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MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 9 January 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 4–15 (1–3 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘I want . . . confessedly exhausted.’ (251.19–254.29).
TS2 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 150–60 (147–49 are missing), made from the revised TS1 and further revised: ‘time to . . . confessedly exhausted.’ (251.15–254.29).
TS4 Typescript, leaves numbered 408–21, made from the revised TS1.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 10 January 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered [1]–20 (renumbered in pencil 16–35), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 161–77, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
The typed page numbers on TS1 were renumbered 16–35 by hand. On the verso of the last page of TS1 Hobby wrote a calculation of her wages: $3.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 11 January 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS (incomplete) MS of 14 leaves of Clemens’s Whittier dinner speech, delivered 17 December 1877, CtY-BR: ‘Mr. Chairman . . . Time.’ (261.18–263.39); ‘littery . . . like this.’ (263.41–264.7).
Unidentified newspaper Unidentified Boston newspaper of 18 December 1877, which typeset the Whittier dinner speech directly from the MS; there is no actual document of this source.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 12 January 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 57–73, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 199–214, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
TS3 Typescript, leaves numbered [1]–7, made from the revised TS2 and further revised (the same extent as NAR 16).
NAR 16pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 16, typeset from the revised TS3 and further revised; now lost.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 13 January 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 74–83, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 215–25, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
TS3 Typescript, pages 7–15, made from the revised TS2 and further revised (the same extent as NAR 16).
NAR 16pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 16, typeset from the revised TS3; now lost.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 15 January 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 84–98, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Times Clipping from the New York Times, 11 January 1906, 1, attached to a leaf of TS1 numbered 92a: ‘MRS. MORRIS’S . . . Mrs. Morris’s cries.’ (279.24–281.14).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 226–42, made from the revised TS1 (with the attached Times clipping) and further revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 16 January 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Times Clipping from the New York Times, 16 January 1906, 2, attached to TS2: ‘VETERAN ACTOR . . . when stricken.’ (286.22–37).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 98–110, made from Hobby’s notes and the Times clipping and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 243–54, made from the revised TS1 and further revised (the Times clipping was attached, not transcribed).
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 17 January 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 111–22, 125 (all of 123 and most of 124 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Wednesday . . . sutlers got’ (287 title–290.39); ‘But I . . . have succeeded.’ (291.26–39).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 255–68, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
TS4 Typescript, leaves numbered 514–28, made from the revised TS1.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 18 January 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 126–33, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 269–75, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
Clemens dictated a note to himself (and to either Hobby or Paine), which he later deleted, about the “pound of pork” story in the AD of 17 January 1906 (see the entry for ‘Senator’ at 292.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 19 January 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 134–48 (most of 149 is missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Friday . . . and trust-’ (294 title–299.6).
MS “Dueling,” MS of 16 leaves written in Vienna in March 1898, attached to pages 150–65 of TS1: ‘As concerns . . . disturb him.’ (299.14–302.19).
Clipping Clipping from an unidentified newspaper, attached to the MS: ‘(Reuter’s .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 23 January 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 166–72 and 176–77 (173–75 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Tuesday . . . letter is’ (302 title–310.37); ‘grandchildren . . . about it.’ (311.39–312.20).
Times Clipping from the New York Times, 23 January 1906, 1, 2, originally attached to page 168 of TS1: ‘CHOATE AND . . . given him.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 24 January 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 178–90, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 327–38, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s revisions on TS1 into TS2, which he revised for possible publication in the NAR before deciding it was not ‘usable’.
Marginal Notes on TS2 Concerning Publication in the NAR
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 1 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 191–203, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Twichell to SLC MS letter, Joseph H. Twichell to SLC, 31 January 1906, attached to TS1: ‘Hartford . . . Joe’ (322.11–26).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 339–51, made from the revised TS1 and Twichell to SLC.
TS3 ribbon (lost) Typescript, leaves numbered 1–6, made from the revised TS1; now lost.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 2 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 204–19, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 352–67, made from the revised TS1.
TS3 ribbon (lost) Typescript, leaves numbered 7–18, made from the revised TS1; now lost.
TS3 carbon Carbon copy of TS3, leaves numbered 7–18, made from the revised TS1 and further revised, WU (the same extent as NAR 3, plus the dateline and summary paragraph).
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 5 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 220–39, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 368–87, made from the revised TS1.
TS3 ribbon (lost) Typescript, leaves numbered 19–27, made from the revised TS1; now lost.
