Frontispiece: Clemens departing for England on the SS Minneapolis, 8 June 1907. Photograph by Albert Bigelow Paine in the Mark Twain Papers.

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Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3 Copyright © 2015, 2001 by the Mark Twain Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Transcription, reconstruction, and creation of the texts, introduction, notes, and appendixes Copyright © 2015 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 3 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: 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 3 / editors: Benjamin Griffin, Harriet Elinor Smith; associate editors: Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Amanda Gagel, Sharon K. Goetz, Leslie Diane Myrick, Christopher M. Ohge
　　　　p. cm. —  (The Mark Twain Papers)
　　“A publication of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library.”
　　Includes bibliographical references and index.
　　 isbn 978-0-520-27994-0 (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. Gagel, Amanda. 　VI. Goetz, Sharon K. 　VII. Myrick, Leslie Diane. 　VIII. Ohge, Christopher M. 　IX. Bancroft Library. 　X. Title.
　　PS1331.A2 　2010
　　818'.4'0924­dc22　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　2009047700

Manufactured in the United States of America
23 　22 　21 　20 　19 　18 　17 　16 　15
10 　9 　8 　7 　6 　5 　4 　3 　2 　1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z 39.48-1992 (r 2002) (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 for
editorial work on all volumes of the Autobiography of Mark
Twain and for the addition of important new documents to the Mark Twain Papers, from the following:

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
Mr. and Mrs. Morley S. Farquar
The Renee B. Fisher Foundation
Ann and David Flinn
Peter B. and Robin Frazier
Virginia Robinson Furth
Edward and Andrea Hager
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
Leslie E. Simmonds
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

The Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript 　 321

Explanatory Notes 　 441

Appendixes

Samuel L. Clemens: A Brief Chronology 　 637

Family Biographies 　 640

Clemens’s Working Notes for “The Ashcroft-Lyon

Manuscript” [web only]

Clemens’s 1873 Autobiographical Notes, and

Biographical Sketch by Charles Dudley Warner 　 644

Clemens’s 1899 Autobiographical Notes, and

Biographical Sketch by Samuel E. Moffett 　 649

Proposition for a Postal Check 　 662

Ashcroft-Lyon Chronology 　 669

Ralph W. Ashcroft to John B. Stanchfield,

30 July 1909 　 674

Previous Publication 　 680

Note on the Text 　 685

Word Division in This Volume 　 687

References 　 689

Index 　 715

Photographs follow page 　 300

1907       Autobiographical Dictations, March–December
     

1 March	3	26 August	110
6 March	10	27 August	112
26 March	12	28 August	113
27 March	15	29 August	116
28 March	17	30 August	121
8 April	20	31 August	124
9 April	24	4 September	126
10 April	39	6 September	130
11 April	43	12 September	132
20 April	48	13 September	134
18 May	51	26 September	137
23 May	53	1 October	144
24 May	54	2 October	146
26 May	57	3 October	150
29 May	61	5 October	154
30 May	67	7 October	158
24 July	71	10 October	159
25 July	73	11 October	162
26 July	81	18 October	172
30 July	85	21 October	174
10 August	97	25 October	176
16 August	98	1 November	177
17 August	101	2 December	181
19 August	102	10 December	189
22 August	106	12 December	193
23 August	108

       
1908       Autobiographical Dictations, January–December
     

13 January	195	8 July	247
12 February	200	9 July	250
13 February	202	10 July	251
14 February	205	14 July	254
19 February	210	16 July and 12 September	258
16 April	212	16 August	264
17 April	213	6 October	267
27 April	222	31 October	269
28 April	225	2 November	271
29 April	226	5 November	273
21 May	228	12 November	276
22 May	233	24 November	278
3 June	236	8 December	281
26 June	237	10 December	284
3 July	239	16 December	287
6 July	243	22 December	290
7 July	244	Christmas Day	295

       
1909       Autobiographical Dictations, January–December
     

5 January	297	16 April	305
11 January	298	Note to Chapter . . .	307
10 March	301	21 October	309
25 March	303	Closing Words of My Autobiography	310

[begin page xvii]

As we complete work on the third and final volume of the Autobiography of Mark Twain, we are deeply mindful of the extraordinary support this work has received for more than a decade. After an initial five years of intensive labor, Volume 1 was published in 2010 (the centennial of Mark Twain’s death), Volume 2 in 2013, and now the present volume just two years later. The indispensable core of support for this edition has come from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency, and through it, from the American people who have contributed their tax dollars. We renew our thanks to both, especially for the Endowment’s two most recent grants of outright and matching funds, as well as its longstanding support of the edition, which reaches back as far as 1967. With equal warmth we renew our thanks to the Koret Foundation for its generous grant in 2008, all of which has gone to matching the Endowment’s grants. That combination of federal and private-sector funding has made this edition possible.

