Miss Clara Clemens’s débutⒶtextual note as a concert singer, at Norfolk, Connecticut, September 22dⒶtextual note—Mr. Clemens’s talk—Difference between speeches and talks.
It was my purpose, yesterday morning, to talk about Clara’s débutⒶtextual note, and about that only, but of course I soon wandered from the track—however,Ⓐtextual note it is no matter; as I have said before, there is no law back of this autobiography which requires me to ever talk about a thing which I was intending to talk about, if in the meantimeⒶtextual note I chance to get interested in something else. I will return to that débutⒶtextual note now.
When the fact transpired that Clara was to sing in Norfolk on the 22dⒶtextual note Ⓔexplanatory note, the Associated Press and the newspapers took it up, and although some of them printed Clara’s portrait, and in that way made her prominent above me, all of them touched her name Ⓐtextual note rather lightly in the display-headsⒶtextual note butⒶtextual note put “Mark Twain’s daughter” in very large lettersⒺexplanatory note. This was vinegar for Clara, but saccharin for me, for I had been pretending for two years that for her there could be no glory comparable to the glory of being my daughter, and that therefore she ought to suppress herself and sail altogether under my name. Naturally, she wouldn’t listen to this most reasonable suggestion, but perversely wanted to succeed upon her own merit or not at all. In Florence, two years ago, she thought she had suppressed me in the bills, but at the last moment the managementⒶtextual note treacherously intruded me, and she sang (mainly)Ⓐtextual note as Mark Twain’s daughter. Our skirmishings have continued ever since, and they haveⒶtextual note had a real joy for me and a vexation for her which was not wholly fictitious.
When she was leaving for Norfolk on the 21st I begged her to let me go up there, the next day, and lead her out on the platform, but she wouldn’t allow it. She evidently believed I was in earnest.Ⓐtextual note She said I would get all the welcome and she none. But when our old KatyⒺexplanatory note came back from depositing her on board her train, she said that Clara’s courage had weakened, and she had concluded that she would prefer to face her first audience under her father’s protection. This would be unwise, and of course must not happen, but I thought I would keep up the game,Ⓐtextual note anyway. When she arrived in Norfolk,Ⓐtextual note Mrs. R. W.Ⓐtextual note GilderⒺexplanatory note, who was mothering her, promptly decided that it wouldn’t do for me to lead her out. Her managerⒶtextual note also said it mustn’t even be thought of. Other friends said the same. Very well, who was to convey this decision to me? Neither Clara nor the others were willing to bell this cat.
When I arrived in Norfolk at noon on the 22dⒶtextual note, Clara timidly suggested that if I led her out I would have to answer the call for a speech, and she thought it ought to be very brief. I pretended to be greatly gratified with even this small chance to show off, and eagerly said I would confine myself to saying merely these words:
“I should be most glad to respond, but Mr. LuckstoneⒺexplanatory note, who was to accompany me on the trombone, has unfortunately caught cold and is not able to keep his engagement.”
Clara was much relieved, and said that if I would restrict myself to that she would be content. But when she reported this to the managerⒶtextual note there was more trouble. He said:
“It will not do. They will not let him stop with that, and if he gets to talking he will [begin page 244] be so charmed with himself that he may never get through at all;Ⓐtextual note and meantime you will be standing there gradually wilting away to nothing. This is our show, not his, and if we don’t keep him off the platform, somehow or other, he will take it away from us.”
Clara asked him to convey this decision to me, but he said he was too young to approach my white head with such a mission. Mr. Luckstone declined on the same terms, and so did the others. But Rodman GilderⒺexplanatory note, aged twenty-three, spoke up and said he would tell me. They all admired his pluck, and were properly thankful. They left for the hallⒶtextual note at seven in the evening in a quite happy and grateful frame of mind, and when Rodman and I followed them, an hour and a half later, he said:
“Mr. Clemens, they don’t want you to lead Miss Clara out.”
