Cleveland Herald, but he may have been working for a New York newspaper while seeking opportunities as an artist.

To William Dean Howells 23 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B)

(SLC/MT)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Apl. 23. My Dear Howells: I've got Mrs. Clemens's picture before me, & hope I shall not forget to send it with this. 1 Jo Twichell preached morning & evening here last Sunday; took midnight train for Boston; got an early breakfast & started by rail at 7.30 A M for Concord; swelled around there until 1 P. M . , seeing everything; then traveled on top of a train to Lexington; saw everything there; traveled on top of a train to Boston, (with hundreds in company) deluged with dust, smoke & cinders; yelle $ yelled & hurrahed all the way like a schoolboy; lay flat down to dodge numerous bridges, & sailed into the depot, howling with excitement & as black as a chimney [in top margin: got to] sweep; got to Young's Hotel at 7. P. M.; sat dowin down in reading-room at Young's H o / t l & immediately fell asl^eep; was

Samuel L. Clemens, aged. 39

457

promptly awakened by a porter who supposed he was drunk; wandered around an hour & a half; then took 9 P M train, sat down in smoking car & remembered nothing more until awakened by conductor as the train came into Hartford at 1.30 A M . Hopped up in the morning & hived his Chinaman. Thinks he had simply a glorious time—& wouldn't have missed the Cent/ennial for the world. He would have run out to see us a moment at Cambridge, but was too dirty. I wouldn't have wanted him there—his appalling energy would have been an insufferable reproach to mild adventurers like you & me. Some of the things Joe saw were inexpressibly funny—pity but he could talk on paper as he does with his mouth. 2 Well, he is welcome to the good time he had—I had a deal better one. M y narrative has made Mrs. Clemens wish she could have been there. When I think over what / a splendid good sociable time I had in your house I feel ever so thankful to the wise providence that thwarted our several ably-planned & ingenious attempts to get to Lexington. I am coming again before long, & then she shall be of the party. Now you said that you & Mrs. Howells could run down here nearly any Saturday. Very well then, let us call it next Saturday/, for a "starter." Can you do that? By that time it will really be spring & you won't freeze. The birds are already out; a small one paid us a visit yesterday. We entertained it & let it go again, Susie protesting. 3 The spring laziness is already upon me—insomuch that the spirit begins to move me to cease from Mississippi articles & everything else & give myself over to idleness until we go to New Orleans. I have one article already finished, but somehow it dont seem as proper a chapter to close with as the one already in your hands. I hope to get in a mood & rattle off a good one to finish with—but just now all my moods are lazy ones.4 Winnie's literature sings through me yet! Surely that child has one of these "future's" before her.5 Now try to come—will you? With the warmest regards of the two of us— Ys Ever S. L . Clemens 1 Clemens had intended to enclose a photograph in his letter of 26 January to Howells, but may have forgotten. He did remember to enclose one now (see 7

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May 75 to Howells, n. 1), but it does not survive with this letter. Howells presumably requested it during Clemens's recent visit to Cambridge. 2 In his journal Twichell characterized his adventures at the Concord and Lexington centennial on 19 April as "a day full of high interest, qualified by much physical discomfort," recording many of the same details that Clemens reported here (Twichell, 1:88-90). 3 In her separate letter to Elinor Howells on 23 April, Olivia seconded Clemens's invitation, but suggested "next Sunday," and concluded: Mr Clemens did have such a good time with you and Mr Howells, he evidently has no regret that he did not get to the centenial— I was driven nearly distracted by his long account of Mror Mr. Howells and his wanderings— I would keep asking if they ever got there, but he would never answer, but made me listen to a very minute account of every thing that they did— At last I found them back where they started from— (MH-H) 4

While in Cambridge, Clemens apparently reinterested Howells in the Mississippi River trip they had decided against in February, but which Clemens now hoped to make in May or June. The "Old Times on the Mississippi" article in Howells's hands was the sixth installment. The seventh and final installment appeared in the Atlantic Monthly for August. 5 See 18 Apr 75 to OLC.

To William Dean Howells 24 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B)

(sic)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Apl. 24. M y Dear Howells: An actor n a m e d D. H . Harkins has been here to ask me to p u t u p o n paper a 5-act play which he has been mapping out in his m i n d for 3 or 4 years. H e sat down & told me his plot all through, in a clear, bright way, & I was a deal taken with it; but it is a line of characters whose fine shading & systemati artistic development require an abler h a n d than mine; so I easily perceived that I must not make the attempt. But I liked the m a n , & thought there was a good deal of stuff in him; & therefore I wanted his play to be written, & by a capable hand, too. So I suggested you, & said I would write & see if you would be willing to undertake it. If you like the idea, he will call u p o n you in the course of two or three weeks & describe his plot & his characters. T h e n if it don't strike you favorably, of course you can simply decline; but it seems to

459

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

me well worth while that you should hear what he has to say.1 You could also "average" him while he talks, & judge whether he could play your priest—though I doubt if any man can do that justice.2 Shan't I write him & say he may call? upon If you wish to communicate directly with him instead, his address is "Marchmont Manor, Westchester Co., N . Y . " Do you know, the chill of that 19 th of April 3 seems to be in my bones yet? I am inert & drowsy all the time. That was villainous weather for a couple of wandering children to be out in. Y s Ever Mark. 1

Daniel H. Harkins (1835P-1902) was born in Boston and began his stage career in Chicago in 1853. He served in a New York regiment during the Civil War, attaining the rank of major. In 1866 he returned to acting, and also became the stage manager of the New York Theatre. Upon Harkins's recommendation, in 1869 Augustin Daly opened his first Fifth Avenue Theatre, on Twenty-fourth Street, engaging Harkins as an actor and stage manager. Harkins possessed a remarkably resonant voice, and was successful in both dramatic and comedic roles. In early 1875, he was in the cast of the traveling company of Daly's popular comedy The Big Bonanza (based on Ultimo, by Gustav von Moser), which performed at the Brooklyn Theatre from 23 through 28 March and at the Fifth Avenue Theatre on 1 April. Nothing further has been learned of the play Harkins now proposed: see 12 May 75 to Howells, n. 3 (Clapp and Edgett, 1:139-40; Joseph Francis Daly, 83, 92; Odell, 9:540-41, 575,623). 2 A Venetian priest, Don Ippolito, who falls in love with an American girl he is tutoring and ultimately dies of a broken heart, figures in A Foregone Conclusion, which Howells had been considering for dramatic adaptation since the previous fall (see 29 Oct 74 to Daly, n. 4; Hart 1983,257). ' T h e day that Clemens and Howells tried to attend the centennial celebration (18 Apr 75 to OLC, n. 1).

To Jane Lampton Clemens and Pamela A. Moffett 25 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK) Hartford, Sunday. 1 M y Dear Mother & Sister: We want to congratulate Annie—& we think you should be congratulated, too, upon having such a cargo of care & worry lifted from

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you. We got Annie's letter, but I did not know it until just after mailing mine. 2 1 was afraid the general snow storm would delay her train, & am glad to hear it did not. I saw Gov. Jewell today & he said he was still moving in the matter of Sammy's appointment & would stick to it till he got a result of a positive nature one way or the other, but thus far he could did not know whether to expect success or defeat. I confess that I fear it will turn out that only soldiers' & sailors' sons can get these special appointments, libut we won't give it up until we know. I wonder if Mr. Moffett wasn't in the Home Guard some time or other?3 Ma, whenever you need money I hope you won't be backward about saying so—you can always have it. We stint/ ourselves in some ways, but we have no desire to s/tint you. And we don't intend to, either. I can't "encourage" Orion. Nobody can do that, conscientiously, for the reason that before one's letter has time to reach him he isj£ off on some new wild-goose chase. Would you encourage in literature a man who, the older he grows the worse he writes? Would you encourage Orion in the glaring insanity of studying^ law? If he were packed & crammed full of law, it would be worthless lumber to him, for his is such a capricious & ill-regulated mindei that he would apply the principles of the law with no more judgment than a child of ten years. I know what I am saying. I laid one of the plainest & simplest of legal questions before Orion once, & the helpless & hopeless mess he made of it was absolutely astonishing.4 Nothing aggravates me so much as to have Orion mention law or literature to me. Well, I cannot encourage him to try the ministry, because he would change ,hisA religion^ so fast that he would have to keep a traveling agent under wages to go ahead of him to engage pulpits & board for him. 5 I cannot conscientiously encourage him to do anything but potter around his little farm & put in his odd hours contriving new & impossible projects at the rate of 365 a year—which is his customary average. He says he did well in Hannibal! Now there is a man who ought to be entirely satisfied with the grandeurs, emoluments & activities of a hen farm. 6 If you ask me to pity Orion, I can do that. I can do it every day & all day long. But one can't "encourage" quicksilver, because it the instant you put your finger on it it isn't there. No, I am saying too m u c h — he does stick to his literary & legal aspirations;, & sorry & he naturally would select the very two things which he is wholly & preposterously

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

461

unfitted for. If I ever become able, I mean to put Orion / on a regular pension without revealing the fact that it is a pension. That is best for him. Let him consider it a periodical loan/, & pay interest out of the principal. 7 Within a year's time he would be looking upon himself as a benefactor of mine, in the way of furnishing me a good permanent investment for money, & that would make him happy & satisfied with himself. If he had money he would share with me in a moment, & I have no disposition to be stingy with him. But I do hate to spend a cent on Mollie—I always grudge it. I like her father, but do not want his farm. 8 The old man has mighty good points about him—along with some bad ones. He is the best oithat gang. 9 Livy I don't want any recipe for sleeplessness except a couple of bottles of lager-beer, but I'm willing Livy should try the rubbing. N o doubt it is good/, though I wish she would learn to drink the beer. Susie & the Bay are fond of it—& of brandy, whisky & wine. It is a great satisfaction to me. Livy has had the dipththeria, but is well again. The Bay has a tooth, but has made no disturbance about it. Susie is hoarse a good part of the time—but the sooner she gets used to it the sooner she will like it. Afly Sam. Livy sends love. 1

The date assigned to this letter is based on the following circumstantial evidence. Annie Moffett began her visit to Hartford on 25 December 1874 and was still there on 19 March 1875. Clemens's first paragraph shows that she had only recently returned to Fredonia. The "general snow storm" that he feared would delay her train occurred on 13 April. Clemens was not in Hartford on the first Sunday after that storm (18 April), so the next Sunday, 2 5 April, seems the most likely date for this letter. The date is consistent with what Clemens wrote in the last paragraph about Olivia, who contracted diphtheria sometime between 29 March and 4 April, but was now "well again," echoing his report to Fairbanks on 23 April that she was "in mighty good health" ("Winter's Supplement," New York Times, 14 Apr 75, 7). 2 Neither Annie's letter, evidently announcing her engagement to Charles Webster, nor Clemens's nearly simultaneous letter has been found. 3 Clemens had enlisted the support of Postmaster General Marshall Jewell, a Hartford friend and the former governor of Connecticut, in the effort to secure a naval academy appointment for Samuel Moffett. The nominating procedure did not explicitly provide for "special appointments" (see 23 Aug 74 to PAM, n. 2). Samuel's father, William A. Moffett, a merchant, had died in 1865; he is not known to have performed any military service (LI, 2, 382). 4 Orion had offered legal advice to Clemens in 1872 during his dispute with

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Elisha Bliss about his royalty on Roughing It (see 8 Apr 75 to Webb, n. 3, and L5, 88-89 n. 6). Clemens did not follow this advice, but after Bliss's death in 1880, he examined the "balance-sheet" and satisfied himself that Orion had been correct, and decided to compensate him (24 Oct 80 to OC, CU-MARK, in MTLP, 125-26). It is possible, however, that Clemens had in mind another, unidentified, legal question. The letter from Jane Clemens requesting encouragement for Orion is not known to survive. 'For Clemens's 1865 exhortation to Orion to try the ministry, and for Orion's religious caprices, see LI, 322-24; Inds, 312; and N&J2, 209 n. 95. 6 In 1906 Clemens recalled that "about 1849 or 1850" Orion bought a weekly newspaper called the Hannibal Journal, together with its plant and its good-will, for the sum of five hundred dollars cash. He borrowed the cash at ten per cent, interest, which was an illegal rate, from an old fanner named Johnson who lived five miles out of town. T h e n he reduced the subscription price of the paper from two dollars to one dollar. He reduced the rates for advertising in about the same proportion, and thus he created one absolute and unassailable certainty—to wit: that the business would never pay him a single cent of profit. He took me out of the Courier office and engaged my services in his own at three dollars and a half a week, which was an extravagant wage, but Orion was always generous, always liberal with everybody except himself. It cost him nothing in my case, for he never was able to pay me a single penny as long as I was with him. By the end of the first year he found he must make some economies. T h e office rent was cheap, but it was not cheap enough. H e could not afford to pay rent of any kind, so he moved the whole plant into the house we lived in, and it cramped the dwelling-place cruelly. He kept that paper alive during four years, but I have at this time no idea how he accomplished it. Toward the end of each year he had to turn out and scrape and scratch for the fifty dollars of interest due Mr. Johnson, and that fifty dollars was about the only cash he ever received or paid out, I suppose, while he was proprietor of that newspaper, except for ink and printing-paper. T h e paper was a dead failure. It had to be that from the start. (AD, 29 Mar 1906, C U MARK, in MTA, 2:285-86)

For more of Orion's vicissitudes as the JournaFs proprietor and correction of Clemens's factual errors here, see Wecter 1952, 239-44, 256-64. 7 Orion had turned down a pension in the spring of 1874, but soon, and until his death in 1897, was dependent on regular checks from Clemens, for a time promptly paying interest on these "loans" (23 Apr 74 to OC, n. 1; 26 July 75 to O C , n. 2; Inds, 3 1 2 ; N&J3,

3 3 1 n. 9 0 , 5 9 7 n. 84).

8

See 27 Mar 75 to OC. Jane was as opposed as Clemens himself to the purchase of the Stotts farm, which Orion and Mollie were presently renting. On 12 May she wrote Mollie (CU-MARK): We have just received a letter from Orion after Mela and Annie mailed theirs to you. Orion said he made your father an offer to buy the farm you are on, your father declined to accept his offer, but he left you empowered to sign the papers if your father should change his mind. Now Mary that looks very strange, if you and Orion are dissatisfied to live there and the place [is, unhealthy then why will you try ¡toj ruin yourselves in debt and have to stay. Mary any way Mela and me can't fix the maner, we think it would be very wrong for Orion to buy the farm and have a debt hanging over him, even then you don't get the house you are in. If Orion should get a situation in the Gate City and you have the farm rented the chickens will help to pay expenses until you are independent & buy a pony to go to town & hire help out there. But I repeat don't buy, don't get in debt, don't you sign any papers. My head is feeling Very bad I can't write much I wish you were in town in society & Orion in the G City and making a easy living

463

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

On Jane's letter, Mollie wrote: "Ma seems to think a night situation in the Gate City office would be easier than out here. It is a great mistake." Orion, however, seemed ready to leave the farm. By 11 May he was on a trip through Missouri and Kentucky to Jamestown, Tennessee. While traveling he visited relatives and inquired about openings on a number of newspapers and also about work as a railroad attorney. In Jamestown, he made still another fruitless effort to exploit the Clemens family's troublesome Tennessee land. He returned to the Keokuk farm around 11 June, determined, he hoped with Clemens's help, "to endeavor to push myself into the practice of law in Keokuk" (OC to SLC, 9 June 75, CU-MARK). Sometime in 1876, evidently, he and Mollie abandoned the farm and moved to Keokuk proper, where Clemens supported them while Orion attempted, with little success, to practice law (OC to MEC, 11 May 75, 14-15 May 75, 20 May 75, 23 May 75, 5 June 75 (2 letters), 9 June 75, and OC to SLC, 21 Jan 76, all in CU-MARK). 9 In the mid 1880s Clemens gave expression to his affection for William Stotts by helping to pay his medical bills (N&J3, 254 n. 88).

To William Dean Howells 25 or 26 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H)

My Dear Howells:1 Good for Fawcett! The idea of a Mississippi pilot writing profound essays upon so imposing a subject as Ancient Oriental Trade! I think I'll wr ring that into a chapter, for the honor of the craft. All the boys had brains, & plenty of them—but they mostly lacked education & the literary faculty.2 We are ashamed to find that we gave you & Mrs. Howells a villainously hard bed to sleep on in the mahogany room.3 The bed is not built for that room yet, & we did not know the abandoned character of the temporary one. When you come next Saturday we'll put you in a bed you'll like better.4 Yrs Ever Mark. I've written you twice since I got home—directed simply to W D Howells, Cambridge. 1

This letter, written no later than 26 April (Howells answered the next day: see 7 May 75 to Howells, n. 1), replied to the following one (CU-MARK):

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Volume 6:1874-1875 EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

April 232,1875. My dear Clemens: Send back this proof as soon as possible, for we're getting short for time— please. I thought you'd like to see this letter. Mr. Fawcette wrote The Pillars of Hercules in the January of 1874. I'd like his letter again. You left your fur cap, which I propose to keep as a hostage. I hope you've made Twichell envious of our Centennial.— Mrs. Howells joins me in regards to the Clemens family. Yours ever W. D. Howells.

The proof that Howells asked for was the sixth (June) installment of "Old Times," due out in mid-May. 2 The enclosed letter from William Lyman Fawcett (or Fawcette), evidently a fellow pilot, has not been found. His "History of the Two Pillars" and "OldTime Oriental Trade" appeared in the January 1874 and October 1875 numbers of the Atlantic Monthly. Nothing further has been discovered about him, except that in 1877 he published Gold and Debt; An American Hand-book of Finance (Chicago: S. C. Griggs and Company). Clemens did not mention Fawcett's "profound essays" in his seventh and last installment of "Old Times on the Mississippi" in the August Atlantic. 3 During the Howellses 11-13 March visit. 4 The Howellses did not visit Hartford on Saturday, 1 May. On that day Howells was in Boston, where he attended a performance of the Gilded Age play (see 7 May 75 to Howells, n. 3).

To Louis J. Jennings 26 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS and transcript: DFo and

New York Times, 29 Apr 75)

@

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Apl. 26. L. J. Jennings, Esq 1 Dear Sir: Will you print the enclosed? A n d cannot you push it along a little, now & then, editorially? I hope you T h e T i m e s will also consent to receive & forward subscriptions. M r . C. E. Flower, who donates the ground is the same gentleman whose liberal cash mainly carried the Shaksperian tri-centennial through—though I know he would not like to have that mentioned. 2

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The matron at Shakspeare's house also told me the curious Barnum fact, if my memory serves me. Yrs Truly Sam'. L . Clemens P. S. If you think a Memorial Committee of Editors & business uiciij [enclosure:] To the Editor of the New-York Times: I have just received a letter from an English friend of mine, whose hospitality I enjoyed some days at his house, in Stratford-on-Avon, & I feel sure that the matter he writes about will interest Americans. He incloses a circular, which I will insert in this place: 3 "A preliminary committee was recently formed for the purpose of ascertaining the possibility of carrying out the project of a Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon, the old theatre in the town having been purchased and pulled down by Mr. J. O. Halliwell Phillips for the purpose of restoring the site to 'New Place,' and completing those gardens.4 A meeting was held at the Town Hall on Monday, to receive the committee's report. Sir Robert N. C. Hamilton, Bart., K. C. B., was in the chair.5 The honorable Secretary, Mr. C. E. Flower, stated that the proposal had been most favorably received, and the committee recommended that the theatre should be erected by subscription, and any sum raised beyond the amount required for the building, and any profit realized by the rental on ordinary occasions, to be applied, after defraying the necessary expenses of the establishment, to the celebration of the anniversary of the poet's birthday, and to the promotion and improvement of legitimate acting, by the establishment of prizes for essays upon the subject, lectures, and ultimately a dramatic training school or college. The building to be erected upon a site which has been given for the purpose, the surrounding ground, from which beautiful views of the church and the river can be obtained, to be laid out as ornamental gardens. Connected with the theatre the committee also recommended that a library and a saloon or gallery, intended to receive pictures and statuary of Shakespearean subjects, (several of which have been already promised,) should be provided. Donors of £ 1 0 0 and upward to be Governors and managers of the property. The Governors to meet annually and vote personally, or by proxy, for the election of an Executive Council, and frame rules for the

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general management of the memorial property and funds. For convenience of administration the association to be incorporated under section 23 of the Companies act, 1867, for associations formed not for profit, but for the promotion of science, art, &c. The report was unanimously adopted, a list of promised donations to the amount of £2,563 10s., was read, and generous offers from managers and members of the theatrical profession of free performances were announced. Subscriptions of the smallest amount will be received, as it is hoped that a truly appropriate memorial to Shakespeare in his native town will receive the support of many in all parts of the world who have received instruction and pleasure from the poet's works." By another circular I perceive that this project, young as it is, is already becoming popular, for no less than twenty-two lovers of Shakespeare have come forward with their £100 apiece, & assumed the dignity of Governors of the Memorial Theatre. In this list I find the following: Creswick, the actor; F. B. Chatterton, of the Drury Lane, London; Benjamin Webster, of the Adelphi, London; Buckstone, the comedian, & Mr. Sothern.6 I now come to my point, which will be found in this extract from my English friend's letter: "You may possibly remember some timber wharves on the Avon above my garden. These I have bought & given for a site for a Memorial Theatre. 7 1 think it possible that some Americans who have visited Stratford might be able & feel inclined to become Governors, (that is, £ 1 0 0 shareholders) in the Memorial Theatre & grounds, & that others not so well off might like to contribute smaller sums to help beautify it."

Therefore he asks me to make the suggestion in point here, & I very gladly do it. I think the mere suggestion is all that is necessary. We are not likely to be backward when called upon to do honor to Shakespeare. One of the circulars says:8 "Subscriptions can be paid to the Shakespeare Memorial Fund at the Old Bank, Stratford-upon-Avon, & will be invested in the names of Sir R . N . C. Hamilton, Bart., & C. E. Flower, Esq., who have consented to act as Trustees until the registration is completed."

Will you, Sir, undertake to receive & forward the American subscriptions? Or if not, will you kindly name some responsible person who will do it? I believe that Americans of every walk in life will cheerfully subscribe to this Shakespeare memorial; I think that some of our prominent actors (I could almost name them) will come forward & enroll

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themselves as Governors; I think our commercial millionaires & literary people will not be slow to take governorships, or at least come as near it as they feel able; & I think it altogether likely that many of our theatres, like those of England, will give it a benefit. Americans have already subscribed 81,000 for an American memorial window to be put in the Shakespeare Church at Avon. 9 About three-fourths of the visitors to Shakespeare's tomb are Americans. If you will show me an American who has visited England & has not seen that tomb, Barnum shall be on his track next week. It was an American who roused into its present vigorous life England's dead interest in her Shakespearean remains. Think of that! Imagine the house that Shakespeare was born in being brought bodily over here & set up on American soil! That came within an ace of being done once. A reputable gentleman of Stratford told me so. The old building was going to wreck & ruin. Nobody felt quite reverence enough for the dead dramatist to repair & take care of his house; so an American came along ever so quietly & bought it. T h e deeds were actually drawn & ready for the signatures. Then the thing got wind & there was a fine stir in England! The sale was stopped. Public-spirited Englishmen headed a revival of reverence for the poet, & from that day to this every relic of Shakespeare in Stratford has been sacred, & zealously cared for accordingly. Can you name the American who once owned Shakespeare's birth-place for twenty-four hours? There is but one who could ever have conceived of such an unique & ingenious enterprise, & he is the man I refer to— P. T. Barnum. 1 0 We had to lose the house: but let us not lose the present opportunity to help him build the Memorial Theatre. Mark Twain. Hartford, Monday, April 26,1875. 1

Editor of the New York Times (9 Oct 74 to Jennings, n. 1). Charles Edward Flower, the "English friend" mentioned in the enclosure, hosted the Clemenses at his home in Stratford-upon-Avon in July 1873. It was actually his father, Edward Fordham Flower (the founder of the family brewery), who, as mayor in 1864, took a leading role in organizing the festival held between 23 April and 4 May to celebrate the tercentenary of Shakespeare's birth. Charles Flower and his brother, Edgar, served on the organizing committee. When the cost of the festival's theatrical productions, concerts, banquet, pageant, and fancy dress ball exceeded the proceeds from ticket sales, the committee agreed to pay off the deficit. Mayor Flower donated £500, while 2

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Charles and Edgar donated £300 each, making up nearly one-third of the total liability of £3,435 (L5, 195-96 n. 1, 388 n. 2,415-16; Hunter, 138, 165-239; Kemp and Trewin, 4; "The Late Tercentenary Festival," London Times, 10 Oct 64, 10). ^Clemens's enclosure has not been found in its original manuscript, and is therefore transcribed here from the text published in the New York Times. The source of the following paragraph from the "circular," which Clemens probably pasted into his manuscript, has not been independently identified, although some of its wording appeared in a circular dated "April 1875," issued by the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Council ("Shakespeare Memorial Theatre," circular signed by Council Secretary Charles Lowndes, UkStrS; see the textual commentary). 4 Shakespeare lived in New Place—the second largest building in Stratford and the only one made of brick—from 1610 until his death six years later. It was torn down in 1759 by its owner, who refused to pay taxes on it. Eventually new structures occupied the site, including a theater, which was built in 1827 but used for performances only until 1842 (and briefly from 1869 to 1872). In 1863 James Orchard Halliwell-Phillips (1820-89), an eminent book and manuscript collector and biographer of Shakespeare, began a movement to restore the site, and in 1872 purchased the old theater and tore it down. Today the Shakespeare Memorial Garden stands on the site of New Place's original orchards and kitchen gardens, and only its foundation survives (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 2000; Baedeker 1901,259; Buckley, 7; Kemp and Trewin, 4). ' Robert North Collie Hamilton (1802-87), sixth baronet, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, was a former governor-general's agent in Central India who had received recognition from the British government for his service during the mutiny of 1857. He served as chairman of the organizing committee for the 1864 tercentenary festival (Burke 1904, 735-36; Hunter, 138). 6 Of the thirty-nine subscribers listed in the April 1875 circular, twenty-two donated £100 and became "Governors." William Creswick (1813-88) began his theatrical career in 1831, playing both comic and dramatic roles—including Shakespearean parts—with proficiency, but not exceptional talent. After success on the American and English stages in the 1840s, from 1849 to 1862 and again beginning in 1866 he was co-manager of the Surrey Theatre in London, while continuing to perform. Unlike the other donors Clemens mentioned, he donated only £5, not £100. Frederick Balsir Chatterton (1834-86) had managed the renowned Drury Lane Theatre Royal since 1863 (first in partnership, and then alone). To stay solvent, he was forced to avoid serious literary drama, and was accused of desecrating the theater with sensational melodramas. He became famous for his remark, "Shakespeare spells ruin, and Byron bankruptcy" (Hartnoll, 231). Benjamin Nottingham Webster (17971882) began his career as a dancer, and then turned to acting, developing a talent for comedy. From 1837 to 1853 he was the manager of the Haymarket Theatre, and after 1844 of the Adelphi Theatre as well. His talent as a dramatist contributed greatly to the success of these and several other theaters. Upon his retirement in 1874 the theatrical community honored him with a benefit that earned over two thousand pounds. The actor and dramatist John Baldwin Buckstone (1802-79) had managed the Haymarket Theatre since 1853, and was best known for his talent for broad comedy. Clemens may have met the

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English comedian Edward A. Sothern in 1874, either at a luncheon in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 6 March, or in Hartford when Sothern performed there on 12 and 13 March (see 4 Mar 74 to Howells, n. 2; Paul and Gebbie, 2:42; Bryan 1985, 210, 219; Knight, 245, 292-93; Dobbs, 151; "Obituary," London Times, 10 July 82,8; Hartnoll, 9,115,380,882; "Amusements," Hartford Courant, 12 Mar 74, 1). 7 In 1874 Charles Flower proposed building a new theater in Stratfordupon-Avon for the performance of Shakespeare's plays. In spite of critics who thought the idea presumptuous, he and his supporters raised thirty thousand pounds, much of which he donated himself, together with a two-acre site for it on the banks of the Avon. The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, designed by the architectural firm of Dodgshun and Unsworth, was a circular Gothic structure with turrets, seating eight hundred people. It opened in 1879 with a performance oiMuch Ado about Nothing and remained in use until 1926, when it was destroyed by fire. The present theater was built in 1932 (L5, 388 n. 2; Kemp andTrewin, 5-7, 135-37, 156). 8 The following paragraph was reproduced verbatim from the April 1875 circular, which Clemens presumably copied into his manuscript. 9 The stained-glass window "erected by the voluntary offerings of Americans who visit the shrine" was installed in the chancel of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was baptized and buried. Completed in 1876, it was designed by "Messrs. Lavers, Barrand, and Westlake, of London" and depicted scriptural illustrations of the "Seven Ages of Man, from the play 'As You Like I t ' " (Arbuthnot, 6, 17; "The 'American Window' in the Church of the Holy Trinity," Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 20 May 76). 10 In 1846 Barnum tried to buy the house in which Shakespeare was born, which was then being used as a butcher shop and an inn: He then intended to transport the Birthplace across the Atlantic and back to America brick by brick. The sudden realisation that the Birthplace could be lost forever awakened public concern and the Shakespeare Birthday Committee was hurriedly formed. The Committee grew in strength soon acquiring the patronage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Due to public contributions and fundraising efforts by such esteemed figures as Charles Dickens and Jenny Lind the Birthplace was purchased in 1847 for £3,000. (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 1999, 1)

An editorial in the London Times of 21 July 1847 had helped stir resistance to Barnum's plan: There is something grating to the ear in the announcement that Shakspeare's house is about to be submitted to the hammer, and will be knocked down without reserve to the highest bidder. . . . all we can hope for is, that some arrangement may be made which will prevent a repetition of the danger that exists of the house being removed from the country by passing into the hands of some foreign showman. . . . we think it will require no very extravagant outlay to rescue it at all events from the desecrating grasp of those speculators who are said to be desirous of taking it from its foundations, and trundling it about on wheels like a caravan of wild beasts, giants, or dwarfs through the United States of America. ("The meeting of the Archaelogical Association . . . 5 )

The "reputable gentleman of Stratford" was almost certainly Charles Flower, whose wife later recalled making a donation to the fund (Macdonald). In his autobiographical account of his failure to purchase the house, Barnum claimed

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that "the British people, rather than suffer that house to be removed to America, would have bought me off with twenty thousand pounds" (Barnum 1872, 365). In chapter 64 of Following the Equator, Clemens recalled: I knew Mr. Barnum well, and I placed every confidence in the account which he gave me of the Shakespeare birthplace episode. He said he found the house neglected and going to decay, and he inquired into the matter and was told that many times earnest efforts had been made to raise money for its proper repair and preservation, but without success. He then proposed to buy it. The proposition was entertained, and a price named—$50,000,1 think; but whatever it was, Barnum paid the money down, without remark, and the papers were drawn up and executed. He said that it had been his purpose to set up the house in his Museum, keep it in repair, protect it from namescribblers and other desecrators, and leave it by bequest to the safe and perpetual guardianship of the Smithsonian Institute at Washington. But as soon as it was found that Shakespeare's house had passed into foreign hands and was going to be carried across the ocean, England was stirred as no appeal from the custodians of the relic had ever stirred England before, and protests came flowing in—and money, too, to stop the outrage. Offers of re-purchase were made—offers of double the money that Mr. Barnum had paid for the house. He handed the house back, but took only the sum which it had cost him—but on the condition that an endowment sufficient for the future safeguarding and maintenance of the sacred relic should be raised. This condition was fulfilled. That was Barnum's account of the episode; and to the end of his days he claimed with pride and satisfaction that not England, but America—represented by him— saved the birthplace of Shakespeare from destruction. (SLC 1897, 642-43)

To Josiah G. Holland 29 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Feldman)

(SLC/MT)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Apl. 29. Dear Sir: 1 I thank you very much for the compliment of the offer, but I am not a capable person for the work, even if I had the time. There is probably not another man in Connecticut who is so besottedly ignorant of Hartford as I am. I have lived here 3 or 4 years (in the fringe of the city) & I only go down town when it is necessary to abuse my publisher. In the absence of Chas. Dudley Warner, I would suggest his first; assistant, Chas. Clark, of the Courant, as the best man. 2 Very Truly Y r s Sam'. L . Clemens

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Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK): EDITORIAL ROOMS OF SCRIBNEF'S MONTHLY, 7 4 3 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

April 28, 1875 My dear Sir:— I wish to put Hartford into a series of articles on American cities which have already been commenced in "Scribner." I can use such pictures as I need from the Colt memorial volume, and make the rest. Can you write the article, or, rather, will you write it? If so, please let me know what buildings and scenes ought to be represented, so that I may send up a man to look after the matter. It is not often that a writer is invited into our magazine, with his place of residence. But a jewel in its appropriate setting is so much more desirable! Please let me hear from you at your earliest convenience, and, if the service I ask of you seems impracticable, tell me who the next best man is. Yours very Truly J. G. Holland

On the envelope Clemens noted, "From D r J. G. Holland, ('Timothy Titcomb') poet & editor of Scribner's Monthly." Holland alluded to Armsmear: The Home, the Arm, and the Armory of Samuel Colt. A Memorial, by Henry Barnard (New York: Alvord, 1866). Only one city had as yet been covered in Scribner's illustrated series: "The Liverpool of America" (Baltimore), by Edward King, in the April issue. Later in 1875, two more articles appeared: "The City of the Golden Gate," by Clemens's San Francisco Evening Bulletin friend Samuel Williams, in July, and "Chicago," by J. W. Sheahan, in September (9:68195; 10:266-85, 529-51). Clemens was not favorably disposed toward Holland: in 1872 he had written a scathing rebuttal—which he never published— to Holland's attacks on platform humorists (see L5, 77-78 n. 1, 122-24 n. 5; L2, 209). 2 Warner was abroad. Charles Hopkins Clark (1848-1926) graduated from Yale in 1871 and joined the staff of the Courant that same year. He became known for his public spirit, promoting civic improvement with clear, cogent, and sometimes humorous editorials. Holland presumably followed Clemens's suggestion, since Clark contributed a twenty-page article on Hartford, "The Charter Oak City," to Scribner's Monthly for November 1876. He later wrote three other pieces on Hartford—"The Growth of the County," "Insurance," and "The Press"—for J. Hammond Trumbull's 1886 Memorial History of Hartford County (Charles Hopkins Clark 1876, 1886a-c; Burpee, 2:674, 3:26-29; McNulty, 101).

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To William Wright (Dan De Quille) 29 April 1875 • Hartford, Conn. ( M S facsimile: Pacific Book, lot 496)

Hartford, Apl 29. Dear Dan: Yours just rec'd. 1 Hang it, man, you don't want a pamphlet—you want a book—600 pages 8-vo, illustrated. There isn't a single cent of money in a pamphlet. Not a single cent. But there's money in a book. Come along & write it. Y s Ever Mark. 1

Wright's letter has not been found. It surely concerned his proposed projects (see 29 Mar and 4 Apr 75 to Wright), and probably relayed the following advice that Joseph T. Goodman had given him in a letter of 16 April (CUBANC): T h e cordial tone of Sam's letter is just what I expected; but—as you say—he appears to somewhat misapprehend the situation. N o t in regard to the financial aspect of the bonanza discovery, for that is substantially all right; but in regard to the compilation and publication of your proposed work. T h e plan he proposes, of embracing everything in one volume—which is practicable enough, and the thing could be strung together in a month—would probably realize you in the long run $ 10,000 or $ 15,000. But this is not Mackey's, Ralston's, your own—nor my idea. Without knowing exactly what yours or theirs may be, let me briefly sketch mine. Write your pamphlet on the mines. Give all the necessary facts, but try also to make it sketchy and readable, so as to give you somewhat of a literary reputation. Half a dozen well-told anecdotes will do this. Try and get the whole in less than a hundred pamphlet pages. You can get an edition of such a work published in the East for nearly five cents a copy. Mackey, Ralston, et als., should stand the cost of printing—which for 50.000 would be, say, $2,500. T h u s far you have nothing. But contract with them to take say 10,000 copies at full price—which will realize you $2,500. This is your first profit. If they will take double or treble that number—and the different big companies should do even more than that—your gain will be correspondingly larger. T h e balance of the edition you will place in the hands of the American News Co., we will say. They will gobble 12 V2 cents for their trouble the first pop. T h e retail newsdealers to whom they distribute them will want six or eight cents more—so that you cannot reckon on upwards of 5 cents per copy as your profit. This looks small but on 40,000—which I am confident they would sell—it amounts to $2,000. Thus, with the send off Mackey and the rest should give you, you will have $4,500 at least, and the work might have a sale which would double that sum. This is a quicker, easier, and surer thing than Sam proposes. Meantime you have got your hand in the publishing line and your name before the public. T h e n go at your book of sketches, as Sam advises. Amplify your pamphlet matter and sandwich it in your big book. Put this into the hands of the publisher at his own risk—not asking Mackey or any one else to pay for its publication, and not stipulating that any one takes a single copy.

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

To Unidentified To William Wright (Dan De Quille) 1 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CLjC)

(SLC/MT)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, H A R T F O R D .

Apl. 30 May i. Gentlemen: Dear Dan: Your second just received.1 My boy, you have material enough, property2 worked up, for two big books. Therefore, come along here & write one of them. Yrs Ever Mark. A Don't have the b l u e s — y o u don't need them. 1 2

Not known to survive. Clemens mistakenly crossed his /.

To William Dean Howells 7 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H)

May 7. My Dear Howells: 1 I'm glad to have the letter from your uncle. There's something charming about the lonely sublimity of being the prophet of a hitherto unsung race. There are so many prophets for the other guilds & races & religions that no one of them can become signally conspicuous, but I haven't any rivals; my people have got to take me or go prophetless. If I live a year, I will make one more attempt to go down the river, for I shall will „shall, have lived in vain if I go silent out of the world & thus

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lengthen the list of the "lost arts." Confidentially, I'm "laying" for a Monument. Good! I'm glad you are shouting for Raymond; & if I were there I would look through the M S & see if there was a crevice where you might casually remark that Raymond has not taken a vague suggestion from the novel & by his genius created a fine original character from it, but has simply faithfully reproduced the Sellers that is in the book. For this fellow had the impudence to tell me in Boston (he got it from the newspapers) that the above was the state of the case 2 whereas the truth is that the finer points in Sellers's character are a trifle above Raymond's level. Of course you do not need to say any of this at all, for no doubt it would have an ungracious look; & I think I am rather small potatoes myself for caring two cents whether if the world does hail Raymond as the gifted creator of Sellers. The actual truth is, that nobody created Sellers—I simply put him on paper as I found him in life (he is a relative of mine—Jbut not my brother) & any scrub of a newspaper reporter could have done the same thing. 3 (Shall I write Mr. D H Harkins the actor, or have you done so? I wish Clarence King would put his Pike County people on 4

1 This letter answered two from Howells (CU-MARK), which replied to the three that Clemens had sent between 23 and 26 April: EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

April 27, 1875. My dear Clemens: As soon as I get fairly launched in my story again, I shall be glad to come to Hartford, but I must start before I can stop. Mrs. Howells was pleased to be included by you and Mrs. Clemens in the arrangement I had made for myself alone when I planned those little informal Saturday runs to Hartford, but she says she can't join me on the first three or four.— I don't wonder you found that bed hard: we got all the sleep out of it, and left it a mere husk or skeleton of the luxurious couch it had been. We shall not ask for anything better when we come again. Thank you for thinking of me for Mr. Harkins's play. I should certainly like to talk with him, for I believe I could write a play in that way—by having an actor give me his notion. —Now, Clemens, it really hurts me, since you seemed to wish me so much to go with you to New Orleans, to say that I can't. It would be the ruin of my summer's work, and though I think something literary might come out of it for me, I haven't the courage to borrow any more of the future, when I'm already in debt to it. You are very good, and I'm touched and flattered that you want my company so much as to be willing to pay vastly more for it than it's worth. We did both of us have a glorious time when you were here, and we long for an-

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other visit. There seems to be a slight disparity of statement between Mrs. Clemens and yourself as to her coming with you soon, but we hope you wont mind each other, but come. —It was like Twichell to have the sort of Centennial he had. It shows what can be done by drifting with the current, instead of opposing it with energy and genius, as we did. Mrs. Howells was charmed with your account of Twichell's performance, and Mrs. Clemens' report of your own attempted mystification. I hope you did betray the fact of my pitiable terror in returning uncentennialed to the bosom of my family? Yours ever W. D. Howells. EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

May 4, 1875. Dear Clemens: The "father" referred to in this letter is my dear old Uncle Alec who has been palsied for fifteen years, and now has your papers read to him as he lies in the bed from which he'll never rise again. I sent him the Ms. of the first paper. I should like to hear him talk of you. I don't believe I thanked you on the part of Mrs. Howells for your wife's beautiful fotograf, though Mrs. Howells believes I did, thank heaven! I do so now. We greatly prized the gift of it, and sent it to the bank-note engraving brother-in-law, who says it would make the basest counterfeit pass. I have seen Raymond, and I've done some shouting over him for the next Atlantic. The play is good. Go and see it through.— Don't forget to send me your seventh paper.— We unite in regards to both of you. Ever yours W. D. Howells. The story Howells alluded to on 27 April was "Private Theatricals," which the Atlantic Monthly began to run serially in November 1875 (Howells 1875-76). With his 4 May letter Howells enclosed a 1 May letter from Pittsburgh from his cousin, Charles F. Dean, son of his maternal uncle Alexander (Alec): Father desires me to write to you and thank you for your kind remembrance of him in sending him the manuscript of Mark Twain's "Old Times on the Mississippi" He has read his articles on this subject with a keen appreciation. It vividly recalls an experience in his life about which he is never tired of talking. He has unanimously resolved that Mark is the "Prince of Wits" the "King of Jesters." Father and Uncle William and the boys have some hearty laughs over the "cub-pilot's" adventures all of which they appreciate and enjoy as we "land-lubbers" do not. We have not seen his fifth article yet but I suppose it will be copied into some of our papers before long. William Dean was Alexander's brother; both had been in the steamboat business (see 20 Feb 7 5 to Howells, n. 1). Howells's brother-in-law, Augustus Dennis Shepard (1835-1913), was married to Elinor Howells's sister, the former Joanna Elizabeth Mead (1842-1914). He was treasurer of his father's firm, the National Bank Note Company, on Wall Street in New York (Thurston, 121; Howells 1979a, 228 n. 2, 464; Wilson 1874, 959, 1196). 2 Clemens had talked with Raymond in Boston, most probably on 18 or 20 April, while staying with Howells in nearby Cambridge. From 19 April through 1 May Raymond was at Boston's Globe Theatre "for twelve evenings and four matinees" of the Gilded Age play ("Amusements," Boston Advertiser, 19 Apr 75,1 May 75, 1). The Boston Advertiser of 19 April omitted mention of Clemens's part in creating Colonel Sellers, remarking only that "Mr. Raymond's impersonation of this character may now fairly be called celebrated; it has excited the admiration of the keenest critics and the enthusiasm of the

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largest audiences; and, by common consent, has taken its place among the few portraits of distinctively American types" ("Music and the Drama," 2). And on 21 April the Advertiser further observed: Mark Twain's dramatized version of his novel, "The Gilded Age," is, on the whole, a poor affair.. . . Colonel Mulberry Sellers of Hawkeye, Missouri, is a true charactercreation and a real representative and typical American. . . . The credit of conceiving Colonel Sellers fairly belongs to Mr. Clemens, but it is safe to say that the character would never have made a strong impression upon the public mind if the author had not been fortunate enough to find an illustrator of his idea in such an artist as Mr. John T. Raymond. The conception needed the individuality and concreteness of a dramatic performance to make it telling; and at the same time,—as the part is carried by the playwright to the very verge of caricature, and sometimes over the line,—it would have become a mere extravagant absurdity in the hands of an actor of ordinary insight and judgment. Mr. Raymond seems completely to have grasped the dramatist's idea, to have enlarged and enriched that idea by his own observation of life, and then to have given expression to his perfectly rounded and consistent conception in a performance full of vitality and force, of picturesqueness and humor, and even of lively imagination. . . . The impersonation compels attention and admiration at once. ("Music and the Drama," 2) 1 Howells had enjoyed Raymond's 1 May final matinee performance, as he told his father the following day:

I went yesterday afternoon to Mark Twain's play of Colonel Sellers, and was immensely pleased. The character is the whole piece, nearly, but it is quite enough. There was one delicious scene in court, where Sellers is witness in behalf of the young lady who has killed her bigamous husband, which was ineffable. He delivers his testimony in a stump speech, and every now and then becomes so carried away by his own eloquence that he turns round and addresses the jury. "Why, gentlemen of the Jury!" and it takes the whole force of the law to stop him. He would be a good witness for the Beecher trial. (Howells 1979b, 95) For Howells's Atlantic review of the play, see the next letter and Appendix D. 4 The letter breaks off at this point, at the end of page 4; the remainder has not been found. Clarence King (1842-1901) was a geologist and mining engineer who studied the Comstock lode and explored California from 1863 to 1866. Since 1867 he had been in charge of a congressionally funded survey of the mountain ranges from eastern Colorado to southern California, the results of which were issued in seven volumes ( 1 8 7 0 - 8 0 ) . Between May and December 1871 he published seven sketches in the Atlantic, which were c o l l e c t e d together with several additional sketches—in Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, published in 1872. One of the sketches—titled "Wayside Pikes" in the November Atlantic and "The Newtys of Pike" in the book—described an encounter with a family of colorful characters who had emigrated from Pike County, Missouri, in 1850 (Clarence King: 1871a-d; 1872, 94-111). Howells praised the book in an April 1872 Atlantic review: We leave wholly to science the estimation of Mr. King's services to geology and geography; for our pleasure in him is chiefly, we own, a literary pleasure, and if we were to tell the whole truth, perhaps our readers would be shocked to know how much we value the extraordinary beauty and vigor of his descriptions above the facts described. We accept the information he gives with mute gratitude, but we must needs exclaim at the easy charm of his style, the readiness of his humor, the quickness of his feeling for character. His "Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada" is mainly the record of his ascent of different peaks of that chain, in language so vivid that it all seems an experience

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of the reader's; and interspersing these memories of Mount Tyndall and Shasta and Whitney and Yosemite and Merced are such sketches of life, Pike and Digger and Californian, as make us wish from him the fullest study of varieties of human nature which we as yet know only by glimpses. (Howells 1872, 500) Several years later, on 4 January 1879, Howells wrote King a letter of introduction to President Rutherford B. Hayes, in which he praised King's command of the "graces of the Pike dialect," and remarked, "If you know his book, 'Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevadas,' as well as I do, you must share my sole grief against him, namely, that a man who can give us such literature, should be content to be merely a great scientist" (Howells 1979b, 217; for a further discussion of Pike County dialect, see L5, 35 n. 2). In 1887 Clemens wanted to include a piece by King in Mark Twain's Library of Humor (SLC 1888), noting on a copy of Bret Harte's Drift from Two Shores: "We must have Clarence King in full strength. | SLC | The Newtys of Pike, for instance" (marginalia in Harte 1878, copyright page, N P V ) . King denied permission to reprint the "forgotten pages," claiming that he had always regretted "the sketch in question" and suggesting that if Clemens "would like to include any of my geology as American humor I consent humbly but willingly but I must decline to be privy to anything which might perpetuate my only lapse into humor" (21 July 87 to Webster, CtHT-W).