TS3 carbon (incomplete) Carbon copy of TS3, leaves numbered 20–27 (19 is missing), made from the revised TS1 and further revised, WU: ‘age and .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 6 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 240–47 (part of 247 and all of 248 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised : ‘Tuesday . . . volcanic tragedy.’ (334 title–337.11).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 388–95, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
TS4 Typescript, leaves numbered 645–52, made from the revised TS1.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 7 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 249–61, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 396–407, made from the revised TS1.
TS3 Typescript, leaves numbered 1–9, made from the revised TS1 and further revised (the same extent as NAR 4).
NAR 4pf Galley proofs of NAR 4, typeset from the revised TS3 and further revised, ViU (the same extent as NAR 4).
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 8 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 262–76, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 408–21, made from the revised TS1.
TS3 Typescript, leaves numbered 10–23, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
NAR 4pf Galley proofs of NAR 4, typeset from the revised TS3 and further revised, ViU (the same extent as NAR 4).
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 9 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 277–87 (most of 287 and all of 288 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Friday . . . grown dim.’ (346 title–349.28).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 422–31, made from the revised TS1.
TS3 Typescript, leaves numbered 24–33, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 12 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 289–301 (295 and most of 296 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Monday . . . these days.’ (350 title–351.40); ‘Whenever my . . . my sight!’ (352.21–354.2).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 432–44, made from the revised TS1.
TS3 Typescript, leaves numbered 34–45, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 13 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 302–10, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 445–52, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
Clemens apparently considered but then rejected this dictation for possible publication through Samuel McClure’s newspaper syndicate, writing ‘Not for MC’ on the first page of TS1 (see the Introduction, p.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 14 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 311–19, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 453–61, made from the revised TS1.
Clemens considered this dictation for possible publication through Samuel McClure’s newspaper syndicate, writing ‘M C’ in blue pencil on the first page of TS1; that notation was later partially erased (see the Introduction, p.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 15 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 320–26 (half of 326 and all of 327–30 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Thursday . . . it did.’ (359 title–362.2).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 462–71, made from the revised TS1.
TS4 Typescript, pages 719–28, made from the revised TS1.
The pages missing from TS1 were discarded by Paine when he edited the dictation for MTA .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 16 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 331–40, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Times Clipping from the New York Times, 16 February 1906, 1, attached to TS1: ‘FEBRUARY 16 . . . somewhat better.” ’ (365.23–366.18).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 472–81, made from the revised TS1 (with the attached Times clipping).
At the top of the first page of TS1 Clemens wrote ‘Not for Mc’, referring to possible publication through Samuel McClure’s newspaper syndicate (see the Introduction, p.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 20 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 341–48, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Clipping Clipping from an unidentified newspaper, attached to TS1: ‘MRS. MARY . . . eighty-five.’ (367.3–6).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 482–89, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
On TS1, after the reference to the sinking of the clipper ship Hornet, Clemens added the instruction ‘Insert, here my account of the “Hornet” disaster, published in the “Century” about 1898 as being a chapter from my Autobiography’; Hobby typed the instruction into TS2, where Clemens deleted it.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 21 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 349–51 (352–58 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Wednesday . . . thirty-five years’ (369 title–370.31).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 490–99, made from the revised TS1.
The pages missing from TS1 were discarded by Paine when he edited the dictation for MTA. Hobby incorporated the revisions that Clemens made on TS1 into TS2, and they were incorporated into TS4 as well.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 22 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 359–66, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 500–508, made from the revised TS1.
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.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 23 February 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 368–69, 371–75 (370 and 376–79 are missing; number 367 was omitted in the typed pagination sequence), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Friday . . . him from’ (376 title–376.25); ‘arrogant . . . it out’ (376.37–378.21).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 509–20, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary 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).
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 5 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 398–409, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 536–47, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
NAR 7pf Galley proofs of NAR 7, typeset from the revised TS2 and further revised, ViU (the same extent as NAR 7).
NAR 7 North American Review 183 (7 December 1906), 1089–91: ‘I was .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 6 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. SLC to Cleveland MS copy of letter, in Clemens’s hand, 6 March 1906 to Cleveland, NN-BGC: ‘Honored Sir: . . . March 18/06.’ (390.39–391.5).
TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 410–17 (418 is missing), made from Hobby’s notes and SLC to Cleveland, and revised: ‘Tuesday . . . of that’ (389 title–392.7).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 548–57, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 7 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 419, 422–29 (all of 420 and most of 421 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Wednesday . . . innocent way’ (392 title–393.1); ‘From Susy’s . . . years ago.’ (393.28–396.6). (Page 419 is reproduced in facsimile in the Introduction, figure 16, p. 49.) TS3 Typescript, leaves numbered 51–59, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 8 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Times Microfilm of the Los Angeles Times, 3 February 1906, 1 (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost): ‘ “HUCKLEBERRY FINN” . . . life since.’ (397.1–12). TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 430–41 (most of 430 is missing), made from Hobby’s notes and the lost Times clipping and revised: ‘Thursday .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 9 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 442–49, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 579–86, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
NAR 23pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 23, typeset from the revised TS2; now lost.
