Explanatory Notes
Headnote
Apparatus Notes
Guide
MTPDocEd
Autobiographical Dictation, 26 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary

Source documents.

TS1      Typescript, leaves numbered 380–97, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2      Typescript, leaves numbered 521–35, made from the revised TS1.
TS3      Typescript, leaves numbered 46–50, made from the revised TS1 and further revised: ‘Monday . . . our room.’ (379 title–35); ‘From Susy’s . . . with mamma.’ (381.1–383.9).
NAR 6pf      Galley proofs of NAR 6, typeset from the revised TS3 and further revised, ViU (the same extent as NAR 6).
NAR 6      North American Review 183 (16 November 1906), 961–64: ‘From Susy’s . . . our room.’ (379.29–35); ‘From Susy’s . . . with mamma.’ (381.1–383.9).


Clemens considered this dictation for possible publication through Samuel McClure’s newspaper syndicate, writing ‘Mc’ in blue pencil, and then deleting it, on the first page of TS1; that notation was later partially erased (see the Introduction, p. 29). Harvey reviewed TS1 in August 1906 for possible publication in the NAR and selected two excerpts. Hobby incorporated the revisions that Clemens made on TS1 into both TS2 (which was not further revised) and TS3. Clemens revised TS3 to serve as printer’s copy for the first section of NAR 6, where it is followed by the entire AD of 7 March 1906 and an excerpt from the AD of 22 March 1906 (see Contents and Pagination of TS3, Batch 3).


Marginal Notes on TS1, TS3, and NAR 6pf Concerning Publication in the NAR


TS Location Writer, Medium Exact Inscription Explanation
TS1, p. 380 Harvey, pencil (later partially erased) Begin begin the excerpt at the start of this dictation
TS1, p. 380 SLC, ink solid use extract styling for the text from Susy’s biography
TS1, p. 380 Harvey, pencil (later partially erased) To Page 384 end the excerpt at ‘our room.’ (379.35) and resume at ‘We and’ (381.2)
TS1, p. 384 Harvey, pencil two vertical lines in the margin resume the excerpt at ‘We and’ (381.2)
TS1, pp. 384–86, 390 SLC, ink solid next to each extract use extract styling for the text from Susy’s biography
TS1, p. 391 Harvey, pencil (later partially erased) To Page 419 end the excerpt at ‘with mamma.’ (383.9) and resume at the start of AD, 7 Mar 1906
TS1, p. 397 Harvey, pencil, canceled in pencil End original end of the proposed excerpt; deleted when Harvey made the notation on p. 391: ‘me herself.’ (395.13)
TS3, p. 46 typed, canceled in pencil (Fourth No.) dateline and summary paragraph deleted excerpt was originally intended for the fourth NAR installment
TS3, p. 46 SLC, red pencil I think a date necessary now and then. I think they should be let into the margin, David. | M T. reference to the ‘1885’ that SLC inserted in the margin
TS3, pp. 46–49 Munro, pencil Minion next to each extract use extract styling for the text from Susy’s biography
TS3, p. 48 Munro, pencil Foot-note make a footnote of ‘*I was . . . S.L.C.’ (381 ftnt)
TS3, p. 50 Munro, pencil No break continue to p. 51, the start of AD, 7 Mar 1906
NAR 6pf, top of first galley proof SLC, ink Please examine this all Biography by copy, & follow spelling & punctuation strictly. Mark.  
Monday, Februaryapparatus note 26, 1906

Susyapparatus note comes to New York with her mother and father—Aunt Clara visits them at the Everett House—Aunt Clara’s ill luck with horses—The omnibus incident in Germany—Aunt Clara now ill at Hoffman House, result of horseback accident thirty years agoapparatus note—Mr. Clemens takes Susyapparatus note to see Generalapparatus note Grant—Mr. Clemens’s accountapparatus note of his talk with Generalapparatus note Grant—Mr. Clemens gives his first reading in New York—Also tells about one in Boston—Memorial to Mr. Longfellow—And one in Washington.

From Susy’s Biography.apparatus note

Papaapparatus note made arrangements to read at Vassar College the 1st of May, and I went with him. We went by way of New York City. Mamma went with us to New York and stayed two days to do some shopping. We started Tuesday, at ½ past two o’clock in the afternoon, and reached New York about ¼ past six. Papa went right up to General Grants from the station and mamma and I went to the Everett House. Aunt Clara came to supper with us up in our room.apparatus note

This is the same Aunt Clara who has already been mentioned several times. She had been my wife’s playmate and schoolmate from the earliest times, and she was about my wife’s age, [begin page 380] or two or three yearsapparatus note younger—mentally, morally, spiritually, and in all ways, a superior and lovable personality.

