Frontispiece: Photograph by Underwood and Underwood, 1907, Tuxedo Park, New York.

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Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2 Copyright © 2013, 2001 by the Mark Twain Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Transcription, reconstruction, and creation of the texts, introduction, notes, and appendixes Copyright © 2013 by The Regents of the University of California. The Mark Twain Foundation expressly reserves to itself, its successors and assigns, all dramatization rights in every medium, including without limitation stage, radio, television, motion picture, and public reading rights, in and to the Autobiography of Mark Twain and all other texts by Mark Twain in copyright to the Mark Twain Foundation.

All texts by Mark Twain in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2 have been published previously, by permission of the Mark Twain Foundation, in the Mark Twain Project’s Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Literary Manuscripts Available in the Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley: The Bancroft Library, 2001), and some texts have been published previously in one or more of the following: Albert Bigelow Paine, editor, Mark Twain’s Autobiography (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1924); Bernard DeVoto, editor, Mark Twain in Eruption (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1940); Charles Neider, editor, The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Including Chapters Now Published for the First Time (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1959). Unless otherwise noted, all illustrations are reproduced from original documents in the Mark Twain Papers of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

mark twain project ® is a registered trademark of The Regents of the University of California in the United States and the European Community.

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[for the printed volume published by University of California Press]

Twain, Mark, 1835–1910
　　[Autobiography]
　　Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2 / editors: Benjamin Griffin, Harriet Elinor Smith; associate editors: Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Sharon K. Goetz, Leslie Diane Myrick
　　　　p. cm. —  (The Mark Twain Papers)
　　“A publication of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library.”
　　Includes bibliographical references and index.
　　 isbn 978-0-520-27278-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
　　1. Twain, Mark, 1835–1910. 　2. Authors, American­—19th century—Biography. 　I. Griffin, Benjamin, 1968– 　II. Smith, Harriet Elinor. 　III. Fischer, Victor, 1942– 　IV. Frank, Michael B. 　V. Goetz, Sharon K. 　VI. Myrick, Leslie Diane. 　VII. Bancroft Library. 　VIII. Title.
　　PS1331.A2 　2010
　　818'.4'0924­dc22　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　2009047700
Manufactured in the United States of America

19 　18 　17 　16 　15 　14 　13 　12 　11 　10
10 　9 　8 　7 　6 　5 　4 　3 　2 　1

This book is printed on Natures Book, which contains 50% post-consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z 39.48-1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper).

Editorial work for this volume has been supported
by a generous gift to the Mark Twain Project of
The Bancroft Library from the

KORET FOUNDATION
 
and by matching and outright grants from the
 
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT
FOR THE HUMANITIES,
an independent federal agency.

Without that support, this volume could not
have been produced.

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The Mark Twain Project at the University of California,
Berkeley, gratefully acknowledges generous support from the
following, for editorial work on the Autobiography of Mark
Twain and for the acquisition of important new documents:

The University of California, Berkeley, Class of 1958
Members of the Mark Twain Luncheon Club
The Barkley Fund
Phyllis R. Bogue
The Mark Twain Foundation
Robert and Beverly Middlekauff
Peter K. Oppenheim

The Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the
　Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
The House of Bernstein, Inc.
Helen Kennedy Cahill
Kimo Campbell
Lawrence E. Crooks
Mrs. Henry Daggett
Les and Mary De Wall
The Renee B. Fisher Foundation
Ann and David Flinn
Peter B. and Robin Frazier
Virginia Robinson Furth
Stephen B. Herrick
The Hofmann Foundation
Don and Bitsy Kosovac
Watson M. and Sita Laetsch
Edward H. Peterson
Roger and Jeane Samuelsen
The Benjamin and Susan Shapell Foundation
Janet and Alan Stanford
Montague M. Upshaw
Jeanne and Leonard Ware
Sheila M. Wishek
Patricia Wright, in memory of Timothy J. Fitzgerald
Peter and Midge Zischke

and

The thousands of individual donors over the past fifty years
who have helped sustain the ongoing work
of the Mark Twain Project.

