The five letters written by three women, twenty-seven years ago, and Mr. Clemens’s comments upon them—Bret Harte again.
Let me consider that I have now been dead five hundred years. It is my desire, and indeed my command, that what I am going to say now shall not be permitted to see the light until the edition of a.d. 2400. At that distant date the things which I am about to say will be commonplaces of the time,Ⓐtextual note and barren of offenceⒶtextual note, whereas if uttered in our day they could inflict pain upon my friends, my acquaintances, and thousands of strangers whom I have no desire to hurt, and could get me ostracized, besides, and cut off from all human fellowship—and the ostracism is the main thing. I am human, and nothing could persuade me to do any bad deed—or any good one—that would bring that punishment upon me.
What I am going to say is not new, except to utterance. I think every person in Christendom of average intelligence has thought the things which I am going to say, many and many a time. He is thoroughly familiar with them, in his secret heart, and would gladly and promptly utter them and publish them if he had been dead five hundred years; but all these thousands and thousands of human beings of above average intelligence are like myself, they have not the courage to come out and tell their deep secret to their neighbor, (whoⒶtextual note possesses the same secret down in the depths of his heart, also, though he never lets on).Ⓐtextual note It is against nature for a person to have the courage to get himself spurned and avoided;Ⓐtextual note and these millions, along with me, are keeping the great secret, each one thinking he is the only one that has it, and hoping that the others will not find it out and crucify him.
My spirit is a little stirred, but I am trying to keep it from appearing at its full temperature in my words. During five years I have had in my possession a sack of old letters to which I attached no value. They were letters from strangers to each other, in the main, Smiths and Joneses and the like, wholly unknown to the world and to me, persons of not the slightest interest to anybody.Ⓐtextual note I was never expecting to become industrious enough to overhaul that sack and examine its contents, but now that I am doing this autobiography the joys and the sorrows of everybody, high and low, rich and poor, famous and obscure, are dear to me. I can take their heart affairs into my heart as I never could before. In becoming my own biographer I realize that I have become the biographer of Tom, Dick, and Harry, the voiceless.Ⓐtextual note I recognize that Tom and I are intimates; that be he young or be he old, he has never felt anything that I have not felt; he has never had an emotion that I am a stranger to.
Before I got up this morning I brought that ancient bag to the bed, and the first envelope I pulled out was a find. It contained five letters written by three obscure women twenty-seven years ago. They embody a pitiful romance. One of the women is evidently old, and has a good use of language but no education. No. 2 is evidently elderly, and apparently has some education. No. 3 is evidently young, and has had but little schooling, but has a native gift of expression which is very striking. I think it very remarkable and very interesting to see how well you know these three women after you have carefully [begin page 122] studied their letters a whileⒶtextual note. I think that the three characters stand out as strongly and distinctly as they would in the book of a trained novelist after he had devoted seventeen pages to painting their portraits for us. The three are strangers to me. I had never heard of them until this morning. The poor little romance is twenty-seven years old, yet the artless art of the ignorant authors of it has made it stir me as if the incidents had happened yesterday;Ⓐtextual note and not to strangers, but to personal friends of mine.
1879
Three Rivers Oct 5Ⓐtextual note
MichⒶtextual note
Mrs WilliamsⒶtextual note Ⓔexplanatory note
Dear Lady
Permit a stranger to address a few lines of inquiry to you in regard to Mrs HuntⒶtextual note who stoped with you last winter. She was in poor health and was confined at your home—— She is a widdow and has a little boy with her named EarnestⒶtextual note She bcame intimate with a Married man here and got in trouble by him, then suddenly left saying she was going to Kansas CityⒶtextual note where she has relatives but instead she went to DetroitⒶtextual note and said she was boarding with Mrs WilliamsⒶtextual note. Now what I wish to know is this what story did she tell you in regard to herslf and circumstances &c did she have a living child and what did she do with it was it male of female?
I will assure you by answering my questions and writing whatever you wish will be kept strictly confidental if you wish it. I think from the tenor of her letters she must have been verry ungrateful for your kindness when she was friendless. I will quote a passage from one of her letters “Mrs WilliamsⒶtextual note pretends to be a christian woman but the love for gain is stronger than her religeon and when I could not pay her $50 extra she forgot herself as a lady or a christian and said hard things.”