Persons who think there is no such thing as luck—good or bad—are entitled to their opinion, although I think they ought to be shot for it. However this is merely an opinion itself; there is nothing binding about it. Clara Spaulding had the average human being’s luck in all things save one; she was subject to ill luck with horses. It pursued her like a disease. Every now and then a horse threw her. Every now and then carriage horses ran away with her. At intervals omnibus horses ran away with her. Usually there was but one person hurt, and she was selected for that function. In Germany once our little family started from the Inn (in Worms, I think it was) to go to the station. The vehicle of transportation was a great long omnibus drawn by a battery of four great horses. Every seat in the ’busapparatus note was occupied, and the aggregate of us amounted to a good two dozen persons, possibly one or twoapparatus note more. I said playfully to Clara Spaulding “I think you ought to walk to the station. It isn’t right for you to imperil the lives of such a crowd of inoffensiveapparatus note people as this.” When we had gone a quarter of a mile and were briskly approaching a stone bridge which had no protecting railings, the battery broke and began to run. Outside we saw the long reins dragging along the ground and a young peasant racing after them and occasionally making a grab for them. Presently he achieved success, and none too soon, for the ’busapparatus note had already entered upon the bridge when he stopped the team. The two dozen lives were saved. Nobody offered to take up a collection, but I suggested to our friend and excursion-comradeapparatus noteAmericanapparatus note Consul at a German cityexplanatory note—that we get out and tip that young peasant. The Consul said, with an enthusiasm native to his character,

“Stayapparatus note right where you are. Leave me to attend to that. His fine deed shall not go unrewarded.”

Heapparatus note jumped out and arranged the matter, and we continued our journey. Afterward I asked him what he gave the peasant, so that I could pay my half. He told me, and I paid it. It is twenty-eight years ago, yet from that day to this, although I have passed through some stringent seasons, I have never seriously felt or regretted that outlay. It was twenty-threeapparatus note cents.

Clara Spaulding, now Mrs. John B. Stanchfieldapparatus note, has a son who isapparatus note a senior in college, and a daughter who is in college in Germanyexplanatory note. She is in New York at present, and I went to the Hoffman House yesterday to see her, but it was as I was expecting: sheapparatus note is too ill to see any but physicians and nurses. This illness has its source in a horseback accident which fell to her share thirty years ago, and which resulted in broken bones of the foot and ancleapparatus note. The broken bones were badly set, and she always walked with a limp afterwards. Some months ago the foot and ancleapparatus note began to pain her unendurably and it was decided that she must come to New York and have the bones rebroken and reset. I saw her in the private hospital about three weeks after that operation, and the verdict was that the operation was successful. This turned out to be a mistake. She came to New York a month or six weeks ago, and another rebreakingapparatus note and resetting was accomplished. A week ago, when I called, she was able to hobble about the room by help of crutches,apparatus note and she was very happy in the conviction that now she was going to have no more trouble. But it appears that this dreadful surgery-workapparatus note must be done over once more.apparatus note But she is not fitted for it. The pain is reducing her strength, and I was told that it has been for the past three days necessary to exclude her from contact with all but physicians and nurses.

[begin page 381]

From Susy’s Biography.apparatus note

Weapparatus note and Aunt Clara were goingapparatus note to the theatre right after supper, and we expected papa to take us there and to come home as early as he could. But we got through dinner and he didn’t come, and didn’t come, and mamma got more perplexed and worried, but at last we thought we would have to go without him. So we put on ourapparatus note things and started down stairs but before we’d goten half down we met papa coming up with a great bunch of roses in his hand. He explained that the reason he was so late was that his watch stopped and he didn’t notice and kept thinking it an hour earlier than it really was. The roses he carried were someapparatus note Col. Fred Grant sent to mamma. We went to the theatre and enjoyed “Adonis” (word illegible)apparatus note actedexplanatory note very much. We reached home about ½ past eleven o’clock and went right to bed. Wednesday morning we got up rather late and had breakfast about ½ past nine o’clock. After breakfast mamma went out shopping and papa and I went to see papa’s agent about some business matters. After papa had gotten through talking to Cousin Charlie, (Webster)apparatus note papa’s agent, we went to get a friend of papa’s, Major Pondexplanatory note, to go and see a Dog Show with us. Then we went to see the dogs with Major Pond and we had a delightful time seeing so many dogs together; when we got through seeing the dogs papa thought he would go and see General Grant and I went with him—this was April 29, 1885. Papa went up into General Grant’s room and he took me with him, I felt greatly honored and delighted when papa took me into General Grant’s room and let me see the General and Col. Grant, for General Grant is a man I shall be glad all my life that I have seen. Papa and General Grant had a long talk together and papa has written an account of his talk and visit with General Grant for me to put into this biography.apparatus note

Susyapparatus note has inserted in this place that account of mine—as follows:

Aprilapparatus note 29, 1885.