The individuals and institutions acknowledged above (pages ix–x) have supported the Mark Twain Project for many years, sometimes for decades. So many people have lent their support, financial and otherwise, that we are obliged to thank them collectively. More than half of the Endowment’s support has been in the form of dollar-for-dollar matching grants, which could not have been accepted or used without the generous gifts of thousands of individuals and foundations. Without all our loyal supporters, the Project would long ago have ceased to exist, and we would certainly not now be completing the Autobiography. Special thanks are in order for an ambitious undertaking by the members of the University of California, Berkeley, Class of 1958, who in 2008 gave the University a fiftieth-reunion gift of $1 million to support the Mark Twain Project. Led by Roger and Jeane Samuelsen, Edward H. Peterson, and Don and Bitsy Kosovac, this extraordinary class has helped to make completion of the Project’s work a distinct possibility. We renew our thanks to each and every member of the Class of 1958 for their generosity. The future of the Mark Twain Project is likewise ensured by the estate of Phyllis R. Bogue and the estate of Peter K. Oppenheim, who have created similar endowments.

Central to our recent fundraising efforts has been the Mark Twain Luncheon Club, organized fourteen years ago by Watson M. (Mac) Laetsch, Robert Middlekauff, and the late Ira Michael Heyman. We thank them, and we thank the nearly one hundred members of the Club for their tireless financial and moral support; likewise the dozens of distinguished speakers who have addressed the Club on the subject of our mutual interest, Mark Twain. Our gratitude goes also to David Duer, the director of development [begin page xviii] in the Berkeley University Library, for his always wise and judicious counsel, and for his heroic efforts to raise funds for and awareness of the Project. Our home institution has provided us a place to work, and all essential equipment and services. We are grateful for these and other forms of support from the staff of the University Library and The Bancroft Library. In particular we thank Dan Johnston, head of the Library Digital Imaging Lab, for providing high-quality images for reproduction in the book. We especially want to acknowledge 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, G. Thomas Tanselle—we are indebted for every kind of moral and intellectual support.

Scholars and archivists at other institutions have also been vital to the work on this volume. We wish to acknowledge the contributions of the following scholars to our understanding of Mark Twain and his Autobiography: Richard Bucci, Dianne McCutcheon, Takuya Kubo, and Bernard Baycroft. Barbara Schmidt, an independent scholar, maintains an invaluable website devoted to Mark Twain research (www.twainquotes.com), which has become an important source of information for our explanatory notes. Kevin Mac Donnell, an expert dealer and collector of Mark Twain documents, has given much-appreciated support and is always generous with information. We would also like to thank the following scholars, librarians, and archivists who assisted us with research, documents, and permissions: Christine Colburn, University of Chicago Library; Eva Tucholka and Harriet Culver, Culver Pictures; Halli Yundt Silver, Hannibal Free Public Library; John Walker, City University, London; Jonathan Eaker, Library of Congress; Lyndsi Barnes, Berg Collection of the New York Public Library; Mark Woodhouse and Barbara Snedecor, Elmira College; Melissa Barton and George Miles, Beinecke Library, Yale University; Patti Philippon and Steve Courtney, Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford; Danielle M. Rougeau, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont.

The enthusiasm of our sponsoring editor at UC Press, Mary C. Francis, has been an inspiration to us; our new sponsoring editor, Kim Robinson, has assumed her role with equal enthusiasm. We are grateful for the assistance of Kathleen MacDougall, our highly skilled copy editor and project manager, whose zeal has improved the accuracy of the editorial matter. Her expertise has helped us deal with the typographical challenges presented by the use of “plain text” to transcribe “The Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript,” and she has guided us at every stage of the production process. Lia Tjandra at UC Press has ensured photographic reproductions of the highest possible quality.

The Mark Twain Project’s editions are created through a process of complex and sustained collaboration. Associate editors Victor Fischer and Michael B. Frank have contributed to every aspect of the editing process. The newest members of our editorial team, Amanda Gagel and Christopher Ohge, joined us while the texts and notes were in preparation, and have assisted with the work with great diligence and skill. Sharon [begin page xix] K. Goetz and Leslie Diane Myrick are essential to the creation of the digital edition (at www.marktwainproject.org), and provide the editors with technical support in pursuit of previously unimagined kinds of archival and bibliographical research.

Finally, we wish to acknowledge our administrative assistant of fourteen years, Neda Salem, who has moved on to another position with the university. During her tenure, she organized the daily operations of our office, and served as the gateway to Mark Twain information for scholars and fans alike.

B. G. 　　　　H. E. S.