I said, “Why I never intended to”—and we dropped the subject there and took up another one.
When we arrived,Ⓐtextual note Rodman reported, but those people were so set in their belief that I was going to raid their show that they didn’t credit Rodman’s statement, but placed guards over the greenroom and the stage entrances to bar me out.
They gave us seats in the third row, and I awaited Clara’s appearance without much apprehension, for I judged that in case her vocalization should not be up to standard, her youth and her beauty would carry her to success anyway, for she is beautiful, I concede it myself, who shouldn’t. She was heartily received, and when she had reached the middle of her first number Mr. Luckstone, at the piano, turned his head over his shoulder and beamed upon her, and Miss GordonⒺexplanatory note, who sat breathless and trembling with anxietyⒶtextual note at my right, whispered,
“That means approbation!—Ⓐtextual noteshe’s perfectly safe now.”
And it was true. She gathered strength and confidence from that time forth, and carried the houseⒶtextual note with her to the end. From the beginning of the evening to the finish she was frozen with stage-frightⒶtextual note, but she had concealed it so well that, with all my stage experience, I had not suspected it, and I am sure that no one in the house had detected it. That was good grit, and characteristic of her native pluck.
At the finish she was recalled a couple of times; then Miss Gordon and I made a plunge for the stage—both of us to congratulate her, and I to show off and get my share of the glory. When we reached the stage she was coming on in answer to a third call, and I kissed her, with calculated effusion and ostentation,Ⓐtextual note but the audience thought it was only a stage kiss, a pretended kiss, and they shouted:
“ Do Ⓐtextual note it— do it!Ⓐtextual note”
I led her off the stage to the greenroom, and then, in answer to a call for myself, she led me Ⓐtextual note on, thus reversing my original programⒶtextual note.
I didn’t make a speech, but only talked. I talked fifteen or twenty minutes; and that is the disaster that could have happened if my vicious original programⒶtextual note had been carried out—a procedure which I had never at any time proposed to myself,Ⓐtextual note of course.
In our trip around the world Clara had heard me make a great many speeches, and so when she said of this one “it isⒶtextual note the happiest talk you have ever made,” I said she was a competent judge and I could endorse her verdict. MyⒶtextual note talk was reported in the newspapersⒺexplanatory note, [begin page 245] and by consequence I now have an opportunity to say something which I have longⒶtextual note wanted to say. It is this:
It is proper enough to publish speeches Ⓐtextual note—real speeches, artistic speeches—for by reason of their nicely calculated form and graceful phrasing they read well in print and convey the speaker’s whole meaning; but a talk Ⓐtextual note is a very different thing, and ought never to be printed. It never reads well; print kills it. An easy-going talk is as effective with an audience as the best of speeches, but its effectiveness proceeds from an art which is all its own, and is quite different from the speaker’s art. A fine speech may be badly delivered,Ⓐtextual note yet read perfectly in print, for the delivery is not there to mar it; but it is the delivery Ⓐtextual note that makes a talk effective, not the phrasing. The speaker says all Ⓐtextual note the words of his speech, andⒶtextual note they are all necessary; nothing is left unsaid to be supplied by the hearer’s intelligence;Ⓐtextual note but in a talk many a word is left out and many a sentence left unfinished; because, whenⒶtextual note the house breaks into applauseⒶtextual note or laughterⒶtextual note in the middle of a talker’s sentence, he recognizes that it has caught his idea,Ⓐtextual note and soⒶtextual note he doesn’t finish the sentence; the stenographer doesn’t finish it for him, and it goes into print in that broken and incomprehensible form. The talker leaves out many a word and supplies its place with something much better—a look, an emphasis, an inflection,Ⓐtextual note a pause, a fictitious hesitation for a word, the ghost of a gesture—in a word, the best and most effective parts of a talk are acted Ⓐtextual note, not spoken. The acting cannot be conveyed in print, therefore the juice of the talk has disappeared and nothing but the dry husk remains.
