18 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01064)
The enclosed letter it is Ⓐemendation from a remarkable man—old Ned 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 you will edit his book & help him share the profits, & I will write the introduction & find a publisher.1explanatory note
Livy barely escaped miscarriage, but will be up again in a few days. Child not due for 3 months yet.
Love to you both.
Triunfo Mine. Feb 12th 1874. 2explanatory note
Mark Twain, Eqr Dear Sir.
I write to say that all my 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 say 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 Ⓐemendation you have done with mine, the Public are anxious now about the Island World and I propose to End with a 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 3explanatory note 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 1st of may 4explanatory note if you must see me, and I think it would be a good Idea, for me to have about 10 days with you. Just write me, at Lapaz, Lower Cal, 5explanatory note 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 6explanatory note 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 Ⓐemendation man, tis a Business transaction and you Can make Ⓐemendation your own terms. I want you and your way Ⓐemendation to write my life So I Shall Ⓐemendation Die Contented. I shall await an answer with much anxiety I will Ⓐemendation State that Mrs. Brocks, the wife of Mr Brocks 7explanatory note with Ⓐemendation 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 me 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 and 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.
O. Clemens Esq | 40 W. 9th st. | New York. on flap: slc postmarked: hartford ct. mar 18 Ⓐemendation 6 pm
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 (RI 1993, 331, 677–78; L5 , 233–35). 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. 1click to open link).
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 1846–48 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, 30, 315–16).
Three of the final four chapters of The Log of an Ancient Mariner were devoted to Hawaii and Samoa (Wakeman, 304–58). Hawaii was newsworthy in 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 playfully 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; “The Late King Lunalilo,” 27 Feb 74, 2.)
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).,
La Paz was about thirty miles north of Triunfo.
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).
Both otherwise unidentified.
MS, SLC to OC, is copy-text for ‘ slc . . . Sam.’ (82.1–13)
MS, Wakeman to SLC, is copy-text for ‘Triunfo . . . Wakeman’ (82.15–83.21)
MS, SLC to OC, is copy-text for ‘O. . . . 6pm’ (83.23–24)
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK), is copy-text for the letter and envelope. MS, Edgar Wakeman to SLC, 12 Feb 74, CU-MARK (UCLC 31979), is copy-text for the enclosure. A torn margin in Wakeman’s letter necessitated the emendations at 82.20–83.12.
L6 , 82–84.
see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.