I called on General Grant and took Susyapparatus note with me. The General was looking and feeling far better than he had looked or felt for some months. He had ventured to work again on his book that morning—the first time he had done any work for perhaps a month. This morning’s work was his first attempt at dictating, and it was a thorough success, to his great delight. He had always said that it would be impossible for him to dictate anything, but I had said that he was noted for clearness of statement, and as a narrative was simply a statement of consecutive facts, he was consequently peculiarly qualified and equipped for dictation. This turned out to be true. For he had dictated two hours that morning to a shorthand writer, had never hesitated for words, had not repeated himself, and the manuscript when finished needed no revision. The two hours’ work was an account of Appomattox—and this was such an extremely important featureapparatus note that his book would necessarily have been severely lame without it. Therefore I had taken a shorthand writer there before, to see if I could not get him to write at least a few lines about Appomattox.* But he was at that time not well enough to undertake it. I was aware that of all the hundred versions of Appomattox, not one was really correct. Therefore I was extremely anxious that he should leave behind him the truth. His throat was not distressing him, and his voice was much better and stronger than usual. He was so delighted to have gottenapparatus note Appomattox accomplished once more in his life—to have gotten the matter off his mind—that he was as talkative as his old self. He received Susyapparatus note very pleasantly, and then fell to


*I was his publisherexplanatory note. I was putting his “Personal Memoirs” to press at the time. S.L.C.apparatus note [begin page 382] talking about certain matters which he hoped to be able to dictate next day; and he said in substance that, among other things, he wanted to settle once for all a question that had been bandied about from mouth to mouth and from newspaper to newspaper. That question wasapparatus note “With whom originated the idea of the march to the sea? Was it Grant’s, or was it Sherman’s idea?” Whether I, or some one else (being anxious to get the important fact settled) asked him with whom the idea originated, I don’t remember. But I remember his answer. I shall always remember his answer. General Grant said:

“Neither of us originated the idea of Sherman’s march to the sea. The enemy did it.”

He went on to say that the enemy, however, necessarily originated a great many of the plans that the general on the opposite side gets the credit for; at the same time that the enemy is doing that,apparatus note he is laying open other moves which the opposingapparatus note general sees and takes advantage of. In this case, Sherman had a plan all thought out, of course. He meant to destroy the two remaining railroads in that part of the country, and that would finishapparatus note up that region. But General Hood did not play the military part that he was expected to play. On the contrary, General Hood made a dive at Chattanooga. This left the march to the sea open to Sherman, and so after sending part of his army to defend and hold what he had acquired in the Chattanooga region, he was perfectly free to proceed, with the rest of it, through Georgiaexplanatory note. He saw the opportunity, and he would not have been fit for his place if he had not seized it.

“He wrote me” (the General is speaking) “what his plan was, and I sent him word to go ahead. My staff were opposed to the movement.” (I think the General said they tried to persuade him to stop Sherman. The chief of his staff, the General said, even went so far as to go to Washington without the General’s knowledge and get the ear of the authorities, and he succeeded in arousing their fears to such an extent that they telegraphed General Grant to stop Sherman.)apparatus note

Then General Grant saidapparatus note “Out of deference to the Government, I telegraphed Sherman and stopped him twenty-four hours;apparatus note and then considering that that was deference enough to the Government, I telegraphed him to go ahead again.”apparatus note

I have not tried to give the General’s language, but only the general idea of what he said. The thing that mainly struck me was his terse remark that the enemy originated the idea of the march to the sea. It struck me because it was so suggestive of the General’s epigrammatic fashion—saying a great deal in a single crisp sentence. (Thisapparatus note is my account, and signed “Mark Twain.”apparatus note)


Susy Resumes.