I am a relative of hers but do not wish to screne her in doing wrong, but would like to know how much truth or how many untruths she has told while with you. She pretends she has nothing living, but I have reason to think othewise. By giving this your earliest attention you will confer a great favor on an unknown friend
Yours Respecfly
Mrs Wm Griffiths
Three Rivers
MichⒶtextual note
From the Same to the Same. Ⓐtextual note
excuse pencil)Ⓐtextual note
Oct 13th 1879
Three
Rivers
MichⒶtextual note
Mrs WilliamsⒶtextual note
Detroit—Ⓐtextual note
Dear Madam
Yours of the 9th was duly recd and many thanks for your kindness and prompt answer— You have failed to answer the most important part of my letter concerning the child— I will ask again will you please answer them—
When she left you house did she take the child with her, what did she inted to do with it, was it Male or female what was the name of the man she told you who [begin page 123] was the father of it? Those are plain questions and I trust you as a Lady of honer and integrity and will do as you would wish to be done by— Be assured that no trouble will ever come to you in consequence of it— I have good reasons for wishing to know these things as I know all the rest from her own pen. She givs me the name of a man but I have reason to doubt her word. She has told different stories and I dont consider her word good for anything I do not blame you for doing as you did by her but I think your confidenceⒶtextual note was misplaced and she illtreated you for your kindness to her——
I will give you just one illustration— You say she did not board with you—you allso say she went away in your debt
I have in my possesion a bill of her own making while at your house saying like this.
Indebtedness paid from 24 of Dec to 6th of March—— Commencing (10 weeks board $8. per week $80) &c and other things carried out in the same way untill it figures up to nearly $200—two hundred dollars and to my certain knowledge she had over two hundred from here while at your house, and was abuntently able to have paid all that you required of her——you say she said the last she heard from this man he was in Canada the one that she tells me I dont think he was ever in Canada in his life I am anxious to hear the name she told you to see how they will corispond— If you will be kind enough to answer ths early, you may heare from me again—
Resectfly your Friend
Mrs Wm GriffithsⒶtextual note
From the Girl to Mrs. Williams. Ⓐtextual note
Kansas City*Ⓐtextual note
My Dear Mrs WilliamsⒶtextual note
I have been so Ill both in mind and body that I found it impossible to write you before. I arrived in Chicago at 6 am the next morning and as soon as I could went to bed and was not able to leave there untill the last of the next week. I was fearful that I was being taxed beyond my strength to endure and such is the case I am so nervous that I cannot control my hand in writing. My kind friends in C— have done nobly such kindness I did not look for, little BessieⒶtextual note is well cared for which of course help’s me although, I cannot help longing to have her myself. I have never heard a word from Mr HⒶtextual note since I left your home and cannot learn where he is the most I have learned has been that he was in Canida I presume like the coward and villain that he has proved himself to be he will stay away, if possible I expect to go to Colorado. I am so miserable that I do not have very much ambition. I feel the necessity of trying to battle with this great trouble, and do something and with God’s help I hope I shall succeed, no one but him know’s what I have suffered and do now.
ErnestⒶtextual note is well is very much pleased with the West, he has gone to sabbath School. The weather is and has been rather cool for the time of year. I may stay here untill July I cannot decide yet what I had better do. I hope your health has improved
with kind regards
Mrs S M HuntⒶtextual note
East 17thⒶtextual note st
Kansas City
*Probably March or April. (M.T.)Ⓐtextual note [begin page 124]
From Mrs. Williams to the Girl. Ⓐtextual note
Detroit.Ⓐtextual note October 16. 1879
Mrs Sylvia Hunt—Ⓐtextual note
I received your letter from Kansas CityⒶtextual note some months ago. Since then have received some letters from Three Rivers Michigan—Ⓐtextual notewhich have somewhat surprised me.
It seems you reported there that you boarded with us at $8.00 per week—that as you left I demanded $50.00 and that I professed to be a Christian but my love for money was stronger than my religion Etc. Etc. It would take too long to quote at length.