To William Dean Howells 12 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H)

(SLC/MT)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, H A R T F O R D .

May 12. 1

M y Dear Howells: All right, I'll send the No. along, & i alter it in the proof if I find it needs it.2 £ m I've written Harkins.3 That's a superb notice for the play. Raymond put that "Well I won't" in & I can't get him to ei take it out. Your closing stab will reach his vitals, for the reason that he can't do a pathetic thing—he isn't man enough. He writes to-day asking me to give him the rest of this season in consideration of what he has done for me & my rep my pocket & my reputation! And he fits the language & the manner to the thing—i.e. groveling appeal for charity.

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His letter would make a dog blush. But I guess there is some villainy under it somewhere. 4 I believe it will be lovely weather here one of these days—& then you've got to dig out & come. Your criticism of the play says exactly what I want. It glorifies Sellers & shows that the play would be simply worthless without him. And you see, the thing I want to do when the proper opportunity offers, is to pile that play onto the thief Densmore's shoulders! But for Raymond, I'd have done it in the b e g i n n i n g . 5 In a hurry to catch the postman, 6 Ys Ever Mark. 1 Clemens answered the following response (CU-MARK) to his letter of 7 May: EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

May 10, 1875. My dear old fellow— It's 'most time—quite time—for your seventh number: send what you've got; I know it's good. Here's what I said of Raymond, and by instinct I reduced his laurels to the true proportions. If I'd only known of his pretending to invent Sellers—to do anything but put jyowr Sellers on the stage, I'd have made the point so sharp that neither he nor any newspaper friend could miss it. H e hasn't added a solitary idea to the character. But he does play it wonderfully—and that's glory enough for him.— Observe the neat parting stab. I wish you'd write Harkins—just a line to say I'd like to talk with him. Yours ever W. D. Howells.

Howells enclosed proofsheets of his review of the Gilded Age play for the June Atlantic. They are transcribed in Appendix D. 2 This "No."—the seventh and last of "Old Times on the Mississippi"—was scheduled for the July Atlantic, but was delayed until the August issue. 3 On 22 May Harkins answered Clemens from Wilmington, Delaware: Your letter has just reached me, as I have been on the move ever since I saw you. I thank you for your kindness and will call on M r Howells the first leisure day I have on return home. It is possible I may have to play a couple of weeks at the Theatre on my return in which case I will not be able to see him before the middle of June ( M H - H )

Clemens either gave or sent this letter to Howells, who preserved it among his papers. It is not known whether he and Harkins ever met, but Howells did not write a play for him. 4 Raymond's letter has not been found: see the next two letters. 5 Clemens here repeated the claims he had made in his letter of 3 November 1874 to the editor of the Hartford Evening Post, that he alone created Sellers,

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

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and that although he rewrote Densmore's script three times, he was ready— even eager—to assign him credit for the other features of the play. 6 Clemens may also have been in a hurry to prepare for his evening's activity —participation in a spelling match at Twichell's Asylum Hill Congregational Church. Clemens and Twichell were on opposing teams. Clemens made a humorous speech to introduce the "orthographical solemnities" and also provided one of the prizes (see Appendix F for a full account).

To John T. Raymond 12 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, author's paraphrase: C t H M T H )

On proposition for me to give Raymond the rest of the season. Answered—"Can lend you what you need—the other is not business.'" 1 In a letter now lost, Raymond apparently had asked Clemens to allow him the entire proceeds from the Gilded Age play, rather than merely half, for the rest of the season, which would be over in a few weeks. He followed up with a telegram from Utica, New York, on 12 May: "What answer to my letter am anxious to know so as to make my arrangements have you heard from Gillette" (CtHMTH). Clemens recorded his reply—also sent as a telegram—on the back of Raymond's message. The inquiry about William Gillette may have been in regard to his continuing availability for the road company of the play. Gillette had played the counsel for the defense in April and early May. He may have rejoined the cast when Raymond performed in Elmira on Saturday, 15 May. He definitely was with Raymond when the play returned to New York for a run from 16 August to 2 October at the Union Square Theatre, appearing, at least initially, as the railroad contractor Duff Brown (Odell, 10:20-21; SLC 1873-74, 122).

To John T. Raymond 13 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, author's paraphrase: C t H M T H )

In answer sent Raymond $1500 to Elmira at 7 per cent interest—refusing the i per cent a month. 1 S.L.C.

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1

Clemens replied to a second telegram from Raymond, still in Utica, which was received by the Hartford telegraph operator at2A.M. on 13May: "Will you lend me fifteen hundred dollars until October first one per cent a month if so send to Elmira" (CtHMTH). Clemens recorded his answer, probably also sent as a telegram, on the back of Raymond's message.

To George Cumming 15 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (New York Telegrapher, 22 May 75)

Farmington Avenue, Hartford, Conn."I May 15,1875. J Geo. Cumming, Esq., New York. Dear Sir—Your paragraph about old jokes encountered me just as I was thinking in a similar vein upon the same subject. 1 You remember "Punch's" joke: "Advice to people about to marry.—Don't.'" I was astonished two years ago to run across that same joke in some old author, who was dead, petrified (& perhaps damned) before Socrates's time. 2 It never occurred to me before, but I would give something to know what they are going to do with the petrified people at the general resurrection. It seems to me I would polish them. However, my judgment may be at fault in this; & , besides, I do not think a mere man ought to be trying to make suggestions in a matter of this kind, when he has had no experience in resurrections. But, if you believe me, there are plenty of people with no better manners than to do it. In my opinion, such persons are entitled to no respect whatever. Yours truly, S. L . Clemens. 1 George Cumming, an operator with the Western Union Company in New York City, was an occasional contributor to the Telegrapher, a union weekly issued from 1864 to 1877 in New York (Mott 1938,92). On 22 May it reprinted the paragraph Clemens alluded to, identifying its source as "one of Mr. Cumming's letters to the Springfield (Ohio) Republic":

One queer fact about many of our current stories, squibs, paragraphs, etc., is their ancient origin. Is it not Wendell Phillips who says in his lecture on "Lost Arts," in illustrating the Solomonian proverb, "There is nothing new under the sun," that even our jokes are as old as the hills, and that out of the thousands of novels published the plots

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

481

can all be traced back to a foundation ages ago, to a few romances, perhaps less than a dozen in number. Phillips also claims the proverbial Irish bull to be not Hibernian at all but Greek. Who knows how much further the Grecians could trace it? Fancy Socrates splitting his sides over a story we still rehash as new. Hence the expression, no doubt, "He's a Greek refugee from Cork." ("A Letter from Mark Twain," 125) It is not known how the paragraph "encountered" Clemens; possibly Cumming sent him a clipping from the Springfield newspaper. "Greek" was a "sobriquet often applied to Irishmen, in jocular allusion to their soi-disant Milesian origin" (Bartlett 1859, 179). Milesius was a mythical Spanish king whose followers allegedly conquered Ireland in about 1300 B.C. and thus became the Celtic ancestors of the Irish. Wendell Phillips—the orator, former abolitionist, and acquaintance of Clemens's and the Langdon family's (see L3, 175)—delivered his enduringly popular "Lost Arts" lecture over two thousand times. Its theme was that most modern inventions were not in fact new, but relied on arts that had been developed centuries earlier. These arts were then "lost" because "privileged aristocrats had monopolized t h e m " until the advent of democracy (Stewart, 181). 2 Clemens had recently been reading aloud to Olivia from The Dialogues of Plato, edited by Benjamin Jowett. He had given her the four-volume set as a Christmas gift in 1874 (New York: Scribner, Armstrong, and Co., 1873, copy inscribed to OLC at NvU; OLC to Langdon, 9 May 75, CtHMTH; Gribben, 2:549).

To the Public 18 or 19 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Hartford Courant, 20 May 75)

TWO HUNDRED & FIVE DOLLARS REWARD—At the great base ball match on Tuesday, while I was engaged in hurrahing, a small boy walked off with an English-made brown silk UMBRELLA belonging to me, & forgot to bring it back. I will pay $5 for the return of that umbrella in good condition to my house on Farmington avenue. I do not want the boy (in an active state) but will pay two hundred dollars for his remains.1 Samuel L. Clemens. 1 Twichell pasted a clipping of this notice in his journal, commenting: On the 18th I attended a grand Baseball match between the "Hartfords" and the "Bostons" with M. T. who lost his umbrella down through the seats and had the discomfort ofpresently finding that it had been carried off by somebody who crept under the seats to get it. The next day this advertisement appeared in "the Courant." (Twichell,

1:102)

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In fact, the notice appeared in the Hartford Courant on 20 May ("New Advertisements," 3). The New York World reprinted it on 21 May ("Mark Twain Loses an Umbrella," 4), and then on 28 May remarked that it might prove no joke for the boy should it meet the eye of some simple-minded ruffian without a sense of humor. Indeed, by a strict construction of law, when a gentleman, over his own signature, publicly offers a large pecuniary inducement for the commission of murder, the jest might be very unpleasantly turned against its author. ("News Splinters," 5)

Seaver paraphrased Clemens's notice in his "Personal" column in Harper's Bazar for 19 June (Seaver 1875g, in Appendix G), and it was still drawing comment on 4 August. On that date the Courant reported: "That absurd story set afloat by some wag to the effect that the dead body of a boy was left at the house of Mark Twain, after his advertisement in The Courant about a lost umbrella, is taking a serious turn in some of the papers" ("Brief Mention," 2).

To William Dean Howells 22 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H)

„Saturday* May 22. M y Dear Howells: 1 I have scratched out all about the songs—as you suggest, it was best. You may not approve the last paragraph of the postscript which I have added, but it seems necessary because otherwise I either seem to have stopped in the middle of my subject at the editor's request, or else regularly "petered out." But No. 6 closes the series first-rate with the death of piloting, & needs no postscript. Therefore I would suggest that you leave out this No. 7 entirely & let the articles end with the June No. On the whole I should think that would be the neatest thing to do. I retire with dignity, then, instead of awkwardly.2 There is a world of river stuff to write about, but I find it won't cut up into chapters, worth a cent. It needs to run right along, with no breaks but imaginary ones. Bret Harte was here the other day to rent a house. Haven't heard how he succeeded. 3 Can't you & Mrs. Howells run down next Saturday? I wish you'd

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

483

try. Things are blooming now. We've tried hard to get to Cambridge, but ever so many things have interfered. Yrs Ever Clemens 1

Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK), which in part replied to his of 12 May: EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

May 20, 1875. My dear Clemens: This is capital—I shall hate to have you stop!—but there's one paragraph (marked ?d) which I'd leave out because it seems lugged in, a little. I don't know but it would be well to omit all that about sea-songs. But use your own taste. Maybe it wouldnt. Glad you liked the Raymond criticism so well. Yours ever W. D. Howells. Please return soon. 2

With his letter Howells enclosed proofsheets of the final installment of "Old Times on the Mississippi." Clemens did not quite delete "all about the songs," but retained a few very brief allusions to singing aboard steamboats. Howells evidently did not approve of the added "postscript" explaining the seemingly sudden end of the series. The article concluded instead with a lengthy anecdote about Strother Wiley ("Stephen"), introduced as follows: "In the absence of further statistics, I beg to close this series of Old Mississippi articles with one more reminiscence of wayward, careless, ingenious 'Stephen,' whom I described in a former paper" (SLC 1875/, 194). (It is unlikely that this reminiscence was the postscript, as previously suggested: see MTHL, 1:85 n. 2.) A discussion about a suitable ending and some consequent revision, possibly including addition of the entire Wiley anecdote, doubtless was the reason that publication was delayed. If Howells had accepted Clemens's 22 May alterations, including the postscript, the typesetting and printing could have been completed well before 12 June, when the July Atlantic was available ("The July Atlantic," Hartford Courant, 12 June 75,2). On 7 June, however, Clemens was again reworking this last installment, and Howells had postponed publication until August (see 7 June 75 to Howells). 3 Harte was in Hartford on 18 May. Twichell, in his journal entry about that day's baseball game (see the previous letter, n. 1), noted: "On the way to this match we met Mr Bliss with Bret Harte going to look at a house which the latter thinks of renting. I had never seen him 'close to' before and was a little disappointed in his looks" (Twichell, 1:102). His disappointment may have been in part evoked by a conversation that he, and possibly Clemens, had recently had with Bliss. In his journal entry for 13 May, Twichell noted that he and Clemens had spent that afternoon in New Haven, carriage shopping and then to Prof. Marsh's museum where he showed us bones and talked Evolution as long as we could stay. 'Twas very entertaining indeed. Returning home by the midnight train I fell in with Elisha Bliss, who gave me a full and funny account of all he had suffered as publisher from Bret Harte in the process of getting out of him a book he had contracted to write. (Twichell, 1:100)

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T h e book, published in 1876 by the American Publishing Company, was Gabriel Conroy (see 5 July 75 to Howells, n. 4, and, for details of Bliss's difficulties with Harte, L5, 1 3 4 - 3 5 n. 2). In addition to h o u s e hunting with Bliss, Harte probably requested one of the periodic advance royalty payments h e d e p e n d e d on to m e e t his expenses. H e did n o t rent a house in Hartford, however, but c o n tinued living with his family in Morristown, N e w Jersey, at a hotel kept by his brother-in-law, while traveling frequently to N e w York. In July the Hartes m o v e d to Cohasset, Massachusetts, near the actor Stuart Robson, for w h o m Harte had agreed to write a comedy, Two Men of Sandy Bar (Scharnhorst 1992, 4 9 - 5 0 , 53; Harte 1997, 1 1 0 - 1 4 ) . Othniel Charles Marsh ( 1 8 3 1 - 9 9 ) , was America's first professor of paleontology, holding that chair at Yale from 1866 until his death.

To William J. Lampton 22? May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, author's paraphrase: C U - M A R K )

Told him to serve an apprenticeship for nothing & when worth wages he would get them.1 1 Clemens's paraphrase of his answer survives on the envelope of the following letter ( C U - M A R K ) :

OFFICE OF GARRETT, MC. DOWELL & CO. PIG IRON. N . E . COR. 4 , H AND WASHINGTON AVE.

ST. LOUIS, M a y 2 0 t h 187 5

Sam'l. L. Clemens Esq "1 Hartford > Conn J Dear Sir Honors like misfortunes never come singly, and I am another star (?) to add to your crown of glory—I am your cousin—at least, Jas Lampton Esq of this city says so, and I'm sure, Jas may be relied upon in matters genealogic. I am from Kentucky, and have lived west of the Mississippi about a year and a half & have known Cousin James since 3 weeks ago. I am book-keeper for the firm whose name stands at the head of this sheet, and the longer I keep books the more I feel that I have missed my calling and that "newspaper man" was inscribed upon the package of dust from which I was evolved. I've tried to get on some paper here, as reporter but have no influential acquaintances among the editors; when I heard that you were of like blood with myself I thought, "try again," and your influence might be gained in my favor, with some of your publishing friends. I'm young & healthy, and not afraid of the disagreeable duties incidental to a first appearance as quill driver; besides my education & reading give me some confidence in the less unpleasant portions of the work. Don't think because I ante this that I'm impecunious, dead broke short of money or friends, &

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

485

seeking to curry favor or funds for it is not so, but from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh & I'd like to hear from you. East, West, North, South, any-where; daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly anything. I am very &c Yours —W. J. Lampton— care Garrett M c Dowell & Co—St L — M o

William James Lampton (1851?—1917) was the grandson of James Lampton (1787-1865), one of Jane Clemens's seven paternal uncles. He was therefore Clemens's second cousin (and a first cousin once removed of James J. Lampton, the model for Colonel Sellers). James Lampton became wealthy from iron ore discovered on his Kentucky land, and his business passed to William's father, William Henry Lampton (1813-99). In 1873 William left Kentucky for St. Louis, where he took a position with Garrett, McDowell and Company, Commission Merchants and Dealers in Pig Iron. In 1876 he again wrote Clemens, proposing a visit, and was rebuffed: Clemens wrote on the envelope of his letter, "Declined to suffer the affliction of his visit" (Lampton to SLC, 26 June 76, CU-MARK). In 1877 Lampton succeeded in becoming a journalist by launching the Ashland (Kentucky) Weekly Review, with his father's money. Around that time he may have managed to meet Clemens and his family, as suggested by his close to an exultant letter of 18 February 1882, on the letterhead of the Steubenville (Ohio) Herald (CU-MARK): You will remember perhaps in 1876 when I was in St Louis keeping books I asked you to assist me in getting a place in a newspaper but you told me I'd better stick at what I was. But I didn't do it, and five years ago this month I went to Ky and started down so low as to publish a Republican paper in that state (Possibly you dont know just what sort of a job that was. I do—now) Then I went to Cincinnati & then here in 1879 & here I have succeeded in getting my name in lots of papers and my picture in several more and this week just 5 years from my first work on a newspaper I have been offered & accepted the position of City Editor of the Courier-Journal of Louisville without any solicitation or knowledge of it until the proposition was made. That's all. I feel like I am entitled to this crow for you were the first man I ever talked to in the newspaper business and I felt interested in you. N o preventing Providence. I go to Louisville Mch 1" & if you ever come down that way, we will see if we cant find a fresh cork out of a bourbon bottle for you to smell at. . . . Remember me to M rs Clemens and the little chicks. Yours, W. J. Lampton Ed Herald

The editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, Henry Watterson, of course recognized the name "Lampton," and may have known of William's family relationship to Clemens—and, more remotely, to himself. In later years Lampton wrote several books, as well as humorous poems he called "yawps," which were printed in the New York Sun and collected in Yawps and Other Things (Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Company, ca. 1900)(Selby, 15, 30, 112; Lampton 1990, 161-73).

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To P. T. Barnum 24 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CtB) @

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

May 24. My Dear Barnum: I was delighted, yesterday morning, at breakfast, to learn that Mr. Barnum was in the library. When I got there it was a Mr. Barnard1—a stranger who had come to put in his time & put out mine. I ought to have killed him, but as it was Sunday I let him go. Many, many thanks for the last instalment of Itt letters. I am learning to play on the pig-tail whistle.2 Yrs Truly Sam'. L. Clemens ES[letter docketed by Barnum.] Mark Twain | May 24. 1

Unidentified. Nothing is known of this batch of peculiar letters. Previously, on 23 March, Barnum had forwarded a little girl's request for a musical instrument and an offer of a petrified fox. And on 24 March, he wrote that "your package of'queer letters' is again increasing" (CU-MARK). 2

* N o l e t t e r s written between 24 and 3 1 May have been found. During that week, the Clemenses entertained three out-of-town guests. Joaquin Miller, who had recently returned from abroad and was now traveling in the East, stopped in Hartford on his way from Boston to New York; on 28 May he wrote to John Hay, "Dear Hay. Am here with Clemens but will be at the Windsor Hotel NY this evening for a day or so" (RPB-JH). Miller had been in Boston to arrange for the publication of The Ship in the Desert, a book-length poem that Roberts Broth-

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ers issued in October. On about 25 May, Thomas K. Beecher, pastor of the Langdon family's church in Elmira, arrived for a week's visit, during which he exchanged pulpits with Twichell, conducting two services at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church on Sunday, 30 May. That day he wrote to his wife, Julia, on Clemens's typewriter: I AMUSE MYSELF WITH THIS MACHINE AGAIN WHILE THE FOLKS ARE EATING DINNER DOWN STAIRS. I PREACHED TO AN ATTENTIVE AUDIENCE THIS M O R N I N G . . . . WELL: IT WAS AS GOOD A SERMON AS I CAN PREACH I N A GOTHIC CHURCH.

I'M

SORRY

FOR

TWICHELL,

OR ANY

DOOMED TO PREACH I N SUCH A CAVE OF A PLACE.

OTHER

MAN

WHO

IS

(CtHSD)

Beecher stayed with the Clemenses until the afternoon of Wednesday, 2 June. The third arrival was William Wright, who had accepted Clemens's invitation to stay in Hartford while writing his book. On 16 May the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise announced his departure for the East: Mr. William Wright, better known by the nom de plume of "Dan De Quille," and for many years the leading local editor of the E N T E R P R I S E , will leave for the Atlantic States to-morrow evening, for the purpose of preparing for publication a volume of historical and local sketches relating to the Comstock and its surroundings. For several years Mr. Wright and Samuel L. Clemens ("Mark Twain") were associate local reporters on the E N T E R PRISE, and the forthcoming volume of Mr. Wright will show that he shares largely in those literary characteristics which have placed his old associate at the head of American humorists. Mr. Wright proceeds Eastward with his notes, and may possibly prepare his volume under the roof of Mr. Clemens' elegant cottage at Hartford. The exact scope and character of the work have not yet been determined by the author; yet they will doubtless be confined to a history of the discovery and development of the marvelous riches of the Comstock, and to personal incidents and sketches connected therewith. We predict that the volume will be unusually attractive. It cannot be otherwise, considering the rich and varied materials within the reach of the author, and the style in which the feast will be served. Mr. Wright will probably be absent about six months. The venture is taken at the solicitation of friends, of whom no man has more in Nevada. ("Literary," 2) On 3 June Wright wrote his sister: "I met Joaquin Miller here and liked him much better than I supposed I should. He has got his hair cut and with his long hair much of his silly affectation departed, as with Samson of old, in regard to his strength" (2 and 3 June 75, C U - B A N C ) .

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Dinner at the Clemenses' on Thursday, 27 May, included all three visitors and was undoubtedly a lively occasion. Beecher briefly described it in a letter to Mrs. Langdon: "It was shad as became Friday— It was Lamb & peas as became spring. It was Joaquin Miller that ate of it, till he was satisfied. It was I that did likewise. And M r Wright who writes out west as De-quill did as we did" (27 and 29 May 75, C t H M T H ) . Wright lodged at the Union Hall Hotel on Farmington Avenue. Daytimes he spent at work with Clemens in a study they set up in the loft above Clemens's stable, so as to avoid household distractions. "Don't laugh," he wrote his sister on 2 June, "as his stable is as fine as most houses." In addition to advancing his book, Wright sent occasional letters to the Virginia City Enterprise, describing for his readers his trip across the continent in a Pullman car, his three-day stay in New York, and his exploration of eastern towns—Newport, Providence, and Nantucket—as well as Martha's Vineyard. Unfortunately, no letter about his arrival in Hartford has been found ("Personal," New York Evening Post, 25 May 75, 2; Marberry, 141-47; "New Publications," Boston Globe, 13 Oct 75, 3, and 16 Oct 75, 2; " T h e Asylum Hill Congregational Church" and "Hotels," Hartford Courant, 26 May 75, 1; Twichell, 1:103; Wright 1875a-d).

* To William F.Gill 31 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: ViU)

Hdfd May 31/75. My Dear Mr. Gill: I see you announce your humble servant among your Treasure Trove series.1 Don't do it anymore. I've got burnt oncece (Lotos Leaves)—that is enough. I shall be a very very old fool before I repeat the courtesy (i.e. folly) of giving my permission to print a sketch of mine in any book but mine. 2 Therefore, since I have endeavored to do you kin/dnesses before now, please do one for me, inasmuch as your opportunity has come— to wit: Give notice in print, as quickly as you can, that in consequence

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of my publishers' unwillingness, nothing of mine will appear in your Treasure Trove. That will be sufficient without mentioning other reasons. S i .Truly Ys, S L Clemens 1

Clemens probably saw the following item in the "Boston Correspondence" column of the Hartford Courant of 31 May (1): Messrs. William F. Gill & Co., who are tasteful in their selections of literature, announce some excellent summer reading in press, among which is a "Satchel series" and a "Treasure Trove series," the latter including graceful and humorous selections from Dickens, Thackeray, Lamb, Swift, Addison, and Irving, among the classics, interspersed with popular pieces by Mark Twain and Max Adeler, and some extracts from Geo. Wm. Curtis's agreeable essays. "Max Adeler" (humorist Charles Heber Clark) was an old antagonist of Clemens's (see L4, 120-22). George William Curtis (1824-92) was a travel writer, satirist, orator, and editor of Harper's Weekly. The Treasure-Trove series (of twelve projected volumes) was a collection of "The Arabesques of Modern English Literature. . . . Comprising a combination of choice morceaux of Wit and Humor by the great authors," edited by Richard Henry Stoddard (18251903), a leading poet, critic, and editor, and compiled by William Shepard Walsh (1854-1919), an author and editor ("William F. Gill & Co.'s New Summer Books," Publishers' Weekly 8 ["Book Fair Supplement," July 75]: 32). 2 Gill had "burnt" Clemens by denying him permission to reprint "Encounter with an Interviewer" from Lotos Leaves (see 12-28 Feb 75 to Bliss, n. 1). He had also exploited Clemens and his work on the public platform. For example, on 15 April 1874, in Boston, he read "An Interview with Mark Twain," "a really fine illustration of the peculiar conversational manner of the distinguished humorist," which "purported to be an attempt of Mr. Gill to get at the private history of Mr. Clemens for the purpose of having a lecture upon it, and was in reality a capital burlesque upon the 'interviewing' feature of journalism, so popular just now." And on 22 April 1874, also in Boston, he delivered—to "roars of laughter"—the passage on the Italian guide from chapter 27 of The Innocents Abroad. Gill's popular readings also included his own poetry and prose, and selections from Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Tom Hood, Bret Harte, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and others (Boston Globe: "Reading by W. F. Gill," 16 Apr 74, 5; "Parker-Memorial Entertainment," 28 Sept 74, 4; Boston Evening Transcript: "Mr. Gill's Dramatic Readings," 23 Apr 74, 1; New York Tribune: "Personal," 15 June 75,4).

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To Cornelius R. Agnew 7 June 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: OKentU)

(ac) Hartford, June 7. D

r

Agnew— D r Sir: We have canvassed it a good deal, & it is decided to beg you to

come up here, at the time you specified. 1 1 state the result, without inflicting all the long string of reasons upon you. A physician here, D r Starr, a friend of ours, has always assisted D r Bowen (by applying the ether, I believe,) when he operated upon this patient's eyes. Had I better have him on the spot, in case you might need his help? 2 Please give me notice of your coming, so that I can go to the depot & bring you out. Y r s Truly 1

Sam'. L . Clemens

Cornelius Rea Agnew (1830-88) was a leading New York specialist in diseases of the eye and ear. He received his medical degree from the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1852, then did further study in Europe, later practicing medicine privately and at the Eye and Ear Infirmary of New York. In 1858 he was appointed surgeon-general of New York State, and during the Civil War worked zealously for the United States Sanitary Commission. In 1868 and 1869 he founded eye and ear hospitals in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Clemens probably consulted him in New York on 3 June, when he made a brief trip to the city "on business" (William Wright to Lou W. Benjamin, 2 and 3 June 75, CU-BANC). 2 The Clemenses were arranging treatment for a neighbor, Nell Kinearney. W. S. Bowen was a Hartford eye and ear doctor; Pierre S. Starr was a homeopathic physician, in practice with Cincinnatus A. Taft, the Clemenses' doctor (Geer 1875, 36, 141; L4, 333 n. 3). In a letter of 17 June, Lilly Warner, a close friend of the patient's, told her husband, George, that Agnew was a lovely man, quiet, & fine in every way, such a contrast to the bluster of Dr. B. as his manner is! He impresses you at once as a noble man—with a heart so kind & true that it shows in his eyes & whole face. He is not a personal friend at all of Dr. Bowen—that is, he appears to have simply known him. (CU-MARK)

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

To P. T. Barnum 7 June 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: ViU) @ Hartford June 7. M y Dear Barnum: 1 If nothing happens, I suppose we shall be so far away from here in July that we / can't attend that jolly gathering; but we are magnanimous enough to hope you & Mrs. Barnum will have a royal good time, even though we lose our share.2 We hope to enjoy your hospitality another time. With our kindest wishes for you both Yrs Truly S. L . Clemens

[letter docketed by Barnum:] Mark

Twain

1

Barnum first urged the Clemenses on 23 March to pay a visit to his summer home, Waldemere, in Bridgeport, Connecticut: "You must not creep and crawl and sweat out of giving us at least a week's visit with your wife when the weather is warmer." He made the invitation more specific on 4 June (both letters in CU-MARK): SEAL OF THE C I T Y OF B R I D G E P O R T I N C O R P O R A T E D 1 8 3 6 M A Y O R ' S O F F I C E . B R I D O E P O R T , CT June 4 1 8 7 5 My dear Clemens th I want you surely to come and spend 5 of July with us. We have nobody except ourselves & my married daughters who live in cottages close by, except your townsman David Clark, who always comes on that occasion, it being my birth day. This year instead of being my 45th I am very sorry to say it is my 65"7 We have dinner & a clam bake in the grove on my place and a quiet social time. My wife joins me in hoping the health of your wife will enable her to accompany you. P. T. Barnum P. S. The "queer letters" are accumulating. Barnum had been elected to a one-year term as mayor on 5 April 1875. Waldemere, the second opulent mansion he built in Bridgeport, was completed in 1869, more than ten years after his first one was destroyed in a fire. Two of his daughters by his first wife, the former Charity Hallett, who had died in 1873, lived in cottages on the extensive grounds. Caroline Cordelia (b. 1833) was married to David W. Thompson, a bookkeeper; Pauline (1846-77) was married to Nathan Seeley. Barnum married his much younger second wife, the for-

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mer Nancy Fish (1850-1927), in September 1874. David Clark, a former owner of the Hartford Morning Post, was one of Clemens's fellow directors of the Hartford Accident Insurance Company (see pp. 171-72; Saxon, 35-36, 46, 150, 191,201,212,214, 253, 263, 266, 330, 394 n. 31; Trumbull, 1:611; Geer: 1874, 292; 1875,294). 2 The Clemenses planned to spend the summer in Newport, Rhode Island, to escape the heat. They did not depart, however, until 31 July.

To William Dean Howells 7 June 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H) Hartford, June 7. M y Dear Howells: By all means come! Be sure to come! You speak in the i first person singular number; do double it, if within the possibilities, & bring Mrs. Howells with you. 1 Take the fast train which leaves Boston about ten o'clock & here you are at luncheon almost before you think you've started! Mrs. Howells will feel hardly any fatigue. 2 I'll have the letter shipped to Warner. 3 Bless me, I understood you to say you had announced me for August—& so I have carried the nightmare of having to re-chew that odious chapter, ever since! If you haven'tannounced it much, couldn't you just let on that you didn't mean it 5 f am proposing to take hold of the thing today or t o m o r r o w — b u t it is so hard to p u m p u p a new interest in what one has written once & dismissed f r o m his mind. 4 I think that that music is lovely. M r . Potter was here when it came, & he sat down at the piano & played & sang it—& his is a noble voice. Next I want to get Rev. M r . Parker here & have him sing it for me. 5 I am a splendid ass! U p o n referring to your former letter I perceive that you ask m e to telegraph, y so that you can stop the announcement of the August number. I am unutterably stupid. N o w I will go ahead & finish the article without another wriggle. 6 I am ever so grateful to you & to M r . Booth for that music. M r . Potter liked it exceedingly, & sang it several times. H e spoke as if he

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

493

knew Mr. Booth—which is very likely, for Potter is a composer of music, himself.7 For two days the weather has been swelling around, threatening to big things, but I could put the result in a tin dipper & not croyiwd it. Ys Ever Clemens 1

In a now lost letter written on 4 or 5 June, Howells had accepted Clemens's invitation to visit—most recently repeated on 22 May—setting the date at 12 June. See notes 3 and 6 for more of the letter's contents. 2 Howells replied with a postcard on 10 June (CU-MARK): Dear Clemens: I shall not be able to start conveniently till Saturday afternoon, on the three o'clock train. I'm sorry that I must come alone. The rest is not well enough. Yours W. D. H. 3

Howells had asked Clemens to forward a letter of 4 June 1875 to Charles Dudley Warner, who was on tour in Europe and the Near East. In it, among other matters, Howells discussed "Passing the Cataract of the Nile," Warner's article in the July Atlantic Monthly, the first of a series, and also reported that "Mark Twain's Mississippi papers have been a great success as they richly deserved to be" (Howells 1979b, 97; Warner 1875c). 4 After writing the fifth paragraph, Clemens went back and canceled this one with a wavy vertical line, leaving it still very legible. 5 Edward T. Potter, the Clemenses' architect, had visited Hartford in May, apparently to confer about improvements to the house, including the purchase of furniture for the upper and lower verandas (which he called "ombras") and the installation of a marble floor. The Reverend Edwin Pond Parker (18361920) was a prominent Hartford Congregational clergyman, pastor of the Second Church of Christ since 1860. He had an extensive knowledge of music, had in part supported himself in college by teaching it, and composed a number ofhymns (Potter to SLC, 30 May 75, CU-MARK; Trumbull, 1:291). See note 7. 6 In his lost letter, Howells doubtless rejected the revisions in the final installment of "Old Times on the Mississippi" that Clemens had submitted on the proofsheets on or soon after 22 May (see 22 May 75 to Howells, n. 2). Possibly he even re-enclosed those proofsheets, with further suggestions, while notifying Clemens that since it was now too late to get the article into the July Atlantic he would announce it for August, unless Clemens telegraphed to stop him. 'Howells sent the sheet music for "No More," a song by Francis Boott (1813-1904). Boott, a graduate of Harvard University, lived in Italy for many years before settling in Cambridge in the early 1870s; it was there that he and Howells became friends. His compositions, primarily vocal, included both secular and sacred songs; among them were settings of six poems by Bret Harte. Boott and his family associated with leading literary figures both in the United States and Italy. Howells later used Boott's son-in-law, Frank Duveneck, as the basis for the artist in Indian Summer (Howells 1886), and Henry James drew on

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Boott and his daughter for the Osmonds in Portrait of a Lady (1881). William James, also an intimate friend, wrote Boott's obituary and delivered a eulogy at his memorial service. Little has been discovered about Potter's music, but one of his compositions, "Room for a Soldier," was later transcribed for band by John Philip Sousa (William James, 97-101 ;MTHL, 1:87 n. 4; Sousa, 3).

To William F.Gill 8 June 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, author's copy: MH-H)

(Copy.)1 In answer to Gill's ofJune 7.2 Hartford June 8/75 My Dear Mr. Gill: It is perhaps no more my publisher than it is myself that objects to the insertion of my matter in outside books. I think that nothing of mine has ever so appeared (except in one case) without my permission being first asked & obtained. This permission I have time & time again refused, without speaking to my publisher. I almost always refuse it. I have granted it in the case of obscure books like "Readers," but never in the case of conspicuous works like your series.3 It was hardly right of you to announce me & THEN propose to ask my permission. But I gather from your letter that your justification for this was that you felt free to take possession of any uncopyrighted matter of mine which might be lying around, & you meant to ask permission only in the case of copyrighted matter.4 There was another publisher who allowed that queer sort of morality to fool him. He discovered, in a United States court, to his serious pecuniary cost, that my sole ownership of my matter is perfect & impregnable—I mean all of my matter—every single page I ever wrote.5 Now in giving you fair warning that if a single line of mine appears in one of your books I will assuredly stop that book with an injunction, I beg you to believe me when I say that I do not do this in any fractious

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

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or unamiable spirit toward you or your editor,6 but solely & only because I think it injurious to me to come prominently into print any oftener than I am professionally obliged to do. Yours, in all kindness, Sam'. L. Clemens 1

The source of this text is Clemens's holograph file copy of the letter sent (see 13 July 75 to Osgood, n. 1). 2 Gill's reply to Clemens's letter of 31 May is not known to survive; but see note 4. 3 Clemens meant the unauthorized inclusion of his work in anthologies, not the wholesale piracy of entire books or the compilation of collections of his sketches. Several anthologies, English as well as American, contained unauthorized reprintings of his sketches, or excerpts from longer works (ET&S1, 670-71; BAL, 2:246-48 [unnumbered items]). For the "one case" see note 5. 4 Neither the "uncopyrighted matter" nor the "copyrighted matter" that Gill wanted to reprint in his Treasure-Trove series has been identified. For the sketch he ultimately did include, without Clemens's permission, see 13 July 7 5 to Osgood, n. 2. 5 In 1873 Clemens had granted Benjamin J. Such permission to reprint one of his sketches in an advertising pamphlet, A Book for an Hour, Containing Choice Reading and Character Sketches,but Such included five. The suit, which was heard by the New York Supreme Court, was not based on a claim of copyright infringement (a federal matter), but on Clemens's common-law property rights to his literary work and to his nom de plume as a trademark. Although Chief Justice Daniel P. Ingraham granted an injunction to prevent further sale of the book, he did not award the $25,000 Clemens sought in damages. Nor did he clearly articulate the legal basis for his decision, which was not the claim of trademark. Nevertheless, Clemens persisted in believing otherwise: in 1879 he recalled the suit as "a trade-mark case decided in my favor by Judge Lawrence in New York (about 1873)" (N&J2,307; LS, 368,370 n. 5; Feinstein, 22-44). 6 Richard H. Stoddard.

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To Mr. Gwynn 21 June 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: WvU)

@

>

FARMINGTON AVENUE, HARTFORD.

