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Autobiographical Dictation, 30 August 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary

Source documents.

TS1      Typescript, leaves numbered 4017–21 (altered in ink to 3117–21 and subsequently to 2217–21), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Herald       Clipping from the Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald, 14 July 1907, unknown page, attached to TS1: ‘MARK TWAIN . . . health, sir.’ (122.26–123.13).

Herald is a clipping providing part of one article, “Mark Twain Leaves England for Home,” and a reprinting of the Punch cartoon by Bernard Partridge, under the title “Punch’s Tribute to Mark Twain.” The cartoon originally appeared in Punch, 26 June 1907, 453. Under the cartoon Clemens inscribed a simplified version of the caption which had appeared in the magazine (see the note at 122.26–123.12).

[begin page 121]
Dictated Augusttextual note 30, 1907

Luncheon with Sir Norman Lockyer—Luncheon with the Plasmon directorstextual note—Paying calls with little Francesca—The  Punch textual note dinner.

Ashcroft’s notes:

Friday, July 5 textual note. Dined with the Earl and Countess of Portsmouthexplanatory note. Forty or fifty guests; two or three hundred came in afterward.


Saturday, July 6 textual note. Breakfasted at Lord Avebury’s. Among those present were Lord Kelvin, Sir Charles Lyelltextual note, and Sir Archibald Geikieexplanatory note.

Quarters at the hotel occupied by invasion of photographers and portrait-sketchers during more than two hours; sat 22 times for photographs and 4 times for crayons; too exhausting, will sit no moreexplanatory note.

Savage Club dinner in the evening; white suit; “fake” Ascot Cup presented; Brennan mono-rail car exhibited in actionexplanatory note.


Sunday, July 7 textual note. Lunched with the astronomer, Sir Norman Lockyer.

Except Linley Sambourne, the veteran Punch cartoonist, and Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, whom I had known in Australia in ’95explanatory note, all present were scientists.

Drove two hours and a half returning calls, with little Francescaexplanatory note for company and support.


Monday, July 8 textual note. Lunched with Plasmon Directors at Bath Clubexplanatory note.

Dined privately at Moberly Bell’sexplanatory note.


Tuesday, July 9 textual note. Lunched at the House of Commons with Sir Benjamin Stone. Many guests, chief among them Mr. Balfour, and Komura, the Japanese ambassadorexplanatory note.

Punch dinner in the eveningexplanatory note.

No white-headed antiquity of my sex whose years exceed seventy, likes to pay social calls; he dreads to see the calling hour come round, he rejoices when the tasktextual note is over for the day; he is often sensible of a guilty gladness when he finds the people “out.” But I know a secret now that will make call-payingtextual note a delight to me hereafter. When I had been in England just a fortnight I had been constantly seeking and finding excuses for postponing return-visits, with the result that the accumulation of debts of this kind was so large that it had become a heavy and depressing burden upon my conscience; then I chanced to come across, in the hotel drawing-room, a sweet and pretty and charming little maid of sixteen whom I had known in the ship, and my depressing burden became at once a prized treasure, for I borrowed this child of her mother, and at four o’clock every day thereafter we drove about London during two hours paying callsexplanatory note. Never was a task so light.textual note We presently got the best of the list, and after that we cleared thetextual note record every day, and kept it squaredtextual note to date. That simple and honest and charming child made [begin page 122] her way everywhere; she entered English homes of all ranks; she was petted by English people of all ages and all social degrees; she saw English home life in all its phases, from the humblest all the way up, and by grace of her winning ways and her sweet modesty she left friends behind her, and only friends, wherever she went. I was proud of my sample of the American country-bred girl, and perhapstextual note did not take much pains to conceal it. She will enter Bryn Mawr presently, already possessed of one chapter of valuable knowledge which not many American country lassiestextual note have acquired at her age. We paid calls together every day for a fortnight, and when I sailed for home my score was clear.

The luncheon with the Plasmon directorstextual note was a business matter, and of a mutually congratulatory sort. Seven years ago I assisted in founding the Plasmon Company; I took five thousand pounds of its stock and paid par for it; it is worth eighty thousand dollars now, and will soon be worth more. Several years ago an American Plasmon Company was started, and in a little while was robbed, skinned, and reduced to bankruptcy by its own Board of Directors, one of whom—Henry A. Butters, a sharper hailing from Long Valley, California—swindled me out of my investment in it, amounting to thirty-two thousand dollarsexplanatory note.

