to Joseph H. Twichell
29 June 1873 • London, England (MS: CtY-BR, UCCL 00936)
I consider myself wholly at liberty to decline to pay Chew anything, & at the same time strongly tempted to sue him into the bargain for coming so near ruining Ⓐemendationme. If he hadn’t happened to send me that thing in print, I would have used it the story (like an innocent fool) & would straightway have been hounded to death as a plagiarist. It would have absolutely destroyed me. I cannot conceive of a man being such a hopeless ass (hav (after serving as a legislative reporter, too,) as to imagine that I or any other literary man in his senses would consent to chew over a lot old stuff that had already been in print. If that man weren’t an infant in swaddling clothes, his only reply to our petition would have been “It has been in print.” It makes me as mad as the very Old Harry every time I think of Mr. Chew & the frightfully narrow escape I have had at his hands. Confound Mr. Chew, with all my heart! I’m willing he should have ten dollars for his trouble of warming over his cold victuals— cheerfully Ⓐemendationwilling to {pay} that—but no more. If I had had him near when his letter came, I would have got out my tomahawk & gone for him. He didn’t tell the story half as well as you did, anyhow.1explanatory note I wish to goodness you were here this moment—nobody in our parlor but Livy & me,—& a very good view of London to the fore. We have a luxuriously ample suite of apartments in Langham Hotel, 3d floor, our bedroom looking straight up Portland Place & our parlor having a noble array of great windows looking out upon both streets (Portland Place & the crook that joins it on to Regent street.)
9 P.M. Full twilight—rich
sunset tints
lingering in the
west.
I am not going to write anything—rather tell it when I get back. I love you & Harmony,2explanatory note & that is all the fresh news I’ve got, anyway. And I mean to keep that fresh, all the time.
Am luxuriating
◇l
Ⓐemendationin glorious old Pepys’ Diary & smoking.
3explanatory note
Indeed it is fresh all the time, and we grow warm, and genial, and enthusiastic when we speak of Joseph or Harmony— Bless your dear old hearts we love you
Livy—
Albert Bigelow Paine explained this incident in 1917:
A man named Chew related to Twichell a most entertaining occurrence. Twichell saw great possibilities in it, and suggested that Mark Twain be allowed to make a story of it, sharing the profits with Chew. Chew agreed, and promised to send the facts, carefully set down. Twichell, in the mean time, told the story to Clemens, who was delighted with it and strongly tempted to write it at once, while he was in the spirit, without waiting on Chew. Fortunately, he did not do so, for when Chew’s material came it was in the form of a clipping, the story having been already printed in some newspaper. Chew’s knowledge of literary ethics would seem to have been slight. He thought himself entitled to something under the agreement with Twichell. Mark Twain, by this time in London, naturally had a different opinion. ( MTL , 1:206)
Neither Chew, nor the story, has been further identified. It remains unclear whether Paine learned anything about the matter from Clemens or Twichell that could not be inferred from the letter itself, which Twichell lent to Paine for use in the official biography.
Harmony C. Twichell.
The diary of Samuel Pepys (1633–1703), written in shorthand between 1660 and 1669 but not deciphered until 1825, became one of Clemens’s favorite books. In the guidebook he used during his 1872 London visit, across the section headed “Whitehall to Vauxhall,” Clemens wrote: “Get Pepys” (Pardon, 109; Gribben, 2:539–40).
MS, Joseph H. Twichell Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (CtY-BR).
L5 , 392–393; Paine, 109, excerpt; MTB , 1:483–84, excerpt; MTL , 1:206–7.
It is not known when Twichell’s papers were deposited at Yale, although it is likely that he bequeathed them to the university upon his death in 1918 ( L2 , 570).
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.