NAR 23 North American Review 186 (October 1907), 161–63: ‘Friday .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 12 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 450–61, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 587–600, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
Hobby incorporated the revisions that Clemens made on TS1 into TS2, which he further revised. On the first page of TS2 Clemens wrote, ‘Not usable yet’. Although TS1 ends with ‘the nose.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 14 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 462–67 (468 is missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Wednesday . . . (with only’ (407 title–409.8).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 600–606, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
TS4 Typescript, leaves numbered 850–56, made from the revised TS1.
The page missing from TS1 was discarded by Paine when he edited the dictation for MTA.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 15 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Times 2 Microfilm of the New York Times, 5 March 1906, 2 (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost): ‘Definition of . . . I trod.’ (412.12–39).
TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 469–84 (485 is missing), made from Hobby’s notes and the lost Times 2 clipping and revised: ‘March . . . “Amen.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 16 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 486–98, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 628–40, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
NAR 23pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 23, typeset from the revised TS2; now lost.
NAR 23 North American Review 186 (October 1907), 163–69: ‘We will .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 20 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. SLC to Foote MS draft letter, SLC to Edward M. Foote, 14 March 1906: ‘Indeed I . . . Mark Twain,’ (423.8–425.18).
Times Clippings from the New York Times, 4 March 1906, SM2, attached to SLC to Foote: ‘But the . . . of famine.’ (423.32–424.6) and ‘And there . . . not Pharaoh’s.’ (424.9–46).
MS MS of 10 leaves, correspondence about the Fulton Memorial written entirely by Clemens but purportedly written by Frederick D.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 21 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
Brown to SLC Typed letter, Brown to SLC, 8 Mar 1906: ‘7 Greenhill . . . John Brown.’ (429.22–42).
Daly to SLC MS letter, Augustin Daly to SLC, 2 January 1888: ‘Daly’s Theatre . . . R. S. V. P.’ (431.12–19).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 514–25, made from Hobby’s notes, Brown to SLC, and Daly to SLC, and revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 22 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. OLC and SLC to Brown (lost) Typescripts, sent from Scotland, of three letters: OLC to Brown, 22 June 1876; OLC and SLC to Brown, 25–28 Oct 1875; and SLC to Brown, 1 June 1882: ‘Dear Doctor . . . with ourselves.’ (434.15–435.37); now lost.
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 526–38, made from Hobby’s notes and the three letters to Brown and revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 23 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Envelope MS envelope addressed to Clemens in care of President Roosevelt: ‘Mark Twain . . . U.S.A.’ (438.22–29). (The envelope is reproduced in facsimile in the Explanatory Note at 6.7.)
TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 539–45 (most of 546 is missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Friday . . . got loose.” ’ (436 title–439.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 26 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Higbie to SLC MS letter, Calvin H. Higbie to SLC, 15 March 1906 (includes Miner to Higbie): ‘Greenville, Plumas . . . C. H. Higbie.’ (445.20–25).
Miner to Higbie Handwritten transcript, made by Higbie, of a letter to him from George R. Miner, 6 March 1906, enclosed with Higbie to SLC: ‘New York .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 27 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 563–78, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
There is no indication on TS1 that Clemens considered publishing any material from this dictation in the NAR. The pages of TS2 that must have contained it, 706–22, are now lost.
X Tuesday, March 27, 1906 Higbie’s spelling—Mr. Clemens’s scheme for getting Higbie a job at the Pioneer—In 1863 Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 28 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 579–87 and, erroneously, 579–81, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 723–32 (most of 733 and all of 734–35 are missing), made from the revised TS1 and further revised: ‘Wednesday . . . to breakfast?” ’ (451 title–454.28).
NAR 10pf Galley proofs of NAR 10, typeset from the revised TS2 and further revised, ViU (the same extent as NAR 10).
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 29 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
TS1 Typescript, leaves erroneously numbered 582–602, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 736–56, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
NAR 10pf Galley proofs of NAR 10, typeset from the revised TS2 and further revised, ViU (the same extent as NAR 10).
NAR 10 North American Review 184 (18 January 1907), 118–19: ‘But I .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 30 March 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Keller to SLC Typed letter, signed, Helen Keller to SLC, 27 March 1906: ‘Wrentham, Mass . . . Helen Keller’ (466.26–467.35).