Afterapparatus note papa and General Grant had had their talk, we went back to the hotel where mamma was, and papa told mamma all about his interview with General Grant. Mamma and I had a nice quiet afternoon together.apparatus note

That pair of devoted comradesapparatus note were alwaysapparatus note shutting themselves up together when there was opportunity to have what Susyapparatus note called “a cosyapparatus note time.” From Susy’sapparatus note nursery days to the end of her life, she and her mother were close friends; intimate friends, passionate adorers of each other. Susy’sapparatus note was a beautiful mind, and it made her an interesting comrade. And with the fine mind she had a heart like her mother’s. Susyapparatus note never had an interest or an occupation which she was not glad to put aside for that something which was in all cases more precious to her—a visit with her mother. Susyapparatus note died at the right time, the fortunate time of life; the happy age—twenty- [begin page 383] four years. At twenty-four, such a girl has seen the best of life—life as a happy dream. After that age the risks begin; responsibility comes, and with it the cares, the sorrows, and the inevitable tragedy. For her mother’s sakeapparatus note I would have brought her back from the grave if I could, but I would not have done it for my own.apparatus note

From Susy’s Biography.apparatus note

Thenapparatus note papa went to read in public; there were a great many authors that read,apparatus note that Thursday afternoon,apparatus note beside papa; I would have liked to have gone and heard papa read, but papa said he was going to read in Vassar just what he was planning to read in New York, so I stayed at home with mamma.apparatus note

I think that that was the first exploitation of a new and devilish invention—the thing called an Authors’ Readingexplanatory note. This witch’sapparatus note Sabbath took place in a theatre, and began at two in the afternoon. There were nine readers on the list, and I believe I was the only one who was qualified by experience to go at the matter in a sane way. I knew, by my old acquaintanceship with the multiplication table, that nine times ten are ninety, and that consequently the average of time allowed to each of these readers should be restricted to ten minutes. There would be an introducer, and he wouldn’t understand his business—this disastrous fact could be counted upon as a certainty. The introducer would be ignorant, windy, eloquent, and willing to hear himself talk. With nine introductions to make, added to his own opening speech—well, I could not go on with these harrowing calculations; I foresaw that there was trouble on hand. I had asked for the sixth place in the list. When the curtain went up and I saw that our half-circle of minstrels were all on hand, I made a change in my plan. I judged that in asking for sixth place I had done all that was necessary to establish a fictitious reputation for modesty, and that there could be nothing gained by pushing this reputation to the limit; it had done its work and it was time, now, to leave well enough alone, and do better. So I asked to be moved up to third place, and my prayer was granted.

The performance began at a quarter past two, and Iapparatus note, No. 3apparatus note in a list of ten (if we include the introducer) was not called to the bat until a quarter after three. My reading was ten minutes long. When I had selected it originally, it was twelve minutes long, and it had taken me a good hour to find ways of reducing it by two minutes without damaging it. I was through in ten minutes. Then I retired to my seat to enjoy the agonies of the audience. I did enjoy them for an hour or two; then all the cruelty in my nature was exhausted, and my native humanity came to the front again. By half pastapparatus note five a third of the house was asleep; another third were dying; and the rest were dead. I got out the back way and went home.

During several years, after that, the Authors’ Readings continued. Every now and then we assembled in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and scourged the people. It was found impossible to teach the persons who managed these orgies any sense. Also it was found impossible to teach the readers any sense. Once I went to Boston to help in one of these revels which had been instigated in the interest of a memorial to Mr. Longfellowexplanatory note. Howells was always a member of these traveling afflictions, and I was never able to teach him to rehearse his proposed reading by the help of a watch and cut it down to a proper length. He [begin page 384] couldn’t seem to learn it. He was a bright man in all other ways, but whenever he came to select a reading for one of these carousals his intellect decayed and fell to ruin. I arrived at his house in Cambridge the night before the Longfellow Memorial occasion, and I probably asked himapparatus note to show me his selection. At any rate, he showed it to me—and I wish I may never attempt the truth again if it wasn’t seven thousand words. I made him set his eye on his watch and keep game while I should read a paragraph of it. This experiment proved that it would take me an hour and ten minutes to read the whole of it, and I said “And mind you, this is not allowing anything for such interruptionsapparatus note as applause—for the reason that after the first twelve minutes there wouldn’t be any.”

He had a time of it to find something short enough, and he kept saying that he never would find a short enough selection that would be good enough—that is to say, he never would be able to find one that would stand exposure before an audience.

I said “It’s no matter. Better that than a long one—because the audience could stand a bad short one, but couldn’t stand a good long one.”