Mrs HuntⒶtextual note you know the circumstances under which I took you—on your part—and you know very well you paid but a nominal sum for your accommodations while you were well—but nothing like what you aught to have paid concidering the deception you practiced to get to stay until after your confinement.
Concerning the hard things I said to you—you know all I said and I know all I said.
I promised to keep your secret—and up to this date nothing has gone from me—rather us—for Mr W.Ⓐtextual note knew all. We seldom speak of you in any way—but since you have chosen to misrepresent so many things (and you have done it because this person writing could not know any other way than through you,] again I say since you have chosen to mis represent things as you have and had the money to the amount of over two hundred dollars sent you while at our house and since you have chosen to act as you have—I must say I feel under no obligations to keep from answering certain questions that have been asked me.
We thought it but proper to give you this notice before I write again (I have answered one letter to Three Rivers,Ⓐtextual note but answered no questions in that—now another is before me.
Respectfully, &c.Ⓐtextual note
Mrs M. E. WilliamsⒶtextual note
From the Girl to Mrs. Williams. Ⓐtextual note
Oct 18th
Kansas CityⒶtextual note
Mrs WilliamsⒶtextual note
I am so grateful to you for writing to me and giving me an opportunity to defend myself from Parties who seem determined to injure all they can. When I came here I was Heart broken so my Sister said she would never thought I was the same person and I told her all I do not think I could of lived but for her kindness and support, sometime ago I rec’d a letter, stating that letter’s from those I was with at DⒶtextual note explaining every thing, demanding also money for indebtedness &c, which I had left unpaid was rec’d and that there was no use to think I was safe as they knew everything. I was dumb with surprize I felt your demand upon me for $50.00 keenly but at the same time I thought you had the impresion that I could get all the money I wanted and as I did not get away when I expected to you might as well have pay for it, and I did not lay up a hard thought. I have many hours sat and thought of my home at that time and thankful to think I was not thrown among those who I could not trust when I rec’d the letter I replyed by writing to my Sister telling her [begin page 125] of the Ill treatment rec’d from Mr HⒶtextual note &c when it came to my sickness I said like this that it was to sad for me to say anything about I would and must draw a vail over that forever. I felt deeply hurt to think you had as I supposed written to them and although your name was never mentioned in a letter I ever wrote to anyone (ErnestⒶtextual note at one time in writing to his Cousin said Mr WilliamsⒶtextual note where we lived had the nicest Black cow he ever saw) and I did not think anything of it as I had not one thought of trying to deceive anyone in regard to my name, place or anything accept Mr HⒶtextual note I was told before I left C— to go to DⒶtextual note to never let him know the names of anyone but to do the best could, and make him pay at the rate of $8 00 or $9 00 pr wk for board and send all the bill’s I could so as to get all the money I could from him it is utterly false that I had $200 while at your house I had of my own money $65.00 which I got and Mr HⒶtextual note did not send me but $25.00 that I had to use while there. If I had not had that of my own I would of been obliged to of applyed for aid he does not know to day how I ever lived or paid as I found he did not get the 3 last letter’s I wrote with bill statements containing board bill at $8.00 pr wk and other bill’s as large as could be made, in one of those letter’s I said like this which I wrote with a demand for money. I shall not be able to leave here under the circumstances which I expected, meaning I was to late, and urged the necessity of imediate releif for Mrs WⒶtextual note. I never expected to remain at your house and had my mind not been so troubled I should of seen I had made a wrong estimate of time I am sorry I did not show you the letter I wrote to Dr F telling him to have everything ready for my comfort through sickness, and at the same time telling him of your great kindness to me and also his reply trying to cheer me and saying God he knew was with me as so many kind friend’s were with me then my letter telling him of my mistake and sickness. I am sure you would not doubt me then in regard to my staying, those 3 letter’s fell into the hand’s of Mr H’s wife Ⓐtextual note in place of his and I found she took them to my sister as there was no name to them to see if it was my writing. She then thought she would find out what they meant, and had my Sister write, as also did she, professing to know all and making me think you had written to her and told all, in replying to my Sister, I said I had felt I was with Christan people but you had made me feel and doubt that there was any at all I