TS1 Typescript, leaves erroneously numbered 603–17, made from Hobby’s notes and Keller to SLC, and revised.
Times Clipping from the New York Times, 30 March 1906, 9, attached to TS1: ‘ARMS TO .
MTPDocEd APPENDIXES TABLE OF CONTENTS SAMUEL L. CLEMENS: A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY FAMILY BIOGRAPHIES SPEECH AT THE SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY DINNER ...SOUVENIR OF THE EVENT SPPECH AT THE PLAYERS PREVIOUS PUBLICATION SAMUEL L. CLEMENS: A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY 1835 Born 30 November in Florida, Mo., the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens. Of his six siblings, only Orion, Pamela, and Henry lived into adulthood. (For details, see the next appendix, “Family Biographies.
MTPDocEd NOTE ON THE TEXT The Introduction traces the history of Clemens’s work on his autobiography, from the preliminary manuscripts and dictations he produced between 1870 and 1905 through the Autobiographical Dictations that he began in early 1906. It also gives an explanation of his final plan for the Autobiography of Mark Twain, based largely on an analysis of various typescripts and manuscripts created in 1906. Because these documents are drawn on repeatedly to construct segments of the critical text, they are described and identified by their designated abbreviation in The Documents.
MTPDocEd EXPLANATORY NOTES
[HEADNOTE] These notes are intended to clarify and supplement the autobiographical writings and dictations in this volume by identifying people, places, and incidents, and by explaining topical references and literary allusions. In addition, they attempt to point out which of Clemens’s statements are contradicted by historical evidence, providing a way to understand more fully how his memories of long-past events and experiences were affected by his imagination and the passage of time.
MTPDocEd GUIDE TO THE TEXTUAL APPARATUS Note: this guide and all commentaries are not included in UC Press’s printed or e-book formats.
The general editorial policy of this critical edition is discussed in detail in the Note on the Text. This edition aims to present a text that reflects the author’s original inscription or dictation, altered by all subsequent authorial revisions that were not intended to shorten, soften, or otherwise adapt the text for magazine publication in the North American Review (NAR) or other journals.
MTPDocEd Preliminary Manuscripts and Dictations [begin page 59] PRELIMINARY MANUSCRIPTS AND DICTATIONS 1870–1905
[continue to the first text]
[The Tennessee Land] [begin page 60] [begin page 61] Clemens wrote this manuscript, now in the Mark Twain Papers, sometime in 1870, leaving it incomplete and without a title (but with space for one on the first page). It is the earliest extant manuscript that might fairly be called a draft chapter for his autobiography, although he did not explicitly identify it as such.
MTPDocEd X Photograph by Albert Bigelow Paine, 25 June 1906, Upton House, Dublin, New Hampshire Autobiography of Mark Twain
Volume 1 Edited by
Harriet Elinor Smith Associate Editors
Benjamin Griffin, Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Sharon K. Goetz, Leslie Diane Myrick
Contributing Editors
Natalia Cecire, Michelle Coleman, George Derk, Christine Hong, Rachel Perez, Leslie Walton
A Publication of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] INTRODUCTION Between 1870 and 1905 Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) tried repeatedly, and at long intervals, to write (or dictate) his autobiography, always shelving the manuscript before he had made much progress. By 1905 he had accumulated some thirty or forty of these false starts—manuscripts that were essentially experiments, drafts of episodes and chapters; many of these have survived in the Mark Twain Papers and two other libraries.
MTPDocEd X Jane Lampton Clemens, Keokuk, Iowa, 1888. Photograph by George Hassall. X Pamela Clemens Moffett, early 1860s. Courtesy of Mrs. Kate Gilmore and the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum, Hannibal. X Orion Clemens, early 1860s. Nevada Historical Society. X Henry Clemens, ca. 1858. Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum, Hannibal. X Samuel L. Clemens and Olivia L. Langdon. The porcelaintypes in purple velvet cases they exchanged during their engagement in 1869.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary An Early Attempt ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
MS Manuscript of 3 leaves, written in 1906: ‘AUTOBIOGRAPHY . . . Attempt’ (201 title–203 title). (The MS pages are reproduced in facsimile in the Introduction, figures 2–4, pp. 34–36.)
TS Hobby Typescript of 1 unnumbered leaf, made by Hobby from the MS: ‘AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN’ (201 title).
The third leaf of the MS contains only Clemens’s instruction, ‘Here insert the 44 old type-written pages.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary My Autobiography [Random Extracts from It] ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript of 90 leaves written in 1897–98. (Page 1 is reproduced in facsimile in the Introduction, figure 1, p. 14.)