June 2 i . My Dear Mr. Gwynn: 1 Will you come up & play billiards (th bring Mrs. G.,) the i first evening you are in town, & let me know beforehand, so that I can get up a jolly four-handed game? Ys Sincerely Sam'. L . Clemens

OVER2

Unidentified. Clemens wrote this letter on stationery that he used from early 1874 through 1877. On 21 June of 1874,1876, and 1877, he was in Elmira, whereas he remained in Hartford until 31 July in 1875, which therefore is the likely year of writing. 2 The manuscript, whose verso is blank, is now tipped into a late edition of The Innocents Abroad (see the textual commentary). The stationery originally may have been a folder, with the postscript on the verso of the second leaf, but subsequently torn away. Clemens canceled the parenthetical reference to "Mrs. G." and wrote "OVER" in an ink different from the one he used for the rest of the letter. 1

To William Dean Howells 21 June 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H)

Hartford June 21. My Dear Howells: O, the visit was just jolly! It couldn't be improved on. And after the reputation we gained on Lexington Centennial Day it would have been

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

a pity to become commonplace again by catching trains & being on time like the general scum of the earth. Since the walk to Boston T w i chell & I invariably descend in the public estimation when discovered in a vehicle of any kind. 1 Thank you ever so much for the praises you give the story. I am going to take into serious consideration all you have said, & then make up my mind by & by. Since there is no plot to the thing, it is likely to follow its own drift, & so is as likely to drift into manhood as anywhere—I won't interpose. If I only had the Mississippi book written, I would surely venture this story in the Atlantic. But I'll see—I'll think the whole thing over. 2 I don't think Bliss wants that type-writer, because he don't send for it. I'll sell it to you for the twelve dollars I've got to pay him for his saddle—or I'll gladly send it to you for nothing if you choose (for, plainly to be honest, I think 8 1 2 is too much for it.) Anyway, I'll send it. 3 Mrs. Clemens is sick abed & likely to remain so some days, poor thing. I ' m just going to her, now. 4 Y r s Ever Clemens 1

The letter Clemens answered has not been found. Howells's visit began in the late afternoon on Saturday, 12 June. In his journal that day Twichell wrote, "Spent the evening at M. T.s with W. D. Howells." And the next day he noted: M. T. & W. D. H. walked home from Church with me, and subsequently I went to Mark's and dined with them—just for love. Upon leaving H. followed me to the door and we had on the threshold quite a talk on religious subjects and I was sorry that we couldn't have more. He seemed very humble and earnest, and vastly loveable. (Twichell, 1:107-8)

A week later, on 20 June, Howells wrote to his father: "I spent last Sunday at Hartford, with Mark Twain, and as I had to go to church with him in the morning, and talk with him all the rest of the day, why I didn't write to you as you may well know. I had a beaming visit, of course, and did a month's laughing" (MH-H). Howells presumably returned to Cambridge on the evening of 13 June or the following morning. In his lost letter he may have mentioned missing a train on his way home, recalling his and Clemens's misadventures on "Lexington Centennial Day" (see 18 Apr 7 5 to OLC, n. 1). For the walk to Boston see Clemens's letters of 9 and 12-17 November 1874. 2 While in Hartford, Howells must have read some of the nearly completed manuscript of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and offered to serialize it in the Atlantic. 3

Shortly after receiving his first typewritten letter from Clemens, Howells had mentioned his interest in borrowing the typewriter (9 Dec 74 to Howells, n. 2). He replied to the present letter with a postcard on 23 June: "Please send

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the machine, and if I cannot afford to receive it for nothing, I will pay the extortionate sum you name. W. D. H." (CU-MARK). 4 In a letter of 21 June 1875, Lilly Warner reported to her husband, George: "Poor Livy is down for a few days, with a trouble like mine of two months ago, only a good deal younger. She is immensely relieved & glad though, for she had been miserably unhappy about it—on account of her frail health only" (CUMARK). The trouble apparently was a miscarriage.

To Cornelius R. Agnew 23 June 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: OKentU)

@

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

June 23 d . M y Dear D

r

Agnew:

I shipped the books this morning—I only wish they had been as great in number as they are profound & instructive in character. 1 I very much wanted to show you all over our house, so that you might see some of M r . Potter's interior taste, but feared to propose it lest it might be a b o r e — & now M r s . Clemens tells me that you yourself proposed i t — & just in a woman's illogical way she sc/olds me, who didn't know of it! But I'll make amends when you come again—indeed I seriously meant that you see that divan in the study, even if it did bore you a little!—for I am not all charity & consideration & delicacy. I had to break the news to both of those poor women at the same t i m e — " N e l l " would have it no other wise—they bore the thing better than I did myself. T h e y have not decided, yet, what they will do. With kindest regards from M r s . Warner, M r s . C . & myself. 2 Y r s Truly S. L . Clemens.

'The 1 January 1876 statement of Clemens's account with the American Publishing Company indicates that on 22 June 1875 he purchased a "Set of his books"—The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, and The Gilded Age—in halfmorocco binding, for $5.40, clearly for Agnew (APC 1876a). 2 As Clemens requested in his letter of 7 June, Agnew came up from New York on 16 June to examine and recommend a treatment for Nell Kinearney. The second of the "poor women" was Annie K. Simons, Kinearney's sister;

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

they lived near the Clemenses, on Forest Street (Geer 1875, 133; Simons to OLC, 26 Oct 75, CU-MARK). Lilly Warner passed on the news in her 17 June letter to her husband (CU-MARK): Dr. Agnew came up last evening at 7, & examined Nell's eyes, & his decision is that nothing can be done but the removal that Dr. Bowen wished to make.. . . Mr. Clemens has been down this morning & had a long talk with those two poor people, telling them the result, & going over all the ground. Do you know what a tender hearted man he is?

To William Dean Howells 25 June 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B) June 25. M y Dear Howells: I told Patrick 1 to get some carpenters & box the machine & send it to you—& found that Bliss had sent for the machine & carried it o f f . 2 1 have been talking to you & writing to you as if you were present when I traded the machine to Bliss for a twelve-dollar saddle worth $25 (cheating him outrageously, of course—but conscience got the upper hand again & I told him before I left the premises that I'd pay for the saddle if he didn't like the machine—on condition that he donate said machine to a charity) but now I began to suspect that you never had heard that conversation; /which suspicion Dan, who was present, confirms, & says it was Joaquin Miller that was with us, & not you. 3 And that is perfectly true. I remember it now, perfectly well, though I have [at bottom of page: •'RiTKTTaijtqsaTj aip jn spai| aip nnrin caiTjpq had the impression all this time that it was you. This was a little over five weeks ago—so I had long ago concluded that Bliss didn't want the machine & did want the saddle—wherefore I jumped at the chance of shoving the machine off onto you,-/-saddle or no saddle, so I got the blamed thing out of my sight. The saddle hangs on Tara's walls down below in the stable 5 & the machine is at Bliss's, grimly pursuing its appointed mission, slowly & implacably rotting way another ch man's chances for salvation.

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I have sent Bliss word not to donate it to a charity (though it is a pity to fool away a chance to do a charity an ill turn), but to let me know when he has got his dose, because I've got another candidate for damnation. You just wait a couple of weeks & if you don't see the Type» Writer come tilting along toward Cambridge with the raging hell of an unsatisfied appetite in its eye, I lose my guess. 6 Don't you be mad about this blunder, Howells—it only comes of a bad memory & the stupidity which is inseparable from true genius. Nothing intentionally criminal in it. Mrs. Clemens is still sick abed but getting along very promisingly & satisfactorily. One of these days let's run down to Washington for a day. I've a moment's business with the President haven't you?7 Yrs Ever Mark. 1

McAleer. Clemens answered Howells's postcard of 23 June (see 21 June 75 to Howells, n. 3). 3 See pp. 486-88. Clemens took Miller and Wright to call on Elisha Bliss, probably between 25 and 28 May. All three authors may have had business to transact: in 1874 Bliss had published Miller's Unwritten History: Life amongst the Modocs; he was currently producing Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old; and he planned to publish Wright's Big Bonanza, still a work in progress. Wright reported to his sister, "I like what I have seen of Mr Bliss, of the American Publishing Company. He is not straight-laced" (2 and 3 June 75, CUBANC). 4 Clemens reused a leaf, numbered B-14, discarded from the manuscript of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This canceled fragment completed a sentence begun near the bottom of page B-13 (also numbered 572), at the end of chapter 22: "As usual, the first revival had bred a second, the second a third, and so on, the Presbyterians following close upon the heels of the Methodists, & the Camp-j |" (SLC 1982,2:572). Clemens first crossed out these words, and then canceled the entire page B-13, inserting a new sentence at the top to end the chapter. The Campbellites were followers of father and son Thomas (17631854) and Alexander (1788-1866) Campbell, who advocated individual interpretation of the Bible. Clemens's father, John Marshall Clemens, was a Campbellite sympathizer; Clemens's sister, Pamela, belonged to the sect in her youth (.Inds, 288). 5 An allusion to the first stanza of one of Thomas Moore's "Irish Melodies": 2

The harp that once, through Tara's halls, The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls As if that soul were fled. (Moore, 10)

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

The Clemenses' Tara was a pony. 6 For the fate of the typewriter, see 4 Nov 75 to Howells, n. 7, and 5 Nov 75 to Bliss, n. 5. 7 Clemens's "business" with Ulysses S. Grant might have been to enlist his support for a new copyright law or for the admission of Samuel Moffett to the naval academy (see 18 Sept 75 to Howells and 22 Dec 75 to PAM).

To Pamela A. Moffett 28 June 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK) Hartford, June 28. M y Dear Sister: Livy has been confined to her room, & part of the time to her bed, for the past week, but is around again, now. This has persuaded her to go to Newport for August & part of September—so the sickness has been a good thing on the whole. We shall take both children & two nurses. Yesterday while I was at church the wet nurse let the baby get hurt. She pushed (or possibly Susie) pushed the top of the baby carriage forward heedlessly from behind & caught the baby's middle finger, nipping the end of it nearly off. The blood flowed like a small river & scared everybody badly. But the coachman caught up the child & bound tobacco about the wound with Margaret's help & stopped the blood. The doctor was called,1 who sewed up & bandaged the2

1

The cast of this drama included Rosina Hay, Susy's nurse; Maria McLaughlin, Clara's wet nurse; coachman Patrick McAleer; and Margaret Cosgrave, the family cook. The doctor probably was Cincinnatus Taft or his partner, Pierre Starr. 2 This letter fragment fills both sides of a single sheet; the number of sheets now missing is not known. Pamela Moffett used the margins for an undated letter to her mother and son, who were visiting relatives in Louisville, Kentucky: Ma why do not you and Sammy write? The last news we had from you was S's letter in the Student and that was written a good deal over a week ago. Sammy I like your style for newspaper correspondence. I sent you the Censor with a Morning directed to aunt Mary Saunders. The temperance pieces were for her. I sent the papers to aunt Mary but I thought she would n't care for the local.

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Mary Saunders was Clemens's paternal aunt. Fredonia, New York, was a center of the temperance movement, in which Pamela Moffett participated, and the Censor, the local newspaper, published a semi-regular "Temperance Column" as well as occasional related stories on the subject. The Student was presumably a Kentucky periodical, not further identified (PAM to MEC, 25 May 75, CU-MARK).

To Cornelius R. Agnew 30 June 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: OKentU)

@

>

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

June 30. Dear D r A g n e w — Yours just received. It will disabuse Mrs. Warner's mind of her mistaken notion concerning D r Roosa.ji 1 I wish to ask you a professional question: " N e l l " has an opportunity to spend the summer at the seaside; thinks that the change & the strength she would gain, would enable her to make up her mind to have that tremendous operation performed. Mrs. Simons is hoping that you will agree that this is a good thing to do. Will you please drop me a line & an/ opinion? 2 Truly Y r s Sam'. L . Clemens 1 Daniel Bennett St. John Roosa (1838-1908), an eye and ear specialist and president of the American Otological Society from 1874 to 1876, was a professor of ophthalmology at the University of the City of New York. Neither Agnew's letter to Clemens nor any record of Lilly Warner's "mistaken notion" has been found. 2 Agnew's response is not known to survive. In the fall of 1875 he performed the "tremendous operation" to remove Nell Kinearney's eyes. In a letter of 26 October 1875, her sister, Annie Simons, thanked Olivia for her help in arranging the operation, saying that words were inadequate to express her gratitude (CU-MARK). Probably she never became aware of the further assistance Olivia offered in a letter of 26 November 1875 to Agnew:

It must have seemed strange to you, Dr Agnew, when you found that we had not told Mrs Simons that you made no charge for your visit here— The reason that we did not tell her was that she had been very much annoyed when she found that Dr Bowen was not being paid for his services, she was very unwilling to receive charity from a

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stranger, she felt that some of his neglect came from the fact that she was a charity patient— So we thought we would not tell her until after the operation I think we did not do the wisest way but at the time it seemed to us best. We hope you will send us the bill for the operation— We know that you must have innumerable cases of this kind, and we of course have not so let us defray the expense of this one— (OKentU)

It is not known if Agnew in fact billed the Clemenses.

To William Dean Howells 5 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B)

July 5M y Dear Howells: 1 I have finished the story & didn't take the chap beyond boyhood. I believe it would be fatal to do it in any shape but autobiographically— like Gil Bias. 2 I perhaps made a mistake in not writing it in the first person. If I went on, now, & took him into manhood, he would just be like all the one-horse men in literature & the reader would conceive a hearty contempt for him. It is not a boy's book, at all. It will only be read by adults. It is only written for adults. Moreover, the book is plenty long enough, as it stands. It is about 900 pages of M S . , & may be 1000 when I AshallA have finished "working up" vague places/; so it would make from 130 to 150 pages of the Atlantic—about what the Foregone Conclusion made, isn't it?3 I would dearly like to see it in the Atlantic, but I doubt if it would pay the publishers to buy the privilege, or me to sell it. Bret Harte has sold his novel (same size as mine, I should say) to Scribner's Monthly for 86,500 (publication to begin in Septemb/er, I think,) & he gets a royalty of 7 Va per cent from Bliss in book form afterward. He gets a royalty of ten per cent on it in England (issued in serial numbers) & the same royalty on it in book form afterward, & is to receive an advance payment of five hundred pounds the day the first No. of the serial appears. 4 If I could do as well, here & there, with mine, it might possibly pay me, but I seriously doubt it/—though it is likely I could do better in England than Bret, who is not widely known there. You see I take a vile, mercenary view of things—but then my household expenses are something almost ghastly.

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By & by I shall take a boy of twelve & run him on through life into (in the first person) but not Tom Sawyer—he would not be a good character for it.5 I wish you would promise to read the MS of Tom Sawyer some time, & see if you don't really decide that I am right in closing with him as a boy—& point out the most glaring defects for me. It is a tremendous favor to ask, & I expect you to refuse, & would be ashamed to expect you to do otherwise. But the thing has been so many months in my mind that it seems a relief to snake it out. I don't know any other person whose judgment I could venture to take fully & entirely. Don't hesitate about saying no, for I know how your time is taxed, & I would have honest need to blush if you said yes. Osgood & I are "going for" the puppy Gill on infringement of trademark.6 To win one or two suits of this kind will set literary folks on a firmer bottom. The N. Y. Tribune doesn't own the world—I wish Osgood would sue it for stealing Holmes's poem. Wouldn't it be gorgeous to sue Whitelaw Read for petty larceny? I will promise to go into court & swear I think him capable of stealing pea-nuts from a blind pedlar.7 Mrs. C. grows stronger. Susie is down with a fever. Kindest regards to you all.8 Yrs Ever Clemens 1

Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK), which replied to his of 21 June and 25 June and also touched on matters discussed during Howells's 12 and 13 June visit to Hartford: EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

July 3, 1875. Dear Clemens: I care nothing about that type-setter personally, but I'm sorry for you, because I had about made up my mind to let you give it me. You may never have another opportunity to do me a charity. Sorry to hear that Mrs. Clemens is poorly. I hope she is better by this time. Mr. Boott, who wrote that No More music, says he is much pleased at your notion of giving it to Miss Kellogg to sing. He would like to know, I suppose, how she likes it. —You must be thinking well of the notion of giving us that story. I really feel very much interested in your making that your chief work; you wont have such another chance; don't waste it on a boy, and don't hurry the writing for the sake of making a book. Take your time, and deliberately advertise by Atlantic publication. Mr. Houghton has his back up, and says he would like to catch any newspaper copying it. Yours ever W. D. Howells.

Samuel L. Clemens, aged. 39

505

I have seen Barrett. His plot was a series of stage-situations, which no mortal ingenuity could harness together. But I think I shall write him a play. He offers me $50 a night for 50 nights; then $3000 down; then $50 a night, on. Exactly when Clemens became acquainted with the renowned soprano Clara Louise Kellogg (1842-1916) is not known. In November 1875 he was still trying to introduce Francis Boon's music to her (see 4 Nov 75 to Howells). In 1877 Howells sold the dramatic rights to A Counterfeit Presentment to Lawrence Barrett, who appeared in it for one season (Howells: 1877; 1979b, 150-51). Henry Houghton hoped to help persuade Clemens to serialize Tom Sawyer in the Atlantic Monthly by promising to stop the unauthorized newspaper reprinting that would reduce the market for the book version. T h e Atlantic had not tried to impede the widespread reprinting of Clemens's "Old Times on the Mississippi" articles (see 6 Jan 75 to Houghton and Company, n. 1). 2 Alain René Le Sage's famous picaresque romance (1715-35), which Clemens had read in 1869 (L3, 440-41). 'Howells's Foregone Conclusion appeared in six installments in the Atlantic Monthly, from July through December 1874, totaling about ninety-two pages. 4 Bret Harte's Gabriel Conroy was serialized in Scribner's Monthly from November 1875 through August 1876. The American Publishing Company issued the book in September 1876. In 1907 Clemens claimed that Bliss was prompted to sell the serial rights because he "realized that 'Gabriel Conroy' was a white elephant" (AD, 4 Feb 1907, C U - M A R K , inMTE, 281). Scribner's actually paid 86,000, which Bliss and Harte shared equally. Frederick Warne and Company of London intended to issue the work in thirty parts, but only two parts, dated October and November 1875 (comprising chapters 1-12), have been found. They published a three-volume edition in May 1876 (LS, 135 n. 2; Harte: 1875-76; 1876; 1997, 112 n. 1; Harte to SLC, 24 Dec 75, CU-MARK, in Harte 1997, 125-26; BAL, 3:7281). 5 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1885) was, of course, the partial realization of this plan. Although Clemens did not take Huck Finn into manhood, on more than one occasion he considered portraying both him and Tom Sawyer in old age (see HH&T, 15-20). 6 See 31 May 75 to Gill. Osgood wrote to Howells on 3 July: "In spite of all, our friend Gill has used your name on the back of his book between 'Praed' and 'Poe.' Do you propose to stand it, or will you join your publisher in stopping it? I have written to Mark Twain, whose name is also there" ( M H - H ) . (Osgood's letter to Clemens has not been found.) Gill's list—which was printed on the spine of the first volume in the Treasure-Trove series, Burlesque—included authors represented in forthcoming volumes. According to an announcement in the New York World for 17 May, Howells's "Mrs. Johnson" (1868) was to be among the contents of Essay (originally intended as the first volume), and Story, the second volume, was to include a "specimen" by Mark Twain ("Literary Notes," 17 May 75,2; see 31 May 75 to Gill, n. l , a n d 13 July 75 to Osgood, n. 2). 7 For an explanation of the grudge Clemens had been carrying against Whitelaw Reid, the editor of the New York Tribune, since May 1873, see LS, 367-69. T h e present offense occurred on 4 June, when the Tribune reprinted Holmes's "Grandmother's Story of Bunker-Hill Battle" from "an admirably attractive, illustrated brochure to be issued this week by James R. Osgood & Co. of Boston" ("The Battle of Bunker Hill," 8). The newspaper flagrantly dis-

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regarded a note in the pamphlet, appended to the copyright statement: "As this poem is written expressly for this Memorial, and not intended for publication elsewhere, the Publishers request that it be not copied or reprinted" (Memorial,, 1). Although Osgood did not sue Reid, on 17June 1875 he had filed a "bill in equity" against Frank Leslie, who pirated the same poem in the "Centen-

nial" issue of his Illustrated Newspaper, restraining him from "further publica-

tion and sale" and requiring an accounting of profits and payment of damages ("Dr. Holmes's Bunker Hill Poem," New York Times, 18 June 75,3). No copy of the issue containing the poem has been found. 8 Howells answered (CU-MARK): EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

July 6, 1875. Dear Clemens: Send on your Ms. when it's ready. 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 Adantic, but I succumb. Perhaps you'll do Boy No. 2 for us. Here's some more music from Mr. Boott which he thought might suit Miss Kellogg better than No More. I count it a pleasure and privilege to read your story. There! I'm very glad Mrs. Clemens is better, and very sorry for poor little Susy. Yours ever W.D. Howells.

Howells apparently forgot to enclose the music by Francis Boott (see 13 July 75 to Howells).

To Mr. Gerard 6 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CtHMTH)

( S )

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, H A R T F O R D .

July 6. Dear M r . Gerard: 1 Our architect is M r . Edward T. Potter, 56 Wall st., N . Y., up stairs. He has drawings. H e also knows of a picture of the house which appeared in a Boston architectural journal 1 2 or 15 months ago—name I've forgotten. 2 I have some photographs of the house, but they are not very satisfactory. N e w Will you have them, or would you prefer to wait for some new ones which are soon to be taken? Very Truly Y r s Sam'. L . Clemens

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39 1

Unidentified. The drawing of the house, by Potter himself, was published in the NewYork Sketch-Book of Architecture in April 1874 (see p. 688). The journal was published in Boston by J. R. Osgood and Company and in New York by E. P. Dutton and Company. 2

To Unidentified 6 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Henkels 1932, lot 281)

H a r t f o r d J u l y 6 t h . 1875. Gentlemen: W h o can I buy your safety matches of in Hartford? I cannot find any agency. 1

' T h e first safety matches, patented in Sweden in 1855, were developed to correct two problems associated with phosphorus friction matches, in common use since 1836: spontaneous combustion, and necrosis of the jawbone among factory workers exposed to phosphorus fumes. By 1875, several kinds of safety matches were available, all of which required a special striking surface for ignition and were made without phosphorus, or with a nontoxic form of it. Two of the most well-known brands were the American Safety Parlor Match, made in Erie, Pennsylvania, and the Hendrickson and Leigh Safety Match, made in Trenton, New Jersey. Because these products often created a dangerous explosion of sparks, and were easily damaged by moisture, toxic phosphorus matches remained in wide use until 1911 (Manchester, 35-36,46-47,5758, 71-75).

To Francis Bret Harte 13 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: McGuire)

(TTC)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, H A R T F O R D .

July 13. M y D e a r Harte: D r o p me a line on some subject or other—I want it for the autographic collection of t h e his Reverence the Chancellor of Christ

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Church ACathedral, Dublin, who is a mighty good fellow—for a Christian.1 If you need a text, tell me if I can publish a story in a London magazine, 8 months before it appears here, without impairing my American copyright. You may possibly know, but I swear I don't.2 Just finished writing the book to-day (900 pages M S . , ) but can't print now, because I have a book going through the press at this time.3 With kind regards to Mrs. Harte,4 Yrs Ever Mark. 1 The chancellor of the cathedral church of the Dublin and Glendalough dioceses (Anglican Communion), commonly called Christ Church Cathedral, wrote Clemens on 26 June (CU-MARK):

My dear M r Clemens We are not strangers as I had the pleasure of meeting you in London when poor Bellew gave a dinner in honor of your coming to England & I had also the pleasure of communicating with you & receiving a very liberal contribution when the poor fellow was in distress & in the illness of which he died— I want you, if you have it in your power, to do me the following favors which with your literary influence in your native land you may be able to effect—that is to procure for my great collection of the autographs of distinguished people (the largest & finest collection perhaps in this country—) the autographs of Bret Harte Miss Cuskman Joseph Jefferson [in margin: I have that of O Wendell Holmes] You may have ways of coming at these signatures which I have not & I am very anxious to have them— I have your autograph in my second volume & the extract from your "New Pilgrim's Progress"—" Tomb of Adam."... I "keepyour memory green" here—and hope you will write to me when you have any literary or artistic memorials to send to ¡me] my dear M r Clemens. Yours ever faithfully— Charles E Tisdall D r Chancellor of Christ Church Cathedral Dublin

The Reverend Canon Charles Edward Tisdall (1822?-1905) was born in Dublin and received his academic degrees at Trinity College. In 1847 he was ordained a priest, and in 1863 assumed his position at Christ Church Cathedral, serving as chancellor until his death (Leslie). John Chippendall Montesquieu Bellew (1823-74) was a noted elocutionist and orator who hosted a dinner for Clemens at the Langham Hotel in London in June 1873. The two men had met that May on board the Batavia en route from New York to Liverpool (Thompson, 82, 85). Charlotte Saunders Cushman (1816-76) was the most highly regarded dramatic actress of her day. In a letter of 3 March 1880, Tisdall recalled Clemens's sending one of the requested autographs, probably Harte's, and also asked for another charitable contribution, in aid of a destitute Dublin stage

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

manager. In a note on the envelope, Clemens characterized Tisdall as "a man of perfectly indestructible cheek," one of several London acquaintances who had done nothing "but beg favors of me which would make a brazen image blush" (CU-MARK). 2 Harte's reply has not been found. Existing American copyright law did not explicitly deal with the issue of prior foreign publication. The London magazine may have been Temple Bar (see 15 Jan 75 to Howells). 3 The finished book was Tom Sawyer. The one in press was Sketches, New and Old. 4

Anna Griswold Harte (L2, 40 n. 2).

To William Dean Howells 13 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B)

July 13. M y Dear Howells: 1 Just as soon as you consented I realized all the atrocity of my request, & straightway blushed & weakened. I telegraphed my theatrical agent to come here & carry off the M S & copy it.2 But I will glad[ljy send it to you if you will do as follows: dramatize it if you perceive that you can, & take, for your remuneration, half of the first 86,000 which I receive for its representation on the stage. You could alter the plot entirely, if you chose. I would help in the work, most cheerfully, after you had arranged the plot. I have my eye upon two young girls who can play " T o m " & "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! Twichell heard from. Has caught his first 20-pounder. 3 I'm looking for the music along, but it hasn't arrived yet.4 Mrs. Clemens is doing tolerably well, only. Susie well again. 5 Yrs Ever Mark

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1

Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK), which answered his unrecovered reply to Howells's letter of 6 July (5 July 75 to Howells, n. 8): EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

July 8, 1875. Dear Clemens: I can't. I say it with tears in my eyes, for I do have such good times with you. And what grieves me more is that we shall not be in Cambridge from Aug. 1 till Oct. 1. We go into the Country at Shirley Village, Mass., on the 1 st prox., and stay there till midSeptember, when we hope to go to Quebec, for the rest of that month. But all this needn't prevent your running up with Mrs. Clemens in October, when we shall be as glad to see you as possible. Meantime, don't forget to let me see that Ms., as you promised. Yours ever W. D. Howells.

The Howellses planned to stay in Shirley Village, a Shaker community about thirty-five miles northwest of Cambridge, and then travel to Quebec to visit Howells's father, the American consul there (Howells 1979b, 100 n. 2; 21 June 74 to Howells, n. 2). 2 Clemens hired H. W. Bergen, who traveled on tour with Raymond and kept a record of the proceeds and expenses of his performances, to make a copy of the Tom Sawyer manuscript. It was not until early November, however, that Clemens gave it to Howells to review (Bergen to SLC, 15 May 75,22 May 75, CtHMTH; MTB, 1:518-19; amanuensis copy of the MS, almost certainly in Bergen's hand, at MoSMTB; 4 Nov 75 to Howells, n. 7). 3 Between 30 June and 17 July Twichell took a "grand salmon fishing trip" to New Brunswick, Canada, "at the invitation and at the expense" of Dean Sage; on 6 July he wrote ecstatically to his wife, Harmony, about this first catch (Twichell, 1:111-15; Sage). Clemens had apparently seen or had a report of this letter, for there is no evidence that Twichell wrote directly to him. 4 Evidently the music that Howells had intended to enclose in his letter of 6 July. 5 Howells replied (CU-MARK): EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

July 19, 1875. My dear Clemens: It's very pleasant to have you propose my working in any sort of concert with you; and if the $3000 were no temptation, it is a temptation to think of trying to do you a favor. But I couldn't do it, and if I could, it wouldn't be a favor to dramatize your story. In fact I don't see how anybody can do that but yourself. I could never find the time, for one thing. My story is coming into the daylight, but when I get it done—say Sept. 14,—I'm going off to Quebec on a two weeks' rest, and then I'm going to tackle a play of my own, which is asking to be written. Besides all this, I couldn't enter into the spirit of another man's work sufficiently to do the thing you propose. —I'm going up to Shirley to-morrow to see if the last touches have been put to the preparation of our quarters there, and my wife will probably follow on Thursday. Her health has been most wretched all summer, and we earnestly hope for benefit from this change. We are both very sorry to hear your half-hearted report of Mrs. Clemens. Newport, I should think would do her good. You'll find my friend Col. Waring a capital fellow, and most usefully learned in everything a stranger wants to ask about Newport. Yours ever W. D. Howells.

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

Howells's story was "Private Theatricals," published in the Atlantic from November 1875 through May 1876. The play may have been The Parlor Carcompleted by mid-February 1876 (see 29 Oct 74 to Daly, n. 4, and 5 July 75 to Howells, n. 1; see also 14 July 75 to Waring).

To James R. Osgood 13 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H) Hartford July 13. M y Dear Osgood: D o you see this puppy's drift? I enclose a reply, which couple of replies to his letter. Let the attorney send either or neither to Gill. If he thinks mine of June 8th (herewith enclosed) covers the whole ground, —all right—use his own judgment.1 If Gill uses my matter without printing my name anywhere in his book he will do himself no good & me no serious harm—& neither will he be violating trademark, I suppose. But what he is really up to, I imagine, is to use my name inside the book but not on the cover.2 Say—the man is a natural deceiver. T h e tittle of his series shows it: Treasure Trove means treasure found, I think—whereas his is more properly Treasure Stolen & ought to be so styled. Damn a man who will lie so wantonly. Y s Ever S. L . Clemens 1

Osgood had joined with Clemens in threatening legal action against Gill, whose announced Treasure-Trove series included some of Osgood's authors (see 5 July 75 to Howells, n. 6). The enclosed copy of Clemens's most recent (8 June) letter to Gill appears in this volume under its own date. Gill's answer to it, if any, is not known to survive, nor do the "couple of replies" that Clemens drafted and also enclosed here. It is not known what, if anything, Osgood's unidentified attorney forwarded to Gill. 2 Clemens first tried to claim his pseudonym as a trademark in an 1873 lawsuit (8 June 75 to Gill, n. 5). The first volume in Gill's Treasure-Trove series, entitled Burlesque, was already in print. On 12 June, Gill pronounced it "nearly ready," and copies were available by 6 July. Despite Clemens's threat to "stop

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that book with an injunction" if it included anything of his, Gill reprinted the one piece that he was legally entitled to: "Encounter with an Interviewer," on which he owned the copyright. A letter that Clemens wrote to Osgood on 25 January 1876 suggests that Gill offered to compromise by using the sketch without any mention of its author, thereby avoiding a violation of Clemens's trademark: "But the lawyer says Gill has taken my nom deplume out of the book although he left the article in it. Of course this destroys the possibility of my suing him for violating trade-mark, and I don't wish to sue him for anything else" ( M H - H ) . Nevertheless, all copies of the book that have been examined include the name "Mark Twain" both in "Contents" and on the first page of the sketch. The earliest copies also list the names of twenty-five Treasure-Trove authors (including Clemens) on the spine. The only documented alteration that Gill made was the removal of this exterior list from later copies—just as Clemens anticipated ("Announcements of Forthcoming Publications," Publishers' Weekly7 [12June75]: 620; 8 [17July75]: 1 8 5 \ B A L , 8:19127;Moulton 1875; Richard H. Stoddard, 7,177: copies with authors' names on the spine at T x U Hu and NcD; a copy without names at FTS).

To George E. Waring, Jr. 14 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: ViU)

(SLC)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

July 14. M y Dear Sir: 1 I am sorry to have been away when ^ you called.2 We shall arrive at Mr. Bateman's (Bateman's Point, Newport) July 31 s t , & shall hope to see you then.3 Yrs Truly Sam'. L . Clemens 1 Waring (1833-98), of Newport, Rhode Island, was a Union Civil War veteran, agriculturalist, and sanitary engineer who wrote for the Atlantic Monthly on horses, military life, and fox hunting, as well as his professional specialties. His next Atlantic contribution, " T h e Sanitary Drainage of Houses and Towns," ran from September through November 1875. He also wrote for Scribner's Monthly, and issued a collection of sketches, Whip and Spur, through James R. Osgood in 1875. 2 Although Waring had attended the Atlantic contributors' dinner on 15 December 1874, he might not have met Clemens then. Howells's letter of 19 July

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

seems to introduce him to Clemens for the first time (13 July 75 to Howells, n. 5). Doubtless he had called at Howells's suggestion. 3 See pp. 521-23.

To Elisha Bliss, Jr. 16? July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CtY-BR) JBliss please print this title-page & mail to me for transmission to Washington.1 S.L.C. Mark Twain's Sketches. [ N e w & Old.] Now First Published in a Complete Form in this country. [Sold only by Subscription.] Hartford: The American Publishing Co. 1875-

[new page:]

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by Samuel L . Clemens, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

1 The date assigned conjecturally to this letter allows sufficient time for the printing of the requested title page and for its transmission to Clemens and then to Washington, where Copyright No. 7619 was issued on 21 July 1875 (information courtesy of the Copyright Office, Library of Congress).

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To Mary F. Foster 19 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Transcript and paraphrase: Parke-Bernet 1963b, lot 34, and two others)

(sic)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

July 19,1875. [paraphrase: The dated note. . . is addressed to "Dear Madam", thanking herfor a ticket, which he unfortunately will not be able to use.] I send copies of my books for the Library & hope your enterprise will meet with a generous success.1 S. L. Clemens 'The addressee's name is provided by the 1 January 1876 statement of Clemens's account with the American Publishing Company, which indicates that on 20 July 1875 a "Set of books" bound in cloth was ordered for Foster (not further identified), at a cost of $3.60 plus $1.00 for "Express on same" (APC 1876a). Included were The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, and The Gilded Age.

To James R. Osgood 20 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CtY-BR)

Hartford, July 20. My Dear Osgood: It seems a shame that a thief can go on & print 2000 copies of stolen goods & have to es escape punishment through the weakness of the law; but still, since it is advised that we stop with the present result I am willing, provided the "public statement for moral effect" (& for Mr. Gill's exposure) be made. 1

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

We have gained everything, & established a strong point, useful in the future, if said public statement be made. Yrs Truly Sam'. L . Clemens 1

See 23 July 75 to Osgood.

To Pamela A. Moffett 23 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NPV)

Hartford July 23 My Dear Sister: I was only joking.1 Nothing can persuade me to read a temperance tract or be a party to the dissemination of such injurious publications. Speaking It is temperance people who have persuaded the world to believe that the seller of rum is the proper person to be punished instead of the drinker of it. One could with as much sense say that God is the personage who should shoulder the blame for the sin that is in the world (& ,sufferA the punishment) because He made sin attractive & put it in the reach of the sinner. It is temperance people who have made "the poor drunkard" a pit pet, in place of a despicable scoundrel worthy only of contempt, pitiless abuse, & speedy death.2 There is no estimating the harm that a few Goughs in temperance & a few Beechers in religion are able to do.3 Both of these causes would be much better off if both these persons had died in infancy. But never mind—I will not enlarge. I never would be able to make you comprehend X how frantically I hate the very name of total abstinence. I have taught Livy at last to drink a bottle of beer every night; & all in good time I shall t^each the children to do the same. If it is wrong, then, (as the Arabs say,) "On my head be it!" 4 We leave for Bateman's Point, Newport, R. I., the last day of this month if all are well at that time. Livy is not very strong, & does not improve very fast, but the children are doing well. We have had no hot weather yet.

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Did Watterson write Secretary Bristow about Sammy? 5 And has Annie written Emma Parish? 6 Lovingly Sam. 1

In a letter not known to survive. For Clemens's previous, sympathetic view of temperance advocates, see 12 Mar 74 to the editor of the London Standard. 3 John Bartholomew Gough, the famous reformed drunkard and sensational temperance lecturer, had been managed since 1872 by James Redpath, who also represented Clemens. Henry Ward Beecher preached against the evils of drink, but revealed his true attitude to Clemens. On 8 January 1868, shortly after dining at Beecher's home, Clemens wrote his mother and sister: "I told Mr. Beecher that no dinner could be perfect without champaign, or at least some kind of Burgundy, & he said that privately he was a good deal of the same opinion, but it wouldn't do to say it loud." At that time Clemens thought Beecher "a brick" (L2, 144-45). Beecher's long adultery trial, which Clemens followed, had recently come to an inconclusive end (see 29? July 74 to Twichell, n. 2, and pp. 446,448; Eubank, 300-303). 4 See 1 Dec 74 to Street, n. 2. 'Benjamin Helm Bristow (1832-96), secretary of the treasury since July 1874, was being enlisted in the ongoing campaign to secure an appointment to the naval academy for Samuel Moffett. He had practiced law in Louisville in the early 1870s, where he evidently became acquainted with Henry Watterson, editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal and a relative by marriage of the Clemenses and Moffetts. Bristow's primary public service as secretary was the 1875-76 defeat of the Whiskey Ring, a powerful alliance formed to evade payment of the whiskey tax. 6 No correspondence has been found between Annie Moffett and Emma Parish, who claimed a relationship to the Clemens family (see 29 Aug 74 to Parish, n. 2). 2

To James R. Osgood 23 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Transcript and MS: CU-MARK and MH-H)

Hartford July 23 My dear Osgood: My idea is, to let our lawyer show this to Gill & Co. & ask them to sign it for publication (either this card or another containing the sub-

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

stance of it—to be drafted by Howells or some other of our unfortunates)—& Gill & Co. will refuse. Then show them our remarks beginning on page 71 (or other remarks to be furnished by Howells or some one else) & tell them we shall publish the card ourselves, with all our signatures appended to the remarks. Then you must have every aggrieved author & publisher sign it (I would rather a greater name than mine should come first in the list— seems to me it would be better) but I am not strenuous)—then you print it, making an agreement with all hands that we shall mutually pay the libel damages (if any—& it ain't likely there'll be any) out of our several pockets, each according to his financial ability. By the way, I think Gill wrote me that Holmes & a lot more gave him permission to use copyright matter—which is probably a lie. Shall I hunt up that letter for you?2 Yrs Clemens [enclosure:]

A Card. Being under the impression that unwatched (that is to say, uncopyrighted) literary property could be property was without protection in law, & could therefore be siezed under the blackflag& used with impunity, we recently laid hands upon a quantity of such goods & advertised that upon a certain date we would work the same up & deliver it to the public in a series of volumes. To make these volumes complete we were necessitated to use some of the copyrighted property of the same authors we were proposing to despoil—but this we honestly intended to ask for, since we could not get it in any other way. [We as good as said this, in a letter to one of these authors—¿which letter can be produced, in proof of this assertion, if required,?] But certain of these authors not only declined to give us permission to use their copyrighted matter (as did also their publishers,) but even warned us to leave their uncopyrighted property alone, # «also, and. threatened us with the heavy hand of the law if we disobeyed the warning. This had no effect upon us. We disobeyed. We published our book. But this present statement is to certify that in doing this we made a serious mistake; for the legal advisers of Messrs. J. R. Osgood „[here insert the rest of the names, Osgood?]« & Mr. Mark Twain prove «have« proved to us a thing A

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we never had dreamed of before, to-wit: that an American author's right of property in his writings is absolutely perfect & indestructible, even without the protection of a copyright. This fact being established to our satisfaction, we very promptly ^necessarily, agreed to issue not another copy of our book with the forbidden names & matter in it. Two thousand copies of the book had already passed out of our hands, but no more will follow until the promised eliminations shall have been made. 3 [Signed] [,three-fourths of page left blank; new page:]

We the undersigned sent the above card to Messrs. W m F. Gill & Co., publishers, with the request that they sign it, for publication. They have declined to do it, ,so.A Why, one can not easily understand. It „The cardA states simply the truth, nothing more, nothing less. It is purposely couched in moderate & inoffensive language. It gives to the world „writers & publishers, a piece of information of the last importance & value. And finally it g affords offered Messrs. Gill & Co an opportunity to perform an act of grace toward us whom they have ungently treated. (Signed However, in simple justice to Messrs. Gill & Co., & to show that we harbor no harsh feeling toward them, we willingly publish the card ourselves. {Signed]

Sam'. L. Clemens (Mark Twain) 1

That is, with "We the undersigned" at 518.11. Osgood had been Holmes's publisher since joining with James T. Fields in 1868 to form Fields, Osgood, and Company, successors to Holmes's previous publisher, Ticknor and Fields (L5, 7 2 - 7 3 n. 2). In 1874, operating as James R. Osgood and Company, he issued Holmes's Songs ofMany Seasons, and in 1875 he published the twentieth edition of Holmes's Poems. Gill almost certainly made this claim in his now lost letter of 7 June, which Clemens alluded to again in his enclosed "Card" as "a letter to one of these authors" (see 8 June 75 to Gill and 13 July 75 to Osgood, n. 1). 3 As Clemens's letter of 20 July to Osgood suggests, in return for agreeing to issue no additional unrevised copies of Burlesque, the first volume of his 2

519

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

Treasure-Trove series. Gill was permitted to sell the two thousand he had already printed. No copy of the book without Clemens's "Encounter with an Interviewer" has been found, however, nor has any published version of the proposed "Card" (see also 13 July 75 to Osgood, n. 2). Gill originally intended to publish twelve volumes in the series, but ultimately issued only four more, all in 1875: Travesty, Story, Extravaganza, and Essay (BAL, 8:19127, 19129-32).