felt you had told them and tried to get money that I said I thought your asking me for the $50.00Ⓐtextual note and them the other that your love for money was the greatest. I never mentioned your name then I said Parties my Sister here has seen all the letter’s I have re’cd and all I write and I can prove all I say to you if you wish when I paid you the $10.00 I knew not what I would do as when I arrived in C— I had only money enough to pay my fare here and 95 cts over and walked to the depot to save that, where I boarded they trusted me and the first work I was able to do I sent the money to pay it and Dr F knew all, and but for their aid, I could not of left there under the painful circumstances I had to, as I had no money, and I have never rec’d one ct since nor had a letter from Mr HⒶtextual note since before I was sick all I have now I have to work for what is to come in future may if ever I get it be to late to ever help me any my Sister at home then coppied the 3 letter’s and sent them to my Sister here we then knew we had judged you wrong and I am glad it is so and at the same time sorry I said what I did, although I felt I had good reason then to say it Mrs HⒶtextual note did not think it would show the deception she wrote me and found she was obliged to let me alone I have no mean’s to defend myself with and it will be best to say nothing. What they have said in regard to my Character is False and utterly without any foundation—made up lies which I do [begin page 126] not feel they would care to be made to prove as Mrs WⒶtextual note there can no one prove one thing whereever I have been all these yrs I can prove every hr of time how and who with it was spent but Mr HⒶtextual note made an attempt to prove that I was not all right I wish the letter I wrote him about that had fell into his wife’s hand’s she would never made an attempt to do what she seem’s anxious she say’s to my Sister she hated her husbanded she knew he was mean enough to do anything, at the same time she want’s to know all and in order to do so has taken what I wrote to my Sister in reply to what I thought you had written) and then the 3 letter’s from them put the indebtedness for board which I sent as I told you to him in order to get money and wrote to you or got someone to so as to make you feel I had done you an injustice and to get you to tell her all your name they got from E’s letter no other way, had I mean’s I would, go home and settle with them I would and could put Mr HⒶtextual note in a place where he would be obliged to work as I have proof’s that would do it my Sister here know’s of thing’s that happened when I was a child that my Father had forbidden her to go with him she is older than me but she never told me although say’s many times has thought what if he should take advantage of my being alone and injure me, as she knew he alway’s professed to be such a friend to me. I wish I knew how I could make him pay me $200 or 3—or—5—my Sister think’s it best for me to keep still and in writing say nothing about it she will go home this winter I think, and I have friend’s there that will not beleive me to be bad as they know me and been with me my life has alway’s been a quiet one and have alway’s worked hard there is in every place as you know gossipper’s and a class of people who feast upon all that tend’s to be low and tell lies and is such a habit with them they think and really beleive what they say. I care not for them, although it is not pleasant as I wrote my Sister I was glad I never for one moment felt unhappy for anything I had done wrong in my conscience was clear my unhapiness was caused from the wrong other’s had done to me. Mrs WⒶtextual note I thank you kindly for writing to me and ask your pardon for doubting you and am willing to trust you now whatevr they write to deceive
Yours respectfullyⒶtextual note
Mrs S M Hunt, Kansas City
I did not understand about the hard word’s I do not remember that we had any and I cannot recall anything of the kind it is not strange I my poor head is so presed I feel wild sometimes and I have such a battle with myself as the cry for revenge keep’s a battle in my mindⒶtextual note
I have an uncompromising detestation of that old cat who writes the first letter. I feel disrespectfully toward that machine-made Christian who writes the second one. I think that in her heart Ⓐtextual note she turned the friendless refugee and the baby into the street in the raw March weather; and so I hold her guilty to the hilt for that uncommittedⒶtextual note inhuman act, and I am sure she would have committed Ⓐtextual note itⒶtextual note if she could have done it without falling under the artificial censure of the community. I call it artificial because I think that perhaps the majority of the community would have secretly approved the act while publicly denouncing it. I think this because it is human nature—wrought upon by established conventions—to privately exult over certain kinds of baseness and ungenerosity while publicly censuring them to keep on the good side of Mrs. Grundy.