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The publication of this volume has been made possible
by a gift to the University of California Press Foundation by

WILSON GARDNER COMBS
FRANK MARION GIFFORD COMBS

in honor of

WILSON GIFFORD COMBS
BA 1935, MA 1950, University of California, Berkeley

MARYANNA GARDNER COMBS
MSW 1951, University of California, Berkeley

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The University of California Press
gratefully acknowledges the support of

The Mark Twain Foundation

The Sydney Stern Memorial Trust

John G. Davies

and the Humanities Endowment Fund
of the UC Press Foundation

List of Dictations 　 xiv

Acknowledgments 　 xvii

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN 　 1

Explanatory Notes 　 457

Appendixes

Samuel L. Clemens: A Brief Chronology 　 649

Family Biographies 　 652

Previous Publication 　 656

Note on the Text 　 661

Word Division in This Volume 　 663

References 　 665

Index 　 697

Photographs follow page 　 300

1906       Autobiographical Dictations, April–December
     

2 April	3	25 June	140	12 October	256
3 April	6	17 July	143	15 October	257
4 April	11	30 July	148	16 October	260
5 April	18	31 July	151	30 October	262
6 April	23	6 August	158	7 November	266
9 April	27	7 August	160	8 November	269
10 April	33	8 August	162	19 November	273
11 April	37	10 August	167	20 November	277
21 May	46	11 August	171	21 November	281
23 May	49	13 August	176	22 November	283
24 May	52	15 August	177	23 November	286
26 May	57	27 August	179	24 November	288
28 May	60	28 August	182	30 November	292
29 May	64	29 August	188	1 December	297
31 May	68	30 August	195	2 December	301
1 June	71	31 August	199	3 December	304
2 June	74	3 September	214	5 December	306
4 June	80	4 September	219	6 December	309
6 June	97	5 September	222	13 December	312
7 June	100	7 September	225	17 December	315
11 June	108	10 September	229	18 December	317
12 June	111	2 October	235	19 December	320
13 June	114	3 October	240	20 December	324
14 June	118	4 October	243	21 December	326
18 June	121	5 October	245	26 December	334
19 June	128	8 October	247	27 December	342
20 June	130	9 October	250	28 December	346
22 June	132	10 October	251	29 December	356
23 June	136	11 October	255

       
1907       Autobiographical Dictations, January–February
     

6 January	359	28 January	387	12 February	433
9 January	361	29 January	400	19 February	434
15 January	370	30 January	409	25 February	436
17 January	374	1 February	413	26 February	442
22 January	376	4 February	415	27 February	445
23 January	380	11 February	430	28 February	454

Editorial work on the Autobiography of Mark Twain began some eight years ago and is expected to continue for another two. But acquiring the collective skills, expertise, and materials that allow us to do the work has taken much longer: more than four decades of editorial labor on every aspect of Mark Twain’s writings, made possible by the continuous support, since 1967, of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency. We thank the Endowment for that long-standing, patient, and generous support, of which its two most recent outright and matching grants are but a small part. With equal fervor, we thank the Koret Foundation for its recent generous grant in support of editorial and production work on the Autobiography, all of which has gone (or will go) to satisfy the matching component of the Endowment’s recent grants.

For their continuing support of work on the Autobiography and for help in acquiring important original documents for the Mark Twain Papers, we thank those institutions and individuals listed on pages ix–x. The Mark Twain Project has been sustained over the years in so many ways by so many people that we are obliged to thank them as one large group, much as we would prefer to name every individual and institution who has contributed. Much of the Endowment’s recent support of the Mark Twain Project has been in the form of funds matching the generous gifts of individuals and foundations. For donations ranging from five dollars to five million dollars, we thank all our loyal and generous supporters. Without their donations, the Project would long ago have ceased to exist, and would certainly not be producing the Autobiography edition today.

That said, we must nevertheless single out for special thanks a heroic undertaking to create an endowment supporting the present and future work of the Mark Twain Project by the alumni of the University of California, Berkeley, Class of 1958, led by Roger and Jeane Samuelsen, Edward H. Peterson, and Don and Bitsy Kosovac. In 2008, as a fiftieth reunion gift to the University, the Class endowed the Mark Twain Project with a dedicated fund of $1 million. We renew our thanks to each and every member of the Class for their unprecedented generosity. And we also acknowledge here the creation of two smaller endowment funds in support of the Project by the estates of Phyllis R. Bogue and Peter K. Oppenheim. These efforts to create long-term private support for the Project have fundamentally altered the way we pay for this work.