The Punch dinner will remain one of my pleasantest memories of my four weeks’ sojourn in England. That dinner was a unique distinction—ittextual note has not had its fellow. For fifty years the Punch staff has assembledtextual note once a week in Punch’s own quartersexplanatory note, in Punch’s own private dining roomtextual note, to dine,textual note and, meantime, to consider and discuss and plan and arrange the literature and art for the next week’s issue. Punch has always been hospitable to visiting foreigners of repute in the various walks of Literature and Art, and has dined and wined them;textual note but never until now, on his own premises; never until now, in his own private dining roomtextual note. In fifty years I am the only stranger unto whom has been extended the privilege of crossing that sacred threshold and sitting at that sacred board. I mean to remember this.textual note

MARK TWAIN LEAVES ENGLAND FOR HOME


No Foreigner Ever Received So Warm a Welcome There.


cheered by the stevedores when he landed,
and later honored by royalty.


Social Attitude of American Diplomats Attracts Attention Abroad—More Men of Brains and Fewer Rich Men in the Service Would Be Desirable—American-Japanese Situation Regarded Seriously in Most of the European Capitals.


N.Y. Sun-Syracuse Herald—Cablegram

London, July 13.—Mark Twain sailed to-day, and it is fitting that a serious word should be said about his extraordinary month’s visit to England. No foreigner has ever been treated as he has been treated by the English people. His welcome began as he walked down the gangplank when the stevedores on the dock broke into cheers. The highest and the greatest in the land had joined eagerly in all forms [begin page 123] of tribute to this untitled friend of all mankind. He says himself that the universal welcome by the masses at every opportunity has pleased him most. The wonder is that a man of 72 or any age should go through the enormous programme of the past four weeks and live to tell the tale. Mr. Clemens not only lived but thrived upon it, and he goes home to write such a chapter of his autobiography as no other American was ever able to record.

If the truth must be told, Twain’s popularity in England is of a warmer and more personal nature than even in his own country. He has won the hearts of Englishmen as no living writer has done, and they love to do him honor. The cheers at his departure to-day were of a different note from those on his arrival, and for once his emotion silenced him as he waved good bye.

Punch’s Tribute to Mark Twainexplanatory note

Mr. Punch does himself the honor to drink your health, sir.textual note
Textual Notes Dictated August 30, 1907
  August ●  Aug. (TS1) 
  directors ●  Directors (TS1) 
  Punch  ●  Punch (TS1) 
  Friday, July 5  ●  Friday July 5 (TS1) 
  Saturday, July 6  ●  Saturday July 6 (TS1) 
  Lyell ●  Lyall (TS1) 
  Sunday, July 7  ●  Sunday July 7 (TS1) 
  Monday, July 8  ●  Monday July 8 (TS1) 
  Tuesday, July 9  ●  Tuesday July 9 (TS1) 
  task ●  dreaded task (TS1-SLC) 
  call-paying ●  call-paying (TS1-SLC) 
  so light. ●  more delightful. so light.  (TS1-SLC) 
  the ●  our the  (TS1-SLC) 
  squared ●  up squared  (TS1-SLC) 
  perhaps ●  perhaps  (TS1-SLC) 
  lassies ●  lassies (TS1-SLC) 
  directors ●  Directors (TS1) 
  it ●  it stands all alone, it (TS1-SLC) 
  assembled ●  assembled at dinner  (TS1-SLC) 
  dining room ●  dining-room (TS1) 
  dine, ●  feed sumptuously, dine,  (TS1-SLC) 
  them; ●  them; nobly;  (TS1-SLC) 
  dining room ●  dining-room (TS1) 
  I mean to remember this. ●  I mean to remember this.  (TS1-SLC) 
  Mr. Punch . . . health, sir. ●  Mr. Punch does himself the honor to drink your health, sir.  (Herald-SLC) 
Explanatory Notes Dictated August 30, 1907
 

Friday, July 5. Dined with the Earl and Countess of Portsmouth] Newton Wallop, sixth earl of Portsmouth (1856–1917), was a Liberal politician, and a member of the cabinet of premier Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Clemens had dined with him and his countess, Beatrice, on 24 March 1900 (Notebook 43, TS p. 6, CU-MARK).

 

Saturday, July 6. Breakfasted at Lord Avebury’s . . . Sir Archibald Geikie] This breakfast was given by Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock, 1834–1913), a banker, politician, scientific writer, and philanthropist. Clemens read and admired Lubbock’s Ants, Bees, and Wasps on publication in 1882. He returned to it when traveling the Indian Ocean in 1896, and mined it for information in What Is Man? (Gribben 1980, 1:427–28; SLC 1906a). Lubbock had written to Clemens in advance that he would “ask a few literary & scientific friends to meet him” (20 June 1907, CU-MARK), among whom Clemens mentions physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin, 1824–1907) and the geologists Sir Charles Lyell (see AutoMT2 , 555 n. 212.28) and Sir Archibald Geikie (1835–1924).

 

Quarters at the hotel occupied by invasion of photographers . . . will sit no more] Clemens adapts Ashcroft’s original memorandum of the day’s occurrences, which reads: “Sat 22 times for photos, 16 at Histed’s.” The photographer Ernest Walter Histed (1862–1947) specialized in celebrity portraits. His studios were at 42 Baker Street (Ashcroft 1907, 4; Histed to SLC, 11 July 1907, CU-MARK). It is true that on this trip Clemens was pestered with requests to sit for his portrait (for a sampling, see Lathem 2006, 205).