To Orion Clemens 26 July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK)

July 26 Dear Bro— All right. I enclose the $ 8 2 . 1 am getting close run for money, as my income does not begin again until the middle of August. 1 One item in your account strikes me curiously—"pew rent." You might as well borrow money to sport diamonds with. I am willing to lend you money to procure the needs of life, but not to procure to AsoA useless a luxury as a church pew. It would much better become a man to remain away from church than borrow money to hire a pew with. The principle of this thing is what I am complaining of—not the amount of money. 2 All hands well. We are expecting to leave for Newport on Saturday. M y love to Mollie & thank her for her interesting letter, which I purpose answering soon. 3 Yri Bro Sam. ¡2] Orion Clemens, Esq | Keokuk | Iowa [return address:]

_ IF N O T DELIVERED

W I T H I N I O DAYS, TO BE RETURNED TO F P O S T M A R K E D : ] HARTFORD C O N N . JUL

27

6PM

1 Orion's letter requesting a loan has not been found. Clemens expected his income from the Gilded Age play to resume at the start of the new season, in mid-August (see 24-25 Aug? 75 to Perkins). 2 In 1906 Clemens recalled that from his Keokuk chicken ranch Orion

520

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made a detailed monthly report to me, whereby it appeared that he was able to work off his chickens on the Keokuk people at a dollar and a quarter a pair. But it also appeared that it cost a dollar and sixty cents to raise the pair. This did not seem to discourage Orion, and so I let it go. Meantime he was borrowing a hundred dollars per month of me regularly, month by month. Now to show Orion's stern & rigid business ways—and he really prided himself on his large business capacities—the moment he received the advance of a hundred dollars at the beginning of each month, he sent me his note for the amount, and with it he sent, out of that money, three months' interest on the hundred dollars at six per cent, per annum, these notes being always for three months. I did not keep them, of course. They were of no value to anybody. As I say, he always sent a detailed statement of the month's profit and loss on the chickens—at least the month's loss on the chickens—and this detailed statement included the various items of expense—corn for the chickens, a bonnet for the wife, boots for himself, and so on; even car fares, and the weekly contribution often cents to help out the missionaries who were trying to damn the Chinese after a plan not satisfactory to those people. But at last when among those details I found twenty-five dollars for pew rent I struck. I told him to change his religion and sell the pew. (AD, 5 Apr 1906, CU-MARK, in MTA, 2:324-25) 3 Neither Mollie Clemens's letter, nor Clemens's reply to it, is known to survive.

To James Redpath 29? July 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Boston Herald, 2 Aug 75)

Dear Redpath:1 Here you are again with your customary annual lecture temptations! Your offers have been prodigal before; but this time you surpass yourself when you say you will pay me whatever I ask. At first I thought I would take you up & go into the lecture field once more, charging you a million or perhaps two million dollars a week. But I consulted with friends of mine, & they said, with strong profanity, that it was too much. Now that comes from people trying to talk about a thing they do not know anything about. If these persons had ever gone lecturing a whole horrible winter, through mud & slush, they would have known that my terms were not only reasonable but almost divinely cheap. However, the violent remarks of these ignorant friends have decided my course; I will not lecture at all at any price. I will stay at home & sulk. But, joking aside, Redpath, I really cannot go upon the platform the coming season. All last winter I sat at home drunk with joy

521

Samuel L. Clemens, aged, 39

over every storm that howled along, because I knew that some dog of a lecturer was out in it. I am expecting to have just as good a time next winter, & do not think it is noble in you to want to deprive me of it. Yours with affection, Mark Twain. 1

The Boston Herald published this letter on Monday, 2 August ("Mark Twain Going to Stay at Home," 4). Allowing a reasonable amount of time for it to reach Redpath and for him to give it to the newspaper, it is likely that Clemens wrote it no later than Thursday, 29 July.

* N o LETTERS written between 29 July and 1 6 August have been found. On 31 July, the Clemens family left for a vacation at Bateman's Point near Newport, Rhode Island. There they stayed at the popular summer resort, a "spacious and complete establishment" on an old farm at the corner of Ridge Road and Castle Hill Avenue, that had been owned and run by Seth Bateman (b. 1802) for more than thirty years (Bayles, 575; Van Rensselaer, 82). William Wright accompanied the Clemenses to Newport, bringing his manuscript for The Big Bonanza. He stayed for a week, later reporting about the area in a letter to the Virginia City Enterprise (Wright 1875b). On 9 August, back at work on his book at the Union Hall Hotel in Hartford, he wrote to his sister (CU-BANC): I did not stop in the town, but went with Mark and family to a farmhouse about four miles out—out on the extreme west point of the island. A very breezy place it was and a foggy place. During the week I was there we had but two days of sunshine. . . . At Bateman's Point, where we stopped, we had water on three sides of us. Went to sleep every night by the roar of the ocean and could look out of my window on waking in the morning and see ships passing while still lying in bed. . . . I went down to Newport in order to get Mark to read my manuscript. He is very indolent and after reading about a thousand pages said it was all right—he did not want to read any more.

After Wright's departure the Clemenses received invitations from at least two literary acquaintances. On 12 August, clergyman and author Thomas Wentworth Higginson urged them to come hear a lecture

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on natural history given by Alexander Agassiz, who had established a zoological research station at Newport (CU-MARK). And on 20 August poet and social reformer Julia Ward Howe invited them to a "Blue Tea"; she asked her guests "to bring at least four lines of verse, or a paragraph of prose, or a written excuse for not bringing either" (CUMARK). Higginson sent another invitation on 24 August, suggesting that the Clemenses come hear him read from old journals "describing Newport society during the Revolution, especially while the French officers were here" (CU-MARK). Clemens entertained himself with a pastime he recalled in 1907: Twenty-seven years ago my budding little family spent the summer at Bateman's Point, near Newport, Rhode Island. It was a humble and comfortable boarding place, well stocked with sweet mothers and little children, but the male sex were scarce; however, there was another young fellow besides myself, and he and I had good times—Higgins was his name, but that was not his fault. He was a very pleasant and companionable person. On the premises there was what had once been a bowling-alley. It was a single alley, and it was estimated that it had been out of repair for sixty years. . . . The surface of that alley consisted of a rolling stretch of elevations and depressions, and neither of us could by any art known to us persuade a ball to stay on the alley until it should accomplish something. . . . We examined the alley, noted and located a lot of its peculiarities, and little by little we learned how to deliver a ball in such a way that it would travel home and knock down a pin or two. Over the course of several days—and even nights, playing by candlelight—the participants perfected their game. Clemens cheerfully recalled besting a "modest and courteous officer of the regular army" who prided himself on his skill at bowling, but was bewildered and utterly defeated by the irregularities of the alley. After his embarrassing defeat, the officer asked, "What is the prize for the ten-strike?" We had to confess that we had not selected it yet. He said, gravely, that he thought there was no occasion for hurry about it. I believe Bateman's alley was a better one than any other in America, in the matter of the essentials of the game. It compelled skill; it provided opportunity for bets; and if you could get a stranger to do the bowling for you, there was more and wholesomer and delightfuler entertainment to be gotten out of his industries than the finest game by the best expert, and played upon the best alley elsewhere in existence, could furnish. (AD, 23 Jan 1907, CUMARK, in AMT, 135-38)

523

Samuel L. Clemens, aged. 39

Clemens's skill at the game was recalled the following year by a fellow vacationer, the inventor Ross Winans, who wrote, "We miss you very much at Newport this summer. We have not so much as entered that bowling alley yet. I doubt very much whether your champion score has been beaten by anyone" (18 Aug 76, CU-MARK). At Bateman's Point Clemens escaped Hartford's summer heat, but he could not as successfully avoid all work. On 16 August Howells sent him a batch of proofsheets to read for a story scheduled for anonymous publication in the October Atlantic Monthly—"The Curious Republic of Gondour," an ironic tale that took aim at the American political system (SLC 1875n). The following note accompanied the proofsheets (CU-MARK): Shirley Village, Mass., August 16, 1875. My dear Clemens: They put your name to this proof on their own responsibility, guessing the authorship from the handwriting. We are very happy here in our humble country sojourn, and I only hope that the gilded haunts of fashion at Newport may be doing Mrs. Clemens as much as this air has done Mrs. Howells, who has gained an ounce and a half since she came, and would easily turn the scale at 65 pounds^ We should like to stay here till October, but our landlord and landlady (who have both been divorced from former partners) are profiting of the occasion to separate. This m a y oblige us to leave. —I like Gondour greatly, and wish we could keep your name. Send me some more accounts of the same country. Yours ever W D Howells. Please return this in the enclosed envelope—not to me.

The proofsheets, with Clemens's name struck out, must have gone directly to the Atlantic printers, in Cambridge. Clemens presumably answered Howells shortly after 16 August, but no such letter has been found.

*

524

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6:1874-1875

To Pamela A. Moffett 16 August 1875 • Newport, R.I. (MS: CU-MARK)

Bateman's Point Neylwport, 16th Dear Sister: We send hearty congratulations & good wishes to Annie & Mr. W.j & they must be sure to give us a visit when they come east.1 We are still here, miserably homesick, butst must not return b e f o r ^ Sept. 8 th or 10th.2 The children are in superb condition. Affly Sam 1 That is, on their wedding trip: Annie Moffett and Charles L. Webster were to be married on 28 September. 2 The Hartford heat, which the Clemenses were avoiding, was soon showing signs of abating. On 24 August the Hartford Courant predicted, "Such weather as that of yesterday will soon bring home many who are absent at summer resorts" ("Brief Mention," 2).

To James R. Osgood 16 August 1875 • Newport, R.I. (MS: MH-H)

(SLC/MT)

Bateman's, Newport, 16th. My Dear Osgood: You see, per enclosed, that Gill, the infernal thief, is still advertising my name in his book. How is this?1 Yrs Truly S.L. Clemens

525

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

'The advertisement that Clemens enclosed has not been identified, but it was no doubt similar to the one in Publishers' Weekly for 14 August ("Valuable Books," 8:348): The Treasure Trove Series. The Choicest Humor by the great writers. Edited by R . H . STODDARD. VOL. I , BURLESQUE. Comprising the choicest humor of Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, G. W. Curtis, Arthur Sketchley, F. C. Burnand, Charles Lamb, Washington Irving, and others. Cloth, Square 16mo, Si. The agreement that Gill had reached with Osgood's lawyers permitted him to offer for sale the two thousand copies of Burlesque containing Clemens's sketch, but it evidently prohibited him from advertising his name (23 July 7 5 to Osgood, n. 3). "Arthur Sketchley" was the pseudonym of George Rose (181782), an English dramatist and humorist whose numerous sketches expressed the views of an illiterate old woman called "Mrs. Brown." Burnand was an English humorist and contributor to Punch whom Clemens had met in 1873 (L5, 532-33).

To Charles E. Perkins 24 or 25 August? 1875 • Newport, R.I. (MS: CtHMTH)

P.S. Hadn't we better have a clause giving my agent the right to make copies of all of Raymond's contracts, & have free access to the originals at all times? Raymond once, in a pet, refused to let Bergen see those contracts. 1 Yrs SLC. [enclosure:]2 NEW YORK HOTEL, 7 2 1 BROADWAY. FRANK WRISLEY & CO. PROPRIETORS. NEW YORK

N e w York A u g 16 to Sept 25 or Oct 2 d Share after $2356 per week 3 Philadelphia Oct 4" Two weeks Share after $285.''' Each performance

187

526

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6:1874-1875

Cincinnati Oct 18" Two weeks Share after 1500 per week Louisville Nov Ist Five Nights Share after Si500 per week less Saturday night—which time I have to take t o r e a c h BOSTON f o r

Nov 8" Two weeks Share after $3000 per week Brooklyn Nov 22d one week Share after $1500 per week Baltimore Nov 29 two weeks Share after $1500 per week Washington Dec 13" Two weeks Share after 1500 per week Tour of five weeks through the South— [inserted in a different hand: „ With Ford of Washington

.]« 60 per cent after 1800 per week New Orleans Janv 31 Two weeks 70 per cent after 250 per night 1/3 Wed matinée 1/2 Saturday Matinée Memphis Feb 1-7 14 Five Nights * 5 Chicago Feb 21 Two weeks 25 per cent first Six hundred 50 " " above 600 up to 1000 75 over 1000 St Louis March 6 Two weeks Share after $1000 per week

527

Samuel L. Clemens> aged 39 Indianapolis ,One week M a r c h 2 0 — 4 Share after $ 1 5 0 0 T e n weeks T o u r through E a s t and west c o m m e n c i n g M a r c h 2 7 [inserted iii a different hand: With A b b e y

60 per cent after 1 8 0 0 per week Cleveland J u n e 5 one m o n t h 7 0 per cent after 1 6 0 0 p e r w e e k California J u n e 26 T w o weeks Share after 4 5 0 per night 1/3 of M a t i n é e T h e above is S u b j e c t to alterations as a g r e e d debts & c John T. Raymond 1

Clemens wrote this letter on a scrap of paper attached to the enclosed schedule from Raymond, which lists bookings of the Gilded Age play for the upcoming 1 8 7 5 - 7 6 season. The dating of the letter is highly conjectural, and is based in part on the evidence of the schedule itself (see note 3). It is likely that Clemens received the schedule with the following letter ( C t H M T H ) , which answered an unrecovered telegram he probably sent to his agent, H. W. Bergen, on 23 August: " T H E R E ' S MILLIONS IN I T "

N.Y. Hotel Aug 23 My dear Clemens— The first week is over & the business has been very good, in spite of the excessive heat. I will try & meet your desires as regards your money: Mr Bergen delivered the message contained in your telegram this morning^ To save expense I have done away with an agent for this ensuing season, all his work devolves upon me together with Stage Management. I have closed for 46 weeks[.] My motive in saying this [isj to submit a proposition to take the usual agents percentage of our receipts for the time & labor in negotiating the engagements for next season^] That is business. You are saved Messrs Daly & Glens expenses & it is but fair that I should have some extra recompense Understand me I dont make it as a demand, but merely submit it for your consideration having five percent as a figure that I dont think you in justice can object to. The piece is beautifully done here. I engaged M " Raymond for Laura(.] She has made an unqualified hit & has added wonderfully to its success. Come & see the play if you can spare the time. Your friend Jno T. Raymond

528

Volume 6:1874-1875

Clemens presumably forwarded the schedule to Perkins, his lawyer, on 24 or 25 August. He then telegraphed Bergen, asking for copies of Raymond's contracts with the theaters, and evidently made another request regarding money. Raymond answered these unrecovered telegrams (CU-MARK): "THERE'S MILLIONS IN IT"

N.Y. Hotel Aug 26~ Sam' L Clemens Esq D r Sir M r Bergen showed me your telegrams this evening^ To say they made me angry is to put a mild form to it and if you had been here I would have expressed to you personally my opinion of one whose dealings through life must have been of a very singular kind to cause him to suspect mankind as you do— I have delivered to M r Bergen my ultimatum & also sent a postscript to his letter[.] My contract [illegible word] is simple enough to understand by any right meaning man & if you express any doubt again I will enforce MY rights Jno. T. Raymond 2 The figures on the schedule apparently represented expenses—firm, in the case of New York and Philadelphia, and round-figure estimates for the other cities. Clemens and Raymond were to divide the net proceeds from ticket sales, so it is not surprising that Clemens questioned such high expense figures. Doubtless they included supporting actors' salaries and theater rental. In most cases Clemens's "share" was one-half (the same as for the 1874-75 season), but where other percentages were specified (in Cleveland, for example), the larger portion was probably Raymond's. This trend continued: during the 1877-78 season Raymond received two-thirds of the profits. Many, but not all, of the engagements have been confirmed. After his run in New York ended on 2 October (see the next note), Raymond appeared at Wood's Theater, Cincinnati, during the weeks of 18 and 25 October; at the Globe Theatre, Boston, during the weeks of 8 and 15 November; at the Brooklyn Theatre during the week of 22 November; at the Varieties Theatre, New Orleans, during the weeks of 31 January and 7 February 1876; and at McVicker's Theatre, Chicago, during the weeks of 21 and 28 February (Raymond to SLC, 25 Sept 76, CtHMTH; Odell, 10:20-21, 121; "Amusements," Cincinnati Enquirer, 18 Oct 75, 30 Oct 75, 5; "Amusements," Boston Globe, 8 Nov 75,17 Nov 75, 1; "Colonel Sellers in Brooklyn," New York Evening Post, 24 Nov 75, 3; "Amusements," New Orleans Picayune, 1 Feb 76, 6 Feb 76, 1; "Amusements," Chicago Tribune, 21 Feb 76, 28 Feb 76, 7). 3 Raymond opened the Union Square Theatre's "preliminary season" in New York on 16 August. When he wrote this letter, the length of his engagement was apparently not yet confirmed—he was to appear until at least 25 September (six weeks) and, if attendance remained high, for an additional week. The extension of the play (an "overwhelming success," according to the advertisements) for a seventh week was not announced until 19 September. The "regular" season began on 4 October with Dion Boucicault's Led Astray, in which Marie Gordon—Raymond's wife—was to appear, instead of accompanying her husband on the road (New York Times: "Amusements," 16 Aug 75, 7; 18 Sept 75, 9; 19 Sept 75, 11; New York Evening Post: "Music and the Drama," 24 Sept 75, 4). Raymond expected his 1875-76 tour to be lucrative. On 2 November the Boston Globe reported:

529

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

Another pleasant story is told at the expense of Mr. John T. Raymond, the actor. At Cincinnati, last Friday, he was telling a party of friends about the great success of the "Gilded Age." "The play made seventy-five thousand dollars last year," said he; "this year I will make one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars out of it; then I'll play it another year here; then I'll go to Europe." Here he was suddenly recalled, by the merriment of his friends, to the fact that he was acting the sanguine Colonel Sellers in earnest. ("Table Gossip," 4) 4

This inserted comment and the one at 527.5-8 may be in Bergen's hand. John Thomson Ford (1829-94) had been the manager of the Holliday Street Theatre in Baltimore since 1854 and built the Grand Opera House there in 1871. He built three theaters in Washington, including Ford's Theatre (which he owned at the time of Lincoln's assassination there in 1865), and also managed a number of traveling companies. 'Neither this asterisk, nor the one below at 527.8, has been explained. This one might have been made by Raymond, but the asterisk below appears to be part of the insertion. Any notes they might have referred to have not survived. 6 Henry Eugene Abbey (1846-96) was an impresario and theatrical manager who began his career in Akron, Ohio, and earned recognition for bringing high-quality entertainment to areas outside of large cities. He later managed the Park Theatre and the Metropolitan Opera House, in New York (Odell, 10:212).

To Elisha Bliss, Jr. 27 August 1875 • Newport, R.I. (MS: OC1RC)

(Tlc)

Newport, Care of Seth Bateman F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, H A R T F O R D .

Aug 27 Friend Bliss— T h e enclosed ought to have been answered long ago, but it got mislaid & I forgot all about it. Please answer these gentlemen yourself—say what seems best & right—& send me a copy of your letter. It seems to me that to issue in Canada a cheap edition on the same day with a costly one, would simply kill the latter.1 Please turn to your books & give me an official statement of the royalties you have paid me upon Canadian

sales of my 3 books. 2 Y s Truly S. L . Clemens

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Volume 6:1874-1875

Si [letter docketed:] J 1 Neither the enclosed letter, nor Bliss's reply to it, has been found. The book the unidentified Canadian firm wished to issue doubtless was Sketches, New and Old. Bliss presumably declined permission for the proposed edition, which inevitably would have found its way into the United States and taken sales away from the American Publishing Company volume. The first Canadian edition of the sketchbook, entitled Sketches by Mark Twain, was an 1879 piracy issued by Belfords, Clarke and Company of Chicago and Toronto, and by its affiliate, Belford and Company of Toronto. It sold for $.30 in paperback and $1.00 in cloth (Roper, 57). 2 Bliss could not provide such a statement because, as Clemens should have known, the American Publishing Company did not own the Canadian distribution rights to all three of his books it had published to date. George Routledge and Sons, publishers of the authorized English editions of Roughing It and The Gilded Age, held Imperial copyright on those books, entitling them to exclusive distribution rights in Canada. The surviving bindery records for The Innocents Abroad, the only book that Bliss could legally sell in Canada, do not distinguish between sales there and in the United States (SLC 1869a, 1872e, 1874b; LS, 638; Roper, 38-41).

To William Wright (Dan De Quille) 31 August 1875 • Newport, R.I. (MS: CU-MARK)

Dear D a n — We return home about 7 th or 8th. If sooner, will write you.1 Yrs Ever Mark Eg— UNITED STATES POSTAL CARD. WRITE THE ADDRESS ONLY ON THIS S I D E — T H E MESSAGE ON THE OTHER

TO W m Wright Esq Union Hall Hotel Hartford, Conn T p o s t m a r k e d : ] NEWPORT R.I. AUG 3 1

531

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39 1

In a letter dated 27 August to the Virginia City Enterprise, Wright reported that Clemens "gave a reading the other night in Newport at a meeting of a dramatic society, and won much applause. He gave selections from his sketches and the like. He will return to Hartford in a few days" (Wright 1875d). Clemens's performance occurred on Monday, 23 August. Wright was not actually in attendance: on noon that day he returned to Hartford from a three-day steamboat excursion to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket (Wright 1875c). Probably he wrote his report from the following in the Hartford Courant of 26 August: "Mr. Clemens, Mark Twain, gave a reading Monday evening of extracts from his own works at Newport at the meeting of the Bellevue Dramatic club. The Providence Journal says:—'Mr. Twain delighted his hearers'" ("Brief Mention," 2).

To Richard M. Milnes (Lord Houghton) 1 September 1875 • Newport, R.I. (MS: UkCU)

(Tlc)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, H A R T F O R D .

Newport, Sept. I. M y Lord: I fear that you will be gone from Niagara before my note reaches you, but I will offset the fear with the h o p e that you will still be there; for the m e m o r y of your kind hospitalities to my wife & myself is strong with us, & w e join in the cordial desire that you & your son will visit our h o m e in Hartford & give us an opportunity to pay back a little of our debt. May we hope that you will be able to do this? 1 We have been spending the summer here, but shall return to Hartford Sept. 8. 2 With great respect. Very Truly Yours Sam'. L. Clemens To the Rt. H o n . Lord Houghton. 1 Richard Monckton Milnes, first Baron Houghton (1809-85), was a poet, essayist, and statesman known for his patronage of writers and his championing of liberal causes. Clemens was introduced to him in England in June 1873 by Joaquin Miller. N o details of his "hospitalities" have been discovered,

532

Volume 6:1874-1875

however. Having long felt a keen interest in learning more about North Americans, in August 1875 Houghton undertook a four-month tour of Canada and the eastern and midwestem United States with his son, Robert Offley Ashburton Crewes Milnes (1858-1945). Young Milnes had recently entered Trinity College, Cambridge. Clemens probably read of the baron's visit in the newspapers, which "followed his footsteps everywhere" and "announced his arrival in the various cities of the States in words of glowing recognition" (T. Wemyss Reid, 2:306-14). Houghton arrived in Niagara Falls in mid-August and spent three weeks there, then proceeded to Chicago and St. Louis, where he answered Clemens's note on 12 September. He explained that he was unable to make firm plans to visit, but expected to be in Massachusetts and New York in October, and hoped to see Clemens and Olivia "sometime ere long" (CUMARK). Clemens repeated his invitation on 18 October (L5, 378 n. 3; "Table Gossip," Boston Globe, 6 Dec 75, 3). 2 On 9 September the Hartford Courant reported that Clemens had returned ("Brief Mention," 2).

To the Staff of the Hartford Courant 13 September 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: TxU) Sept 13 Gentlemen Please change my paper from Newport, R.I. to Hartford & Oblige Ys Truly S. L. Clemens.

ToW.D. Mcjilton 13 September 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Jacobs) ^ £ C )

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Sept. 13. My Dear Mr. McJilton:1 I have examined my legs & find that no part of Mr.^ C.'s communication fits me except the closing remark—to-wit: "i never could war

Samuel L. Clemens, aged. 39

533

an artificial leg." Evidently I am not the man. Therefore please give the pension to the other fellow—if you can find out where he lives. We have been home a week & are consequently happy. Mrs. Clemens joins me in remembrances & kind wishes to you. Ys Truly Sam'. L. Clemens [enclosure:] yorse truley S. W. Clements. P H Fitzgerald I fill the card as i understood it to explain the fact clearley i was shot in the right leg below the knee which cased my leg to vbe, amputated and at the same time was struck on the right hip „with a canon ball, it never bothered me mutch till the last two years it has caused mutch paine and my leg and hip has pereshed away so i have no strength hardley in that legg and in 1870 a Wagon up set with me and mash my left ankel all to peases so i have no use of it if i ad had my outher Leg i could a save myself so if the goverment will give increase i think i need it bad for i ,am, badley cripeld i never could war a artificial leg m

—

[enclosure docketed:]

—

DEPARTMENT

—

—

OF THE INTERIOR P E N S I O N O F F I C E , J U L

17

1875 1 W. D. Mcjilton was a clerk in the Pension Office of the Department of the Interior in Washington, where he had been employed since at least 1871. He was born in Maryland and appointed to his position from New York (U.S. Department of the Interior: 1872,158; 1876,342). Clemens's closing remarks indicate that he had met Mcjilton during his recent vacation at Bateman's Point, Rhode Island. They probably discussed Clemens's interest in "queer letters" (samples of which he received regularly from Barnum). Mcjilton evidently sent Clemens the enclosure, a letter received in the Pension Office some months earlier, and asked in jest if Clemens were the "Mr. C" who had requested an increase in his pension. P. H. Fitzgerald has not been identified, but may have been a Pension Office employee who had previously written to Clements, whose comment "I fill the card" suggests that this may not have been his first letter to the office.

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To William Dean Howells 14 September 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H) Hartford Sept 14. M y Dear Howells: 1 I question if I can write this note intelligibly, for Susie is in the study with me & requires pretty constant attention. I did think of writing upon copyright (without signature), but concluded that the most effectual method of carrying out my views will be to get all authors signatures to my petition & then go to Washington & besiege Congress myself/, (i appearing simply as agent for bigger men.) This is of course the best w a y — & to make it effectual, no literature must let the cat out of the bag beforehand. t As to other articles, I can venture to promise that during the year I will write "some articles" not specifying when or the number or subject of them. I had better not try to be more definite. Have told Bliss to send my volume of Sketches to you before any one else (it is in press now). I think it is an exceedingly handsome book. I destroyed a mass of Sketches, & now heartily wish I had destroyed some more of t h e m — b u t it is too late to grieve now. 2 I wish you & Mrs Howells were here. It is exceedingly pleasant weather. Mrs Clemens & I join in love to you both. Ever Yrs S. L . Clemens Susie's patience is exhausted! Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK). It is torn on the right side; editorial interpolations supply the conjectured missing words: 1

EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE A T L A N T I C M O N T H L Y . THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, C A M B R I D G E , MASS.

Sept. 11, 1875. My dear Clemens: In comment on Charles Reade's letters (I wish the man wasn't such a gas-bag), don't you want to air your notions of copyright in the Atlantic? Also, can't you promise us |for| the next year, half a doz^n, papers—sketches or essays(— ,on almost anything under the sun? Your Cu. Rep. Of Gon. moves that eminent political economist Mrs. Howells, to as much admiration as it did me.

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

I hope you're all well. It's ages since I heard from you. My wife joins me in regards to Mrs. Clemens and yourself. Yours ever W. D. Howells. Address me at Prospect House Chesterfield N.H. Between 17 July and 25 September 1875, the New York Tribune printed twelve letters to the editor about copyright by the English novelist and dramatist Charles Reade (1814-84), which appeared simultaneously in London as thirteen letters to the editor of the Pall Mali Gazette (Reade 1875b-m). T h e tenth Tribune letter appeared on 11 September. Previously the newspaper had published a letter on copyright by Reade that was not part of the Pall Mall Gazette series (Reade 1875a). 2 The first one hundred copies of Sketches, New and Old arrived from the bindery on 25 September. Clemens "destroyed" a number of sketches only in the sense that his book ultimately excluded eighteen of the eighty-one he had originally listed in his "index" ( E T & S 1 , 623, 633; 12 Feb 75 to Osgood, n. 5).

To William Wright (Dan De Quille) 17 September 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CLjC) ^LC) Hartford Sept 17. Dear Dan: I wish you would write Messrs. Fair, Mackey & O'Brien, 1 & ask them if they won't save all the begging letters that come to them & send them to me from time to time. You know how rich my collection of this sort of literature is becoming, from reading some of those that Barnum sends me every month. Yrs Ever Mark. P. S. I destroy the names & addresses of such letters. ¡a W1"- Wright, Esq j Union Hall Hotel | City [return address:] IF NOT D E L I V ERED W I T H I N 1 0 D A Y S , TO BE R E T U R N E D TO | "Mark Twain" Esq | City. [ postmarked:] HARTFORD CONN. SEP 1 7 6 P M

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1

William Shoney O'Brien (1826-78) was born in Ireland and went to California in 1849, where he mined for a time, opened a saloon in San Francisco, and later became a stockbroker. Like Fair and Mackay, he made a fortune from the Comstock lode (Hart 1987, 358-59; 29 Mar and 4 Apr 75 to Wright, nn. 5, 9).

To William Dean Howells 18 September 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B and MH-H)

Hartford, Sept. 18. My Dear Howells: My plan is this You are to get Mr. Lowell ©f & Mr. Longfellow to be the first signers of my copyright petition; you must sign it yourself & get Mr. Whittier to do likewise. Then Holmes will sign —he said he would if he didn't have to stand at the head. 1 Then I'm fixed. I will then put a gentlemanly chap under wages & send him personally to every author of distinction in the country & corral the rest of the signatures. Then I'll have the whole thing lithographed (about a thousand copies) & move upon the President 2 & Congress in person, but in the subordinate capacity of a party who is merely the agent of better & wiser men—men whom the country cannot venture to laugh at. I will ask the President to recommend the thing in his message (& if he should ask me to sit down & frame the paragraph for him I should blush but still I would frame it.) Next I would get a prime leader in Congress; I would also see that votes enough to carry the measure were privately secured before the bill was offered. This I would try through my leader & a salaried & my friends there. And then if Europe chose to go on stealing from us, we would say with noble enthusiasm, "American law-makers do steal—but not from foreign authors, not from foreign authors!" You see, what I want to drive into the public ^Congressional* mind is the simple fact that the moral law is, " Thou shalt not steal/"— no matter what Europe may do.

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

537

I swear I can't see any use in robbing European authors for the benefit of American booksellers, anyway. If we can ever get this thing through Congress, we can try making copyright perpetual, some day. There would be no sort of use in it, since only one book in a hundred millions outlives the present copyright term—no sort of use except that the writer of that one book have his rights—which is something. If we only had some G o d in the country's laws, instead of being in such a sweat to get Him into the Constitution, it would be better all around. The only man who ever signed my petition with alacrity, & said that the fact that a thing was right was all-sufficient, was Rev. D r Bushnell. I have lost my old petition, but (which was brief) 3 but will draft & enclose another—not in the toords it ought to be, but in the substance. I want Mr. Lowell to furnish the words (& the ideas too,) if he will do it. Say—Redpath beseeches me to lecture in Boston in November— telegraphs that Beecher's & Nast's withdrawal has put him in the tightest kind of a place. So I guess I'll do that old "Roughing It" lecture over again in November & repeat it 2 or 3 times in New York while I am at it.4 Can I take a carriage after the lecture & go out & stay with you that night provided you find at that distant time that it will not inconvenience you? Is Aldrich home yet? With love to you all— Yrs Ever S.L.C. [enclosure:] To the Hon. the Senate & House of Representatives in Congress assembled: Whereas, There being no provision in the Christian code of morals which justifies robbery in retaliation for robbery, but the moral law being simply " Thou shalt not steal," no matter what thy neighbor dees may do—and Whereas, In violation of this principle the United States has legalized the robbery of foreign authors by American publishers refusing to them the benefit of c o p y r i g h t — & —

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Whereas, There being nothing in the Christian code of morals which justifi/es a man in requiring that another man shall .promise toA stop stealing from him before he will consent to stop stealing from said other man— Therefore, We, your petitioners, American authors & artists, do pray your honorable body to grant unto all foreign authors & artists full & free copyright in the United States (upon the same terms which we ourselves enjoy); & that you do this not as an act of grace or charity, but as i .their. right; & furthermore that you do this without hampering the deed with i .any, provision requiring a like justice at the hands of foreign governments toward American authors & artists.5 We petition thus, as being the only persons .craftsmen, in our country legitimately concerned in the matter. B e l i e v i n g that the infusing the spirit of God into our laws will be something better than the empty honor of putting His name in the Constitution, we will ever pray, etc. Signed. 1 Clemens may have been prompted to draft the enclosed petition concerning international copyright by Reade's Tribune letters, many of which—including the two most recent—dealt with this subject. Clemens's February petition had been aimed at lengthening the duration of domestic copyright (see 14 Sept 75 to Howells, n. 1; Reade 1875k-/; 8 Feb 75 to Cox). His last known meeting with Holmes was at the 15 December 1874 Atlantic Monthly dinner. 2 Ulysses S. Grant. 3 This "lost" petition was probably a version of the "Petition. (Concerning Copyright.)" that Clemens had drafted in late 1872. The Reverend Horace Bushnell, Twichell's theological mentor, agreed to sign the petition "a long way down and let the literary gentlemen have their lead" (LS, 256-58; SLC 1872f). 4 Henry Ward Beecher was one of Redpath's most popular and lucrative clients during the 1874-75 season. He was not included on the "List of Lecturers of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau. Season of 1875-6," issued in August 1875, so presumably he withdrew shortly before it was printed (Lyceum 1875, 1). Although Beecher's adultery trial had ended in July with a hung jury, public opinion was still significantly against him, which might have influenced his decision. When forced by his debts to return to the lecture platform for the 187677 season, he was often well received and always well paid, but sometimes faced jeering crowds and hostile audiences, despite having been officially exonerated by his church. Thomas Nast's withdrawal was for a more mundane reason: stage fright. Redpath recalled in 1880 that Nast was terrified of the platform on his only tour, during the 1873-74 season:

But although he could have made no end of money by remaining in the field a couple of years he backed out after he had lectured about 100 times and canceled about

539

Samuel L. Clemens, aged, 39

$5000 worth of conditional engagements for the spring. He read a written lecture on "American Humor," and illustrated it with crayon sketches—sometimes in black and sometimes in colors—on mammoth sheets of drawing-paper. He drew these sketches in presence of the audience, and astonished both the profession and the public by his amazing rapidity and skill of execution. He read well and clearly, but he never could surmount his dislike of public appearances. His success was the event of the season. But no offers that have been made since have ever induced him to reappear as a lecturer. ("Tom Nast. James Redpath Talks about the Great Caricaturist," San Francisco Chronicle, 4 Jan 80)

In his 1874-75 Lyceum magazine Redpath explained, "Mr. Nast's genius for caricaturing is fully equalled by his ability for refusing engagements when he does not want them. And he does not want them this season" (Lyceum 1874,2). Although the 1875-76 magazine announced that Nast would "give a limited number of illustrated lectures between the 1st of October and Christmas," he evidently changed his mind (Lyceum 1875, 3; "Personal," New York Tribune, 26 Oct 74, 5; Shaplen, 256-65; Hibben, 281-87; Clark, 226-29, 234-35; Pond, 37-45). At the end of July Clemens had refused to tour for Redpath, and within a few days of the present letter he decided not to stand in for Nast and Beecher either. 5 Only the United States, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire did not have an international copyright law based on reciprocity. Although such laws were enacted in Great Britain in 1837, and in Canada in 1875, they did not provide American authors with copyright protection abroad, since foreign authors had none in the United States. Clemens's petition was never presented to Congress. The situation was not remedied until passage of the International Copyright Act of 1891, which did require "like justice" for American authors from foreign nations (Hudon, 56, 58-59; Solberg, 63-64; Copinger, 226).

To James Redpath 22 September 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H)

Hartford, Sep. 22 My Dear Redpath: I perceive that I was unconsciously trying to swindle you! But I jumped to the conclusion that the per centages would reach $600, & that only about 3 or 4 days of your time would be required. Now you just look & see if you offered me better terms. For instance: I would have to & devote 6 or 8 days of my time to getting ready to deliver a lecture in Boston, & also one day to go there & another to return. Say about 2 weeks, in effect, used up—all for $350. You see you didn't know what an outlay of my time was required for one lecture, & I didn't know

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(or didn't think) how much of yours was required in order to properly work up a week's lecture-business. I hated to seem to go back on you when you were in a close place, & yet I could not afford the time necessary to prepare for a single lecture for $350 multiplied by 8.1 could but ill spare it, even at that large figure. So I hunted around for some way of making the ljiost days pay for themselves, & struck upon a plan which I thought might pay us both. I made the trifling mistake of figuring your per centage at a 10 per cent result, whereas 5 per cent wouldn't accomplish that, perhaps! 1 Still, Brelsford confessed to me that the gross receipts of my 2 night(SJ of Roughing It at Steinway reached about $36oo 2 (& there was no "stir" about the Bonanza regions then, though there is now.) 3 I am saying all this only to show that if i I seemed to be mean I wasn't trying to be, nevertheless. There are some people I like to be as illiberal with as possible, but you are not one of them, Redpath. However, the result is a lucky one for me (& I wish it were also for you,) because I find that I could not deliver those lectures without gouging the time right out of the midst of a long, solid literary job which would suffer most seriously by the interruption. 4 Because I stopped to fool with the play of Col. Sellers, I never succeeded in getting settled down to work $L again & finishing, AuntilA two months ago, a book which would have been completed twelve months ago, but for the interruption. 5 1 never H A V E lectured without losing a great deal of money by it (no matter what the fee,) & so you can understand my reluctance to meddle with fire that has burnt me so often. And besides I absolutely loathe lecturing, for its own sake! L o o k in on me, here, & I will do ditto with you presently, when I must go to Boston on business. 6 Yrs Ever Mark. P. S. Ever so many thanks for Simmons & Wall's letter. 7 S3 [letter docketed:] BOSTON

LYCEUM BUREAU, JAMBS REDPATH. SEP 25 1 8 7 5

1 The recent correspondence in which Clemens and Redpath discussed arrangements for the November series of "Roughing It" lectures mentioned in the previous letter is not known to survive. 2 Clemens seems to have confused his two Sandwich Islands lectures for the

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

Mercantile Library Association of New York, on 5 and 10 February 1873, with his single "Roughing It" lecture for that organization, on 24 January 1872. All three were at Steinway Hall. Cassius M. Brelsford, listed in the 1872 and 1873 New York City directories as "manager" and then "president" of the Cooper Union, may have been a volunteer member who arranged lectures for the association. Clemens and the association disagreed about his fee for the Sandwich Island lectures. In 1873 he estimated the gross proceeds to be four thousand dollars, of which he was entitled to half. Instead, he received only thirteen hundred (L5, 31-33, 34 n. 1, 280-81, 295-96; Wilson: 1872, 135; 1873,144; information courtesy of the Mercantile Library Association). 3 See 24 Mar 75 to Bliss, n. 2. 4 The first of several allusions, in the fall and winter of 1875, to an unidentified literary project or projects. This one may have been merely a subterfuge, however (see the next letter and 4 Nov 75 to Howells, n. 9). 5 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 6 On 6 October 1875 Redpath sold the Redpath Lyceum Bureau to George H. Hathaway and James B. Pond, who continued the business under the same name. In "To Our Patrons," in the September 1876 Lyceum magazine, Redpath explained that he had "formally severed his connection with the Redpath Lyceum Bureau, on account of the state of his health." He continued to be active as a journalist. Hathaway had been "connected with the Bureau from its establishment" in Boston in 1868 (Lyceum 1876, 5). He managed a Chicago branch for two years before joining Redpath and George L. Fall in Boston. Pond had been the lecture agent for Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young's nineteenth wife, when he came to the bureau in 1874, and he remained in the Boston office at the end of her tour (Lyceum 1874, 6; Pond, xxii, xxv; Eubank, 84, 107; Horner, 252). 7 Unidentified.

To William Dean Howells 22 and 27 September 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H) H a r t f o r d , Sept. 22 M y D e a r Howells: 1 I ' m n o t going to lecture this year, after all. I've s u b t e r f u g e d myself o u t of it. I can not lecture. I loathe it. B u t we are c o m i n g to see you by & by, anyway. I told y e u JBliss, to send you advance sheets of my Sketch v o l u m e — w h i c h I suppose he has done. T h e b o o k will b e p u b lished in a week or ten days. I saw the first copy yesterday—& a b o u t the

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first thing I ran across was an extract from "Hospital Days" (page 199) —an entirely gratuitous addition by Mr. Bliss to neatly fill out a page. I have ordered it out, instanter.2 Lord, what colds my wife & I have got! [bottom one-fourth of page cut away]3 1

Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK), which replied to his of 18 September: Prospect House, Chesterfield, N.H. Sept. 21, 1875.

Dear Clemens: You will be beautifully welcome at my house in November, or any other month of the year. Of course let us know in time, and Mrs. Howells and I will come to the lecture and drive out to Cambridge with you. This is none of your Lexington Centennial swindles—I mean business. As soon as I getfinallyhome—in about a fortnight—I'll see those venerable men about the petition for International Justice and Decency in copyright. I expect to go down to Cambridge perhaps to-morrow, and return Saturday night, preparatory to a short visit to my father at Quebec. Then, please the pigs, I shall stick to Cambridge, for one while. I can't tell you how sick I am of enjoying myself—that's what it is called. Mrs. Howells joins me in affectionate remembrances to both of you. Ever yours W. D. Howells. For the "Lexington Centennial," see 18 Apr 75 to O L C , n. 1. 2 T h e "extract" appeared on page 299 (not 199) of Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old. Entitled "From 'Hospital Days,'" it was in fact taken from Jane Stuart Wolsey's Hospital Days (Wolsey, 77). Clemens transcribed it from that book for some undiscovered purpose, noting the author's name at the top of the page and then crossing it out (CtY-BR; ET&S1, 633 n. 203, incorrectly states that Clemens copied Wolsey's sketch for inclusion in a "Cyclopedia of H u mor," but he was not planning such a work at this time). He may have inadvertently included his transcription in the printer's copy he submitted to Bliss for Sketches, New and Old. For an unconvincing suggestion that Wolsey's sketch actually copied Clemens, see Brownell 1943a-b and MTHL, 2:863-64 (which misidentifies a table of contents that Clemens marked up for a late edition of Sketches, New and Old as "proof sheets"). For the outcome of Clemens's protest, see 5 Nov 75 to Bliss, n. 7. 'Probably only Clemens's complimentary close and signature are missing from the letter, which is on the front and back pages of a folder whose inside pages are blank.