We got it arranged at last. We got him down to fifteen minutes, perhapsexplanatory note. But he and Dr. Holmes and Aldrich and I had the only short readings that day out of the most formidable accumulation of authors that had ever thus far been placed in position before the enemy—a battery of sixteen. I think that that was the occasion when we had sixteenexplanatory note. If it wasn’t then it was in Washington, in 1888. Yes, I think that that occasion was the time when we had that irresistible, that unconquerable force. It was in the afternoon, in the Globe Theatreexplanatory note, and the place was packed, and the air would have been very bad only there wasn’t any. I can see that mass of people yet, opening and closing their mouths like fishes gasping for breath. It was intolerable.

That graceful and competent speaker, Professor Nortonexplanatory note, opened the game with a very handsome speech, but it was a good twenty minutes long. And a good ten minutes of it, I think, were devoted to the introduction of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who hadn’t any more need of an introduction than the Milky Way. Then Dr. Holmes recited—as only Dr. Holmes could recite it—“The Last Leaf,” and the house rose as one individual and went mad with worshipingapparatus note delight. And the house stormed along, and stormed along,apparatus note and got another poem out of the Doctor as an encore; it stormed again and got a third one—though the storm was not so violent this time as had been the previous outbreaks.apparatus note By this time Dr. Holmes had himself lost a part of his mind, and he actually went on reciting poem after poem until silence had taken the place of encoresexplanatory note, and he had to do the last encore by himself. He was the loveliest human being in Boston, and it was a pathetic thing that he should treat himself so.

I had learned, long ago, to stipulate for third place on the programapparatus note. The performance began at two o’clock. My train for Hartford would leave at four o’clock. I would need fifteen minutes for transit to the station. I needed ten minutes for my reading. I did my reading in the ten minutesexplanatory note; I fled at once from the theatre, and I came very near not catching that train. I was told afterward that by the time reader number eight stepped forward and trained his gun on the house, the audience were drifting out of the place in groups, shoals, blocks, and avalanches, and that about that time the siege was raised and the conflict given up, with six or seven readers still to hear from.

[begin page 385]

At the reading in Washington, in the spring of ’88 there was a crowd of readers. They all came overloadedapparatus note, as usual. Thomas Nelson Page read forty minutes by the watch, and he was no further down than the middle of the list. We were all due at the White Houseexplanatory note at half pastapparatus note nine. The President and Mrs. Cleveland were present, and at half pastapparatus note ten they had to go away—the President to attend to some official business which had been arranged to be considered after our White House reception, it being supposed by Mr. Cleveland, who was inexperienced in Authors’ Readings, that our reception at the White House would be over by half pastapparatus note eleven, whereas if he had known as much about Authors’ Readings as he knew about other kinds of statesmanship, he would have known that we were not likely to get through before time for early breakfast.

I think that it was upon the occasion of this visit to Washington that Livy, always thoughtful of me, prepared me for my visit to the Executive Mansion. No, it wasn’t—that was earlier. She was with me, this time, and could look after me herselfexplanatory note.