[begin page 127]All my sympathies and my compassion are for the betrayed and abused ignorant and trusting young widow, who was as yet too young to know the human race, and I hope that she and her children are long ago dead—a wish and a prayer which I reserve for the good and the deserving alone. I believe every word she says. I think No. 1 is a scheming old malignant. I have already said what I think of No. 2. I discover neither lies nor furtivenesses in the young woman’s letter, but only straight and open sincerities—except in one or two particulars which I am unwilling to regard as serious possible departures from cast-iron fact. When she says she has always led a quiet life and has worked hard, I believe it. When she says her conscience absolves her, I believe that too. I think she means that she was tempted beyond her strength by a man whom she had known familiarly in her early girlhood, and that by some inborn instinct she realized that she did not create her own nature Ⓐtextual note , that she did not create its limitations Ⓐtextual note , and that when those limitations were overpassed she was not strictly responsible for the consequences Ⓐtextual note. There are human laws against her conduct, but her conduct transgresses no law of Nature, and the laws of Nature take precedence of all human laws Ⓐtextual note. The purpose of all Ⓐtextual note human laws is one— to defeat the laws of Nature Ⓐtextual note. This is the case among all the nations, both civilized and savage. It is a grotesquerie, but when the human race is not grotesque it is because it is asleep and losing its opportunity.
That young woman’s letter exhibits the fact that she has had very little schooling. It is unlikely that she has had much practice with the pen, yet how moving and convincing are her simple phrases, her unstudied eloquence!Ⓐtextual note Her letter is literature Ⓐtextual note—good literature—and the most practisedⒶtextual note pen cannot surpass it,Ⓐtextual note out of the best-trainedⒶtextual note head. She speaks from the heart;Ⓐtextual note and the heartⒶtextual note has no use for the artifices of training or education or dramatic invention when it has a taleⒶtextual note to tell.
I am forgetting Bret Harte—but let him go until another time. This new interest has superseded him, and by the law of this biography the newest and warmest interest always has the floor, and takes precedence of all other matters. I shall finish with Bret Harte by and byⒺexplanatory note, for I am prejudiced against him and feel that I can talk about him impartially. In some of his characteristics he reminds me of God. I do not mean of any andⒶtextual note every god among the two or three millions of gods that our race has been manufacturing since it nearly ceased to be monkeys—Ⓐtextual noteI mean our own God. I do not mean that Mighty OneⒶtextual note, that Incomparable OneⒶtextual note that created the universe and flung abroad upon its horizonless ocean of spaceⒶtextual note its uncountable hosts of giant suns—Ⓐtextual notefleets of the desert ether,Ⓐtextual note whose signal lights are so remote that we only catch their latest flash when it has been a myriad of years on its way—I mean the little GodⒶtextual note whom we manufacturedⒶtextual note out of wasteⒶtextual note human material;Ⓐtextual note whose portrait we accurately painted in a Bible and charged its authorship upon Him;Ⓐtextual note the GodⒶtextual note who created a universe of such nurseryⒶtextual note dimensions that there would not be room in it for the orbit of Mars (as it is now known to the infant class in our schools) and put our little globe in the centreⒶtextual note of it under the impression that it was the only really important thing in itⒺexplanatory note.