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

543

To the Editor of the Hartford Courant 27? September 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Hartford Courant, 29 Sept 75)

To the E d i t o r of the

Courant:—1

Sir:—I have been unjust to a stranger today, or unfaithful to my duty as a citizen, I cannot yet determine which. I wish now to right that stranger if I have wronged him, & I wish also to retrieve my citizenship.2 Here are the facts in the case: Yesterday evening while I was at dinner a card was brought to me bearing the inscription "Prof. A B ." I said, "I do not know the professor; ask him to excuse me; & if he should chance to call again, tell him to drop me a line through the post office & state his business." [Experience has taught me that strangers never call upon a man with any other design than to sell him a lightning rod; & experience has also taught me that if you suggest the post to these parties, they respect your sagacity & do not trouble you any more.] But the professor called again this morning at ten o'clock & sent up a couple of documents—documents so conspicuously dirty that it would be only fair & right to tax them as real estate. One of these papers was a petition for aid to establish a school in a southern state; the petitioner justifying his appeal upon the ground that he had suffered for his union sentiments, in that state, during the war. The supplication was signed "A B , late candidate for the legislature of" (said state.) It seemed to me that of all the mild honors I had ever heard of men claiming, that of defeated candidate for legislative distinction was certainly the mildest. Peering into the dirt of this paper, I perceived through the rich gloom a string of names, with "$io," "$20," "$50," "$100," & other sums, set opposite them. Several were well known Hartford names, others were familiar New York names. A few seemed to be autograph signatures, the rest not. "Hon." Peter Cooper was down for a generous sum;3 so also was "Hon." W. C. Bryant—both in a foreign hand. Just think of the idea of trying to add dignity to the old poet's name by sticking that paltry "Hon." to it!4 I turned to the Late Candidate's other soiled document. It was a letter sheet with half a dozen grimy "notices" from village newspapers pasted on it. These were all highly complimentary to the "Hon." A

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B , "the great English elocutionist & reader." [There was also gratuitous mention of the smallness of one of the audiences he had enchanted—a remark which might as well have been left out]. I said to myself: Last night this person was "Professor" A B ; in his petition he is "late candidate" for a legislature; when he travels as the Great English Elocutionist he is the "Hon." A B ; what he is professor of does not appear; he does not account for his title of "Hon."; (for, merely running tor that dazzling legislative position does not confer the title); he could not have brought it from England, for only certain officials & the younger sons of noblemen are permitted to use it there, & if he belonged in either of those lists he is not the person to forget to mention it. About this time my cold in the head gave my temper a wrench, & I said: "Go & tell the professor I don't wish to invest in his educational stock." Now, there is where I acted precipitately, & failed of my duty either as a citizen or toward this stranger. I ought to have looked into his case a little. By jumping to the conclusion that he was a fraud, I may possibly have wronged him; if he is a fraud I ought to have proved it on him & exposed him, that being the plain duty of a citizen in such cases. Very well. Having committed this error, I now wish to retrieve it; so I make the following proposition to Mr. A B , to wit:—That he send me that list of names again, so that I can write the parties & inquire if they ever gave those sums, & if they did, what proofs they had of A B 's worthiness; that he refer me to reputable persons in that southern state, to the end that I may inquire of them concerning his history there (not that I wish to inquire into his "late candidacy,"— for I think that when a man has unsuccessfully aspired to be a legislator, & is capable of mentioning it where people could not otherwise find it out, he is manifestly telling the petrified truth); that he refer me to a trustworthy authority who can inform me how he got the title of "Professor"; how he got the title of "Hon."; & what the name of his English birthplace is—so that I can have his parish register examined. These data being furnished me, & I finding by means of them, that A B is not an impostor, I will take stock in his school & also furnish him a certificate of character which shall be signed by some of the best men of Hartford—a certificate which shall far out-value his present lame documents. But if A B——'s references shall fail to establish his worthiness, I will publish him & also try to procure his arrest as a vagrant.

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

545

I will assist A B all I can, by enclosing copies of this article to Mr. Austin Dunham, Mr. William E. Dodge, Mr. Bryant, Mr. Peter Cooper, Messrs. Arnold, Constable & Co., & other parties in his list (including the officials of the southern city he mentions), to the end that they may quickly testify in his favor if they can. 5 [I remember, now, that A B called on me just a year ago, & that he was then adding to his name the imperishable glory of "late candidate," etc.] Mark Twain. 1 Since the Hartford Courant published this letter on Wednesday, 29 September, it is likely that Clemens wrote it no later than Monday, 27 September. 2 See 7 Oct 75 to Underwood, 11 Oct 75 to Blaine, 19 Oct 75 to the staff of the Hartford Courant, and 22? Oct 75 to the editor of the Hartford Courant, all regarding "the stranger," George Vaughan. 3 Peter Cooper (1791-1883) was an inventor and manufacturer who made a fortune from his business enterprises, including blast furnaces, iron mines, and foundries. A noted philanthropist, in 1857-59 he built the Cooper Union (or Institute) at Astor Place in New York, which offered free courses of study in science, engineering, mathematics, and art, and maintained a library and reading room (Moses King, 289,290-91, 311). 4 William Cullen Bryant was eighty years old. 5 For Austin Dunham, see 21 Feb 75 to Sprague and others, n. 3. William E. Dodge (1805-83), born in Hartford, was a prominent New York businessman with interests in railroads, banks, and manufacturing and insurance companies. He served as a United States congressman in 1866-67. Arnold, Constable and Company was a large dry-goods emporium in New York, whose seven-story building occupied nearly an acre of ground on Nineteenth Street between Broadway and Fifth Avenue. The firm was established in 1842 by Aaron Arnold (1794-1846) and his son-in-law, James M. Constable (18121900) (Trumbull, 1:667; Moses King, 843-44; Jenkins, index). For a complete list of Vaughan's references to whom Clemens wrote, or may have written, letters of inquiry, see 22? Oct 75 to the editor of the Courant, n. 3.

To Jesse M. Leathers 5 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Unidentified Hartford newspaper, CU-MARK, reprinting the Louisville Ledger)

Hartford, October 5. Dear Sir: 1 —I have heard cousin James Lampton speak of his Earldom a good while ago, but I have never felt much interest in the matter,

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I not being heir to the title. But if I were heir to the title & thought I had a reasonable chance to win it I would not cast away my right without at least making enough of a struggle to satisfy my self-respect. You ask me what I think of the chances of the American heirs. 2 I answer frankly that I think them inconceivably slender. The present earl of Durham has been in undisputed possession thirty-five years; his father, the first earl, held possession forty-three years. Seventy-eight years' peaceable possession is a pretty solid wall to buck against before a court composed of the House of Lords of England—backed, as it seems to be, by a limitless bank account. It cost the Tichborne claimant upwards of $400,000 to get as far as he did with his claim. Unless the American Lamptons can begin their fight with a still greater sum, I think it would be hardly worth while for them to go into the contest at all. If the title & estates were in abeyance for lack of an heir you might stand some chance, but as things now are I cannot doubt that the present Viscount of Lampton (lucky youth!), son of the reigning Earl, will succeed to the honors & the money, all in due time. That lad was born lucky, anyhow—for he was a twin & beat his brother into the world only five minutes—& a wonderfully valuable five minutes it was, too, as that other twin feels every day, of his life, I suspect.3 No, indeed. The present possessors are too well fortified. They have held their lands in peace for over six hundred years; the blood of Edward III. & Edward IV. flows in their veins; they are up in the bluest» blooded aristocracy of England. The court that would try the case is made up, in a large measure, of their own relatives; they have plenty of money to fight with. Tackle them? It would be too much like taking Gibraltar with blank cartridges. I heartily wish you might succeed, but I feel sure that you cannot. Truly yours. Samuel L . Clemens. Jesse M . Leathers, Esq., Louisville, Ky. 1 Jesse Madison Leathers (1846-87) was a distant kinsman of Clemens's. He was born in Mercer County, Kentucky, and at the age of three went with his widowed mother to live in a Shaker community. At fifteen he enlisted in the Union army. He was wounded at Chickamauga, and honorably discharged in 1864. Since the war he had been employed in the insurance business in Lexington. He was married, and by 1875 had two daughters. He had recently used the business stationery of John Hess Leathers, a cousin, for a letter to Clemens (CU-MARK):

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

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OFFICE OF TAPP, LEATHERS & CO. MANUFACTURERS AND JOBBERS OF CLOTHING 2 2 7 WEST MAIN STREET, OPPOSITE LOUISVILLE HOTEL. PRESLEY H . TAPP. JOHN H . LEATHERS. SAMUEL D. MCDONALD. LOUISVILLE, KY. Sept 27. 187 5. Samuel L. Clemens, (Mark Twain) Hartford Conn. Dear Sir: 1 am here on a visit to the Lampton family, of which you are a member. My object is to bring about concert of action in referrence to this English, or Lampton Estate due us in England. What do you think of it—can we recover the estate, or is it a mith? Col Henry Waterson, Editor of the "Courier Journal" tells me that he is one of the heirs, or that he is a descendent of the Lamptons through his Mother. Answer at your convenience. Yours Truly. Jesse M. Leathers, over P.S. It seems that the Lampton family, from the acconts of the descendents, produced a Monroe, a Madison and a Jefferson, ,in the good old days,, and now that it has produced a "Mark Twain" and a Henry Waterson it certainly has claims to a Nobility of mind & Brain that the titled families of England might be proud of. J. M. Leathers. P.S. This morning I received a letter from a first cousin of yours, living at San Luis Obispo, California. His name is Jerome Settle, and he state[S] that his Mother Caroline is a sister to your Mother, and that his Father is living at Glasgow, Ky. You may have noticed an article going the rounds, of the Press, coppied from the Owensboro Ky. Monitor, relative to the Lambton Family and their relation to the Earl of Durham of England. Jesse M. Leathers. P.S. I am a great grandson of Samuel Lambton of Culpeper Co. Va., while you are a great grandson of his Brother W " Lampton.

Caroline Clemens Settle (1806-53) was the sister of Clemens's father. None of her ten known children was named "Jerome." President James Monroe (17581831) was the nephew of Leathers's great-great-grandfather. N o Lampton family connection has been established for Thomas Jefferson or James Madison. For Henry Watterson's Lampton connection, see 8? Nov 74 to Watterson, n. 1. The article in the Owensboro Monitor has not been found. T h e Louisville Ledger, in first printing the present letter, drew on that article for an explanation of the Lampton family legend (see the next note). The Ledger presumably got the letter, which Clemens did not write for publication, directly from Jesse Leathers. N o form of the newspaper is known to be extant (Lampton 1990, 3 4, 7, 11,88, 175-81, 212-13; Selby, 11). 2 According to family legend (mentioned in Leathers's last "P.S."), Leathers's great grandfather, Samuel Lampton (1750-1835), was the brother of William Lampton (1724-90), Clemens's great grandfather. The two brothers supposedly emigrated to Virginia in the mid-eighteenth century, relinquishing any claim to the ancient Lambton family estate in Durham, England. Leathers believed that Samuel, as the oldest son, might have been the rightful heir. The actual Lampton genealogy is more complicated: Samuel and William were actually first cousins, descending from their grandfather, William Lampton (1682-1722) of Virginia, through two different wives. (William was therefore the great-great-great grandfather of both Clemens and Leathers.) William was born in America; his father, Mark Lampton, had emigrated from Durham, En-

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gland, in 1664. There is no evidence, however, that Mark Lampton was related to the Lambtons of Durham (Lampton 1990, 3-5, 7, 23, 30, 212; Inds, 331; Leathers to SLC, 21 Oct 75, CU-MARK). In about 1890, in "Jane Lampton Clemens," Clemens gave his version: My mother, with her large nature and liberal sympathies, was not intended for an aristocrat, yet through her breeding she was one. . . . I knew that privately she was proud that the Lambtons, now Earls of Durham, had occupied the family lands for nine hundred years; that they were feudal lords of Lambton Castle and holding the high position of ancestors of hers when the Norman Conqueror came over to divert the Englishry. . . . "Col. Sellers" was a Lampton, and a tolerably near relative of my mother's; and when he was alive, poor old airy soul, one of the earliest things a stranger was likely to hear from his lips was some reference to the "head of our line," flung off with a painful casualness that was wholly beneath criticism as a work of art. It compelled inquiry, of course; it was intended to compel it. Then followed the whole disastrous history of how the Lambton heir came to this country a hundred and fifty years or so ago, disgusted with that foolish fraud, hereditary aristocracy; and married, and shut himself away from the world in the remotenesses of the wilderness, and went to breeding ancestors of future American Claimants, while at home in England he was given up as dead and his titles and estates turned over to his younger brother, usurper and personally responsible for the perverse and unseatable usurpers of our day. And the Colonel always spoke with studied and courtly deference of the Claimant of his day,—a second cousin of his,—and referred to him with entire seriousness as "the Earl." "The Earl" was a man of parts, and might have accomplished something for himself but for the calamitous accident of his birth. He was a Kentuckian, and a well meaning man; but he had no money, and no time to earn any; for all his time was taken up in trying to get me, and others of the tribe, to furnish him a capital to fight his claim through the House of Lords with. (Inds, 86-87)

"Col. Sellers" was James J. Lampton; "the Earl" was Jesse Leathers. 3 The first Earl of Durham, John George Lambton (b. 1792), inherited the family estate in 1797, but was not made an earl until 1833. Upon his death in 1840, his son George Frederick d'Arcy Lambton (1828-79) became the second earl, and had twin sons, born in 1855: John George (d. 1928), who became the third earl, and Frederick William. Henry Watterson recalled hearing the "old wives' tales of estates and titles" as a boy, and—like Clemens—treated them with "shocking irreverence." When Clemens was in London in 1873, during the Tichborne trial, he told Watterson that he had investigated this Durham business down at the Herald's office. There's nothing to it. The Lamptons passed out of the Earldom of Durham a hundred years ago. There were never any estates. T h e title lapsed. T h e present earldom is a new creation—not the same family at all. (Watterson 1910,373)

(Many years later Clemens admitted to Watterson that he had fabricated the information about the lapsed earldom to improve the story.) Clemens's research probably stimulated his interest in the literary potential of Leathers and his aspirations to the earldom. In 1881 he encouraged Leathers to write his autobiography. Subsequently he twice drew on the story himself—in 1883 for a play he wrote in collaboration with Howells, Colonel Sellers as a Scientist, and in 1892 for The American Claimant, in which he gave the name "Lathers" to the claimant who preceded Mulberry Sellers (Lodge, 664-65; Lampton 1990, 187, 193-97, 210-1 l;Af THL, 2:869-71; SLC: 1883b; 1892, 19-24).

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

To Unidentified 5 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MoSW) @ Hartford, Oct. 5. Dear Madam: I beg to wish the best success & a long career of usefulness to the Infant Asylum. But words are empty—deeds are what show the earnest spirit. Therefore I am willing to be one of a thousand citizens who shall „agree toA contribute two or more of their children to this enterprise. I do not make this offer in order that I may appear gaudy & lavish in the eyes of the world, but only to help a worthy cause to the best of my ability.1 Very Truly Yours Sam'. L . Clemens Mark Twain 1 From 6 through 11 December 1875 a fair to raise funds for the Massachusetts Infant Asylum was held in Boston's Horticultural Hall. Clemens's letter was included in a "Book of Autographs," called "one of the most valuable collections of notable names ever brought together" (Boston Evening Transcript, 10 Dec 75,4). The book, valued at a thousand dollars, was awarded to a raffle winner by the Jamaica Plain table, which was presided over by Miss Adam, Mrs. Charles L. Peirson, and Mrs. S. B. Frothingham. Mrs. Peirson or Mrs. Frothingham may have been the addressee of this letter. The fair earned fourteen thousand dollars for the Infant Asylum, which cared for forty children, and had "expanded from a private charity into a public institution." The proceeds were to be used to "cover the expense of moving into the new building erected for the Asylum" and to "carry on the good work." Clemens's letter was published in several newspapers before the fair closed, including the New York Times and World, and the Boston Post (see the textual commentary; Boston Globe: "The Infant Asylum Fair," 7 Dec 75, 8; 8 Dec 75, 5; Boston Evening Transcript: "The Fair in Aid of the Massachusetts Infant Asylum," 6 Dec 75, 8; "Brieflets," 13 Dec 75,1).

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To John C. Underwood 7 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK)

EDITORIAL D E P A R T M E N T .

ESTABLISHED 1 7 6 4 . THE COURAMT.

HAWLBY, G O O D n i C H & CO., P U B L I S H E R S . HARTFORD, C O N N . , O c t 7 1 8 7 5

Hon John C. Underwood' D r Sir: The person I have called Prof. A. B., in the enclosed article, 2 is a Mr. George Vaughan. He sends me a certified copy of the following endorsement/—dated Sep. 1 0 , 1 8 7 3 . " T h e bearer, Mr. Geo. Vaughan has been an earnest & devoted friend of freedom in this i State, & thoroughly interested in the cause of the education & elevation of our lately emancipated fellow citizens. He has determined to raise funds, if possible, to establish a Normal school in Virginia for this purpose, & to go among the f^riends of the colored people for aid. I cheerfully recommend him to the public & to the abolitionists & philanthropists of my acquaintance to give him their influence & support." "John C. Underwood." If I have wronged this stranger, I wish to right him. Therefore will you kindly tell me whether you wrote that endorsement or not?—& if you did, da has nothing since occurred to change your opinion of Mr. Vaughan? With many apologies for troubling you, I am D r Sir Truly Yrs Sam'. L . Clemens MarkTwain P. O. Address, Hartford, Conn 1 John Curtiss Underwood (b. 1809) was a district court judge and an advocate for the rights of African-Americans in Virginia. In 1866 he presided over

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

the grand jury that indicted Jefferson Davis for treason. He also was president of the state constitutional convention of 1867-68, which drew up a constitution in conformity with the Reconstruction acts of March 1867. Underwood was dead (since December 1873), as Clemens soon realized (11 Oct 75 to Blaine; 22? Oct 75 to the editor of the Hartford Courant). 2 Clemens's letter of 27? Sept 75 to the editor of the Hartford Courant.

To Samuel H. Church 10-31 October 1875? • Hartford, Conn. (Cyril Clemens 1965, 3)

My dear Church: 1 That was a blunder of mine, an egregious blunder, & one peculiarly calculated to confuse & mislead. What I meant to say was that the twins were born at the same time but of different mothers.2 Yours ever Mark Twain. 1 Samuel Harden Church (1858-1943) grew up in Pittsburgh, and in 1875 went to work as an office boy with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in that city. He remained with the company for over fifty years, becoming vicepresident of the western lines by the time of his retirement in 1928. Church also enjoyed success as a writer. His first novel, Horatio Flodgers: A Story of To-Day, was published in 1878; his numerous later works included a highly praised biography, Oliver Cromwell: A History (1894). 2 In Mark Twain's Jest Book (the only source of this letter text), Cyril Clemens reported that in the late 1890s or early 1900s, Church and Clemens sometimes were dinner guests together at the home of Andrew Carnegie. (Church was secretary of the Carnegie Institute, founded in 1896.) But, according to Cyril, Church's "contact with Mark really began years before, when he was a young man":

He had finished an absorbing reading of his short stories, "The Jumping Frog and Other Tales." Among them was one on "The Siamese Twins'" 1 —those two unhappy mortals who were unseverally joined by a cruel ligament into perpetual companionship. He described their troubles, chief of which was that one having fallen in love, insisted on moonlight walks with his inamorata, although the other was crippled with inflammatory rheumatism. Then, at the end of the story, he remarked. "Having forgotten to mention it sooner, I will remark in conclusion that the ages of the Siamese Twins are respectively fifty-one and fifty-three years." Church wrote the editor that he had read this story with deep emotion, but that he had been utterly nonplused by this concluding statement and would like him to clear it up. (Cyril Clemens 1965, 2-3)

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Church could not have read "Personal Habits of the Siamese Twins" in The CelebratedJumping Frog (1867), because it was not published there. It appeared in Packard's Monthly for August 1869 (when Church was only eleven), and was then first collected in an American sketchbook, Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old, in September 1875 (SLC: 1869b; 1875b, 208-12). Church could have read the book soon after publication, or sometime within the next few years: At one of these Carnegie dinners, Mark asked Church if he had not written to him years ago about the Siamese Twins; and he was laughingly interested when his admirer quoted his letter back to him, as he had always been able to do, from memory. Then he said—and his mood was humorous rather than sentimental: "I have always held you in affectionate regard. Your letter was one to remember!" (Cyril Clemens 1965,2-3)

The original "Siamese" (conjoined) twins were Chang and Eng, who in 1811 were born in Siam joined at the chest by a band of flesh. They were brought to Boston for exhibition in 1829, and later were exhibited by Barnum, in New York and in Europe. In 1843—having adopted the surname "Bunker"— they married two sisters and settled on adjacent plantations in North Carolina, where they fathered nearly two dozen children. Their deaths in January 1874 caused a flurry of newspaper stories, both factual and fanciful, and may have influenced Clemens to reprint his own 1869 sketch in Sketches, New and Old (Boston Globe: "Chang and Eng," 23 Jan 74,1-2; "A New Story of the Siamese Twins," 29 Jan 74, 3).

To James G. Blaine 11 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: DLC) "Castle Beautiful" Oct. i i . My Dear Mr. Blaine:1 I think I am going to get the best of the Professor. I am expecting replies from his other endorsers, but I can guess their nature, for you are the only backer that really & powerfully endorsed him—the others only calmly & blandly recommended^ his school project & fightou sky shy of glorifying the Late Candidate in person. When I shall have received all of my testimony, I propose to move on the Professor's works.2 He wrote a marvellously foul & scurrilous letter to the Courant in reply to me, & they have naturally suppressed the libelous thing.3 But I am not going to allow any such gem to perish. I shall publish it in

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full, along with my other evidences that this beggar is a fraud & a canting hypocrite. At the same time, may I print the accompanying paragraph as representing your views? If so, please return it to me (altered, if you like)—or else jot me a little paragraph to use in its place/, please. Now that I have started after this youth, I shall not fell feel content until/1 shall have destroyed his Hartford market for him. A couple of his most prominent endorsers are dead. 4 1 wish I knew whether they endorsed V. before they died or after. With many thanks Yrs Truly Sam'. L. Clemens =

P

Pi

P. S. I wish you would let me publish your entire letter just as it stands —it is just what I want!5 S.L.C [enclosure:]

The gist of Hon. Mr. Blain^e's letter is this:—Washington is always full of impecunious philanthropists & martyrs who persecute officials for "endorsements" & other assistance—"dead beats," in a word; Mr. V. doubt AV.A had about him the signs of brotherhood with this class; Mr. Blaine hardly knew him at all, but gave him a letter to the Secretary of State 6 soli/citing & the post of bearer of dispatches to England, hoping thereby to procure compass the pleasure of his absence, but thinks he could hardly have written so enthusiastically about him as the "endorsement" which now purports to be a copy of that letter to the Secretary would seem to suggest. Mr. Blaine's "real convictions are that Vaughan belongs to that innumerable caravan of 'dead beats' whose headquarters are in Washington." [letter docketed:] S.L. Clements [and] Vaughan 'James Gillespie Blaine (1830-93) was born in Pennsylvania. He studied law, and taught school before becoming a newspaper editor. He represented Maine in the United States Congress as a Republican representative (186376) and senator (1876-81), and was later twice secretary of state (1881,1889-

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92). W h e n Blaine ran for president on the Republican ticket in 1884, Clemens bitterly opposed h i m and joined the Mugwumps, who believed him unethical and left the party to vote for his Democratic opponent, Grover Cleveland (N&J3, 62, 7 7 - 7 8 ) . N o evidence has been found that Blaine and Clemens were personally acquainted, but Clemens had asked him (in a letter now lost) to verify his endorsement of George Vaughan. Blaine replied ( D L C ) : Augusta Maine Oct" 9" 1875: Jubes renovare infandum dolorem O dementia!! After the late cruel war was over Washington was for several years the resort of those suffering patriots from the South who through all Rebel persecutions had been true to the Union—and the number was so great that the wonder often was where the Richmond Government found soldiers enough to fill its armies—of these Union heroes & devotees was Vaughan— He appeared there about 1868 or 1869— He had fled from oppression in the land of his birth only to find still more grievous tyranny in the land of his adoption. He looked as though he had been at once the victim of kingly vengeance & the object of concentrated Rebel malignity. His mug was like that of Oliver Twist and he evoked your pity even if its first of kin, contempt, went along with it— He obtained some very small place in one of the Departments & held it I think for a year or two. He fastened on me as his last hope & continually brought me notes of commendation, letters of introduction & rewards of merit. But he never insulted me with a reference to his being a candidate for anything. He uses that card only with green people in the country for in Washington candidate^ go for nothing. It's only the chaps that are elected that count. The idea finally occurred to Vaughan that a good way to be avenged at once on all his enemies, to make Queen Victoria & Jeff Davis both feel bad at the same time would be to have a commission] as bearer of dispatches to England— As carrying] a mail bag across the Atlantic on a Cunargdj steamer seemed a cheap & convenient way of exhibiting triumph over the dead Confederacy] & hurling defiance at England at the same time N I gave Vaughan a letter to the Sec'y of State—though I had no idea that 1 wrote quite so gushingly as the quotations you send me imply. But it is quite possible that seeing Vaughan before me the impersonation of fidelity to the Union & honest hatred of the Britishers I was carried beyond the bounds of discretion & indulged in some eccentricities of speech= But alas! my real convictions are that Vaughan in all his pitiful poverty belongs to that innumerable caravan of deadbeats whose headquarters are in Washington— It does my very soul good to know that Hartford is getting its share— Your evident impatience under the affliction, your lack of sympathy & compassion for the harmless swindler show how ill fitted you would be for the stern duties of a Representative in Congress— And if the advent of Vaughan teaches you Hartford saints no other lesson, let it deeply impress on your minds a newer, keener, fresher, appreciation of the trials & the troubles, the beggars, the bores, the swindlers, and the scalawags wherewith the average ¿Congressman is evermore afflicted— Excuse my brief note— If I had time I would give you a full account of Vaughan (In the penultimate paragraph, where the letter is torn on the right side, editorial interpolations supply the missing letters.) Blaine quoted the Aeneid, Book 2: "Infandum, regina, iubes renovare dolorem" ("O Queen, you ask me to recall unspeakable sorrow"). 2 Clemens echoed Ulysses S. Grant's famous message to General Simon B. Buckner, commander of Fort Donelson, on 16 February 1862: "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works."

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

3 "Information for Mark Twain," in 22? Oct 75 to the editor of the Hartford Courant. Vaughan's letter includes a copy of Blaine's original endorsement. 4 See 7 Oct 75 to Underwood, n. 1. 'Blaine's reply does not survive, but Clemens doubtless acceded to his wishes in using just "an extract or two" from his letter in 22? Oct 75 to the editor of the Hartford Courant. 6 New York lawyer Hamilton Fish (1808-93), secretary of state from March 1869 to March 1877.

* N o L E T T E R S written between 1 1 and 1 8 October have been found. On Monday, 11 October, the Clemenses went to Bridgeport, Connecticut, for a one-night stay at Waldemere, the Barnums' estate, evidently leaving their children in Hartford. Although they had originally planned to go on 9 October, Barnum wrote to them suggesting a postponement until after 19 October because his "Hippodrome closes its season on that day at Cleveland Ohio. . . . I shall be running to N e w York and my mind so absorbed with monkeys & elephants that there will be no fun where I am till my animals are placed in winter quarters" (2 Oct 75, CU-MARK; "Personal," N e w York Evening Post, 14 Oct 75, 2). On 7 October Clemens telegraphed to propose the Monday visit, which was necessarily short because of Barnum's commitment to lecture in Boston on Tuesday evening, 12 October (Barnum to SLC, 7 Oct 75 and 8 Oct 75, C U - M A R K ) . After their visit Barnum answered a thank-you note from Clemens which has not been found ( C U - M A R K ) , using a docket stamp instead of letterhead: P . T . B A R N U M . B R I D G E P O R T , C T . OCT 2 1

1875

My dear Clemens We are glad to get your letter with the assurance that you have all got home safely although tired out. Hope & believe you'll find the gas stove just the thing. It worked famously in London. Your visit here was all too short—no chance to see our surroundings—. Better luck next time. My Nancy & I will be right glad to visit you for a day when opportunity offers. We are busy till New Years. We start next Monday for Kansas City & Omaha & then wend our way back—lecturing at our leisure. . . . We hope that the little glimpse you got of Waldemere life will tempt you & your wife to try it again with babies, nurses & as much retinue as you like to bring.

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Volume 6:1874-1875 Your big envelope of queer letters keeps swelling. With kindest regards to Mrs Clemens and sweet sister Susie I am as

ever Truly yours P. T. Barnum The Barnums had evidently met Susy Clemens during a recent call on the Clemenses in Hartford. Barnum was lecturing for the Redpath Lyceum Bureau. T h e newspapers declared his appearance in Boston on 12 October a success, and he enclosed in his 21 October letter a portion of an advertising circular prepared by the bureau. On it he marked an extract "From the Boston Globe, Oct. 13," of which he was evidently very proud (the last two sentences were not in the Globe's 13 October review ["The Great Showman," 5]): There was a large audience in Music Hall, last evening, when the great showman, Phineas T. Barnum, delivered for the first time in this city, his new lecture, "The World and How to Live in It." It would be utterly impossible to give a detailed report of Mr. Barnum's most entertaining talk. The great showman spoke without notes, illustrating his ideas in regard to this "fleeting show," with many a capitally told story. As a lecturer, Mr. Barnum made an excellent impression. The old-fashioned truths which were spoken were illustrated very happily, and presented altogether in a very attractive way. He proved himself a capital story teller and no mean mimic. It is safe to say that as a humorist he could soon make a reputation as a lecturer second only to Mark Twain. A review in the Boston Evening Transcript also praised Barnum's lecture, and noted that he had described people "with a chronic disposition to look on the mournful side of things" by relating an anecdote told to him by Mark Twain, about an aunt of the latter, who, Mark said, would borrow trouble for days, weeks, months, a year ahead; who would borrow it from the grave, and who one day even "jumped the grave." Mark found the old lady one day in an attitude of extreme dejection. "Why, aunty," said he, "what is the trouble now? I am sure you are borrowing trouble about something." "Ah," said she, "I was thinking about heaven, and that perhaps after all it ain't as nice a place as we think it is." ("Lecture by P. T. Barnum," 13 Oct 75, 2) On Tuesday, 12 October, the Clemenses proceeded to N e w York, where they checked into the "elegant" St. James Hotel, on Broadway at Twenty-sixth Street. They returned to Hartford on Saturday, 16 Octo-

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

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ber. On Monday, Clemens sent Barnum a copy of Sketches, New and Old, bound in half-morocco (Appletons' Dictionary, 112; "Prominent Arrivals," New York Tribune, 13 Oct 75, 10; APC 1876a).

* To Moncure D. Conway 18 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NNC)

(ite) Hartford, Oct. 18. My Dear Mr. Conway: I don't know where in the mischief to find you, but if you ever get this, promise that you will run up to Hartford & give Mrs. Clemens & me a few days of your time/—will you? We would very greatly like to take you by the hand, & thank you for the kind offices you did us in London & that pleasant town of "Hepworth." 1 We are so sincerely sorry that we were right in New York & yet one bother after another lost us the chance of seeing Lord Houghton, who was as kind to us in England of AasA if we had belonged to the peerage ourselves. With hearty friendship, Yrs Ever. S. L. Clemens 1

Conway and Clemens probably first met in London in 1872. The following year, he helped Clemens arrange an affectionate ruse to surprise Olivia with a visit to Stratford-upon-Avon, making her believe the destination was "Hepworth." In August 1875 he sailed from England to undertake a four-and-ahalf-month lecture tour of the eastern and midwestern United States. After visiting his father in Virginia and his sister in Pennsylvania, he began lecturing in mid-October. For his visit to the Clemenses, see 16 Dec 75 to Conway (L5, 171 n. 1,411-12 n. 2; Burtis, 148-55).

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To Richard M. Milnes (Lord Houghton) 18 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: UkCu) ©

Hartford, Oct. i8. My Lord: In N e w York, on Friday, I learned of your presence at the Brevoort House, 1 & made my p l a i n s to call & pay my respects to you, but was persistently delayed until it was plainly too late to venture to intrude a visit at the hour that at last offered, so I was forced to give up the idea, greatly to my regret & my wife's. We had to return home the next morning, & so lost all opportunity of seeing you. We do greatly wish that you may be moved to come to Hartford & give us the opportunity to testify how much your kindnesses & courtesies contributed to the pleasure of our sojourn in London. I am right glad to see by your speech that you seem to have been enjoying your visit to our country. 2 Truly Yours AWith great respect* Sam'. L. Clemens 1

The Brevoort House, on Fifth Avenue at Washington Square, was "a quiet and aristocratic hotel that has long been in favor with English tourists. The cuisine of the Brevoort has always been considered one of its attractions" (Moses King, 230). 2 The New York Tribune of 18 October reported that Houghton attended a breakfast at the Century Club on Saturday, 16 October, to meet a number of "authors, artists, publishers, and men of professional reputation. . . . Moncure D. Conway, who has returned to this country after more than thirteen years of absence from his native land, was also present, by special invitation." In response to a toast to his health, Houghton expressed his "pleasure in being among you" and his "regret at not having been here before," and talked about the importance of fostering literary talent: There is no better preservative than the exercise of the poetic faculty from religious hallucinations, from political delusions, and I would say even from financial extravagances. Therefore through the whole vast range of this new world be on the watch to look out for and to encourage this great gift to man.

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged. 39 Conway also spoke, remarking on

his delight in being once more at home, his wonder at the signs of progress in all directions which strike him after so long an absence, and closed with a warm acknowledgement of Lord Houghton's liberal views as an English statesman, and his generosity toward all forms of struggling merit. ("Lord Houghton's Visit," 5) Clemens presumably read the Tribune report of Houghton's speech. N o other account that he is likely to have seen by 18 October has been identified.

To William Dean Howells 19 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B)

Hartford Oct 19 M y Dear Howells: 1 That is a perfectly superb notice. 2 You can easily believe that nothing ever gratified me so much before. The newspaper praises bestowed upon the Innocentsce Abroad were large & generous, but I hadn't confidence in the critical judgment of the parties who furnished them. 3 You know how that is, yourself, from reading the newspaper notices of your own books. They gratify a body, but they always leave a small pang behind in the shape of a fear that the critic's good words could not safely be depended upon as authority. Yours is the recognized autho critical Court of Last Resort in this country; from its decision there is no appeal; & so, to have gained this decree of yours before I am forty years old, I regard as a thing to be right down proud of. Mrs. Clemens says, "Tell him I am just as grateful to him as I can be." [It sounds as if she were grateful to you for heroically trampling the truth under foot in order to praise me—but in reality it means that she is grateful to you for being bold to utter a truth which she fully believes all competent people know, but which none has heretofore been brave enough to utter.] You see, the thing that gravels her is that I am so persistently glorified as a mere buffoon, as if that entirely covered my case/ which she denies with venom. T h e other day Mrs Clemens was planning a visit to you, & so I am waiting, with a pleasurable hope, for the result of her deliberations.

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We are expecting visitors every day, now, from New York; & afterward some are to come from Elmira. 4 1 judge that we shall then be free to go Bostonward. I should be just delighted; because we could visit in comfort, because .since, we shouldn't have to do any shopping—did it all in New York last week, & a tremendous pull it was, too. Mrs. C. said the other day, "We will go to Cambridge if we have to walk; for I don't believe we can ever get the Howellses to come here again until we have been there." I was gratified to see that there was one string, anyway, that could snake her to Cambridge. But I will do the her the justice to say that she is always wanting to go to Cambridge, independent of the selfish desire to get a visit out of you by it. I want her to get started, now, before children's diseases get fashionable again, because they always play such hob with visiting arrangements. With our love to you all Yrs Ever S. L. Clemens P. S. I shall change this pen, by & by, for one that will write regular & not emphasize so indiscriminately.5 1

Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK): EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Oct. 19, 1875. My dear Clemens: The poor fellow who wrote this notice thinks I had better show it to you before 1 put it in type. He says he's afraid it's awful rot; but he hopes you may look mercifully on it. Please return it to me .(with objections), at once. You can imagine the difficulty of noticing a book of short sketches; it's like noticing a library. I spoke to Longfellow about the international copyright petition. He will gladly sign it—if it doesn't entail any cares upon him.— I'll see Lowell soon. How much will Bliss take for your type-writer now? Yours ever W.D.H. For the typewriter and the copyright petition see 25 June 75 and 18 Sept 75 to Howells. 2 Howells's review of Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old, which appeared in the December A tlantic, is transcribed in Appendix E. 3 The most comprehensive collection of reviews of The Innocents Abroad is in Mark Twain: The Contemporary Reviews (Budd 1999, 35-89). 4 The New York visitors have not been identified. The Elmirans were members of Olivia's family. 5 The flexible steel nib of Clemens's pen was damaged, so that some passages were only lightly inked, while others were inked too heavily, creating the effect of boldface—an unintended emphasis.

561

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

To the Staff of the Hartford Courant 19 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Daley) Oct. 19. Gentlemen: Please mail to me Gen. Armstrong's & any other letters you have received relating to the fraud Geo. Vaughan. I want to write a screed about him.1 Ys Truly S. L. Clemens 1 Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839-93) was born in the Sandwich Islands of missionary parents. A graduate of Williams College, he was colonel of a black regiment during the Civil War, becoming a brigadier general in 1865. After the war he worked for the Freedmen's Bureau, and in 1868 founded the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute for the education of former slaves (Peabody, 55-101,221). The Courant staff replied to Clemens's request by forwarding two letters that Vaughan had submitted for publication, and possibly some from his references as well, but it is not known if a letter from Armstrong was among them. Although Clemens transcribed Vaughan's letters in full in his "screed" (22? Oct 75 to the editor of the Courant), he made no mention of Armstrong. He did report, however, that James F. B. Marshall, Armstrong's associate at Hampton, had denied any knowledge of Vaughan.

To Thomas Bailey Aldrich 20 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MiD) Hartford, Oct. 20 My Dear Aldrich: Welcome back! 1 1 saw by the police report, some days ago, that you were home again, & I hoped & believed you would write when you got out. What a lack of recharchiveness2 there is about our jails & calabooses as compared with that to of the older & more cultured civilizations. But you have noticed that, of course.

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My friend, the flower which you took such honest pains to pluck & lug some thousand of miles is not a flower at all but a mere onion—a feuit a berry so common in this country that it may be gathered from well-nigh any tree in the forest. Pray keep as still as you can about your travels,—especially among unfeeling strangers—for whereas you were straitened for information before, you are now become, by diligent research in foreign lands, a glittering Golconda w a majestic Bonanza of ignorance. But God He knows we are glad to get you back again if only you will not talk. Observe, I never "fraternized" with those St. Sebastians. I only enjoyed their condition——& with sincerity regretted that the ancients the/ir foes had not lived to make similar pin-cus/hions of the degraded artists that upholstered Italy with their portraits. I am waiting for Osgood to invite us all to dinner; at which time I shall be glad to advance to Boston & renew, etc. I would suggest, through you, that he invite Howells, too. It would not be wise to leave Howells out, for he occupies a very influential position & is a man who would not hesitate to destroy a book of yours or mine if we seemed to connive at any prandial slights in his case. Gill the publisher is a nice person, too; but Howells has privately tried, without success, to pu get him to put his "Private Theatricals" into the "Treasure Found & Gobbled" Series"—& so there may be bad blood between them. 3 I perceive that this "Private Theatricals" is going to lift Howells a trifle too high in the public estimation. Could you give it a black eye in an article? I could get it inserted in the Hartford papers. We send our love to you both, & our hearty welcome home—& presently when I meet you at dinner I shall deliver more of the same commodity. Yrs Ever Mark. 1

Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK):

Oct 17", 1875. My dear Clemens: I hope you have been behaving yourself wisely and not too well during these past six months, while I have been fraternizing with your old boon companions in Italy, the St. Sebastians,—"a werry nice little family", as Sam Weller would say, "with a good many werry nice points in 'em." I trust you and the little ones—which include

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Mrs Clemens, to whom we send our love—are flourishing. How, when, and where shall you be seen in the flesh by Your faithful friend, 'Ebare Gordong, de la Ville de Ponkapog, Amerique? 1 enclose you the petal of a flower plucked from Mike St. Sebastian's grave. I know it will draw tears from your eyes.

Aldrich and his wife had recently returned from Europe. He alluded, by way of Sam Weller in Dickens's Pickwick Papers, to chapter 23 of The Innocents Abroad, where, as part of an attack on paintings by the "old masters," Clemens remarked: "When we see a party looking tranquilly up to heaven, unconscious that his body is shot through and through with arrows, we know that that is St. Sebastian. . . . We have seen . . . sixty thousand St. Sebastians" (SLC 1869a, 238). Aldrich's signature playfully recalled the gallicized pronunciations of "Herbert" and "Gordon" that Clemens attributed to pretentious tourists from "Amerique" in the same chapter. 2 Evidently a play on "recherche," meaning "refinement" or "lavish elegance." 3 Gill had announced that Essay, in his Treasure-Trove series, would include a piece by Howells ("Mrs. Johnson"). Since no copy of that volume has been located, it is not known whether he did in fact reprint it (see BAL, 8:19132). It was for just such unauthorized appropriation that Clemens considered Gill an "infernal thief" (16 Aug 75 to Osgood). Howells's "Private Theatricals" ran in the Atlantic from November 1875 through May 1876.