Revisions, Variants Adopted or Rejected, and Textual Notes Monday, February 26, 1906
  title February ●  Feb. (TS1, TS2, TS3) 
  Susy ●  no Susie y  (TS1-SLC)  Susy (TS2, TS3) 
  Aunt Clara . . . ill luck . . . thirty years ago— ●  Aunt Clara . . . ill-luck . . . 30 yrs. ago. (TS1, TS2)  not in  (TS3) 
  Susy ●  Susie y  (TS1-SLC)  Susy (TS2, TS3) 
  General ●  Gen. (TS1, TS2, TS3) 
  account ●  Gen. (TS1, TS2, TS3) 
  General ●  Gen. (TS1, TS2, TS3) 
  From Susy’s Biography.  ●  I return to From Susie y ’s b B iography ‘Susie y’s b Biography’ underscored  (TS1-SLC)  From Susy’s Biography. (TS2)  From Susy’s Biography. ‘From Susy’s Biography’ underscored  (TS3-Munro)  From Susy’s Biography.  (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Papa ●  “Papa (TS1)  Papa (TS3-SLC)  Papa (TS2, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  1885  ●  not in  (TS1, TS2, NAR 6pf, NAR 6)  1885 inserted and boxed in the margin in red pencil  (TS3-SLC) 
  room. ●  room.” (TS1, TS2)  room. . . . . . . . . (TS3-SLC)  room. . . . (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  two or three years ●  a year or two or three years  (TS1-SLC)  two or three years (TS2) 
  ’bus ●  bus (TS1, TS2) 
  two ●  two  (TS1-SLC)  two (TS2) 
  inoffensive ●  u inoffensive (TS1-SLC)  inoffensive (TS2) 
  ’bus ●  bus (TS1, TS2) 
  excursion-comrade ●  excursion-comrade (TS1-SLC)  excursion-comrade (TS2) 
  American ●  American  (TS1-SLC)  American (TS2) 
  “Stay ●  no “Stay (TS1)  “Stay (TS2) 
  He ●  no He (TS1)  He (TS2) 
  twenty-three ●  twenty-five three  (TS1-SLC)  twenty-three (TS2) 
  Stanchfield ●  Stanchfield Hobby queried this word on TS1, and SLC canceled her query  (TS1-Hobby + SLC, TS2) 
  is ●  is now  (TS1-SLC)  is (TS2) 
  expecting: she ●  expecting. : she period mended to a semicolon; ‘she’ originally ‘She’; marked for lowercase with a slash and ‘l.c.’  (TS1-SLC)  expecting: she (TS2) 
  ancle ●  ankle (TS1, TS2) 
  ancle ●  ankle (TS1, TS2) 
  rebreaking ●  re- | breaking (TS1)  re-breaking (TS2) 
  crutches, ●  crutches,  (TS1-SLC)  crutches, (TS2) 
  surgery-work ●  surgery-work (TS1-SLC)  surgery-work (TS2) 
  once more. ●  again. once more.  (TS1-SLC)  once more. (TS2) 
  From Susy’s Biography.  ●  From Susy’s Biography.  (TS1-SLC)  From Susy’s Biography. (TS2)  From Susy’s Biography.  (TS3-SLC)  not in  (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  We ●  “We (TS1)  We (TS3-SLC)  We (TS2, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  were going ●  were going (TS1, TS2)  were going were going (TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  our ●  our (TS1, TS2, NAR 6pf, NAR 6)  out r  (TS3-SLC) 
  some ●  some (TS1, TS2, NAR 6pf, NAR 6)  some (TS3-SLC) 
  (word illegible) ●  (word illegible) (TS1, TS2, TS3)  [word illegible] (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  (Webster) ●  (Webster)  (TS1-SLC)  (Webster) (TS2, TS3)  [Webster] (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  biography. ●  biography.” (TS1)  biography.  (TS3-SLC)  biography. (TS2, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Susy ●  Susie y  (TS1-SLC)  Susy (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  April ●  “April (TS1)  April (TS3-SLC)  April (TS2, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Susy ●  Susie y  (TS1-SLC)  Susy (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  feature ●  figure feature  (TS1-SLC)  feature (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  gotten ●  gotten  (TS1-SLC)  gotten (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Susy ●  Susie y  (TS1-SLC)  Susy (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Appomattox.* footnote: *I . . . time. S.L.C. ●  Appomattox.* footnote: no *I . . . time. S.L.C. (TS1-Hobby?)  Appomattox.* footnote: no *I . . . time. S.L.C. (TS2-SLC, TS3-SLC)  Appomattox.* footnote: *I . . . time.—S.L.C. (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  was ●  was (TS1, TS2)  was,  (TS3-Munro)  was, (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  that, ●  that,  (TS1-SLC)  that, (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  opposing ●  opposing  (TS1-SLC)  opposing (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  finish ●  have finished (TS1, TS2)  have finished  (TS3-SLC)  finish (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Sherman.) ●  Sherman). (TS1, TS2, TS3)  Sherman.) (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  said ●  said (TS1, TS2)  said,  (TS3-Munro)  said, (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  hours; ●  hours, ; comma mended to a semicolon  (TS1-SLC)  hours; (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  again.” ●  again.” (TS1, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6)  again. (TS2) 
  (This ●  (This (TS1, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6)  This (TS2) 
  “Mark Twain.” ●  Mark Twain. (TS1, TS2)  Mark Twain.  (TS3-SLC)  “Mark Twain.” (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Susy Resumes. After ●  “After (TS1, TS2)  Susy Resumes. After SLC inserted ‘Susy Resumes.’ and canceled the open quotation marks; Munro underscored the insertion  (TS3-SLC + Munro)  Susy Resumes. After (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  together. ●  together.” (TS1)  together.  (TS3-SLC)  together. (TS2, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  comrades ●  comrades (TS1, TS2, TS3, NAR 6)  comrades corrected from ‘comdares’  (NAR 6pf-SLC) 
  always ●  always  (TS1, TS2)  originally always ; underscore canceled  (TS3-SLC)  always (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Susy ●  Susie y  (TS1-SLC)  Susy (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  cosy ●  cozy (TS1, TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Susy’s ●  Susie y’s (TS1-SLC)  Susy’s (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Susy’s ●  Susie y’s (TS1-SLC)  Susy’s (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Susy ●  Susie y  (TS1-SLC)  Susy (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Susy ●  Susie y  (TS1-SLC)  Susy (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  sake ●  sake, (TS1, TS2)  sake,  (TS3-SLC)  sake (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  I would not have done it for my own. ●  not for my own. (TS1, TS2)  not for my own. I would not have done it for my own.  (TS3-SLC)  I would not have done it for my own. (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  From Susy’s Biography.  ●  From Susy’s Biography.  (TS1-SLC)  From Susy’s Biography. (TS2)  From Susy’s Biography. ‘From Susy’s Biography.’ underscored  (TS3-Munro)  From Susy’s Biography.  (NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  Then ●  “Then (TS1)  Then (TS3-SLC)  Then (TS2, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  read, ●  read,  (TS1-SLC)  read, (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  afternoon, ●  afternoon,  (TS1-SLC)  afternoon, (TS2, TS3, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  mamma. ●  mamma.” (TS1)  mamma.  (TS3-SLC)  mamma. (TS2, NAR 6pf, NAR 6) 
  witch’s ●  witche s (TS1-SLC)  witch’s (TS2) 
  I ●  originally I ; underscore canceled  (TS1-SLC)  I (TS2) 
  No. 3 ●  number three (TS1, TS2) 
  half past ●  half-past (TS1, TS2) 
  him ●  Howells him  (TS1-SLC)  him (TS2) 
  interruptions ●  interruptions and details  (TS1-SLC)  interruptions (TS2) 
  worshiping ●  worshipping (TS1, TS2) 
  along, and stormed along, ●  along, and stormed along,  (TS1-SLC)  along, and stormed along, (TS2) 
  outbreaks. ●  outbreak. s.  (TS1-SLC)  outbreaks. (TS2) 
  program ●  programme (TS1, TS2) 
  overloaded ●  overloaded ‘over loaded’ marked to join up  (TS1-SLC)  overloaded (TS2) 
  1888  ●  (’88) typed in the margin  (TS1, TS2) 
  half past ●  half-past (TS1, TS2) 
  half past ●  half-past (TS1, TS2) 
  half past ●  half-past (TS1, TS2) 
Explanatory Notes Monday, February 26, 1906
 