and not to strangers, but to personal friends of mine . . . Mrs Williams] On the day of this dictation Isabel Lyon noted in her journal: “In an old sack of letters sent to SLC from Keokuk about 5 years ago he unearthed a batch of 5 letters this morning which are a romance & a tragedy. Today he dictated in the house & his topic was the 5 letters and their tragedy, a dictation to be published 500 years hence” (Lyon 1906, entry for 18 June). Two of the characters figuring in the drama that unfolds in the correspondence below were not “strangers,” as Clemens claims: “Mrs Williams” is a pseudonym for Mollie Clemens, the wife of Clemens’s brother Orion, who is referred to here as “Mr. W.” Orion and Mollie were both dead, but even so, the opinion of her that Clemens admits to here is clearly too scornful for public expression. For example, at one point he says, “I feel disrespectfully toward that machine-made Christian who writes the second one. I think that in her heart she turned the friendless refugee and the baby into the street in the raw March weather” (126.37–40). (Clemens was momentarily confused. Although Mollie was the second in his cast of characters—“No. 2 is evidently elderly, and apparently has some education” [121.36–37]—she actually wrote the fourth letter. The first two were written by the same woman, Mrs. Griffiths.) Clemens usually carried out his self-censorship when revising the typescripts of his dictations. In this instance, however, he asked Lyon to alter the letter manuscripts even before they were transcribed, substituting “Williams” and “Detroit” for every mention of “Clemens” and “Keokuk.” When he planned to publish the dictation in the North American Review (it never appeared there), he disguised the other names and cities. In the present text, the suppression of “Clemens” and “Keokuk” is accepted, but the other names are left as in the original manuscripts, since the second round of revision was carried out strictly for contemporary publication (for details see the Textual Commentary at MTPO ). The letter manuscripts have been transcribed verbatim, with no correction of spelling or punctuation.
I shall finish with Bret Harte by and by] Clemens does not return to the subject of Harte until the Autobiographical Dictation of 4 February 1907.
he reminds me of God . . . only really important thing in it] On the typescript of the present dictation, Clemens noted that his remarks about God on the “last 2 pages must be postponed to the edition of A.D. 2406.”
Source documents.
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 903–14 (altered in pencil to 927–36, 938–39), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.TS1 carbon 913–14 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), a retyping of pages 913–14 of TS1: ‘moving and . . . in it.’ (127.20–40).
Griffiths to MEC 1 MS letter, Mrs. William Griffiths to Mary E. Clemens, 5 October 1879, attached to TS1 and revised by Lyon: ‘1879 . . . Mich’ (122.7–33).
Griffiths to MEC 2 MS letter, Mrs. William Griffiths to Mary E. Clemens, 13 October 1879, attached to TS1 and revised by Lyon: ‘From the Same . . . Mrs. Wm Griffiths’ (122.35–123.22).
Hunt to MEC 1 MS letter, Sylvia M. Hunt to Mary E. Clemens, undated, attached to TS1 and revised by Lyon: ‘From the Girl . . . Mo’ (123.23–46).
MEC to Hunt MS letter, Mary E. Clemens to Sylvia M. Hunt, 16 October 1879, attached to TS1 and revised by Lyon: ‘From Mrs. Williams . . . M. E. Williams’ (124.1–29).
Hunt to MEC 2 MS letter, Sylvia M. Hunt to Mary E. Clemens, 18 October 1879, attached to TS1 and revised by Lyon: ‘From the Girl . . . my mind’ (124.30–126.36).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 1056–69, made from pages 903–12 of the revised TS1 and the five attached MS letters and further revised in ink and blue pencil: ‘Monday . . . to tell.’ (121 title–127.24).
Hobby typed TS1 from her notes and the five inserted letters; Clemens revised it, and Hobby incorporated his revisions into TS2. Clemens then revised TS2, clearly with an NAR installment in mind, but it was not published there. Referring to TS1’s final paragraph, concerning Bret Harte and God, Clemens noted: ‘All publishable except the last 2 pages. The last 2 pages must be postponed to the edition of A.D. 2406. SLC.’ Before TS2 was typed he had Hobby prepare an alternate version of the dictation, which ends with ‘to tell.’ (127.24) and omits the final, “unpublishable” passage altogether. She typed this alternate from the revised TS1, and, like TS2, it incorporates Clemens’s revisions. (There is one exception: the alteration of ‘it’ to ‘the heart’ at 11.15 was inscribed on both TS1 and TS2, and was probably a late change copied to TS1 from TS2 after the latter was revised, and therefore after the alternate version was typed.) On page 913 of TS1 Clemens drew a line below the sentence ending with ‘I can talk about him impartially.’ and wrote in the margin, ‘Add this to page 912’. It seems that he changed his mind, however, since the alternate version omits all mention of Harte, ending with ‘to tell.’ (127.24).