To the Editor of the Hartford Courant 22? October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Hartford Courant, 25 Oct 75)

To the EDITOR O / T H E C O U R A N T : — 1 S I R : I lately published in T H E COURANT an article about a person

w h o m I referred to as "Professor A. B . " 2 1 said that this person called himself a "professor," without stating what he was a professor of; that he signed one of his documents "Late Candidate for the Legislature" (of Virginia); that in other papers he was the "Hon." A. B. Likewise, that he professed to be engaged in establishing a normal school for colored people (in Virginia.) In my article I intimated that he might be a fraud, & suggested that he furnish documents to show that he was n o t — i f he could. If he could show that my suspicions were unjust, I

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proposed to repair, as well as I could, any damage my article might have done him. This A. B. is one George Vaughan, a person who seems to have been struggling for the past two years to found the aforesaid colored normal school—if one may judge by the date of the documents which he has sent to me in answer to my prayer for "information." To be complete, the information should have stated: 1. The location of the proposed normal school. 2. How much money Mr. Vaughan had collected, & what other progress had been made. 3. Particularly, how the money had been expended, & what reputable person might be written to concerning the matter. I am sorry, but Mr. Vaughan has wholly overlooked these trifles, & has confined himself to showing that he suffered for his Union sentiments during the war. In his petitions to the public, in his private letters to me, in his communications to you & your journal, in his supplications for political preferment, he sings but one song, & sings it without ceasing. That song is, He has suffered, he has suffered, he has suffered for his opinions! Chorus—He has suffered, he has suffered, he has suffered for his opinions! Second verse—He has suffered, he has suffered, he has suffered for his opinions! Chorus—same as before. Before you get very far in his documents & his "endorsements," you begin to wonder why it is that the "Hon.," "Prof.," "Late Candidate" Vaughan's sufferings are so excessively & frantically prominent, & the poor negro & the normal school scarcely mentioned. You begin to imagine that this philanthropist (so "devoted to the cause of freedom") is in a good deal more of a sweat about George Vaughan & his miseries than about the negro race & their education. In all his letters Mr. Vaughan keeps before you the fact that he is a poor man, a poor man, a poor man. Secondly—He is a poor man, a poor man, a poor man. Thirdly—He is a poor man, a poor man, a poor man. Postscript—He is a poor man, a poor man, a poor man! He flaunts the banner of his poverty in every breeze. His poverty is his most precious boon, apparently. He travels on it, he solicits on it, he revels in it. His poverty is his capital. But what has his poverty got to do with normal schools & the education of the negro? Is it an argument in favor of the education of the ne-

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gro? Will it move our sympathy for the negro's darkened condition when the negro's darkened condition itself cannot stir us? In truth, Mr. Vaughan rings the changes upon his poverty so anxiously, & says so very little about the negro & the school, that one presently begins to fancy that M r . Vaughan's cravings are the real thing that money is needed to appease, & that the educational needs of the negro are merely the faint music-box accompaniment to his personal stentorian howl. N o w it is altogether possible that this man has suffered for his opinions, & that he is poor. But these are no sufficient reasons why strangers should entrust money to him to found a normal school with. They are not evidences of character, or of honesty, or of fitness, or of capacity. What the solicitor for a charity has suffered is nothing to the contributor to that charity. Nothing whatever. A s an argument in favor of the charity it is simply worthless. Would you feel particularly & especially called upon to contribute to the cause of religion in South Africa because the solicitor was poor & had a broken leg? W h y not contribute to him, if that is the main argument he offers? I have tried hard to get at the rights of Mr. Vaughan's case. He sends me his "endorsements," & I have written to his endorsers. I have also written to several persons who would be likely to know something about him & his educational enterprise. Two or three of his endorsers have answered m e — t h e others have not. I will presently refer to this matter again. Meantime, I desire to give Mr. Vaughan a hearing. One can sometimes judge of what manner of man a person is, by the way he talks. T h e following communication was sent to THE COURANT by Mr. Vaughan. T h e editors declined to publish it, but I now beg them to let it appear—just as a favor to m e — f o r these reasons:—It gives some pleasant examples of the grammar, construction, orthography, & punctuation of a person profoundly interested in the subject of education — t h a t is, the education of other people; it teaches how a "professor of elocution" can quote Shakespeare; & , mainly, it shows how a gentle philanthropist expresses himself:— " I N F O R M A T I O N FOR M A R K TWAIN." Editor of "Courant" Sir. If notwithstanding I am Poor & comparatively Friendless (yet unterrified) I do not forfeit all right to Justice through the medium of the paper which has wronged me you will not refuse to publish my brief answer to the infamous & cowardly slander occupying half a Column in the Courant of Sept. 29 last.

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Otherwise I shall shamefully be compelled to publish and well distribute it in circular form. This cheap Wit mistaking me for a fool, in seeking to make poverty & suffering a subject ofJest, & attempting to prejudge my case will only be fully appreciated by Knaves & Fools. Here then is the "Information Wanted". First—The list of names as shown to Twain is as follows—Hon. Peter Cooper $50. Hon. W. E. Dodge $25. The late Arnold Sturgis $100. The late Judge Underwood $100. W. C . Bryant $25. and many others. Second. The PROOFS of my worthiness (copies of which are enclosed) are from Hon J. G. Blaine. Hon. W. N. Berkley Ex. Mayor of Alex. Va. Hon. J. Hawxhurst. Alex. Va. Ex. U. S. Senator Osborn Florida, Genl. Logan. 3 The late Judge Underwood & many others some of whom have known me for many years as an honest man, & as all the above testimonials (if lame) are from gentlemen I must decline accepting one from Twain. Third—I am a "Professor" of Elocution & somewhat a sufferer by presenting to respectable audiences selections from Mark Twain. Lastly and for the special information of Twain, my parish Register will show that I am not illigitimate. It can be proven that when divers friends of Twain, wounded & starving were prisoners of war in Richmond, I gladly assisted them, suffering imprisonment for so doing. After the war & because I worked for the cause of Freedom of Equal Rights, my home was burnt down, while myself & wife stood shivering in the snow storm, homeless, friendless & sick. Honest and humane people will therefore regret that I have been made the subject of a wit thus prostituted & will fail to see where the laugh comes in, & will inquire what recompense is due me. Sir, "the times have been that when the brains were out the man would die & there an end, it is not so now"4—as witness Twain who advertises the Providence Journal as a Village Newspaper. To the honourable citizens of Hartford on whom I called this explanation is sufficient, & when (in the time rapidly approaching) the genuine Vagrants, Parasites & Frauds now subsisting upon the Industrious are investigated the man of bastard wit will perhaps find active employment nearer home. NEXT! yours &c Geo. Vaughan ofVirginia. If space permits please add the following. Washington D. C. Jany 14 hi.

"To the Secretary of State The bearer of this note has been known to me for some time as a most estimable & worthy man devoted to the Union in Virginia at the risk of life & the loss of property. He desires to be made a bearer of Dispatches to London, & I have no hesitation in commending him to you as entirely trustworthy. very Respy. your Obt. servant J. G. Blaine." Very well. Let us hear from Speaker Blaine once more. I will give an extract or two from his letter to me:—

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"I have no recollection of endorsing Mr. Vaughan so gushingly. I should wish to see the original before admitting all the counts in the indictment. * * * He fastened on me as his last and only hope; loaded me down with letters of introductionj certificates of character, etc. * * * My real convictions are that Vaughan, in all his pitiful poverty, belongs to that innumerable caravan of'dead beats' whose headquarters are at Washington." Pray what becomes of Mr. Blaine's long knowledge of Prof. Vaughan as a "most estimable & worthy man" now?—"entirely trustworthy," etc. In truth, Mr. Blaine knows nothing about him, & admits it. The only other "endorsement" that is worth anything, comes from a gentleman who is not now living—the late Judge Underwood. "Endorsement" No. 3 is from the mayor of Alexandria. He says he doesn't know Mr. Vaughan at all, but knows Judge Underwood—& on that ground he recommends the school as a worthy enterprise. But he ventures no endorsement of Vaughan himself. "Endorsement" No. 4 is from Mr. John Hawxshurst, who simply says he knew Vaughan for a number years as an "earnest republican, who gave much time to the cause in the early formation in this state." In a private letter, dated 17th inst., Mr. Hawxshurst says he "refused" to endorse Vaughan's school enterprise because he "doubted Vaughan's fitness for it." Judge Underwood testified that Vaughan had been "an earnest & devoted friend of freedom & thoroughly interested in the elevation & education of the negro"—but Judge Underwood (unlike Mr. Blaine) is no longer here to say whether that endorsement still holds the language it originally held or not. But let us consent that Judge Underwood's words have not been tampered with,—they are still no "endorsement" in the just sense of the word, for he does not say that Vaughan is fit, worthy, honest—or anything else that is relevant. He "cheerfully recommends him to the public," & asks the public to give him "its sympathy & support." On what grounds? One might as well ask the public to put an unknown landsman in command of the fleet, merely because he was a "devoted friend" of navigation, & "thoroughly interested in the maritime education" of sailors. In a word, no endorser has furnished Mr. Vaughan with an endorsement which is worth the paper it is written on—except Mr. Blaine, & he confesses that he doesn't know the man. Mr. Marshall, of the Hampton Normal Institute (colored), says, "We know no person by the name of George Vaughan." 5

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In a letter to me, dated the 12th inst., the Virginian Superintendent of Public Instruction says: " I know of no George Vaughan." 6 In my former article I called Mr. Vaughan's endorsements "lame." They still have a sort of crippled look to me. Nevertheless, if he will furnish me some more endorsers I will go on patiently searching his record & trying to establish his worthiness to interest himself in normal schools & tax strangers for their development. In one of his letters to me, Mr. Vaughan adds another title to his already oppressive string of dignities. He signs himself "Author." A u thor of what? 7 Allow me, Mr. Editor, to insert here his letter to you, merely as a specimen of this new author's style. The public are always interested in fresh literature. The "Hon.," "Prof.," "Late Candidate," "Author," George Vaughan, addresses his envelop thus:— "To the "Editor of Hartford Courant "{He may be a gentleman but I doubt it) "Hartford, Conn." The italics are Mr. Vaughan's. Within the envelop was this:— Boston Mass. Oct. i3t, 1875.

To the Editor of Hartford Courant. Sir. Insanely supposing that you possessed some gentlemanly principle, I forwarded to you a copy of my answer to the slander aimed at me in issue of Sept. 29 last. You could spare half a column of your valuable paper in which to publish a cowardly lie against an innocent man; besides space in which to insert a delightful reference to the slander in question.8 I have waited patiently for common Justice at your hands. Receiving no answer whatever to my respectful letter to you, & feeling confident that Connecticutt does not monopolize all the wit in the country, I propose to publish & distribute the article justifying me, and particularly to state the contemptible meaness of an Editor who will refuse even an answer from a poor man who is wronged through the medium of that editor's paper. I am not a fool, neither am I a poor fellow easily frightened at the shadow of any wealthy fraud whose capital I have assisted in creating. It is very remarkable (& somewhat alarming, or soon will be so) that the poor will not be silenced. Hopeing to hear from you through the medium of your paper, I remain Yours truly, Geo. Vaughan. Mr. Editor, I am making all this pow-wow over Mr. Vaughan because it seems necessary—not because I like such employment. I will-

Samuel L. Clemens, aged, 39

569

ingly confess, too, that to devote so much of your important space to this person is a good deal like assaulting an animalcule with brickbats.9 Mark Twain. 1

Since this letter was published on a Monday, it is likely that Clemens wrote it on Friday, 22 October, give or take a day. 2 27? Sept 75 to the editor of the Hartford Courant. 3 The summary of known "endorsers" is as follows. The only addressees to whom Clemens's letters have been found were Underwood and Blaine (7 Oct 75,11 Oct 75). Clemens expressed his intention to contact Peter Cooper, William Dodge, W. C. Bryant, Austin Dunham, and Arnold, Constable and Company (27? Sept 75 to the editor of the Courant), but there is no evidence that any of them answered. Later in this letter Clemens quoted replies from William Berkley, John Hawxhurst, the Hampton Institute (that is, James Marshall, perhaps writing for Samuel Armstrong: see note 5), and William Ruffner (see note 6). The "late Arnold Sturgis" has not been identified. There is no indication that Clemens wrote to Thomas Osborn or John Logan. Among those not previously identified: William N. Berkley (1815?-97) was twice mayor of Alexandria, Virginia (1868-69, 1872-74). John Hawxhurst (d. 1881) was the son of a Quaker minister on Long Island. In 1846 he and his brother settled in Fairfax County, Virginia, where they ran aflourmill. As a prominent Union supporter during the Civil War, he proposed the emancipation and enfranchisement of slaves and free education for black children, and as a state legislator after the war, he again supported free schools and promoted a progressive tax system. Thomas Ward Osborn ( 1836-98) was born in New Jersey and became a lawyer in 1861. During the Civil War he attained the rank of colonel in the Union army, and from 1868 to 1873 served as a Republican senator from Florida. John Alexander Logan ( 1826-86) was born in Illinois and earned a law degree from the University of Louisville in 1851. As a major-general of volunteers he commanded the Army of the Tennessee during the Civil War, and served as a Democratic congressman in 1859-62 and 1867-71 before being elected to the Senate, where he remained (except for one year, 1878) until his death (T. Michael Miller, 35, 37, 122; Worrall, 442-46; Leonard, 489-99; "Died," Alexandria [Va.] Gazette, 18 Apr 81,21 June 97; information courtesy of the Lloyd House Library of Virginia History and Genealogy). 4 From Macbeth, act 3, scene 4. The last phrase, "it is not so now," should be "but now they rise again." 5 James Fowle Baldwin Marshall (1818-91) of Massachusetts engaged in business in the Sandwich Islands as a young man, and it was there that he met Samuel Armstrong, the founder of the Hampton Institute. After working as the paymaster general of Massachusetts troops and an agent of the Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, he joined Armstrong at Hampton, where from 1870 to 1884 he was a trustee, assistant principal, instructor, and treasurer (Peabody, 104-5). 6 William Henry Ruffner (1824-1908), a Protestant minister, was elected as Virginia's first superintendent of public instruction in 1870, and served as a state-appointed curator of the Hampton Institute from 1873 to 1877. He was

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the author of Proposed Abolition of Slavery in West Virginia (Lexington, W.Va.: R. C. Noel, 1847) and Africa's Redemption: A Discourse on African Colonization in Its Missionary Aspects (Philadelphia: W. S. Martien, 1852) (Moger, 13, 2 3 9 40; Peabody, 349). 7 Vaughan later wrote Progressive Religious, and Social Poems. By Geo. Vaughan, of Virginia (1880) and New Radical and Social Poems (1883). 8 T h e Courant had remarked editorially on 29 September (2): "Mark Twain," in a letter in another column, relates his experience with a "Professor" of the begging art, and offers a solicitor for a southern educational project a first rate opportunity to prove the merits of his cause. Those who have met the "professor" will enjoy the letter, as well as those who have not had an opportunity to make his acquaintance. 9 A postcard of 16 March 1876 is Vaughan's only surviving manuscript response to Clemens's "pow-wow." Directing his remarks to "Arthur Clements (Mark Twain)," Vaughan wrote ( C U - M A R K ) :

Do not suppose I have forgotten you, or your past conduct toward me. It is being daily demonstrated that—not the ragged & the poor—but the rich & influential are the genuine rascals. You took advantage of a noor but honest man, & like a genuine coward dealt him a blow through a disreputable Journal, which absolutely refused to allow the assailed a chance to reply. I find you are not by any means considered a Gentleman even in Conn. & there is a glimmering of the ludicrous in the fact that you thought I was an ignorant man, easily scared. You are a liar a Coward & a rascal, & as such I will leave your conduct to its sure reward. George Vaughan.

From Olivia L. and Samuel L. Clemens to John Brown 25-28 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: UkENL)

(sic) Dear Doctor Brown1 W e h a d g r o w n s o v e r y a n x i o u s a b o u t y o u t h a t it w a s a g r e a t pleasure to see t h e dear, familiar h a n d writing again, b u t the contents o f t h e l e t t e r d i d m a k e u s inexpressibly

sad—

We have talked so m u c h

since about your coming to u s , — Would n o t the change d o you good? C o u l d you n o t trust yourself with us? We would d o everything to m a k e you c o m f o r t a b l e a n d h a p p y t h a t we c o u l d — a n d you have so m a n y a d m i r e r s i n A m e r i c a t h a t w o u l d b e so h a p p y a n d p r o u d t o w e l c o m e your—

571

Samuel L. Clemens, aged. 39

Is it not possible for you to come? Could not your son bring you? Perhaps the entire change would give you a new and healthier lease of life— Our children are both well and happy I wish that you could see them, Susie is very motherly to the little o n e Mr Clemens is hard at work on a new book now 2 —he has a new book of sketches recently out which he is going to send you in a few days, most of the sketches are old, but some few are new— 3 Oh Doctor Brown how can you speak of your life as a waisted one! What you have written has alone done an immense amount of good, and I know for I speak from experience that one must get good every time they meet and chat with you— I recieve good every time I even think of you— Can a life that produces such an effect on others be a wasted life? I feel that while you live the world is sweeter and better— You ask if Clara is "queer and wistful and commanding" like your Susie, we think she „isA more queer, (more quaint) perhaps more commanding, but not nearly so wistful in her ways as "your Susie"— The nurse that we had with us in Edinburgh had to leave us to take care of a/ sister ill with consumption, we have had ever since a quiet lady like German girl— 4 1 must leave a place for Mr C.— Do think about coming to us— Give my love to your sister and your son— ^Affectionately Livy L. Clemens,

AP. P. S. I hope you will excuse Mr Clemens P. S. to me, it is characteristic for him to put it right on the letter— LivyL.C. 5

Livy, you haven't signed your letter. Don't forget that.

S.L.C.

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'The Clemenses answered the following letter (CU-MARK), which, allowing for transit from Edinburgh, they presumably received around 25 October and responded to within a few days: 2 3 RUTLAND STREBT EDINBURGH

11 Oct'r My dear Mrs Clemens. You must indeed wonder at my silence— I got your kind note & the photo of the newcomer—& I ought at once to have thanked you for both—but I was ill in mind—hopeless—heartless & I tried to write to you cheerfully as I ought— but could not—neither can I now—my mind has lost all caring for anything or any one & it is a dreadful thing to say— My sister & John are well—but it is sad for them to live with me— Ifightagainst it—but feebly—& I must not say more—as the very expressing it is wrong— I am happy that you & the triumphant Mark are well—& my darling & the little one— You & the good hub. have still some heart I am sure & you will not give up your old friend—even though he behaves heartlessly to you— I hope thenewhouseis finished & pleases you both— Tell Mr. Clemens that the gigantic Sheriff is well & writing papers on his beloved Skye(.] Though I was not well when you were at Veitch's, I wish from my heart I was half as well now— Are you careful of your self—& getting stronger & not less comely & is Megalopis as wonderful as ever? I feel such a longing at this moment to see & hear you all(.] My best regards & affection such as they are to you & to the father & children^] John & my sister send their love Ever yrs & his truly & much J.B. Is that good nurse still with you? She is more ladylike in mind & body than many ladies—is Clara queer & wistful & commanding like my Susie—whom I see every day on the drawing room mantel piece & you too— That large one of you is in my study— it is not so good as you—& I have the inevitable Mark eyeing the universe in that historical group of Moffatj.j Ah me— You cannot know the misery of looking back on a wasted life— God bless you & all yours, with his peace & blessedness— Your old & broken friend—J. B. Kiss Susie for me & make her kiss Clara for me—& Mark may kiss you— Brown alluded to his sister, Isabella; his son, John; "Sheriff" Alexander Nicolson; Veitch's Hotel in Edinburgh; and Ellen Bermingham (see note 4). He also mentioned several photographs: one of Susy by Van Aken, sent in a letter of 4 September 1874 but otherwise unidentified; one of the "newcomer," Clara, probably taken in November 1874 and enclosed in a now-lost letter; and the "historical group" image taken in Edinburgh in August 1873 by John Moffat, of the Clemenses with Brown and Clara Spaulding (see L5, 662; 19 or 20 Nov 74 to Parish, n. 2). 2

See 4 Nov 75 to Howells, n. 9. The American Publishing Company sent Brown a cloth-bound copy of Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old on 6 December (APC 1876a). 4 Brown had met Ellen (Nellie) Bermingham, Susy's nurse, when she traveled with the Clemenses to Edinburgh in August 1873 (L5, 371, 431, 641 n. 4). The "German girl" was Rosina Hay. 'Olivia responded to Clemens's "P. S.," but inserted her "P. P. S." above it for lack of room, and then drew a diagonal line on the left and a short line under her name to separate her comment from his. 3

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To J. W. Stancliff 25 October-7 November 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Hartford Couram, 17 Nov 75)

Dear Sir: 1 —The illuminations are fac similes upon vellum of two pages of a book of fifty illuminated pages which was made in London by a young lady.2 The fertility of invention exhibited was something marvelous. The design, the spirit, the idea of each individual page of the fifty was distinctly different from all the rest, & yet there were no jarring contrasts. The book was a harmonious whole, & so equal was the merit & the beauty of the pages that no one was able to say with entire confidence that any one page of the book excelled another. I requested copies of two of the pages, & the reproduction was perfect, as much so as if the originals & the copies had been printed from plates instead of wrought with pencil & brush. It was said in London by competent critics that no illuminations of modern times approach this girl's work. Being obscure & very poor she worked herself nearly blind upon starvation wages before her performances attracted attention. She could get noble prices now, but the luck has come too late; the genius is all there yet, but it cannot work in the twilight.3 Yours truly, Saml. L. Clemens. Mr. J. W. Stancliff. 'John Wells Stancliff ( 1 8 1 3 - 9 2 ) , was a marine painter with a studio in Hartford. In early life he had been a telegraph operator and baseball player and trained as a carriage painter and copperplate engraver before studying both oil and watercolor painting. In 1872 and 1873 he exhibited ten works on nautical themes through the Hartford Art Association and the Connecticut School of Design, and served as president of the latter in 1878 (Mattatuck; Groce and Wallace, 598; Yarnall et al., 5:3346). 2 The source of this letter is an item in the Hartford Courant for 17 November 1875, where it appeared with a brief introduction: "Mr. Stancliff having requested of Mr. Clemens a description of the marvelously beautiful illuminations loaned by him to the centennial exhibition, received the following touching reply" ("A Wonderful Work by a Poor Girl," 2). On 25 October Stancliff began to receive art works and antiques loaned to the Women's Centennial Association of Hartford for an exhibition that opened on 8 November. The purpose of the show was to raise funds for the construction and furnishing of

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a women's pavilion at the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine in Philadelphia, which opened in May 1876 for six months. The women's pavilion, a huge structure that cost about forty thousand dollars, featured the "products of female industry and ingenuity of every class" from a dozen countries (Annual Cyclopaedia 1876, 262, 272, 281; Hartford Courant: "The Centennial—The Coming Exhibition in This City," 23 Oct 75, 2; "Centennial Loan Exhibition," 2 Nov 75, 2; " T h e Loan Exhibition," 8 Nov 75, 2, and 15 Nov 75, 2). 3 Stancliff evidently decided not to exhibit the illuminations of this unidentified artist, since the catalog made no mention of them. Three other works that Clemens loaned were shown, however: Beach Scene and Marine, watercolors by William Trost Richards (1833-1905); and Going to Church in Winter, an oil painting by Thomas Lochlan Smith (1835-84) (Yarnall et al., 1:5, 4:2950, 2952, 5:3290; Opitz, 771-72, 871; painting catalog nos. 23, 119, and 122 in Catalog of Works of Art of the Centennial Loan Exhibition [1875], information courtesy of the Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford).

To Jane T. Bigelow 26 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Karanovich) (sl^ Hartford, Oct. 26 M y Dear Mrs. Bigelow: 1 I ask a thousand pardons, but I spent a week in New York, & business drove the matter clear out of my otherwise empty head, where it was reposing solitary „companionless, in the midst of a vast & howling solitude. Hoping you will generously forgive this unforgivable lapse, I sign myself, Dear Madam, Truly Yours, Sam'. L . Clemens Mark Twain 'Jane Tunis Poultney Bigelow was the wife of John Bigelow (1817-1911), a prominent journalist, author, and diplomat. They had been married since 1850 and had eight children. She evidently wrote a note requesting an auto-

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graph, and perhaps followed it with a reminder; neither letter is known to survive. Clemens's "week in New York" was from 12 to 16 October (see pp. 55657).

To Charles E. Flower 27 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: DFo) (sic)

Hartford, Conn., Oct. 27. M y Dear Mr. Flower: I am very glad indeed to see that the Memorial is prospering so well. 1 Under any other condition of things, I know America would contribute largely, but now it is nearly impossible to get the people to part with a penny they can cling to. Business is utterly prostrate, thousands of men are without employment, & money is distressingly scarce. 2 I hope to be able to confer a Memorial Governorship upon myself some day, but haven't dared to think of it these times. 3 We started to buy land & build a house, all for six thousand pounds; vbutA when we were with you we were aware that the ground had already cost £6,000 & the mere unroofed brick shell of the house £3,600 more. So we didn't even venture to subscribe £ 5 to the American window in Shakspeare church! We did feel so poor! U p to to-day our house, grounds & furniture have cost twenty-three thousand pounds & the confounded place isn't finished yet! There is only one comfort about it all; & that is the reflection that if the house were going to be built over again, we would build it exactly the same way. We are not conscious of a single regret—& that is something. I have sent the Memorial documents to the press for publication. I enclose my picture for your father & beg him to send me his. 4 H e is my English John Brown. Truly Yrs, S. L. Clemens

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P. S. Kindly remember us to Mrs. Flower & your father & brothers' families. 5 We expect to go to England next spring—we gratefully remember that England & the sea were the best physicians Mrs. Clemens ever had. 6 1

See 26 Apr 75 to Jennings. The country was still experiencing the economic depression precipitated by the financial panic of September 1873 (see 28 Feb 74 to Brown, n. 3). 3 No evidence has been found that Clemens purchased a £100 "Governorship" in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. 4 The photograph that Clemens enclosed for Edward F. Flower, Charles's father, does not survive with the letter. It most likely was taken by George K. Warren in November 1874, but might have been taken by Elisha Van Aken in July or August of that year (see 2 Sept 74 to Howells and 2? Dec 74 to Miller). 5 That is, respectively: Sarah Flower; Edward F. Flower and his wife, Celina; Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Flower, who had eight children; and William Henry Flower (1831-99) and his wife, Georgiana, who had six children. William was not in the family brewery business in Stratford-upon-Avon. A leading doctor and zoologist, he was a professor of anatomy and physiology, and curator of the museum, at the Royal College of Surgeons in London (L5, 195-96 n. 1,416 nn. 2, 3). 6 Clemens may have thought he had to reside temporarily in England to secure an Imperial copyright on Tom Sawyer. The copyright on the English edition (published by Chatto and Windus in June 1876) was in fact assigned to Moncure Conway, who acted as Clemens's agent (10 Jan 77 to Conway, NNC; TS, 18-21). The Clemenses did not go to England in the spring of 1876. 2

To William Dean Howells 27 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MH-H)

Oct. 27 Say, boss Say, boss, do you want this to lighten up your old freight-^rain with? 1 1 suppose you won't, but then it won't take you long to say so. I do not enclose stamps for re-mailing because I have hardly enough to see me through the day, & neither is there a shinplaster in the house. I shall run up to you very early in November—the s t d madam, too, if she is strong enough—& go with you to see some of the literary

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bi/g guns about the copyright project.2 Shall want to abide with you 3 or 4 days. Mrs. Clemens is dejected, despondent, discouraged. She gets up at 9, & by 11 is clear broken down & tired out. If this were May in place of October I would have her on board a Cunard steamer inside of 48 hours. Yrs Ever Mark. P. S. Mrs. Howellsys letter has just come & Mrs. Perkins & I have almost persuaded Mrs Clemens to go right off tomorrow to Cambridge & leave the children here. Mrs. Perkins says she will visit them every day & look after them. Mrs. C. has gone with Mrs. P. to luncheon, & I do hope they'll come to the right decision in this matter—in which case I will tetfegraph you. 3 1

Clemens enclosed the manuscript (now lost) for "A Literary Nightmare"— not, as previously thought, an unidentified "companion piece" (see MTHL, 1:108-9, and 4 Nov 75 to Howells, n. 7). Published in the Atlantic Monthly for February 1876, it professed to represent the debilitating effects of a contagious streetcar jingle eventually known by its chorus, "Punch, brothers, punch" (SLC 1876b). In the April 1876 Scnbner's Monthly, Winkelried Wolfgang Brown alluded to Clemens's article and explained that the jingle was composed by Isaac Bromley, of the New York Tribune, and Noah Brooks, of the Times. While riding on a streetcar in the Fourth Avenue line, they were struck by a notice that described a procedure adopted to prevent embezzling, whereby conductors were required to use a "bell punch" to audibly record each fare: The conductor, when he receives a fare, will immediately punch in the presence of the passenger, A blue trip slip for an 8 cent fare, A buff trip slip for a 6 cent fare, A pink trip slip for a 3 cent fare. Haunted by the rhythm of this notice, they made only slight alterations (deleting the word "immediately" and adding a final catchy line, "All in the presence of the passenjare"). The "poem" was then introduced as a hymn in the editorial rooms of "The Tribune," and Mr. [William C.] Wyckoff, the scientific editor, assisted by Mr. Moses P. Handy, then of "The Tribune" staff, now editor of "The Richmond Enquirer," added to them the following chorus: "Punch, boys, punch! punch with care! Punch in the presence of the passenjare. . . ." It was not intended to give the poem to the public; but one night it was taken down in shorthand from the lips of the choir, and the next day printed on an inside page of "The Tribune." After the Tribune's 27 September 1875 printing, "the trouble began. . . . T h e continent was one vast eruption of verse" (Brown, 910-11; "Horse-Car Po-

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etry," New York Tribune, 27 Sept 75, 5; "City Railroad Frauds: A Conductor and a Maker of Imitation Bell Punches Held to Answer," New York Times, 29 Nov 74, 2). 2 See 18 Sept 75 to Howells and 19 Oct 75 to Howells, n. 1. 3 Neither Elinor Howells's letter nor a telegram from Clemens to Howells has been recovered, but the Clemenses did go to Cambridge, on 29 October. Lucy Perkins, the wife of Clemens's lawyer, was a neighbor and close friend.

To H. O. Houghton and Company 28 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: ViU)

Hartford, Oct. 28. Messrs. H. O. Houghton & Co. Gentlemen: Pray accept my thanks for the proof copy of Mr. Longfellow's picture.1 To condense all commendation into a single sentence, I think it the perfection of a portrait.2 Yrs Truly Sam'. L . Clemens

[letterdocketed:] 1

(Mark Twain

This was the

portrait of Mr. Longfellow, which the publishers of the T h e Atlantic have just issued, and which was drawn on stone by Mr. J. E. Baker. It is an extremely sturdy and at the same time most refined piece of graphic art. . . . T h e picture gives about a third of the figure's length, and the pose is very simple, one arm being raised from the elbow, with the hand supporting the cheek and partially concealed in the poet's thick, white beard. A slight turning of the face, resulting from this supported posture of the head, throws the left cheek and temple into soft shadow; a disposition to which must be attributed something of the deeply thoughtful aspect of the head. This aspect gives to the portrait its great charm, which we think will prove a lasting one; and the whole appearance is most agreeably characteristic; we receive from the sight of this portraiture the same sort of impression which comes from reading Mr. Longfellow's poetry. . . . It is, in short, probably the best portrait of Mr. Longfellow which has yet been placed within the reach of the public. ("Art," Atlantic Monthly 36 [Dec 75]: 762)

Joseph E. Baker was a Boston-trained lithographer and pencil portraitist (Groce and Wallace, 22). No copy of the picture has been found. 2 Houghton and Company used this sentence in advertising the "splendid

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life-size Portrait," along with praise from others "in a position to judge of the excellence of the work," including William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, John Greenleaf Whittier, and James T. Fields. The portrait could "be had only by subscribers to The Atlantic Monthly, and the price of the magazine and portrait has been placed at the low sum of $5.00, postage on both being paid by the Publishers" ("A New Portrait of Longfellow," Atlantic Monthly 37 [Jan 76]: unnumbered page following cover).

To Richard M. Milnes (Lord Houghton) 29 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: UkCU)

(SLC) Hartford Oct. 29 My Lord: Mrs. Clemens & I go to Boston today to visit until Nov. I s t , but I shall gladly run down to New York & breakfast with you the next day.1 Yours Sincerely Sam'. L . Clemens. 1

Clemens answered the following invitation (CU-MARK): Brevoort House.

Oct 27'. Dear M r Clemens, I leave N. Y. on Wedy inst. If by chance you are in town, will you kindly breakfast with me on Tuesy the 2 d at 9.30. I am ys resy Houghton

The occasion was the breakfast "to literary men" that Houghton gave "in one of the parlours up-stairs" at the Brevoort House. No guests other than Clemens have been identified. Houghton left for Philadelphia on Wednesday, 3 November (T. Wemyss Reid, 2:324).

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To Oliver Wendell Holmes 3? November 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Transcript: CU-MARK) T h e author of this book will take it as a real compliment if M r Holmes will allow it to lumber one of his shelves. Samuel L . Clemens Hartford Nov. 1 8 7 5 1 1

Clemens inscribed this letter in a cloth-bound copy of Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old. H e probably did so on 3 November, after returning home from his 2 November breakfast in N e w York with Lord Houghton. T h e American Publishing Company sent the book by express on the same day (APC 1876a). Holmes responded ( C U - M A R K ) : Boston Nov. 4 th 1875. Dear Mr. Clemens, The very handsome volume reached me today and I sat down and rejoiced in my old friend the Jumping Frog and one or two other of the Sketches. On weighing myself after reading I found I had gained several pounds, and all my acquaintances who have seen me since have exclaimed "Why! my friend, how fat you are getting!" I never before realised the truth of "laugh and grow fat" to this extent before. When I get to weigh two hundred—which I expect to do before I get through the last story—it will take some days, for I am afraid of too rapid increase of girth—I shall write you again and send you my photograph. In the mean time I thank you most heartily for the pleasure your stories have so often given me and especially for this most welcome accession to my library with all its humour and its cheerful good-nature and its pictures of life, dressed so prettily that if the books of the season should have a ball it would be one of the belles of the evening. Believe me Very truly yours, O.W.Holmes. Conceivably Clemens had met with Holmes while visiting Howells—particularly since he wished Holmes to sign his copyright petition (see 18 Sept 75 to Howells)—and had promised him a copy of Sketches, New and Old. The two had previously exchanged letters in 1869, about a gift copy of The Innocents Abroad (see L3, 3 6 4 - 6 6 ) .

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

To William Dean Howells 4 November 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (NN-B) Oct. 4/75.1 M y Dear Howells: We had a royal good time at your house, & have had a royal good time ever since, talking about it, both privately & with the neighbors. Mrs. Clemens's bodily strength came up handsomely under that cheery respite from household & nursery cares. I don't doubt that Mrs. How I do hope that Mrs. Howells's didn't go correspondingly down, under the added burden to her cares & responsibilities. O f course I didn't expect to get through without committing some crimes & hearing of them afterwards, so I have taken the inevitable lashings & been able to hum a tune while the punishment went on. I "caught it" for letting M r s Howells bother & bother about her coffee when it was "a good deal better than we get at home." I "caught it" for interrupting Mrs. C . at the last moment & mak losing her the opportunity to urge you not to forget to send her that M S when the printers are done with it. 2 1 caught it once more for personating that drunken Col. James. 3 1 caught it like everything for confessing, with contrition, for mentioning that Mr. Longfellow's picture was slightly damaged; 4 & when, after a lull in the storm, I confessed, shame-facedly, that I had privately suggested to you that we hadn't any frames, & that if you wouldn't mind hinting to Mr. Houghton, &c., &c., &c., the madam was simply speechless for the space of a minute. T h e n she said: " H o w could you, youth! T h e idea of sending Mr. Howells, with his sensitive nature, upon such a repulsive e r — " " O h , Howells won't mind it! You don't know Howells. Howells is a man w h o — " She was gone. But George was the first person she stumbled on in the hall, so she took it out of George. I was glad of that, because it saved the babies. 5 You will judge, by the enclosed (as I do,) that Miss Kellogg never got that song of Mr. Boott's which I mailed to her. ( M r . Bull was the very party who urged me to send it to her; he saw her a week after I

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mailed it, & she never mentioned the fact to h i m . ] W h e n she comes here I will drink four bottles of lager & then sing it for her—for I never can get any ease or expression into music without a good backing of inspiration. She will admire that song, then. 6 W h a t do you mean? Relieve a screed that is too light & rollicking, by adding some more of the same sort to its company? If you had a patient who was already suffering with the colic, would it help matters any to drive a nail in his foot & give him the lockjaw? N o , no, that wouldn't m e n d matters. ,the things I will wager that the editor-instinct in you is the right one. So don't you have any false delicacy about obeying its suggestion. I will p u t the article in the N e w York Times—Sunday edition—& let it b o o m along $c on its grievous mission & carry sleepless nights & suffering to a thousand households. D o n ' t you allow yourself to have one bit of discomfort about this. 7 Booah's idea of the wasteful magnificence of the Greeks is delicious! Pity b u t you could ingeniously draw him out, on the whole subject, & thus build an article u p o n *A Boy's C o m m e n t s yiUpon Homer."8 I've got another rattling good character for my novel! T h a t great work is mulling itself into shape gradually. It begins to suggest to m e the graded foetuses one sees in bottles of alcohol in anatomical museums. I can look back over my row of bottles, now, & discover that it has already developed f r o m a rather inferior frog into a perceptible though libelous suggestion of a child. I hope to add a bottle a day, now, right along. 9 a[A11 of the above ruthlessly condemned by the H e a d Chief of the Clemens tribe.], Mrs. Clemens sends love to Mrs. Howells—meantime she is diligently laying u p material for a letter to her. ( M o r e bottles.] Yrs Ever Mark 1 Although Clemens's date was previously accepted as accurate ( M T H L , 1:103), he actually wrote this letter on 4 November, for he referred to his and Olivia's 29 October-1 November visit (her first) with the Howellses in Cambridge. Clemens also mistook the month in his date for the next letter. 2 The manuscript of Howells's review of Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old, which had so gratified Olivia. On 21 November Howells promised to send it to her (19 Oct 75 to Howells; 23 Nov 75 to Howells, n. 1). 3 Unidentified. 4 See 28 Oct 75 to Houghton and Company. The Clemenses called on Longfellow at his Cambridge home, Craigie House, on 31 October 1875. Clemens

Samuel L. Clemens, aged, 39

583

had met the poet at least once previously, on 16 February 1874, at a dinner in Boston for Wilkie Collins (13 Feb 74 to Kingsley, n. 3; "Tributes to Poet by Men of Letters," New York Times, 24 Feb 1907, sec. 1:4; Wagenknecht, 215). 5 The Clemenses' butler, George Griffin (1849?-97), had been with them at least since the spring of 1875 (Thomas K. Beecher to Langdon, 27 and 29 May 75, and 1880 United States census information, courtesy of the Mark Twain House, Hartford). In 1906, in "A Family Sketch," Clemens recalled: George was an accident. He came to wash some windows, & remained half a generation. He was a Maryland slave by birth; the Proclamation set him free, & as a young fellow he saw his fair share of the Civil War as body servant to General Devens. He was handsome, well built, shrewd, wise, polite, always good-natured, cheerful to gaiety, honest, religious, a cautious truth-speaker, devoted friend to the family, champion of its interests, a sort of idol to the children & a trial to Mrs. Clemens—not in all ways, but in several. For he was as serenely & dispassionately slow about his work as he was thorough in parts of it; he was phenomenally forgetful; he would postpone work any time to join the children in their play if invited, & he was always being invited, for he was very strong, & always ready for service as horse, camel, elephant or any other kind of transportation required; he was fond of talking, & always willing to do it in the intervals of work—also willing to create the intervals; and finally, if a lie could be useful to Mrs. Clemens he would tell it. That was his worst fault, & of it he could not be cured. He placidly & courteously disposed of objections with the remark— "Why, Mrs. Clemens, if I was to stop lying you couldn't keep house a week." He was invaluable; for his large wisdoms & his good nature made up for his defects. He was the peace-maker in the kitchen—in fact the peace-keeper, for by his good sense & right spirit & mollifying tongue he adjusted disputes in that quarter before they reached the quarrel-point. . . . There was nothing commonplace about George. (SLC 1906,9-11,31)

The entire tribute comprises about twenty-four pages, more than a third of the manuscript, and describes in affectionate detail Griffin's activities inside and outside the Clemens household until 1891, when the family closed its Hartford home and left for Europe and he left their employ. Griffin evidently did his Civil War service under Charles Devens (1820-91), of Massachusetts, who distinguished himself in several critical battles, was mustered out as a major general in 1866, was elected national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1874, and became President Rutherford B. Hayes's attorney general in 1877. 6 The enclosed letter, from either Mr. Bull or soprano Clara Louise Kellogg, has not been found. Since July Clemens had been trying to alert Kellogg to music by Howells's friend, Francis Boott (see 5 July 75 to Howells, nn. 1,8). She and her opera company were to be in Hartford for performances on the evenings of 10 and 11 November. Kellogg sang the second night, but had a cold and was not in good voice. Mr. Bull has not been further identified, but he was not the Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, as previously thought ( M T H L , 1:105 n. 5). Ole Bull had toured the United States in 1872-73, but was in Europe throughout 1875. Clemens and Howells first met him in April 1880, in Cambridge, where he had lived since the preceding autumn (Hartford Courant: "Amusements," 10 Nov 75, 1; '"Fra Diavolo,' Last Evening" and "The Opera—Card from Manager Hess," 12 Nov 75, 2; Haugen and Cai, 173-83; Mortimer Smith, 176-90,199-204; Bull, 261-65; 19 and 20 Apr 80 to Howells, MH-H, in MTHL, 1:299-301; Howells 1979b, 247-48). 7 The "screed" was "A Literary Nightmare," the manuscript that Clemens sent to Howells on 27 October. They had discussed it while the Clemenses

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were in Cambridge, with Howells reserving judgment. Then, presumably in a letter of 2 or 3 November (now lost), Howells pronounced it too slight for the Atlantic Monthly, but offered Clemens the option of supplementing it. In his next letter, possibly written before he received this one, Howells changed his mind (CU-MARK): EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Nov. 5, 1875. My dear Clemens: The type-writer came Wednesday night, and is already beginning to have its effect on me. Of course it doesn't work: if I can persuade some of the letters to get up against the ribbon they wont get down again without digital assistance. The treadle refuses to have any part or parcel in the performance; and I don't know how to get the roller to turn with the paper. Nevertheless, I have begun several letters to My dar lemons, as it prefers to spell your respected name, and I don't despair yet of sending you something in its beautiful hand writing—after I've had a man out from the agent's to put it in order. It's fascinating, in the meantime, and it wastes my time like aa old friend. —Don't vex yourself to provide a companion piece for the Literary Nightmare, though if you've anything ready, send it along. But it will do magnificently as it is. I've been reading it over, with joy. I hope to get at the story on Sunday. Yours ever W.D. Howells. [enclosure:] This is the latest addition to the street car poetry. It applies of course, to the bobtail cars: When the passenger wishes to leave the cair, He must ring the bell with modest air, Must bow to the gentlemanly drivair And say, "Beg pardon, excuse me sair, But really, I'd like to get out of this cair." Then the driver will turn with a terrible glare, And shout at the wretched passenjair; "A blank of a place to stop this sair Machine, on this grade; you hold on there," And clammy and cold grows the passenjair, And he wilts like a blighted cucumbair.