In Germany once . . . our friend and excursion-comrade—American Consul at a German city] This accident occurred at Worms in July 1878. The “friend and excursion-comrade” was probably Edward M. Smith, U.S. consul at Mannheim ( N&J2, 46, 125 n. 22, 248 n. 68).

 

Clara Spaulding . . . has a son who is a senior in college, and a daughter who is in college in Germany] John B. Stanchfield, Jr. (1889–1946), and Alice Spaulding Stanchfield (1887–1941), who later married Arthur M. Wright.

 

“Adonis” (word illegible) acted] This musical burlesque starring comedian Henry E. Dixey was a record-setting Broadway hit, with more than six hundred performances from 1884 to 1886 (New York Times: “Amusements,” 5 Sept 1884, 4; “A Great Day for Dixey,” 8 Jan 1886, 1). The parenthetical comment was Clemens’s substitute for what appears to be “the pals”: “We went to the theater and enjoyed ‘Adonis,’ the pals acted very much” (OSC 1885–86, 17). Susy may have meant to write “the play acted.”

 

Major Pond] James B. Pond (1838–1903) was born in Allegany County, New York. First apprenticed to a printer, he became a journalist, and worked at several newspapers. During the Civil War he served in the Third Wisconsin Cavalry and was commissioned major at the end of the conflict. He joined the Boston Lyceum Bureau of lecture manager James Redpath, and bought out Redpath’s share of the business in 1875. Pond opened his own bureau in 1879. He managed Clemens’s 1884–85 tour of public readings with George Washington Cable, and arranged Clemens’s 1895–96 lecture trip around the world. Over the next years Pond made lavish offers for further tours, which Clemens declined (13 Sept 1897 to Rogers, 6–7 Nov 1898 to Rogers, 21 July 1900 to Rogers, Salm, in HHR, 300, 374, 448).

 

footnote *I was his publisher] See “About General Grant’s Memoirs.”

