8 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: Koslosky, UCCL 01206)
I haven’t any biographical facts—gave them all to Routledge, who put them in “Men of the Time.”2explanatory note There’s nothing else that I would like 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.
In enclose two scraps from this morning’s local paper. I never lecture outside of my own town, now.; (& then I don’t charge for my services, since they’re for charity.)
enclosures: 3explanatory note
Father Hawley’s Acknowledgment.
To the Editor of the Courant:—
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. Hawley, 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.
Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK):
Copenhagen. February the 15th
1875.
41. nØrregade, 2. sal.
My dear Mr Clemens!
I received your kind, interesting and long letter of the 26st 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.
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 of having 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 Mr 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 à 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 of 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 Mr 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 Mr Higbie [American Publishing Co) 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—(yours 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 Mr Clemens, I shall say good night! Kindest remembrance!
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 ( RI 1993 , 256–70). For the two volumes of translations that “soon will be sold entirely out,” see 15 and 16 July 74 to Watt, n. 1click to open link, and 26 Jan 75 to Watt, n. 2click to open link. 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 contain ‘The Innocents at Home,’ and then follows all the Sketches” (CU-MARK). 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 1872). 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.
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 Spragueclick to open link and others, and 6 Mar 75 to Seaverclick to open link). 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.
MS, collection of Pierce A. Koslosky, Jr., seen at Sotheby’s, New York City, while awaiting sale (Sotheby 1996), is copy-text for the letter. “Father Hawley’s Acknowledgment” and “Brief Mention,” Hartford Courant, 8 Mar 75, 2, are the sources for the enclosed clippings. Copy-text is a microfilm edition of the newspaper in the Newspaper and Microcopy Division, University of California, Berkeley (CU-NEWS).
L6 , 408–11; Sotheby 1996, lot 199, excerpts, letter only.
Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs purchased the MS in 1964 from Emily Driscoll; they sold it again on 29 October 1996 through Sotheby’s. Koslosky purchased it from Michael Silverman in August 1997.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.