Central to all our recent fundraising efforts has been the Mark Twain Luncheon Club, organized twelve years ago by Watson M. (Mac) Laetsch, Robert Middlekauff, and the late Ira Michael Heyman, three of the wisest administrators ever to help manage the Berkeley campus. The leadership of the Club has been unflagging and indispensable; we thank them for it and for a thousand other forms of help. The Club now has a newsletter, produced for us by Ron Kolb and Pamela Patterson, who have our continuing thanks. We also thank the Club’s nearly one hundred members for their loyal financial and moral support of the Project, and on their behalf we extend thanks to the dozens of visiting speakers who have addressed the Luncheon Club members over the years. Thanks also to David Duer, the director of development in the Berkeley University Library, for his always wise and judicious counsel, and for his heroic labors in raising financial support for the Project. Last but not least, we thank the Berkeley campus for granting the Project relief from indirect costs on its grants from the Endowment. We are grateful for this and all other forms of support from our home institution.

We thank the staff of the University Library and The Bancroft Library at Berkeley, especially Thomas C. Leonard, University Librarian; Elaine Tennant, the James D. Hart Director of The Bancroft Library; and Peter E. Hanff, its Deputy Director, all of whom serve on the Board of Directors of the Mark Twain Project. To them and to the other members of the Board—Frederick Crews, Mary C. Francis, Michael Millgate, Alison Mudditt, George A. Starr, and G. Thomas Tanselle—we are indebted for every kind of moral and intellectual support.

Scholars and archivists at other institutions have been vital to editorial work on this volume. Barbara Schmidt, an independent scholar whose invaluable website devoted to Mark Twain research (www.twainquotes.com) consistently delivers the goods, has freely and generously shared information and documents with us. Kevin Mac Donnell, an expert dealer and collector of Mark Twain documents, has been generous as ever. We would also like to thank the following scholars, librarians, and archivists who assisted us with research, documents, and permissions: Jim Boulden; Tara Brady; Lee Brumbaugh, of the Nevada Historical Society; Donald Hoffmann; Sally Hobby Owen; Lance Heidig, of Cornell University Library; Patti Philippon, of the Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford; Steve Courtney, also of that House; Dean M. Rogers, of Vassar College Libraries; Nancy Sherbert, Kansas Historical Society, Topeka; Henry Sweets, of the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum, Hannibal; Eva Tucholka, of Culver Pictures; and Mark Woodhouse, of the Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College.

The enthusiasm of our sponsoring editor at UC Press, Mary C. Francis, is an inspiration to us. We are grateful for the tireless help of Kathleen MacDougall, our highly skilled copy editor and project manager, who contributed much to the accuracy of the editorial matter and was a guiding hand at every stage of the production process. Sandy Drooker has designed the book with her usual skill and sensitivity, effectively supporting the editors’ request for a slightly larger type size than was used in Volume 1; Sam Rosenthal has expertly supervised the printing and binding process. Alex Dahne, publicity director at UC Press, has been our friendly, acute guide in the world of public relations.

The Mark Twain Project’s editions are always the product of a complex and sustained collaboration among the editors. We thank (and ought to have thanked sooner) Richard E. Bucci, former member of the staff, for his skillful assistance in helping us decide how to edit texts that were dictated rather than inscribed, which comprise almost all of the Autobiography. Associate editors Victor Fischer and Michael B. Frank have contributed to every aspect of the editorial work, drawing on their more than forty years of experience at the Project. They carried out original research for and drafted much of the annotation, and assisted with the painstaking preparation and checking required to produce accurate texts, apparatus, and index. The expertise and energy of associate editors Sharon K. Goetz and Leslie Diane Myrick have been essential in many ways. They have created technological supports that lighten the editors’ labors, and that make possible the simultaneous digital publication of this and our other editions online at www.marktwainproject.org. None of us would be able to carry on without the quiet contributions of the Project’s administrative assistant, Neda Salem. On our behalf she has handily navigated the thickets of bureaucracy, organized daily office matters, and patiently and skillfully answered the hundreds of requests for information and copies of documents which the Project receives from Mark Twain enthusiasts around the world.

B. G. 　　　　H. E. S.