 

General Hood . . . Sherman . . . was perfectly free to proceed . . . through Georgia] John B. Hood (1831–79) attended West Point, and served in the Union army until he resigned and joined the Confederacy in April 1861. He was promoted to major general in October 1862. Grant gave substantially the same account of Sherman’s march to the sea in his Personal Memoirs (Grant 1885–86, 2:374–76).

 

new and devilish invention—the thing called an Authors’ Reading] The event described here took place on Wednesday, 29 April 1885, at Madison Square Theatre, and was the second of two readings benefiting the American Copyright League. Clemens read his oft-repeated “A Trying Situation,” from chapter 25 of A Tramp Abroad; the other readers included Howells and Henry Ward Beecher. “Devilish” though he may have found them, the new fashion for authors’ readings (as opposed to recitations from memory) had been initiated by Clemens himself. The Washington Post noted that “the Cable-Twain reading venture of last winter may be made the beginning of a new kind of entertainment. The lecture is obsolescent . . . but for an author . . . to read from his own writings is a new idea and an attractive one” (“News Notes in New York,” 3 May 1885, 5). Clemens’s Vassar lecture was on 1 May ( N&J3, 112, 140–41 n. 48; “Listening to the Authors,” New York Times, 30 Apr 1885, 5; “Authors’ Readings,” Life 5 [30 Apr 1885]: 248; “The Authors’ Readings,” The Critic, 2 May 1885, 210).

 

I went to Boston to help . . . memorial to Mr. Longfellow] The Longfellow Memorial Association was formed in 1882 to raise funds for a monument honoring the late poet. The authors’ reading benefiting the association was held at the Boston Museum (a theater) on 31 March 1887 (Longfellow Memorial Association 1882; “The Authors’ Readings in Boston,” The Critic, 9 Apr 1887, 177; see MTHL, 2:589–90 n. 1).

 

We got it arranged at last . . . fifteen minutes, perhaps] Howells read a selection from Their Wedding Journey (Howells 1872; MTHL, 2:589–90 n. 1).

 

I think that that was the occasion when we had sixteen] There were nine speakers at the Boston event (“Authors’ Readings for the Longfellow Memorial Fund,” printed program, CLjC).

 

If it wasn’t then it was in Washington, in 1888 . . . in the afternoon, in the Globe Theatre] Clemens was confusing two readings: the one in Boston, in 1887, and another in Washington, in March 1888, at the Congregational Church (not the Globe Theatre); see the note at 385.1–3.

 

That graceful and competent speaker, Professor Norton] Author and reformer Charles Eliot Norton (1827–1908) presided at the 1887 Boston reading. According to Howells, “he fell prey to one of those lapses of tact” when he introduced Clemens, claiming that Darwin habitually read his books at bedtime in order to feel “secure of a good night’s rest” (Howells 1910, 51).

 

Dr. Holmes recited . . . “The Last Leaf,” . . . until silence had taken the place of encores] According to a contemporary account, Holmes read only “The Chambered Nautilus” (1858) and “Dorothy Q.” (1871). Holmes “gave himself completely to the spirit of the poetry, tingling and vibrating with life, rising on his toes and ending with a dash and sparkle which made his hearers beside themselves with delight” (“The Authors’ Readings in Boston,” The Critic, 9 Apr 1887, 177).

 

third place on the program . . . did my reading in the ten minutes] Clemens was first on the program, reading selections from “English as She Is Taught,” which appeared in the April 1887 issue of the Century Magazine (SLC 1887).

 

At the reading in Washington . . . Thomas Nelson Page . . . all due at the White House] Clemens read at two benefits for the American Copyright League at the Congregational Church, on 17 and 19 March 1888. He had not been scheduled to read at the first one, but as an “unexpected treat” he substituted for Charles Dudley Warner (delayed by a snowstorm), reading “How I Escaped Being Killed in a Duel” (“Authors as Readers,” Washington Post, 18 Mar 1888, 5; Budd 1992a, 543–46). Here he describes the second event, at which there were ten speakers; he read “An Encounter with an Interviewer” (SLC 1875b). Page (1853–1922), best known for his sympathetic and idealized depiction of the antebellum South, read two pieces in the “peculiar dialect of the Virginia negro.” Afterward the authors and their guests were given a lavish reception and supper in the Blue Parlor of the White House (Washington Post: “Local Intelligence,” 20 Mar 1888, 3; “Society,” 20 Mar 1888, 4).

 

I think that it was upon the occasion . . . prepared me for my visit . . . could look after me herself] See the next Autobiographical Dictation (5 Mar 1906).