 

Savage Club dinner . . . Brennan mono-rail car exhibited in action] At the dinner given in his honor by the Savage Club on 6 July, Clemens wore for the first time in England the white suit he had introduced to American audiences in 1906 (see AutoMT2 , 249–50). After his speech, he was presented with a gilt plaster replica of the Ascot Cup, in allusion to his alleged theft of the original, which had become a running joke in the newspapers. The fake trophy was provided by Garrard and Company, the makers of the authentic cup. Irish inventor Louis Brennan (1852–1932) gave a demonstration of his monorail car, which ran “around the dining room tables on wire cables. The wonderful six foot model ran curving between the bottles and candlesticks, going backwards and forwards fast and slow to Mark Twain’s great delight” (“British Acclaim Twain in White,” Chicago Tribune, 7 July 1907, 8; for Clemens’s speech on this occasion see Fatout 1976, 572–76).

 

Sir Norman Lockyer . . . Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, whom I had known in Australia in ’95] Clemens mentions: Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836–1920), astronomer; Linley Sambourne (1844–1910), illustrator and Punch cartoonist; and Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge (1839–1924), commander of the Australian naval station when Clemens traveled there in 1895.

 

Drove two hours and a half returning calls, with little Francesca] On the afternoon of July 7, with Frances Nunnally in tow, Clemens called on J. Y. W. MacAlister and family (see AutoMT2 , 640–41 n. 434 title); Edwin A. Abbey, American artist (see AD, 25 July 1907, note at 74.24–38); John Rolls, Baron Llangattock (1837–1912) and family; the earl and countess of Portsmouth (see the note at 121.5); Annie Colt McCook, the widow of Major General Alexander McCook (Clemens had known them both at Old Point Comfort, and Mrs. McCook was now resident in London); and Lord and Lady Avebury (see the note at 121.7–8; 7 July 1907 to Nunnally, CSmH; McCook to SLC, 26 June 1907 and 4 July 1907, CU-MARK; for Nunnally see AD, 25 July 1907, and note at 74.15–21).

 

Monday, July 8. Lunched with Plasmon Directors at Bath Club] For the British Plasmon Company, see the note at 122.10–16.

 

Dined privately at Moberly Bell’s] For C. F. Moberly Bell, see the Autobiographical Dictation of 23 August 1907, note at 109.27.

 

Tuesday, July 9. Lunched at the House of Commons with Sir Benjamin Stone . . . Japanese ambassador] Sir Benjamin Stone (1838–1914), a Conservative member of parliament, gave this luncheon at the “Harcourt” dining room of the House of Commons. Clemens’s fellow guests of honor were Conservative Party leader and ex-prime minister Arthur Balfour (1848–1930) and the Japanese ambassador to Britain, Komura Jutaro (1855–1911). In his remarks, Balfour pled for “the necessity of guarding the purity of the English language.” Clemens thanked him “for his recognition of his services in keeping the English language pure and undefiled, and assured him he would not allow it to deteriorate in his hands” (“Twain Takes Up Task for Briton,” Chicago Tribune, 10 July 1907, 3). Stone, an amateur photographer, took pictures of the luncheon gathering outside the Houses of Parliament (see the photographs following page 300).

 

Punch dinner in the evening] See the note at 122.18–19.

 

little maid of sixteen . . . during two hours paying calls] Frances Nunnally.

 

Seven years ago I assisted in founding the Plasmon Company . . . amounting to thirty-two thousand dollars] In 1900 Clemens made a £5,000 investment (roughly equivalent to $25,000) in the newly formed British Plasmon Company. How he arrived at his 1907 valuation of the investment at “eighty thousand dollars” is not known (8–9 Apr 1900 to Rogers, Salm, in HHR , 438–42).

 

For fifty years the Punch staff has assembled once a week in Punch’s own quarters] The offices of London humor magazine Punch at 10 Bouverie Street included a dining room, where the contributors’ traditional Wednesday dinners took place. The dinner to Clemens on Tuesday, 9 July, however, was “an off day, not the Wednesday dinner” (Lucy 1909, 1:364; Young 2007, 41–42).

 

MARK TWAIN LEAVES ENGLAND . . . Punch’s Tribute to Mark Twain] The newspaper article is a clipping from the Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald of 14 July 1907, which also reprints a cartoon from Punch (issue of 26 June 1907, 453). On the clipping Clemens inscribed a simplified version of Punch’s original caption, which was: “to a master of his art. Mr. Punch (to Mark Twain). ‘sir, i honour myself by drinking your health. long life to you—and happiness—and perpetual youth!’ ” The original drawing, by Bernard Partridge, was presented to Clemens at the dinner; see the Autobiographical Dictation of 31 August 1907.