The clipping, simulated here in a line-by-line resetting, was not from the New York Sun of 1 November, as previously reported (although the Sun did print the same verses that day), nor has it been found in any Boston newspaper {MTHL, 1:110; "Sunbeams," 2). A bobtail car was a small tram pulled by a single horse, with a driver but no conductor. Howells wrote his letter by hand, but addressed the envelope on the typewriter, which had arrived on 3 November, via Elisha and Frank Bliss (see the next letter). The story he intended to "get at" on Sunday, 7 November, was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Clemens presumably left in Cambridge the secretarial copy of the manuscript which he had arranged to have prepared in July, and on which he had already made some revisions (Mathews, 1:152; 13 July 75 to Howells; SLC 1982, l:xiii). 8 "Booah" was seven-year-old John Mead Howells. Howells must have included some of his recent remarks in the missing 2 or 3 November letter to Clemens.

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

' T h i s work may have been the "long, solid literary job" Clemens had in mind when he explained to Redpath, on 22 September, why he could not lecture in November. It may also have been the "new book" that Olivia alluded to in late October (25-28? Oct 75 to Brown). And it may likewise have been the "bigger book" Clemens promised Bliss in the next letter. By 9 November, Clemens had stopped "mulling" and begun writing this unidentified novel, only to abandon the manuscript and make a new start two weeks later (23 Nov 75 to Howells). It is possible that what he then produced was the "doublebarreled novel" he later put aside, in early July 1876, to begin writing Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn (HF, xxiv). And it may have been the "double-barreled novel" that he recalled for Howells in a 16 August 1898 letter: In 1876 fir '75„ I wrote 40,000 words of a story called "Simon Wheeler" wherein the nub was the preventing an execution through testimony furnished by mental telegraphy from the other side of the globe. I had a lot of people scattered about the globe who carried in their pockets something like the old mesmerizer-button, made of different metals, & when they wanted to call up each other & have a talk, they "pressed the button" or did something, I don't remember what, & communication was at once, opened. I didn't finish the story, though I re-began it in several new ways, & spent altogether 70,000 words on it, then gave it up & threw it aside. (NN-B, in MTHL, 2:674-75) That story is not part of the surviving manuscript for the Simon Wheeler novel (see S&B, 312-444). By late December, Moncure Conway reported that Clemens was writing a novel set in Sacramento, California, which probably was not the "great work" of November (16 Dec 75 to Conway, n. 2).

To Elisha Bliss, Jr. 5 November 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK) Oct. 5. 1 Friend Bliss: You may let Williams have all of Tom Sawyer that you have received. He can of course make the pictures all the more understandingly after reading the whole story. He wants it, & I have not the least objection, because if he should lose any of it I have got another complete M S . copy.2 I think you had better rush Dan's book into print, by N e w Year's, if possible, & give Tom Sawyer the early spring market. I don't want to publish in the summer—don't want to wait till fall—shall have a bigger book ready then.3 What have you heard from England in the way of a proposition for Tom Sawyer? I have an offer from the Routledges (which I haven't an-

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swered), & if you have heard nothing from over there, I propose to write the "Temple Bar" people. Drop me a line about this, will you?4 Frank said he would send the infernal Type-Writer to Howells. I hope he won't forget to afflict Howells with it.5 I wish you would send me a couple of copies of the Sketch Book, & also all the Sketches that were left out in making it up. I do not want to lose them.6 Didn't you make that correction of the paragraph smouched from "Hospital Days?" Twichell has an uncorrected copy.7 Yrs Clemens. Eg

—

—

[letter docketed in pencil:] / [and in ink:] Sam'l Clemens | Nov. 5 "75 | Sam'l Clemens | For Year 1875 1

The correct date is confirmed by the docket inscribed by someone at the American Publishing Company, who also altered "Oct" to "Nov" in the dateline. 2 Truman (True) W. Williams (1839-97), the chief illustrator of The Innocents Abroad and Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old, was soon to have the same responsibility for Tom Sawyer. (He had also contributed to Roughing It and The Gilded Age.) Williams's alcoholism made Clemens cautious about employing him. The text Williams was given to work from was Clemens's own manuscript of Tom Sawyer, but how much of it Bliss had as yet "received" is not known. Howells currently had the secretarial security copy, which was presumably complete, although not entirely up to date (L3, 142 n. 5; L5, 412 n. 3;RI 1993, 857-58,869). 3 Dan De Quille's Big Bonanza was not issued by the American Publishing Company until July 1876. The firm published Tom Sawyer in December of that year (APC 1866-79,134; TS, 25). For the "bigger book," see the previous letter, n. 9. 4 Neither Bliss's reply, nor the offer from George Routledge and Sons, Clemens's authorized English publisher, is known to survive. The Routledge offer may have accompanied the royalty payment on its Gilded Age that Clemens acknowledged with the following receipt: f355.86 Hartford Nov. 10 1875. Received of Mr. J. L. Blamire (agent, for Messrs. George Routledge & Sons) $355.86, currency, being the remainder of royalties due me on Gilded Age up to June 30,1875. Sam'. L. Clemens (Routledge Agreement Book A-K, 186, Routledge, in Grenander 1975,3) The present Routledge proposal for Tom Sawyer evidently was unsatisfactory, and an attempt in 1876 to come to terms with the firm was unsuccessful.

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

587

George Bentley, editor of Temple Bar magazine, had solicited articles from Clemens, but no evidence has been found that the two men negotiated for Tom Sawyer. The English edition of the book was published by Chatto and Windus in June 1876 (TS, 18-20; 15Jan75toHowells). 5 Howells had received the typewriter from Frank Bliss on Wednesday, 3 November, about four and a half months after Clemens offered it, and almost a year after he first purchased it. Clemens shortened this time frame in his later account of the machine's peregrinations: That early Boston machine was full of caprices, full of defects—devilish ones. It had as many immoralities as the machine of to-day has virtues. After a month or two I found that it was degrading my character, so I thought I would give it to Howells. He was reluctant, for he was suspicious of novelties and unfriendly towards them, and he remains so to this day. But I persuaded him. He had great confidence in me, and I got him to believe things about the machine that I did not believe myself. He took it home to Boston, and my morals began to improve, but his have never recovered. He kept it three months, and then returned it to me. I gave it away twice after that, but it wouldn't stay; it came back. Then I gave it to our coachman, Patrick McAleer, who was very grateful, because he did not know the animal, and thought I was trying to make him wiser and better. As soon as he got wiser and better he traded it to a heretic for a side-saddle which he could not use, and there my knowledge of its history ends. (AD, 27 Feb 1907, CU-MARK) 6

Of the eighty-one sketches Clemens had proposed including in Sketches, New and Old, only sixty-three were actually used. The printer's copy consisted of marked-up copies of two earlier sketchbooks (both published in England), and several manuscripts; both books are in the Mark Twain Papers, and the surviving manuscripts are there and in other archives (see ETGfSl, 633-34; SLC 1872c, 1874a). Bliss may have sent Clemens the omitted sketches on 17 November, the day he "sent to house" three copies of the book (APC 1876a). 7 Although Clemens had demanded that this sketch be excised from Sketches, New and Old (see 22 and 27 Sept 75 to Howells), Bliss's initial response was to tip in the following slip at page 299 of the copies that he had already bound: ERRATUM. By an error of the publishers the above sketch "From 'Hospital Days'" was inserted in this book. It should not have been, as Mark Twain is not the author of it. It will not appear in any future edition.

The American Publishing Company had sent Twichell a half-morocco copy on 1 November, charging $ 1.50 to Clemens's account. On page 299, Clemens inscribed a substitute for the missing notice: "[The above paragraph was deliberately stolen from Miss Woolsey's charming book, by my conscienceless publisher, 'because, it would just fill out the half-page right!']" (CtY-BR). On 23 October another of Clemens's friends, political cartoonist Thomas Nast, was sent a cloth-bound copy, which had Bliss's notice in place (APC 1876a). Nast promised Clemens in a letter of 9 November (CU-MARK): After I have read it, I will give you the benefit of my valuable judgement upon it, at present I think that the short piece "from hospital days" is the best thing it contains, and am so sorry that the publishers will commit the error of leaving it out next time.

Later printings of the book did omit the sketch, while continuing to list it in the table of contents.

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To William A. Seaver 10 November 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: WU)

( S ) Hartford, 10 th . M y Dear Seaver: I would have been there, but I couldn't.

I was careful to let you

go on & provide my share of the meal, though, because I knew H a y wouldfti need it. T h e sort of belly he is sporting, these days, can't be conducted on single rations, my boy. I was afraid you wouldn't think of that. 1 N o w I'm still wroth with you because you didn't come up here that time. C o m e & smoke the calumet. Ever Y r s Mark. 1

Clemens evidently replied to a telegram (or even a letter), now lost, which was sent and received o n the same day, asking why he h a d failed to appear at a breakfast hosted by Seaver that morning. H e must have previously accepted the following invitation, for a breakfast that was to take place on "Wednesday"—that is, 10 November ( C U - M A R K ) : ADRIATIC INS. C° 1 8 7 B'WAY N. YORK

Nov. 6 th 1875. Clemens, dear:— Are you coming to N.Y. next week? If so make it Wednesday. I'm going to do a little breakfast at the Union Club at 9'/•> a.m. sharp, on that day, to Frederick Lehmann, who bears to me stationery from Wilkie Collins. It's not to be a gorge of joints, gin, gush and spout, but simply hash, mackerel, a shrimp, and a feeble cup of go'long tea. The bill of company will be Harte, Hay, Brady, Cox, you, and your little friend the host. Youll come? "Thanks!" Cordially, Wm. A. Seaver. P.S. LIFE OF F. LEHMANN. chap. 1. Great iron swell. Firm of Naylor & Co. chap. 2. Has house in Berkeley Square described by Moncure Conway in Harpers Mag. Nov 1874. Which see. chap. 4. Married a daughter of Robert Chambers, the Edin. pub.

589

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39 chap. 5. chap. 5. chap. 6.

Executor of Charles Dickens's will. Gentleman and h good fellow. Income $ 150,000 a year. The End.

Frederick Lehmann (1826-91) was born in Hamburg to an artistic and musical family. Through his brother-in-law he entered the English firm of Naylor and Vickers, which supplied much of the steel used by the North during the Civil War. His wife, Nina, was the eldest daughter of Robert Chambers, an Edinburgh scholar and publisher. In their elegant home in Berkeley Square, they entertained London's most talented musicians, artists, and writers (Browning, 9-11). Harte was scheduled to lecture in Providence, Rhode Island, on the evening of 10 November, but that would not have precluded his being in New York that morning, particularly since he canceled his lecture "on account of a sudden and severe illness" that was suspected of actually being "a case of shirking" ("Personal," New York Tribune, 11 Nov 75, 4; "Personal Gossip," Hartford Courant, 11 Nov 75, 2). By the late spring of 1875, Hay had left the New York Tribune and moved to Cleveland, his wife's home city, but he might well have been visiting New York in November. The meaning of Clemens's joke about Hay's "belly" would have been clear to his friends, since he was notably thin. Moncure Conway's "Decorative Art and Architecture in England" devoted about three pages to a description of Lehmann's house (780-83). The Union Club, founded in 1836 as "the representative organization of members of old families," was housed in "a beautiful structure of brown stone . . . completed for it on the corner of Twenty-first Street and Fifth Avenue, at a cost of $250,000" (Lossing, 434-35; "William A. Seaver," New York Times, 8 Jan 83, 5; Thayer, 1:388; Wilson 1875, 24, 1206, "City Register," 26; Brady has not been identified). The month and year assigned to this letter are based, in part, on the inference that Clemens was apologizing for his nonappearance on the same day of the missed appointment. Given that assumption, it is highly improbable that the date he wrote ("10 th .") and the date of the breakfast are the same by coincidence. But the month and year are also consistent with his use of this relatively rare type of monogram stationery (see 16 Dec ?74 to Gratz, n. 1).

* N o L E T T E R S written between 5 and 1 7 November, except for the preceding one, have been found. Even it suggests that Clemens probably remained in Hartford, working on the novel he had recently begun (see 4 N o v 75 to Howells, n. 9). On 12 November he made a public appearance, to deliver a "prologue" at the debut performance of the newly formed Hartford Dramatic Association. The play was Our Best Society, by Irving Browne ( 1 8 3 5 - 9 9 ) , of Troy, N e w York, who had previously translated Racine's comedy The Suitors ( N e w York: G. P. Putnam, 1871) and later wrote humorous works on the law. According to

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the Hartford Courant of 13 November, it was "a clever satire upon would-be aristocracy," based on George William Curtis's Potiphar Papers, and "as a piece for amateurs it is capital." The newspaper gave the following account of Clemens's address: At a quarter before 8 the curtain was drawn aside and Mr. Henry Wilson stepped out, with Mr. S. L. Clemens, and introduced the latter as "Mr. Mark Twain." (Applause). Mr. Clemens maintained a ludicrous silence for two or three minutes, and then began to speak in his inimitable way. He said he had been appointed to come out and talk five minutes, by the watch, and he had been instructed that he was not there to deliver a lecture, and must not forget himself and go on too long, because there was a play to be performed. He understood that he was not to talk on anything in particular. He had got to talk—that was all. It mattered little what he said—he was to put in the time, so that the actors could have a chance to cool down their excitement, so as to play calmly and do credit to themselves and to the piece. He was not to stand there and ooze wisdom or deliver instruction, but to put in the time. They had given him five minutes, and if he got in a close place, six minutes, but if he found he was in a close place, he would take the extra minutes to get out in. He believed his business was to do as in Shakespeare's time —deliver a prologue—describe the character of the play and the moral it was expected to teach. He had glanced through the pamphlet and found it like all others of this kind in print; he could get neither head nor tail of it. When he read in Richard III, "A horse, a horse!" it seemed prosaic enough, but it was different in delivery. All was the same in print. He had found in Mr. Potiphar what he took to be a bloody villain; Mr. Cream Cheese appeared to be an upright, model man; Airs. Potiphar a modest lady, sweet and gentle. But he was afraid to venture on a description—he might get it mixed up. He begged permission to tell an anecdote—one that Colonel Sellers tells now—in illustration. Mr. Clemens then related the "whistling story"—which is familiar to those who have seen the play of "The Gilded Age"—about the stammering gentleman, who tried the plan of whistling whenever he hesitated in pronouncing a word. Mr. Clemens said a Boston friend had mailed him this little story, advising him to introduce it in a lecture. He had read it and couldn't see the point. It appeared to be a stammer and a whistle and everything mixed up. Afterwards he heard his friend tell it, and then he saw the point—it was all in the delivery. It was a cure for stammering. It is needless to say that Mark Twain's relation of the anecdote set the house in an uproar of laughter. Mr. Clemens concluded by saying that this story in print didn't seem to have any point; neither did the MSS. of the play carry any sense to his mind, and he would advise all to see the performance of it and judge for themselves. (SLC 1875p) Clemens included a version of the "whistling story" in at least some of the "Roughing It" lectures he delivered between 1871 and 1874,

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

attributing it to Artemus Ward (see Lorch 1968, 304, 320-21, and Fatout 1976, 62-63). Colonel Sellers tells the story in act four of the Gilded Age play (SLC 1874/). Henry Wilson was a Hartford organist and music teacher. Our Best Society was repeated on 13 November, but without Clemens's participation ("Our Best Society," Hartford Times, 13 Nov 75, 2; Geer 1875, 153, 235).

* To James Gordon Bennett, Jr. 17 November 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Axelrod)

(jXC)

FARMING TON AVENUE,

HARTFORD.

Nov. 17. My Dear Sir: The book I have is one which I urged Mr. House some five years ago to write—or rather, it is one written in place of that. It seems to be all about that War out there, so it may be the Herald letters collected. I cannot let it pass out of my possession, however, because House entrusted it to me without giving me that privilege.1 But there is a copy in New York, in the hands of Mr. Geo. Simmons, Army Building, & no doubt you can see that one. I think Mr. Young knows Simmons. 2 Ys Truly Sam'. L. Clemens [bottom one-half inch ofpage cut away]3 1

Clemens answered the following letter from Bennett, owner and editor of the New York Herald, whom he had met in 1867 (CU-MARK; L2, 115-16, 107 n. 2,121): Q G S J

4 2 5 F I F T H AVENUE.

NoV 13. 1875. My dear Sir, I understand that you have a copy of the reprint of M r House's letters to the N.Y. Herald upon the war between Japan and Formosa. If you would kindly let me have the book I should feel much obliged to you. Y" truly J. G. Bennett. S. L. Clemens Esq

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The book was The Japanese Expedition to Formosa, in which House had incorporated his 1874 Herald correspondence (see 10 Apr 75 to Bliss, n. 1). In a 13 November 1874 letter to Clemens from Japan, House had complained that although the Herald had "printed pages of my matter, I have never had the first line of acknowledgment, or anything else from them" (CU-MARK). 2 Only one George Simmons, a clerk, was listed in the New York City directory, place of employment unspecified. By the "Army Building" Clemens meant the headquarters of the Division of the Atlantic, at 33 West Houston Street. Since 1872 John Russell Young had been a New York Herald foreign correspondent (Wilson 1875, 1231, "City Register," 12; Appleton's Dictionary, 138; L5, 383 n. 1). 3 The small marks still visible on the manuscript suggest that Clemens drew a paraph under his signature and added Bennett's name.

To Elisha Bliss, Jr. 18 November 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS facsimile: CU-MARK)

Thür [S] day. Friend Bliss: Please send me one of those dark green half morocco copies of the Sketch Book for Mrs. C. 1 Yrs SLC. Kl UNITED STATES POSTAL CARD. WRITE THE ADDRESS ONLY ON THIS S I D E — T H E MESSAGE ON THE OTHER

TO American Publishing Co 284 Asylum st City [postmarked:] 1

HARTFORD CONN, NOV 1 8 6 P M

Bliss complied on 20 November (APC 1876a).

593

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

To Mary A. Cord 18 November 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: MdU) The author of this book offers it to Aunty Cord with his kindest regards, & refers her to page 202 for a well-meant but libelous portrait of herself & also the bit of personal history which she recounted to him once at "Quarry Farm." 1 Sam'. L . Clemens Mark Twain Hartford, Nov. 1 8 , 1 8 7 5 . 1 The "libelous portrait," unsigned but possibly done by True Williams, was the title illustration to "A True Story," as reprinted in the gift copy of Sketches, New and Old that Clemens inscribed.

To the Public 21 November-6 December 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS:NNWH) "Charity covers a multitude of sins." Therefore, it is but the plainest & simplest wisdom to keep a supply of it on hand. I know a man who has kept his supply intact all his life, & never parted with a grain of it. This man prospers. N o w let all take advantage of this present Charity Fair to buy & lay in a real good stock of it. Mark Twain (Sam'. L . Clemens) 1 1 From 6 through 22 December, an elaborate "Hebrew Charity Fair, in aid of the Mount Sinai Hospital" was held at Gilmore's Garden, in the Hippodrome in New York. It offered a profusion of items for sale, including fine art, and netted the hospital one hundred and ten thousand dollars. Clemens's letter was inserted in a commemorative autograph album, presumably compiled as a counterpart to an album of original sketches by prominent artists that was val-

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ued at two thousand dollars and awarded as a prize. The fair was announced as early as 21 November, so Clemens may have written his letter, in response to a request for a sentiment, between that date and 6 December, although he may have written it somewhat earlier (New York Times: "Charity Fairs," 21 Nov 75, 12; "Amusements," 6 Dec 75, 7; "The Hebrew Charity Fair," 7 Dec 75, 8; "For the Sake of Charity," 8 Dec 75, 7; New York Evening Post: "The Mount Sinai Hospital Fair," 7 Dec 75, 2; "The Hebrew Charity Fair," 10 Dec 75, 4; "Close of the Hebrew Fair," 23 Dec 75,1; New York Tribune: "Close of the Hebrew Charity Fair," 23 Dec 75,8).

To William Dean Howells 23 November 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B) Hartford, Nov. 23/75. My Dear Howells: 1 Herewith is the proof. In spite of myself, how awkwardly I do jumble words together; & how often I do use three words where one would answer—a thing I am always trying to guard against. I shall become as slovenly a writer as Charles Francis Adams if I don't look out. {That is said in jest; because of course I do not seriously fear getting so bad as that. I never shall drop so far toward his & Bret Harte's level as to catch myself saying "It ought »must, have been wiser to have believed that he could ¿night* have accomplished it if he could have felt that he would have been supported by those who should have &c., &c., &c.,"} 2 The reference to Bret Harte reminds me that I often accuse him of being a deliberate imitator of 4 Dickens; & this in turn reminds me that I have charged unconscious plagiarism^ upon Charley Warner; & this in turn reminds me that I have been delighting my souM for two weeks over a bran new & beau ingenious way of beginning a novel—& behold, all at once it flashes upon me that Charley Warner originated the idea 3 years ago & told me about it! Aha! So much for self-righteousness! I am well repaid. Here are 108 pages of M S , new & clean, lying disgraced in the waste paper basket, & I am beginning the novel over again in an unstolen way. 3 1 would not wonder if I am the worst literary thief in the world, without knowing it.

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

595

It is glorious news that you like Tom Sawyer so well. I mean to see to it that your review of it shall have plenty of time to appear before the other notices. Mrs. Clemens decides with you that it the book should issue as a book for boys, pure & simple—& so do it I. It is surely the correct idea. As to that last chapter, I think of just leaving it off & adding nothing in its place. Something told me that the book was done when I got to that point—& so the strong temptation to put Huck's life at the widow's into detail instead of generalizing it in a paragraph, was resisted.4 Just send Sawyer to me by Express—I enclose money for it. If it should get lost it will be no great matter.5 Company interfered last night, & so "Private Theatricals" goes over till this evening, to be read aloud.6 Mrs. Clemens is mad, but the story will take that all out. This is going to be a splendid winter night for fireside reading, anyway. I am almost at a dead stand-still with my new story, on account of the misery of having to do it all over again. We-all send love to you-all. Yrs Ever Mark. 1

Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK): EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Nov. 21, 1875. Dear Clemens: Here is the Literary Nightmare, which I'm going to put into the January, and want back by the return mail. I couldn't give it up. —I finished reading Tom Sawyer a week ago, sitting up till one A.M., to get to the end, simply because it was impossible to leave off. It's altogether the best boy's story I ever read. It will be an immense success. But I think you ought to treat it explicitly as a boy's story. Grown-ups will enjoy it just as much if you do; and if you should put it forth as a study of boy character from the grown-up point of view, you'd give the wrong key to it.— I have made some corrections and suggestions in faltering pencil, which you'll have to look for. They're almost all in the first third. When you fairly swing off, you had better be let alone.— The adventures are enchanting. I wish / had been on that island. The treasure-hunting, the loss in the cave—it's all exciting and splendid. I shouldn't think of publishing this story serially. Give me a hint when it's to be out, and I'll start the sheep to jumping in the right places. —I don't seem to think I like the last chapter. I believe I would cut that. —Mrs. H. has Mrs. C.'s letter to answer. In the meantime she sends love, and I will send the Ms. of my notice some time this week—it's at the printers'. How shall I return the book MS? Yours ever W. D. Howells. Took down Roughing It, last night, and made a fool of myself over it, as usual.

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Olivia's letter to Elinor Howells is not known to survive. The manuscript Howells promised to send was his review of Sketches, New and Old. Clemens had prompted him in his letter of 4 November. 2 Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (1835-1915), was trained as a lawyer, but practiced only briefly. He rose from lieutenant to brigadier general in the Massachusetts cavalry during the Civil War, then became a writer on railroads and politics, a public official, and later a historian. His two-part study, "Of Some Railroad Accidents," appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in November and December 1875; neither article contained this sentence. 3 See 4 Nov 75 to Howells, n. 9. 4 Scholars have not agreed about whether Clemens deleted a chapter from the end of Tom Sawyer. It now seems clear, however, that Bernard DeVoto was correct in asserting that Clemens must have written the book's brief "Conclusion," which follows chapter 35, to replace a now lost "last chapter." DeVoto rightly pointed out that the "Conclusion" was written after Howells returned the secretarial copy, since it appears there in Clemens's own hand. He further speculated that in this omitted chapter Clemens began Huckleberry Finn "prematurely" by describing Huck's life with the widow Douglas (DeVoto, 11; see also SLC 1982, xxix). But this conjecture contradicts Clemens's statement here that he had successfully "resisted" the temptation to write more about "Huck's life at the widow's"—a clear indication that the chapter to be "cut" (whether chapter 35 or one that followed it in the manuscript) could not have expanded upon this subject. Walter Blair noted this contradiction, and decided that Clemens must have been alluding to material about Huck that he had deleted from chapter 35 (several passages, of undetermined content, were clearly cut out of the manuscript). He concluded that it was this chapter that Howells proposed to omit, but that Clemens decided to retain it, merely adding the "Conclusion" to complete the tale (HF, xxv). What seems to have gone unnoticed is that when Clemens said "something told me the book was done when I got to that point," he was referring not to the proposed omission, but to the chapter that preceded it. If Blair were correct, then Howells proposed to omit chapter 35, which serves as a satisfactory conclusion with no obvious departure in matter or manner from the rest of the book, and Clemens thought of concluding his story with chapter 34, after Injun Joe's money is counted. (The amanuensis copy shows that Clemens made no revision of the chapter divisions after Howells had read the book.) It seems far more likely that there was indeed another chapter that Clemens removed (and evidently lost or destroyed), but that its contents were not what DeVoto supposed. The "Conclusion" that replaced it probably gives a better hint of what the omitted chapter contained. "When one writes a novel about grown people," the author says, "he knows exactly where to stop—that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where best he can." Clemens expressed to Howells his original idea of carrying his characters into adulthood more than once before abandoning it. As late as 21 June 1875 he wrote, "Since there is no plot to the thing, it is likely to follow its own drift, & so is as likely to drift into manhood as anywhere—I won't interpose." By 5 July, however, he had changed his mind: "I have finished the story & didn't take the chap beyond boyhood." Although Clemens never took Tom "into manhood" in the surviving Tom Sawyer manuscript, he could easily have "drifted" into doing so in a concluding chapter.

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Samuel L. Clemens, aged 39

Howells's advice seems to have prompted him to remember his own doubts, and so to omit the chapter, adding in the "Conclusion" that "it will be wisest not to reveal any of that part of their lives at present." 5 Howells had the amanuensis copy of Tom Sawyer. At least part of the original manuscript was at the American Publishing Company (5 Nov 75 to Bliss). 6 The first installment of Howells's story appeared in the November Atlantic Monthly (Howells 1875-76). The interfering visitors have not been identified.

To Olivia L. Clemens 27 November 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK) Hartford Nov. 27,1875. Livy darling. Six years have gone by since I made my first great success in life & won you, 1 & thirty years have passed since Providence made preparation for that happy success by brin sending you into the world. Every day we live together adds to the security of my confidence that we can never Aany more, wish to be separated than we can imagine a regret that we were ever joined. You are dearer to me today, my child, than you/ were upon this 1 the last anniversary of this birth-day; „you were, dearer then than you were a year before—you have grown more & more dear from the first of those anniversaries, & I do not doubt* thaty-ita this precious progression will continue on to the end—that is, if my strong but sluggishly demonstrative love has not already reached its limit & perfection. Let us look forward to the coming anniversaries, with their age & their gray hairs without fear & without depression, trusting & believing that the love we bear each other will be sufficient to make them blessed. So, with abounding affection for you & our babies, I hail this day that brings you the matronly grace & dignity of three decades! Always Yours S.L.C. 1

Clemens miscounted: seven years had passed since Olivia had agreed to marry him and her parents had given their consent (see L2, 283-84).

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To William A. Seaver 5 December 1875 • (1st of 2) • Hartford, Conn. (Parke-Bernet 1968b, lot 116)

To the aged & virtuous Wm. A. Seaver with the imperishable love of Mark Twain Hartford, Dec. 1875.1 1 Inscribed in a copy of Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old. The exact date is supplied by the next letter.

To William A. Seaver 5 December 1875 • (2nd of 2) • Hartford, Conn. (MS and MS facsimile: WU and Tollett and Harman, lot 156)

Dec. 5. Why, you old thing, /haven't ceased to love you. 1 1 always pray for you, too, when I get a chance. This is why you prosper. And besides, I've sent you my Sketches, today, with my name wrote in them2 a thing which you've never done for me, in any of your bankrupt last wills & testaments & things. There, now! Everyrs lovingly Mark ISl Rev. Wm- A. Seaver | (Free-Will Babtist)| & President Adriatic Ins. Co) 187 Broadway | New York, [in upper left corner:] Personal | [rule] [in lower left corner:] Down cellar. | [flourish] [return address:] IF NOT DELIVERED WITHIN 1 0 DAYS, TO BE RETURNED TO [ P O S T M A R K E D : ] HARTFORD CONN. DEC 7 H A M 1

Clemens answered the following letter ( C U - M A R K ) : ADRIATIC FIRE INSURANCE CO. 1 8 7 B R O A D W A Y , N E W Y O R K .

Dec. 2d 1 8 7 5 Clemens, dear:— Whenever I can find the baldest pretence for introducing your name among the

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 40

599

"Personals" of the Weekly or Bazar, I do it. You miss a great deal of this good reading, which I'm sorry for. And this reminds me that you have n't sent me your last big thing, which I want, with your autograph. I still think I am yours truly, Wm. A. Seaver. I'm satisfied that you are no longer fond of me. You avoid me. Seaver's postscript alluded to the breakfast Clemens h a d failed to attend (10 N o v 75 to Seaver). In his Harper's Weekly "Personal" columns he m e n t i o n e d Clemens four times in 1874 and not at all in 1875. In his Harper's Bazar "Personal" columns he m e n t i o n e d h i m four times in 1874 and seven times in 1875. H e also wrote three items about Clemens in the "Editor's D r a w e r " of Harper's Monthly (for transcriptions of all the items see 1 M a y 74 to Seaver a n d A p p e n dix G). 2 T h e American Publishing C o m p a n y mailed a cloth-bound copy of Sketches, New and Old to Seaver on 6 D e c e m b e r ( A P C 1876a).

To Moncure D. Conway 16 December 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS facsimile: CU-MARK)

Hartford, D e c 16. M y Dear Conway: 1 Good! Give us both days—can't you do that? Just do your level best once more, & see if you can't manage to come the 28 t h & stay several days. M y wife & I will be delighted. Take the train that leaves at 1 0 A M — i t is the best o n e — & telegraph or write & I will be at the station to receive you. Come!—is it a " g o ? " 2 M r s Clemens joins me in kindest regards & heartiest welcomes. I won't venture to add a sentence as the postman is in sight & I want him to get this. Y r s Ever Saml L . Clemens 1

Clemens answered the following letter ( C U - M A R K ) : 9 West 30th St. N.Y.Dec. 15.75

My dear Clemens, I have been doneing my level best to see a day when I could promise myself the great pleasure of visiting you and your wife at Hartford; but only this morning it dawns

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on me that towards the last of this year—say about 28 Ih -9 ,h , I should be able to stop for a little if you shd be at home. Still I know it is Xmas time, and it may not be convenient, and of course you will let me know if such is the case. I have had a charming little visit at the Howellses in Cambridge. Said I to them, says I, "Do you know and adore the Clemenses?" Says they "We do!!" Then, says I, Let us embrace! We did. Ever yours Moncure D Conway Conway's opening sentence echoes "He D o n e His Level Best," which Clemens first published in "Answers to Correspondents" in the Califortiian on 17 June 1865 and reprinted in the American and English sketchbooks he issued between 1867 and 1875. Conway presumably visited the Howellses around 14 October, when he opened his fall and winter lecture tour in Boston, with a talk on "London." Recently he had given three lectures in N e w York, at Masonic Temple Hall, on "Demonology" (10 December), "St. George and the Dragon" (11 December), and "Oriental Religions; Their Origin and Progress" (12 December). Clemens had first invited him to Hartford in a letter of 18 October ( E T & S 1 , 187, 191; SLC: 1867a, 37-38; 1867b, 3 6 - 3 7 ; 1870a, 31-32; 1872b, 31-32; 1872c, 189; 1875b, 7 4 - 7 5 ; Boston Evening Transcript: "Moncure D. Conway on London," 15 Oct 75, 3; N e w York Times: "Moncure D. Conway's Lectures," 10 D e c 75, 8; "St. George and the Dragon," 12 Dec 75, 2; N e w York Evening Post: "Various Paragraphs," 13 D e c 7 5 , 1 ) . 2 Conway described his visit to Hartford in a letter to his sixteen-year-old son (PCarlD): Farmington Avenue Hartford, Conn. Dec 30, 1875

Dear Eustace, When I leave tomorrow at 12.301 will have been staying with Mark Twain just three days; and very charming days they have been. His house is a perfect palace. It is more beautiful than the house of Lord Lonsdale near the Albert Hall, which your ma and I have said we like better than any house we have seen about London. It is about a mile out of Hartford, on the brow of a wooded hill, the back garden stretching down to a beautiful stream or little river which twists to a horse-shoe shape as it passes the house, and can be seen winding among the hills for a mile. Inside everything is of the finest and richest kind without being gaudy. There is a billiard room [in] whiqhj Mark and I have been passing much of our time. He plays better than I do, one reason being that it is the French game which is very different from the English. There are no pockets, and the balls and cues are much bigger. He got 11 games to my 4. He presented me to-day with a most beautiful volume of his sketches, beautifiilly illustrated & bound, which has in it, I believe, some things which you have never seen. He wrote his name in it. He is writing a new novel, the scene of which is laid in Sacramento, California. He has made about £20,000 by his books. "The Gilded Age" (which I hope your mama has got back since Mrs Brown's death) has been made here into a play which has a great run, and every time it is acted he gets half of the proceeds. All of which goes to show that your mama is right in wishing me to write a novel. Nevertheless, Mark Twain's publisher, hearing that I was staying with him, wrote to him to-day to use his influence with me to get me to publish my lectures on Demonology with illustrations; he was anxious to be the publisher & says such a book would be a great success. So my Devils are not to be slighted. I find too that my Anthology is used in many pulpits here. It is used as a Bible in both the Parker-Memorial Hall, in Boston and Mr Frothinghamf's,j the two great radical congregations. Mr. Holt says the book sells well. Mark Ttoain has suffered a little lately from Dysentery^] Last night he made a

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 40

601

conundrum:—"If a collection of Presbyterians make a Presbytery, what does a collection of Dissenters make? Answer—a Dissentery." He put this in an envelope and sent it to the chief minister of the town, in whose church he has a pew. He has also composed a sentiment which he claims to be "quite Emersonian." It is this:—"The ease with which I perceive other peoples religion to be folly, makes me suspect that my religion may be folly also." It is charming to hear him singing the old boatmen's songs which he heard when on a Mississippi steamboat to his children—two lovely litde girls, one 18 months, the other 5 months—acting as he does so the motions aboard ship. I never realised what a kind-hearted first-rate fellow he is until I have had this thoroughly delightful visit in his house. As to his wife—she is an angel. And now Goodbye— Your affectionate Father. The enclosed Xmas card with frog was got out today by Mark TWain's publisher

For the letter Clemens wrote in the gift copy of Sketches, New and Old, see 30 Dec 75 to Conway. When Conway left Hartford on 31 December, he returned to New York, where, on 2 January 1876, he was scheduled to give another lecture at Masonic Temple Hall, on "Science and Religion in England" ("Mr. Conway's Lecture," New York Times, 30 Dec 75, 5). Despite the overtures from Elisha Bliss, the American Publishing Company did not publish Conway's demonology lectures. Demonology and Devil-Lore wasfinallypublished in 1879, in London by Chatto and Windus and in New York by Henry Holt and Company. Conway's Sacred Anthology: A Book of Ethnical Scriptures had been published in 1874, in London by Triibner and Company and in New York by Holt (for a description of its contents, see L5, 502 n. 1). Among its users was Octavius Brooks Frothingham (1822-95), pastor of the Third Congregational Unitarian Society in New York. The "card with frog"—actually a New Year's greeting—which Conway enclosed for Eustace does not survive with his letter. It is reproduced here at actual size from another, slightly damaged, card in the Mark Twain Papers. In the original, the text and illustration are in pink on a black background. These cards were designed by True Williams, who reportedly "sent them as a gift to Mark Twain for his use" (note of 3 May 1926 by Irving S. Underhill, CU-MARK). p M t j f r It v

*

*

f.&n

tmà

New Year's card, 1876. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CUMARK).

602

Volume 6:1874-1875

To Olivia Lewis Langdon 22 December 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CtHMTH)

("sLC)

FARMINGTON AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Dec. 22. Dear Mother: I have been confined to the house & in the doctor's clutches for about 3 weeks—otherwise I could not & would not have delaye^d so long to tell you how thoroughly delighted I am with the Cyclopedia & how much it the book transcends even its splendid reputation. You could not have given me a thing I should prize more highly—& so my thanks are hearty & outspoken, mother dear.1 This is my first day out went down town & selected some birds to send to you for our Christmas. Just got back—Livy approves the selection. We send ever so much love to you, our dear mother—& what slops over to the Cranes, don't you see?2 Saml. 1

The gift was the initial volume or volumes of the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, evidently part of a twenty-four volume set published in Boston (Little, Brown and Co., 1875-89). Mrs. Langdon later added to it. At Christmas in 1888, for example, she gave the Clemenses the supplements and index, comprising five volumes (Gribben, 1:222; 6 Dec 88 to Langdon, CtHMTH). 2 The Clemenses sent Susan and Theodore Crane a copy of The Book of American Interiors. Prepared by Charles WyUys Elliott from Existing Houses. With Preliminary Essays and Letterpress Descriptions. Illustrated in Heliotype (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1876). Olivia inscribed it: "To | The Cranes | Merry Christmas! | From the Clemenses. | Hartford, Dec. 25, 1875" (M & S Rare Books, lot 77). The book contained illustrations of rooms in the homes of several prominent individuals, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and William Cullen Bryant, but not the Clemenses.

603

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 40

To Pamela A. Moffett 22 December 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NPV)

(sic)

F A R M I N G T O N AVENUE, HARTFORD.

Dec. 2 2 P. S . to letter written to M a this afternoon.

1

It will be well to try your Congressman 2 on Sammy's behalf. I have tried everybody but the President, & all to no purpose. 3 1 cannot write the Secretary of the N a v y without saying insulting things to him for his delay & silence—& these are words which I prefer to say to his face. I cannot hope to get a chance to go to Washington for months. U p o n second thought I have just written the Secretary asking information. Send me the letter which this snob of a Secretary wrote me a year ago, if you have it.4 S.L.C. 1

Now lost. Walter L. Sessions (see 28 Aug 74 to Belknap, n. 2). 3 Clemens had approached the secretaries of war, the navy, and the treasury, as well as the postmaster general, and apparently considered approaching the president, for assistance in securing an appointment to the naval academy for Samuel Moffett (28 Aug 74, 5 Sept 74, and 24 Sept 74 to Belknap; 25 Apr 75 to JLC and PAM; 25 June 75 to Howells, n. 7; 23 July 75 to PAM, n. 5). * In September 1874, Secretary of the Navy George Robeson had seemed helpful when Clemens wrote to him for assistance, but had subsequently been unable or unwilling to help effect Moffett's appointment. None of the Clemens-Robeson correspondence has been found. Moffett never attended the naval academy. He studied at the University of California at Berkeley in 1881 and 1882, then finished his undergraduate education at Columbia University, which later awarded him A.M. and Ph.D. degrees. He became a respected journalist, and was an editor at Collier's magazine when he died of a stroke in 1908 ("Editor Moffett Dies, Struggling in Surf," New York Times, 2 Aug 1908, sec. 1:3; "Samuel E. Moffett," Collier's 41 [15 Aug 1908]: 23). 2

Volume 6:1874-1875

604

To Olivia Susan (Susy) Clemens 25 December 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Davis, Jr.)

Palace of St. Nicholas, In the Moon, Christmas Morning. My Dear Susie Clemens: I have received & read all the letters which you A& your little sister, have written me by the hand of your mother & your nurses; 1 & I have AalsoA read those which you little people have written me with your own hands—for although you did not use any tetters characters that are in grown people's alphabets, you used the character which all children, in all lands on earth & in the twinkling stars use; & as all my subjects in the moon are children & use no character but that, you will easily understand that I can read your & your „baby sister's, jagged & fantastic marks without any trouble at all. But I had trouble with those letters which you dictated through your mother & the nurses, for I am a foreigner & cannot read English writing well. You will find that I made no mistakes about the things which you & the baby ordered in your own letters—I went down your chimney at midnight when you were asleep, & delivered them all, myself—& kissed both of you, too, because you are good children, well trained, nice-mannered, & about the most obedient little people I ever saw. But in the letters which you dictated, to there were some words which I could not make out, for certain, & one or two small orders which I couldn't fill because we ran out of stock. Our last lot of $ kitchen furniture for dolls had just gone to a very poor little child in the North Star, away up in the cold country above the Big Dipper. Your mama can show you that star, & you will say, "Little Snow Flake (for that is the child's name,) I'm glad you got that furniture, for you need it more than I." That is, you must write that, with your own hand, & Snow Flake will write you an answer. If you only spoke it, she wouldn't u s hear you.; & she do Make your letter light & thin, for the distance is great & the postage very heavy. There was a word Aor twoA in your mama's letter which I couldn't be certain of. I took it to be "trunk full of doll's clothes?" Is that it? I #

Samuel L. Clemens, aged 40

605

will call at your kitchen door about nine oclock this morning to inquire. But I must not see anybody, $ & I must not see „speak toA anybody but you. When the kitchen door-bell rings, George 2 must be blindfolded & sent to open the door, & then he must go back to the dining room or the china closet & take the cook 3 with him. You must tell George he must walk on tip-toe and not speak—otherwise he will die some day. Then you must go up to the nursery & put & stand on a chair or the nurse's bed, & put your eac ear to the speaking tube that leads down to the nursery, „kitchen,„ & when I whistle through it, you must speak in the tube & say, "Welcome, Santa Claus!" Then I will ask whether it was a trunk you ordered or not? If you say it was, I shall ask you what color you want the trunk to be. Your mama will help you to name a nice color, & then you must tell me every single thing, in detail, which you want the trunk to contain. Then when I say "Good bye & a Merry Christmas to my little Susie Clemens!" You must say, "Good bye, good old Santa Claus, & thank you very much—& please tell that little Snow Flake I will look at her star to-night & she must look down here—I will be right in the west bay-window; & every fine night I will look at her star & say, I know somebody up there, & like her, too." Then you must go down in the library, & make George close all the doors that open into the main hall, & everybody must keep still for a little while. I will go to the moon & get those things, & in a few minutes I will come down the chimney which the belongs to the fire-place that is in the hall—because if it is a trunk you want, because I couldn't get such a thing as a trunk down the nursery-chimney, you know. People may talk, if they want to, till they hear my footsteps in the hall—the^n you tell them to keep quiet a little while till I go back up the chimney. Maybe you will not hear my foot steps at all—so you may go now & then & peep through the dining room doors, & by & by you will see that thing Awhich you want,* right under the piano in the drawing room—for I shall put it there. If I should leave any snow in the hall, you must tell George to sweep it into the fireplace, for I haven't time to do such things. George must not use a broom, but a rag/—else he will die some day. You must watch George, & not let him run into danger. If my boot should leave a stain on the marble, George must not holy-stone it away0O0]N E

754

Volume

6:1874-1875

m 8 April 1874 • To Chatto and Windus • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01072 • Copy-text: MS, Boston Public Library and Eastern Massachusetts Regional Public Library System, Boston (MB). •Previous publication: Goodspeed's Book Shop 1950, lot 26, extracts. • Provenance: donated anonymously in January 1956 to the Virginia and Richard Ehrlich Autograph Collection, Boston Public Library.