Clara thought that that was a very felicitous talk of mine, and I was willing to admit it. But in print it was altogether the flattest piece of rubbish I have seen in a year.Ⓐtextual note It was an extinguished lightning-bug.
Clara was to sing in Norfolk on the 22d] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 3 October 1906, note at 240.6–8.
some of them printed Clara’s portrait . . . but put “Mark Twain’s daughter” in very large letters] The Boston Journal, for example, printed a portrait under the headline “Twain’s Daughter to Make Debut as Singer” (14 Sept 1906, 7). The drawing appears to be a stock image, however, and is not an accurate likeness.
our old Katy] Katy Leary.
Mrs. R. W. Gilder] Helena de Kay Gilder (1846–1916), who married Richard Watson Gilder in 1874, was an accomplished artist who had studied under Winslow Homer. Many of her illustrations appeared in the Century Magazine and in her husband’s books of poetry. The Gilder home in New York became a gathering place for the most talented artists, writers, and musicians of the day. Clemens and his daughters frequently attended their regular Friday night soirées (McNay 2011; “R. W. Gilder’s Widow Dies,” New York Times, 29 May 1916, 11; Lyon 1906, entries for 3, 16, 23, 30 Mar, and 6 Apr).
Mr. Luckstone] Isidore Luckstone (1861–1941) was Clara’s vocal coach and accompanist. He began his professional career as a pianist at age fifteen, and within a few years had become a conductor as well. He accompanied many famous singers and instrumentalists, including Enrico Caruso, Fritz Kreisler, and Marcella Sembrich, and composed a number of songs. In recent years he had given up most of his work as an accompanist to focus on teaching voice, for which he was greatly in demand. Clara first sang for him in March 1906. Isabel Lyon noted in her journal, “Mr. Luckstone gave his verdict & it was that C.C.’s breath is not as it should be. Luckstone is strong & breezy & Norsemanlike & competent—& his explanations were illuminating & inspiring” (Lyon 1906, entry for 16 Mar).
Rodman Gilder] After his graduation from Harvard in 1899, Rodman Gilder (1877–1953), son of Richard Watson and Helena Gilder, worked as a freelance journalist for the New York Evening Sun and the Criterion. In 1904–11 he was employed by the Crocker-Wheeler Electric Company (manufacturers of motors), first as publicity manager and then as secretary. In 1911 he married Louise Comfort Tiffany, daughter of Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Miss Gordon] Clara J. Gordon, a nurse at the New York sanatorium where Clara stayed after her mother’s death, had become her good friend (Hill 1973, 97).
My talk was reported in the newspapers] A review of the concert in the New York Sun—entitled “Twain’s ‘First Appearance.’ At His Daughter’s Singing Debut He Tells How Stage Fright Once Gripped Him”—included a complete text of Clemens’s speech, in which he “recalled the agony of his own first appearance upon a public stage,” in San Francisco in October 1866. The reviewer said nothing about Clara’s performance until the last paragraph, where he noted that she “displayed some nervousness in her opening number,” but then “acquitted herself with coolness and effect” in performing works by Grieg, Schubert, and Haydn, among others (24 Sept 1906, 3). For a text of Clemens’s speech see Fatout 1976, 528–29.
Source documents.
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1306–13, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.TS1 carbon (incomplete) Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1306–11 (1312 and 1313 are missing), revised: ‘Thursday . . . of their’ (243 title–245.4).
Clemens revised TS1 ribbon, then transferred most of his revisions to TS1 carbon, which he did not alter further. He then marked a passage at the end of TS1 carbon with the intention of including it in an NAR installment (he inserted ellipses before the first word), but it was never published there. The last two pages of TS1 carbon, comprising almost all of the selected text, are missing.
Marginal Notes on TS1 carbon Concerning Publication in NAR