A carbon copy of TS1 is extant, but Clemens did not revise it. It omits the inserted letters: where the first one is introduced, on p. 906, Hobby wrote, ‘the 5 letters go in here!’ and the page numbering skips from 906 to 911. Oddly, however, the last two pages of the carbon, TS1 carbon 913–14, contain essentially the same text as the ribbon TS1, but are not an exact match. In other words, these two pages are carbon copies of a ribbon version that is now lost. This unusual circumstance is clearly the result of Clemens’s decision to truncate the dictation and retain two versions of the ending. Hobby marked several corrections on TS1 carbon 913–14 to make it match TS1, but she overlooked several variants, including one notable substantive: where TS1 reads ‘nursery’ (at 127.37), TS1 carbon 913–14 has ‘majestic’, presumably in error for the former word. It is likely that Hobby corrected the missing ribbon copy more carefully.
The inserted manuscript letters were at one time pinned to TS1; they are the source of the present text. At the top of the manuscript letters, Clemens wrote ‘No. 1.’, ‘No. 2.’, ‘No. 3’, ‘No. 4.’ and ‘No. 5.’ in brown pencil, to tell Hobby in what order to type them. He apparently did not intend these numbers to be included in the text.
There are three characters in the drama implied by the inserted letters: Mrs. Hunt, who had a relationship with a married man and gave birth to an illegitimate child; Mrs. Williams, at whose house Mrs. Hunt stayed; and Mrs. Griffiths, the ‘old cat’ (126.37) who wrote Mrs. Clemens for information about Mrs. Hunt.
The dictation postulates that these women are all ‘strangers’ to Clemens (122.3), which is not so: “Mrs. Williams” was Mary E. (Mollie) Clemens, the wife of his brother Orion. It is of her that he says, ‘I feel disrespectfully toward that machine-made Christian who writes the second one. I think that in her heart she turned the friendless refugee and the baby into the street in the raw March weather’ (126.37–40). Mollie had died in January 1904 (Orion had predeceased her, in 1897); nevertheless, Clemens suppressed her identity even before TS1 was typed: he asked Isabel Lyon to go through the letter manuscripts, altering ‘Clemens’ to ‘Williams’ and substituting ‘Detroit’ for ‘Keokuk’.
In revising TS2 with the intent to publish the dictation in NAR, Clemens disguised all the names even further: he changed ‘Mrs. S. M. Hunt’ to ‘Mrs. S. M. S.’; ‘Williams’ to ‘G’; and ‘Mrs. Wm. Griffiths’ to ‘Mrs. P. M.’ Place names were likewise suppressed (‘Detroit’ became ‘West R—’, ‘Three Rivers’ became ‘X— Z—’, and so forth), as were the personal names ‘Bessie’ and ‘E(a)rnest’ (altered to ‘Lizzie’ and ‘Tommy’). He carried out these revisions on TS2 in blue pencil, reinscribing most of them in ink. (If no medium is noted in an apparatus entry, the revision was in ink alone.)
For the most part it is unproblematic to restore these names to their original, unaltered condition; but for ‘Mrs. Clemens’/‘Keokuk’ the case is different. This is because Clemens, in introducing and commenting upon the letters, treats the letters as if he were unacquainted with the authors of any of them. To read that these letters concern ‘strangers’ (2.15, 2.18) and then to read that the first is addressed to a ‘Mrs. Clemens’ is jarring, and Clemens would not have intended this. We have accepted the first round of suppressions of names performed by Lyon (in fact we have had to complete the job where she failed to notice a name to be suppressed), because those alterations are required by and assumed in Clemens’s dictated matter; but we have rejected the second round of disguisings performed by Clemens, which were made with magazine publication in mind and which are unnecessary.
Marginal Notes on TS1 and TS2 Concerning Publication in NAR
1. Start at bottom of 1057. (2200 words—5½ p of Review)
2 Follow with Susy.
3 Follow Susy with Cowboy
On a separate sheet of paper Clemens wrote, in ink:
The list refers to the three sections of the planned NAR instalment that are listed above in the table entry for TS2, p. 1056. The page number for the second section, 1023 (AD, 8 August 1906), is lower than the number of the present dictation because of an error in pagination. But Clemens’s ‘II’ on the AD of 8 August 1906 and his reference to ‘Susy’ confirm his selection.