• 9 April 1874 • To Jerome B. Stillson • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01073 m Copy-text: None. The text is based on two transcriptions, each of which derives independently from the MS: P1 P2

Goodspeed's Book Shop 1927?, lot 4633 Goodspeed's Book Shop 1930, lot 28

Both P 1 and P 2 describe the M S as an "A.l.s. 2 pp. April 9, '74," and both texts are incomplete. A third text, AAA 1924a, lot 532 (paraphrase and extract), while independently transcribed from the MS, provides no unique readings. • Provenance: When offered for sale in 1924 the M S was part of the collection of William F. Gable. •Emendations, adopted readings, and textual notes: Adopted readings followed by '(C)' are editorial emendations of the source readings. 102.10 102.11 102.11 102.13 102.13 102.15-17

Apl. 9,'74. (C) • April 9, '74. [reported, not quoted] (P 1 ' 2 ) Stillson—Will(P') • ~ , ~ ( P 2 ) &(P 2 ) • a n d ( P u , also at 102.14) supper given to me (P 2 ) • dinner (P 1 ) Hartford"? (C) • ( P 2 ) ; ~ ? ' (P l ) it | | Mark. (C) • it," etc. Signed "Mark." (P 1 ); it," etc., etc. Signed "Mark." (P 2 )

• 10 April 1874 • To Orion Clemens • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01074 • Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). •Provenance: see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance. •Emendations and textual notes: 103.7 103.13

t • R.P.O.

[partlyformed] • [cW|o. [badly inked]

755

Textual Commentaries

• 10 April 1874 • To James Redpath • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01076 m Copy-text: Paraphrase and transcript, AAA 1925b, lot 24. See 23 Feb 74 to Redpath (1st) for the other letter in lot 24. uProvenance: When offered for sale in 1925 the MS was part of the collection of William F. Gable.

• 11 April 1874 • To James Redpath • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 05322 • Copy-text: MS facsimile. The editors have not seen the MS, which was owned in 1987 by Strother MacMinn, who provided a photocopy to the Mark Twain Papers. •Previous publication: Henkels 1903, lot 634, excerpt; AAA 1924b, lot 100, excerpt. uProvenance: The MS was offered for sale in 1903 as part of the collection of Harold Pierce, and again in 1924 as part of the collection of William F. Gable. • Emendations and textual notes:

105.11

BUREAU. JAMES REDPATH. APR PATH [«] APR 1 2 1 8 [70]

12

1874

•

BURfEAUo]

JAMES

RED-

[badly inked]

m 13 April 1874 • To the Editor of the Hartford Courant • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01077 % Copy-text: MS, Heineman Collection, MAH 21 IB, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City (NNPM). • Previous publication: "Mark Twain's Banquet," Hartford Courant, 14 Apr 74, 2; "Letter from Mark Twain," Boston Globe, 16 Apr 74, 7. uProvenance: Dannie N. Heineman (1872-1962), who served for forty years as director of the Belgian Public Utilities Management Company, purchased the MS in Copenhagen in 1936. After his death it was placed on deposit at the Morgan Library. Three years after Mrs. Heineman's death in 1974, the Heineman Foundation donated the MS to the library (Dickinson, 157). • Emendations and textual notes: 105.16-22

says: . . . " . [SLC first wrote 'says " M ' (the ' M ' is only partly formed, and doubtful); then he canceled the open quotes and the ' M ' and rewrote the quotes on the line below, with a paragraph indent (shown here, by necessity, at the end of the extract); then he canceled those quotes as well, inserted a colon after 'says', and, finally, after the inserted colon, wrote the rest of the paragraph]

105.20 106.6

supper/ • [deletion implied] time. Where • —1~

756

Volume 6:1874-1875

m 13 April 1874 • To Jerome B. Stillson • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 09451 • Copy-text: Transcript and paraphrase, AAA 1924b, lot 113, which describes the MS as "2pp. 12mo." a Provenance: When offered for sale in 1924 the MS was part of the collection of William F. Gable. • Emendations and textual notes: 106.11

Apl. 13. • Apl. 13 [1874]

106.12 107.7

Dear Stillson: • to "Dear Stillson," S.L.Clemens. . Signed "S. L. Clemens,"

• 14 April 1874 • To Joseph H. Twichell and Elisabeth G. (Lilly) Warner • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 11145 • Copy-text: Cyril Clemens 1932, 35. a Provenance: The unidentified book in which the letter was written remained in the TVichell family until at least 1932. »Emendations

and textual notes:

107.12

Clemens •

CLEMENS

• 18 April 1874 • To David Gray • Elmira,N.Y. • UCCL 11400 • Copy-text: MS, David Gray Papers, General Services Administration National Archives and Record Service, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York (NHyF). • Provenance: The David Gray Papers—donated to NHyF by David Gray, Jr.—include several dozen letters written to his father and mother. Among these are nine letters from Clemens, one from Clemens and Olivia, and one from Olivia alone.

• 23 April 1874 • To Orion Clemens • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 12005 • Copy-text: Paraphrase in MS, Mary E. (Mollie) Clemens to SLC, 25 Apr 74 (UCLC 47116), Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). Mollie's revisions and self-corrections, reported below, have not been transcribed in the text. • Provenance: see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance. 110.1 110.1 110.3

words • words, you • we you now, • now,,

• 23 April 1874 • To Francis D. Finlay • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01078 • Copy-text: MS, Rare Book Department, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison (WU). • Previous publication: AAA/Anderson 1935b, lot

Textual Commentaries

757

57, excerpt; Brownell 1944,1-2. »Provenance: Norman D. Bassett, a Madison alumnus, purchased the MS at a Chicago auction sale in 1936. He donated his Mark Twain collection to WU on 9 July 1955.» Emendations and textual notes: 114.3 114.9 115.1 115.6 115.7

lawsuit • law-|suit y • [partly formed; doubtful] summer. The • — ©»in • ¿in overlooking • over-|looking

• 24 April 1874 • To the Editor of the Dubuque (Iowa) Herald • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 12067 • Copy-text: " 'Mark Twain' after the 'Frog,'" Dubuque Herald, 28 Apr 74, 4. Copy-text is a microfilm edition of the newspaper in the Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, 111. (ICRL). • Previous publication: "A Letter from the Distinguished Humorist," Dubuque Times, 28 Apr 74,4; "Mark Twain in Search of His Brother," Galena (111.) Gazette, 28 Apr 74, 3, reprinting the Dubuque Times, » Emendations and textual notes: 116.5 116.12

& • and [here and hereafter] Sam'l L. Clemens • S A M ' L L.

CLEMENS

• 25 April 1874 • To Edgar Wakeman • Elmira,N.Y. • UCCL 01079 • Copy-text: MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU). • Provenance: deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 17 December 1963.

• 27 April 1874 • To John Brown • Elmira,N.Y. • UCCL 01080 • Copy-text: MS facsimile. The editors have not seen the MS, which was owned in 1981 by Charles W. Sachs, who provided a photocopy to the Mark Twain Papers. »Previous publication: Brown, 351, with omissions; MTL, 1:218-19; Christie 1981, lot 69, excerpts; Kelleher, lot 20, excerpts. •Emendations and textual notes: 121.22 122.3

time. Miss • hill. Till •

—j~ 1~

• 1 May 1874 • To William A. Seaver • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01081 • Copy-text: MS, Rare Book Department, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison (WU). The enclosure, page 254 of Mark Twain's Sketches

758

Volume

6:1874-1875

(SLC 1872b), does not survive with the letter (although the book from which it was torn, annotated by Clemens, survives in the Mark Ttoain Papers). Copytext for the enclosure is therefore the same page from another copy of the book, also in the Mark Twain Papers (CU-MARK). It is photographically reproduced at actual size. • Provenance: Norman D. Bassett, a Madison alumnus, owned the MS by October 1942. He donated his Mark TVain collection to WU on 9 July 1955. •Emendations and textual notes: 123.6

t • [partlyformed; doubtful]

• 5 May 1874 • To Charles Dudley Warner • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01082 a Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). »Previouspublication:MTLP, 82. »Provenance: donated in January 1950 by Mary Barton of Hartford, a close friend of the Warners', who had owned it since at least 1938. • Emendations and textual notes: 127.2 127.3

t h e » . . . be • [heavilycanceled] if you wish to, include any or all • [«] f y [ou wish to], [ooo] 1 [ode ooy

127.4

& use ^alsoa any of mine except Sellers, & • [& ooo] Aa[loo]t any

127.7-8 127.20

or] all [very heavily canceledsome characters entirely obscured; false ascenders/descenders]

[o]f min[o] except Sellers, & [very heavily canceled, some characters entirely obscured; false ascenders/descenders]

brains. He • ELMIRA N . Y . MAY

1~ •

ELMI[RO] N.Y. M [ A Y ]

[badly inked]

• 6 - 2 9 May 1874 • To Jerome B. Stillson • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 12261 • Copy-text: "Those Imperishable Fishers Again," New York World, 31 May 74, 2, is the source for Clemens's portion of the letter. Copy-text is a microfilm edition of the newspaper in the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN). Since Clemens evidently pasted a clipping of an untitled item in the Hartford Courant for 5 May 74 (2) into his MS, that newspaper is the source for 'The . . . Fishers.' (131.4-24). Copy-text is a microfilm edition of the newspaper in the Newspaper and Microcopy Division, University of California, Berkeley (CU-NEWS). • Previous publication: "Cormorants," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 5 June 74, 2. •Emendations and textual notes: 131.26

& • and [here and hereafter, except at 131.29 and 133.20 (see below)]

Textual Commentaries 131.29 131.29 133.36

759

Gf • and [also at 133.20 (twice)] documents • documents Mark Twain • M A R K T W A I N

• 7 May 1874 • To Ainsworth R. Spofford • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01084 • Copy-text: MS facsimile. The editors have not seen the MS, which was registered as No. 6347E, 9 May 1874, in the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress (DLC). An enclosed early printing (lacking the list of contents) of the cover of Mark Twain's Sketches. Number One (SLC 1874c) was filed with the letter. It is photographically reproduced at 68 percent of actual size. Neither the letter nor the cover could be located in 2001. • Previous publication: Highsmith and Landphair, 68, MS facsimile. • Emendations and textual notes: 137.2

COPYRIGHT

•

C[OPYRIGH]T

[badly inked]

• 8 May 1874 • To Charles E. Perkins • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01085 • Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain House, Hartford (CtHMTH). • Provenance: The MS was one of ninety-two items found in the files of the Hartford law firm of Howard, Kohn, Sprague and Fitzgerald; they were donated as the Perkins Collection in January 1975 by William W. Sprague. Charles Perkins was a partner in this law firm (then called Perkins and Perkins) until his death in 1917 ("Large File of Twain Letters Discovered in Area Law Firm," Hartford Courant, 11 Mar 1975). • Emendations and textual notes: 137.12 138.18 138.19 138.23-24 139.8

it. But • 1~ ship-shape • ship-|shape earth. But • ~ — rejoice. [I] And • |fl[]~ west • west-1

• 8 May 1874 • To Edward T. Potter • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01086 • Copy-text: MS, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford (CtHSD). m Provenance: purchased in 1975 by the Stowe Center from the Seven Gables Bookshop. M Emendations and textual notes: 140.8

bath-room • bath-|room

760

Volume 6:1874-1875

m 10 May 1874 • Jane Lampton Clemens • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01087 m Copy-text: MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Special Collections, Vassar College Libraries (NPV). • Provenance: see McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenance. •Emendations and textual notes: 141.15 141.20

buying • bu buying [corrected miswriting] e f o n • o/n [T partly formed]

m 10 May 1874 • To Orion Clemens • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01089 • Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). »Provenance: see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance, m Emendations and textual notes: 143.10 143.16 143.18

Wf • ['t' partly formed] unreasonably. Everything • matter. Bad •

144.4

ELMIRA N . Y. MAY I I

•

——

[E000R]A N . Y. [OA]Y I I

• 10 May 1874 • To William Dean Howells • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01088 • Copy-text: MS, Houghton Library, Harvard University (MH-H, shelf mark bMS Am 1784 [98]). m Previous publication: MTHL, 1:16-17.. Provenance: see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance, m Emendations and textual notes: 145.4 146.6

h i o • i^o ratty • / ratty [corrected miswriting]

m 10 May 1874 • To Frederick W. Haddon • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 10692 • Copy-text: MS facsimile. The editors have not seen the MS, which is in the La Trobe Library, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (AuMS). m Provenance: donated in 1957 by Haddon's daughter. • 20 May 1874 • To William A. Seaver • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01090 m Copy-text: MS, Rare Book Department, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison (WU). •Provenance: Norman D. Bassett, a Madison alumnus, owned the MS by October 1942. He donated his Mark Twain collection to WU on 9 July 1955. •Emendations and textual notes: 149.11 150.6

Ji • [partlyformed] freee • [sic]

Textual Commentaries

761

• 21 May 1874 • To Ainsworth R. Spofford • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01092 • Copy-text: MS, Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection, Library of Congress (DLC). A fifty-cent fractional currency note survives with the letter and is photographically reproduced at actual size. •Provenance: acquired by DLC in 1960. • Emendations and textual notes:

150.18

copyright • copy-1 right

• 22 May 1874 • To Elisha Bliss, Jr. • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01093 • Copy-text: MS, Willard S. Morse Collection, Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (CtY-BR). • Provenance: The Morse Collection was donated in 1942 by Walter F. Frear. • Emendations and textual notes:

152.8 152.9 152.16-17

me • me | me notice. You • Samuel L. Clemens . . . "74 • [erased; very faint]

M 6 - 8 June 1874 • To Scribner, Welford and Armstrong • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 11898 • Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). m Provenance: see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance. • Emendations and textual notes: 154.14

88.40 • $8|40 [written with a ledger line separating the dollars and cents]

154.22

O Illead • [scrawled; doubtful]

m 10 June 1874 • To Orion and Mary E. (Mollie) Clemens • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01096 • Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). •Provenance: see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance. • Emendations and textual notes: 156.8 156.9

• [partly formed; doubtful] JUN • [JU]N [badly inked]

762

Volume 6:1874-1875

• 10-15 June 1874 • To James Redpath • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 12053 • Copy-text: "Personal," Boston Globe, 29 June 74, 4. Copy-text is a microfilm edition of the newspaper in the Fogler Library, University of Maine, Orono (MeU). »Previous publication: "News and Notes," St. Louis Dispatch, 2 July 74,2; McWilliams, 20.

• 11 June 1874 • To Joseph H. and Harmony C. Twichell • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01097 mCopy-text: MS, Joseph H. Twichell Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (CtY-BR). • Previous publication: Paine 1912a, 116, excerpt; MTB, 1:508, excerpt; MTL, 1:219-20, with omission; Harnsberger, 15, excerpt. • Provenance: Twichell's papers were passed on to his children. Although CtY received some items in 1951 from Joseph H. Twichell and Mrs. Charles Ives, his son and daughter, the main collection was donated in 1967 by Charles P. Twichell, his grandson. • Emendations and textual notes: 158.19 158.23

va/ssals • ['/' partly formed] f • [partlyformed]

m 15 June 1874 • To John Brown • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 02470 • Copy-text: MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B). •Previous publication: Newark Galleries, lot 216, excerpts. • Provenance: The MS, laid in volume 1 of a first edition copy of Mark Twain: A Biography (Harper and Brothers, 1912), was offered for sale in 1932 as part of the collection of William Montgomery Clemens (1860-1931), a biographer and distant relative of Clemens's (Selby, 80). It was later owned by businessman William T. H. Howe (18741939); in 1940 Dr. Albert A. Berg bought and donated the Howe Collection to NN. • Emendations and textual notes: 159.10

to two • t«5wo

• 15 June 1874 • To Charles Dudley Warner • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01099 • Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). uProvenance: donated in January 1950 by Mary Barton of Hartford, a close friend of the Warners', who had owned it since at least 1938.

Textual Commentaries

763

• 16 June 1874 • To the Editor of the Boston Advertiser • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 02471 • Copy-text: MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B), is copy-text for 'A . . . one?' (162.1-163.14). The last sentence, signature, and date were cut away—according to a 1924 auction catalog—by the proofreader for the Boston Advertiser, which published the letter on 23 June 74 ("A Postal Case," 2; Henkels 1924, lot 60). The copy-text for 'Is . . . 16.' (163.15-17) is therefore that printing. Several other pages of MS have been cut and reassembled. There are no missing pieces, however, and it is very unlikely that Clemens was responsible. The MS may have been cut by the typesetter for the Advertiser (who wrote several typographical instructions on the MS), or a collector, who mounted the sheets on what appear to be scrapbook pages. • Previous publication: "Mark Twain's Literary Troubles," Hartford Courant, 24 June 74,2. • Provenance: The MS was offered for sale in 1924 by Henkels (lot 60). Sometime before 1936 it was purchased by businessman William T. H. Howe (1874-1939); in 1940 Dr. Albert A. Berg bought and donated the Howe Collection to NN. • Emendations and textual notes: 163.16

Samuel L. Clemens •

SAMUEL

L.

CLEMENS

• 17 June 1874 • To Orion Clemens • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01101 • Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). m Provenance: see Moffett Collection in Description of Provenance, m Emendations and textual notes: 164.16 164.16

b»by • b\4y jS • [partly formed; doubtful]

m 21 June 1874 • To William Dean Howells • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01102 • Copy-text: MS, Houghton Library, Harvard University (MH-H, shelf mark bMSAm 1784 [98]). • Previous publication: MTHL, 1:17-18.. Provenance: see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance. mEmendations and textual notes: 165.8

e a o u r • ojiur

• 24 June 1874 • To Unidentified • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01103 • Copy-text: MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU). »Previous publication: Bibliophile Society,

764

Volume

6:1874-1875

following 123, MS facsimile; Kruse, 3, 5, transcription and MS facsimile. • Provenance: The MS, owned by John Needels Chester in 1919, was deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 17 December 1963.

• 25 June 1874 • To the Editor of the New York Evening Post • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 00934 • Copy-text: MS, James S. Copley Library, La Jolla, California (CLjC). • Previous publication: AAA/Anderson 1931, lot 90, brief excerpt; Sotheby 1993, lot 253, excerpts and paraphrase. •Provenance: When offered for sale in 1968 the MS was part of the collection of Irving S. Underhill. By 1976 it belonged to Robert Daley, who sold it through Sotheby's to CLjC in December 1993. • Emendations and textual notes: 167.3

"Mark Twain • [cut away; text adopted from New York Evening

167.14

Post of 23 June 74] ways • ways [correctedmiswriting]

• 26? June 1874 • To William Bowen • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01083 • Copy-text: MS facsimile. The editors have not seen the MS, which was owned by Cyril Clemens, who provided a photocopy to the Mark Twain Papers. • Provenance: This letter was evidently not in the collection of letters that Cyril Clemens donated to the Mark Twain House (CtHMTH) in 1984. m Emendations and textual notes: 168.6

inquire^ • [deletion implied]

• 28 June 1874 • To Anna E. Dickinson • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01104 • Copy-text: MS, Anna E. Dickinson Papers, Library of Congress (DLC). The editors have not seen the envelope flap, which was probably imprinted with a monogram matching the one on the stationery. • Emendations and textual notes: 169.6

Jt •

[partlyformed]

• 2 or 3 July 1874 • To William A. Seaver • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 10803 • Copy-text: MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B). The letter is written in a copy of The Gilded Age (American Publishing Company, 1874).

Textual Commentaries

765

• Provenance: It is not known when the MS became part of the Berg Collection, given by Dr. Albert A. Berg to N N in 1940 but continuously enlarged since then.

• 3 July 1874 • To Olivia L. Clemens • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01105 • Copy-text: MS, collection of Nick Karanovich, seen at Christie's, New York City, while awaiting sale (Christie 1991). • Previous publication: Christie 1991, lot 189, excerpts. •Provenance: Chester L. Davis, Sr., probably acquired the MS from Clara Clemens Samossoud sometime between 1949 and 1962 (see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance). After his death in 1987, the MS was owned by Chester L. Davis, Jr., who sold it through Christie's in December 1991. In 1999 the MS was owned by Nick Karanovich, who provided a photocopy to the Mark Twain Papers. • Emendations and textual notes: 173.17 173.18 173.21 174.3 174.15 174.25 174.26

on • [possibly

on']

$ 4 0 , 0 0 0 • $ 3 * 4 0 , 0 0 0 [possibly ' $ 3 * 4 0 ^ , 0 0 0 ' ] with • with/1| ha he • hjie Pat • Pat-' (£) • [circled in pencil, probably by SLC] CONN, JUL 0 00 • [00000] JUL [0 00] [badly inked; number of characters doubtful]

• 8 July 1874 • To Thomas Bailey Aldrich • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01108 • Copy-text: MS facsimile, pages 1-2 and 4-5, is copy-text for 'Elmira. . . thunderbolt.' (178.1-12) and'has' (178.18) to the end; the editors have not seen the MS, which is in the Roy J. Friedman Mark Twain Collection at the Library of Congress (DLC). MS, page 3, Houghton Library, Harvard University (MHH, shelf mark bMS Am 1429 [1151-1191]), is copy-text for 'I hoped . . . son' (178.13-18). MS page 3 of the present letter was exchanged with page 3 from another letter as early as 1937: see the commentary for 24 Mar 74 to Aldrich. • Provenance: The MS at DLC was donated by Frances R. Friedman on 15 June 1992. The MS at MH-H was deposited by Talbot Aldrich in June 1942, and donated in 1949. • Emendations and textual notes: 178.15 178.27

I've • i^ve | I've [rewritten for clarity] Adldrich. • [possibly']

766

Volume 6:1874-1875

• 8-10 July 1874 • To Anna E. Dickinson • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01106 • Copy-text: MS, Anna E. Dickinson Papers, Library of Congress (DLC). • Emendations and textual notes: 180.6 180.8

letters. Your • 1~ W t i l • ['T' partly formed]

m 8-10 July 1874 • To Frank Fuller • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01107 • Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). • Provenance: see Appert Collection in Description of Provenance. mEmendations and textual notes: 182.5

penny • ['ny' conflated]

m 11 July 1874 • To Jane Lampton Clemens • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01109 • Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). »Provenance: see Moffett Collection in Description of Provenance. mEmendations and textual notes: 184.26 185.6

im • works • [mc]

• 15 and 16 July 1874 • To Robert Watt • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01111 • Copy-text: MS facsimile. The editors have not seen the MS, which was owned by Robert Watt Boolsen (of Copenhagen, Denmark), who provided a photocopy to the Mark Twain Papers. The enclosed photograph survives with the letter, but cannot be reproduced here, since the original is no longer available. • Provenance: The MS evidently remained in Robert Watt's family.

• 17 July 1874 • To Joseph J. Albright • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01112 • Copy-text: MS, Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society Archives (A64-1, Mark Twain Letters), Buffalo (NBuHi). • Provenance: donated in 1942 by Robert W. Bingham, the director of NBuHi from 1929 to 1952. •Emendations and textual notes: 191.19

JUL • [joo] [badly inked]

Textual Commentaries

767

• 22? July 1874 • To William Dean Howells • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01110 • Copy-text: MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU). »Previous publication: MTHL, 1:20-21. • Provenance: deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 17 December 1963. • Emendations and textual notes: 193.6 193.16 193.17 193.19

t a l k e d • ['t' partly formed] literary • lite-|ef rary merits. We • curse. By • 1~

• 29 July 1874 • To Orion Clemens • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01114 • Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). m Provenance: see Moffett Collection in Description of Provenance. • Emendations and textual nous: 196.6 196.10 196.29

few

• wfwee^k • w/ee^k ['r' partly formed] N . Y . JUL 3 1 • [NOYOJUL 3 1 ] [badly inked]

• 29 July 1874 • To Mary M. Field • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01115 • Copy-text: MS, draft, not sent, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). • Provenance: see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance. • Emendations and textual notes: 198.1 198.8-9 198.16 198.22-23

aw/ay • [partly formed character] contemptible • [false ascenders/descenders] per/son • [partly formed character, possibly 'r'] beg humbled • treg hum humbled [first 'hum' written over 'beg'; rewritten for clarity]

• 29? July 1874 • To Joseph H . Twichell • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01113 mCopy-text: MS, Joseph H. Twichell Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (CtY-BR). •Provenance: Twichell's papers were passed on to his children. Although CtY received some items in 1951 from Joseph H. Twichell and Mrs. Charles Ives, his son and daughter, the main collection was donated in 1967 by Charles P. Twichell, his grandson. • Emendations and textual notes: 201.9

Nurs • ['u' miswritten]

768

Volume

6:1874-1875

• 1-3 August 1874 • To Anna E. Dickinson • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 03351 • Copy-text: MS, in the top margin of the first page of John Brown to SLC, 18 July 74 (UCLC 32022), Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). •Provenance: see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance. • Emendations 203.18

and textual notes:

FCDtLMH * [capital and small capitals simulated, not underscored}

m 14 August 1874 • To Augustin Daly • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01116 m Copy-text: MS, Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University (MH-H). u Previous publication: Joseph Francis Daly, 146-47; Brownell 1946, 2 - 3 . • Emendations

and textual notes:

206.1-3

FARMINGTON AVENUE, HARTFORD. . . . Aug. 1 4 . • [the unidentified person who docketed the letter in ink also drew a vertical line through the address in the letterhead, and an underline under 'Aug. 14.']

206.2

Elmira, N. Y., • [possibly inserted]

• 15 August 1874 • To Jane Lampton Clemens and Pamela A. Moffett • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01117 mCopy-text: MTL, 1:220-21. The rationale for emendations to remove MTL styling is given in Description of Texts. • Emendations and textual notes: 207.1 207.2

Elmira, Aug. 1 5 . • E L M I R A , Aug. 15. My Dear Mother & Sister: []|] I • [ F ]

M Y DEAR M O T H E R AND

SISTER,—I 207.4

& • and [here and hereafter]

208.22

Saml. • S A M L . Dear Ma & Pamela • it. • —

208.23 208.28

D E A R M A AND P A M E L A

m 22 August 1874 • To William Dean Howells • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 02472 • Copy-text: MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B). • Previous publication: MTB, 1:510, excerpt; Paine 1917, 783; MTL, 1:222; MTHL, 1:21-22. • Provenance: see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance. • Emendations and textual notes: 209.1

(aTc) • [ S L C rotated the stationery clockwise 90 degrees, so that the monogram appears on its side in the upper right corner]

209.12

David • David | David [rewritten for clarity]

Textual Commentaries

769

• 2 3 August 1874 • To Pamela A. M o f f e t t • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01118 • Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). • Provenance: see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance. • Emendations and textual notes: 210.1

(OLC) • [SLC rotated the stationery clockwise go degrees, so that the monogram appears on its side in the upper right corner]

• 2 8 August 1874 • To William W. Belknap • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01119 • Copy-text: MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU). •Provenance: The MS, owned in 1930 by Daniel P. Woolley, vice-president of Standard Brands, was deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 15 May 1962.« Emendations and textual notes: 211.5 211.8

Elmira, N. Y., • [possibly inserted; 'E' malformed; possibly Elmira'] drifting • [partly formed character]

m 2 8 August 1874 • To O r i o n Clemens • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01120 m Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, University of California, Berkeley (CUMARK). • Provenance: see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance. • Emendations and textual notes: 213.1 214.10

(OLC) • [SLC rotated the stationery clockwise 90 degrees, so that the monogram appears on its side in the upper right corner] N . Y . A U G • N . [YO] [AU]G [badly inked]

• 29 August 1874 • To E m m a Parish • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01121 • Copy-text: MS facsimile, in "Intimate Letters of Mark Twain 60 Years Ago to Arkansan Revealed," Memphis Commercial Appeal of unknown date. This article, written by Jeannette Blount and headed "Marianna Ark., July 9," was published sometime in the early 1930s (see below). Copy-text is a photocopy of the newspaper in the Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). This photocopy was provided by Cyril Clemens, who preserved a clipping of the article in a scrapbook. Although visible at the top of the photocopy are the printed words "Monday morning" and the handwritten date "7-10-33," the only available microfilm of the Memphis Appeal for Monday, 10 July 1933, did not contain this article, nor did any other issue in July 1933. The actual date of the clipping has not been discovered.

770

Volume 6:1874-1875

m Provenance: When the Commercial Appeal published the letter, it belonged to Mrs. J. O. Thompson of Aubrey, Lee County, Arkansas (Emma Parish's niece). It was reportedly destroyed in 1986 when Mrs. Thompson died (Thomason, 326).

• 31 August 1874 • To John T. Raymond, per Telegraph Operator • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 12080 a Copy-text: " 'The Gilded Age,'" Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, 1 Sept 74,4. Copy-text is a microfilm edition of the newspaper at the University of Rochester (NRU). • Emendations and textual notes: 215.9 215.10

Elmira • E L M I R A To John T. Raymond, Rochester • To John T. Raymond, Rochester fever • sever & • and Clemens • C L E M E N S

215.11 215.11 215.13

• 2 September 1874 • To William Dean Howells • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 02473 • Copy-text: MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B). MS, Houghton Library, Harvard University (MH-H, shelf mark bMS Am 1784 [98]), is copytext for the enclosed inscribed photograph, which is reproduced at 64 percent of actual size. •Previous publication: MTB, 1:514, and MTL, 1:223, excerpts from letter; MTHL, 1:22-23, 25 n. 3, without photograph. •Provenance: see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance for the letter. The photograph was donated in 1945 by Mildred Howells and John Mead Howells.

• 4 September 1874 • From Samuel L. and Olivia L. Clemens to John Brown • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01122 • Copy-text: MS facsimile, Christie 1981, lot 70, is copy-text for '(SLC/MT) . . . fail— J J * (221.1-9). MS facsimile, Christie 1992, lot 43, is copy-textlor^it. . . about' (223.10-19). There is no copy-text for the remainder of the letter. The text is based on four incomplete transcripts, each of which derives independently from the MS. The contents of each are listed below, even where the MS facsimile is copy-text: P1

MTL, 1:224-26 'Quarry. . . noise.' (221.2-222.19) 'Now. . . S. L. C.' (222.35-223.24)

Textual Commentaries P2

P3 P4

771 MTB, 1:509 ' I . . . letter-writing.' (221.5-8) ' O n . . .of.' (222.11-14) ' T h e group . . . study.' (222.21-33) Christie 1981, lot 70 •I. . .days,' (221.5-14) ' D a y . . .time!' (221.16-27) Christie 1992, lot 43 ' I . . .study' (221.5-222.18) 'is. . .noise.' (222.19)

P 1 is the most complete source, since it includes all of the present text except for the paragraph ' T h e group . . . study.' (222.21-33), which is unique to P 2 . Since P 1 and P 2 do not overlap, the insertion of the P 2 text within the P 1 text is conjectural. Since Paine used ellipses i n P 1 at 222.19 to signal an omission, the paragraph from P 2 has been inserted at that point. T h e present text is clearly not complete, however. Both Christie's catalogs (P 3 and P 4 ) state that Olivia wrote a one-page note on the verso of the last leaf. T h e text of this note was not available to the editors. P 3 and P 4 also describe the letter as sixteen pages long, "12mo." If Clemens wrote his usual average of 90 to 100 words per page, the recovered text (approximately 1,000 words) would fill only ten or eleven pages, and is therefore missing about four pages, or 450 to 600 words. P 3 further notes that the letter included "some 12 pages" of "explanations of photographs." Since the present text contains only about 500 words of such description, it seems likely that the missing five or six pages consisted of additional "explanations." Editorial ellipses have been inserted at 222.34 in the present text to suggest the second place where material was probably omitted (that is, in addition to 222.20). All variants among the four transcripts are reported below. Although by 1981 the letter enclosed no photographs, P 1 printed the outside view of the study (as well as a single-image version of the interior view reproduced as a stereopticon with 2 Sept 74 to Howells), and is the source of the image reproduced here. The group photograph accompanied the letter when Paine published it in Harper's Monthly Magazine (Paine 1912a, 114), as part of his series of extracts from the biography; that printing is the source of the image reproduced here. (The Harper's text contains even less of the text than does P 2 , and provides no uniquely authorial readings.) T h e size of the original photographs is not known. Additional photographs were enclosed, which remain unidentified. • Emendations, adopted readings, and textual notes: Adopted readings followed by '(C)' are editorial emendations of the source readings. All ellipses are editorial; ellipses present in rejected readings are described as ' [ 3 ellipses]'. [MS facsimile (1981) is copy-text for '(slc/mt) . . . fail—| [ * (221.1-9)] been • beeeii [miscorrected] [there are multiple sources for 'ure . . . turn' (221.9-223.10)} 221.9-14 ure . . . days, (P1'3-4) . [not in] P 2 221.9 moral, (P 3 ' 4 ) • ~ A (P 1 ) 221.7

772 221.9-10 221.10 221.10 221.11 221.11 221.13 221.14 221.14--16 221.15 221.15--16 221.16--27 221.16 221.17 221.18 221.24 221.25 221.27 221.27 221.27222.11 221.27--28 221.28 221.29 221.30 222.3 222.5 222.5 222.6 222.6 222.8 222.9 222.11--14 222.12 222.13 222.14 222.14--18 222.16 222.16 222.17 222.17

Volume 6:1874-1875 nature & (P3-4) • nature, and (P 1 ) blemishes (P 3 ) . blemished (P 4 ); blemish (P 1 ) excellence (P1-4) • Excellence (P 3 ) &so, (P 3 ) • and so, (P 4 ); and so (P 1 ) & do (P 3 ' 4 ) • and do (P 1 ) &(P 3 - 4 ) • and (P 1 ) [here and hereafter] fancy (P3-4) • a fancy (P 1 ) n o w . . . head. (P1-4) • [not in] (P 2 ' 3 ) own (P 4 ) • (P 1 ) 4 an offering (P ) • the offerings (P 1 ) Day . . . time! (P1-3'4) • [not in] (P 2 ) tomorrow (P 3 , 4 ) • to-morrow (P 1 ) out, (P1-4) • ~ A (P 3 ) it,(P') • ~ A ( P 3 ) ; ~ ; ( P 4 ) sort of (P 1 , 3 ) • sort of a (P 4 ) think,) (P 4 ) • ~ A ) (P1-3) at one & (P 3,4 ) • a t ( P ' ) time! t»o1] I (P 4 ) • time! [1] I CP1); time! (P 3 ) I . . . town.) (P1-4) • [not in] (P 2 ' 3 ) & take (P 4 ) • to take (P 1 ) 5 (P 4 ) • five (P 1 ) house (P 4 ) • (P 1 ) 1 all that (P ) • that (P 4 ) hill (P 4 ) • (P 1 ) 4 town, (P ) • (P 1 ) 4 birth-place, (P ) • birthplace (P 1 ) house (P 1 ) • home (P 4 ) hill-top (P 1 ) • hill top (P 4 ) M A C P 4 ) • t1]~(P')

[no H] My (P4) . m ~ ( P ' )

[noil] On . . . of. (P 1 ' 4 ) • [1] O n . . . of. (P 2 ); [notin] (P 3 ) brickbats (P1-2) • brick-bats (P 4 ) hurricanes (P 4 ) • the hurricanes (P 1 ) • the hurricane (P 2 ) shirt bosoms (P 4 ) • shirts (P 1,2 ) The study . . . red. The study (P 4 ) • The study . . . red. The Study (P 1 ); [not in] (P2-3) stone (P 4 ) • stones (P 1 ) On{ P 1 ) • On (P 4 ) creeper (P 4 ) • Creeper (P l ) already (P 4 ) • almost (P 1 )

Textual Commentaries

773

is30 . . .—it (P1) • 13ellipses] (P 4 ); [notin] (P2'3) is remote from all noise. | . . . . (C) • is remote from all noise [3 ellipses] (P 4 ) ; is remote from all noises. [3 ellipses] (P 1 ) ; [not iw] (P2-3) The group . . . study. [ (C) • The group [he says] . . . study. (P 2 ); [notin] (P' A 4 )

222.18-19 222.19-20 222.21-34

222.35223.10 Now. . . turn (P1) • [notin] (P2-3-4) 223.3-4 stereoscope (C) • sterescope (P 1 ) [MS facsimile (1992) is copy-text for 'it. . . about' (223.10-19); P' is the unique source for 'sending . . . S. L. C.' (223.19-24)]

m 5 September 1874 • To William W. Belknap • Elmira, N.Y. • UCCL 01123 • Copy-text: MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU). • Provenance: The MS, owned in 1930 by Daniel P. Woolley, vice-president of Standard Brands, was deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 15 May 1962. • Emendations and textual notes: 227.13

fo

• ['o' partly formed]

• 6 September 1874 • To Frank Fuller • Elmira, N.Y. • i/CCL 01124 • Copy-text: Transcript, handwritten by Dana S. Ayer during the late 1890s or later, in the Rare Book Department, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison (WU). MS, James S. Copley Library, La Jolla, California (CLjC), is copy-text for the envelope. »Provenance: see Brownell Collection in Description of Provenance. The Ayer transcription was copied by a typist, and this typed transcription is also at WU. CLjC purchased the envelope in July 1966 as part of a Fuller collection; at that time it was paired with the MS for 24 Sept 68 to Fuller (.UCCL 02753). a Emendations and textual notes: 228.8 228.21

& • and [here and hereafter] [SOP] 7 [] [badly inked; number of characters doubtful]

SEP 7 000 •

m 12 September 1874 • To Rachel B. Gleason • N e w York, N.Y. • UCCL 01127 u Copy-text: MS facsimile, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). •Emendations and textual notes: 231.1

(OLC) • [SLC rotated the stationery clockwise 90 degrees, so that the monogram appears on its side in the upperrightcorner]

774

Volume 6:1874-1875

• 18 September 1874 • To Jerome B. Stillson, per Telegraph Operator • N e w York, N.Y. • UCCL 01125 • Copy-text: MS, a telegram blank filled out by the receiving telegraph operator, Clifton Waller Barren Library, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU). • Provenance: deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 17 December 1963.

• 20 September 1874 • To William Dean Howells • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 02474 • Copy-text: MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B). • Previous publication: Paine 1912a, 118, brief excerpt; MTB, 1:517, brief excerpt; Paine 1917, 784; MTL, 1:227-28; MTHL, 1:26-27. • Provenance: see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance. • Emendations and textual notes: 233.20 234.7

first/ • [deletion implied] cubs. But • 1~

• 20 September 1874 • To Emma Parish • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01126 • Copy-text: Transcript in "Intimate Letters of Mark Twain 60 Years Ago to Arkansan Revealed," Memphis Commercial Appeal of unknown date. This article, written by Jeannette Blount and headed "Marianna Ark., July 9," was published sometime in the early 1930s (see below). Copy-text is a photocopy of the newspaper in the Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). This photocopy was provided by Cyril Clemens, who preserved a clipping of the article in a scrapbook. Although visible at the top of the photocopy are the printed words "Monday morning" and the handwritten date "7-10-33," the only available microfilm of the Memphis Commercial Appeal for Monday, 10 July 1933, did not contain this article, nor did any other issue in July 1933. The actual date of the clipping has not been discovered. Two lines in the transcription are damaged and illegible; the text has been emended from a TS in CU-MARK, which was probably made by Dixon Wecter in the 1940s from an undamaged copy of the newspaper. • Provenance: When the Commercial Appeal published the letter, it belonged to Mrs. J. O. Thompson of Aubrey, Lee County, Arkansas (Emma Parish's niece). It was reportedly destroyed in 1986 when Mrs. Thompson died (Thomason, 326). •Emendations and textual notes: 236.1 236.3

Sept. 20. • [reported, not quoted] & • and [here and hereafter]

Textual Commentaries 237.5-6 237.8 237.12 237.15 237.16

775

parlor . . . by • par-|[ooo o oooooo «00 «0000] habitable and [000©] ortable [00] [damaged; text adopted from TS in CU-MARK] while. • while. | [rule] An Invitation. flesh. • flesh. (Mrs. Cole was more interested in reducing.) baby. • baby. (The new baby was Clara, now Madame Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch.) I • In

• 21 September 1874 • To Orion Clemens • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01128 • Copy-text: MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK). •Provenance: see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance. •Emendations and textual notes: 238.12-13 238.27-28

bath-rooms • bath-|rooms is. Gen. • |

• 21 September 1874 • To Mary Mason Fairbanks • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01129 • Copy-text: MS, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino (CSmH, call no. H M 14284). • Previous publication: MTMF, 189-90. •Provenance: see Huntington Library in Description of Provenance.

• 23 September 1874 • To R. Shelton Mackenzie • Hartford, Conn. • Î7CCL01130 • Copy-text: MS, Simon Gratz Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (PHi). m Provenance: The Simon Gratz Collection was donated in 1917.

• 24 September 1874 • To William W. Belknap • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01132 • Copy-text: MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU). •Provenance: The MS, owned in 1930 by Daniel P. Woolley, vice-president of Standard Brands, was deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 15 May 1962. • Emendations and textual notes: 244.4

City. My •

|

776

Volume 6:1874-1875

• 24? September 1874 • From Olivia L. and Samuel L. Clemens to Olivia Lewis Langdon and Family • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01133 • Copy-text: MTB, 1:520-21. • Emendations and textual notes: 245.3

& • and [here and hereafter]

• 25 September 1874 • To William A. Seaver • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01100 mCopy-text: MS, Rare Book Department, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison (WU). • Provenance: Norman D. Bassett, a Madison alumnus, owned the MS by October 1942. He donated his Mark Twain collection to WU on 9 July 1955. wEmendations and textual notes: 245.17

told telegraphed • t