TS (lost) Typescript of 44 leaves made from the MS (possibly in 1900) and revised; now lost.
TS2 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 18–53 (1–17 are missing), made from the lost revised TS and further revised: ‘might who .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Second Preface, in Three Parts: 1. The Latest Attempt. 2. The Final (and Right) Plan. 3. Preface. As from the Grave. ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript of 8 leaves, numbered 45–52: part 1, ‘The Latest . . . hit upon.’ (220 title–28); title only of part 2, ‘The Final (and Right) Plan’ (220 title); part 3, ‘Preface. As from the Grave .
MTPDocEd Here begin the Florentine Dictations.Ⓐtextual note [John Hay] Notes on “Innocents Abroad” [Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Bailey Aldrich] [Villa di Quarto] [John Hay] [John Hay]Ⓐtextual note Florence, Italy.Ⓐtextual note 31st January 1904.Ⓐtextual note A quarter of a century ago I was visiting John Hay, now Secretary of StateⒺexplanatory note,Ⓐtextual note at Whitelaw Reid’s house in New York, which Hay was occupying for a few months while ReidⒶtextual note was absent on a holiday in Europe.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary [John Hay] ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS Jean (lost) Typescript made in 1904 by Jean Clemens in Florence from Isabel Lyon’s handwritten record of Clemens’s dictation; now lost.
TS2 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 59–65 (most of 65 and all of 66 are missing), made from TS Jean and revised: ‘Florence . . . of tin.’ (222.7–224.18).
TS4 Typescript, leaves numbered 53–60, made from TS Jean.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Notes on “Innocents Abroad” ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS Jean (lost) Typescript made in 1904 by Jean Clemens in Florence from Isabel Lyon’s handwritten record of Clemens’s dictation; now lost.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 68–80, made from TS Jean and revised.
TS4 Typescript, leaves numbered 65–77, made from TS Jean.
NAR 20pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 20, typeset from the revised TS2; now lost.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary [Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Bailey Aldrich] ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS Jean (lost) Typescript made in 1904 by Jean Clemens in Florence from Isabel Lyon’s handwritten record of Clemens’s dictation; now lost.
TS2 (lost) Typescript, leaves conjecturally numbered 81–85, made from TS Jean; now lost.
TS3 Typescript, leaves numbered 16–20, probably made from TS Jean, and revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary [Villa di Quarto] ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS Jean (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 1–21, made in 1904 by Jean Clemens in Florence from Isabel Lyon’s handwritten record of Clemens’s dictation, and revised: ‘January . . . Providence.” ’ (230.22–237.8). TS Jean ends in the middle of a sentence; the rest of it is now lost.
MS Untitled manuscript of 33 leaves, written in 1893–94: ‘When we .
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 61] Clemens wrote this manuscript, now in the Mark Twain Papers, sometime in 1870, leaving it incomplete and without a title (but with space for one on the first page). It is the earliest extant manuscript that might fairly be called a draft chapter for his autobiography, although he did not explicitly identify it as such. He evidently planned to publish it in some way, for he changed the reference to his father’s nemesis from “Ira Stout” to “Ira ––––.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 64] Paine published this manuscript, with typical errors and omissions, under a title he contrived for it, “Early Years in Florida, Missouri” ( MTA, 1:7–10). The text itself shows that Clemens wrote it in 1877, heading it simply “Chap. 1” (omitted by Paine). Neider copied Paine’s version (errors and all), but he left off the last sixty words and inserted three paragraphs from “My Autobiography [Random Extracts from It],” two after the first sentence and one at the end ( AMT, 1–3).
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 66] THE GRANT DICTATIONS The following six typed dictations, known ever since Paine published them (out of order) in 1924 as “The Grant Dictations” (MTA, 1:13–70), are now in the Mark Twain Papers. They were all created in May and June 1885; Clemens dictated to his friend and colleague James Redpath, who transcribed his shorthand notes on an all-capitals typewriter (for Redpath see “Lecture-Times,” note at 148.
MTPDocEd [begin page 66] THE GRANT DICTATIONS Show Headnote The following six typed dictations, known ever since Paine published them (out of order) in 1924 as “The Grant Dictations” ( MTA, 1:13–70), are now in the Mark Twain Papers. They were all created in May and June 1885; Clemens dictated to his friend and colleague James Redpath, who transcribed his shorthand notes on an all-capitals typewriter (for Redpath see “Lecture-Times,” note at 148.
MTPDocEd The Chicago G. A. R. FestivalⒺexplanatory note 1866.Ⓐapparatus note TheⒶapparatus note first time I ever saw General Grant was in the fall or winter of 1866 at one of the receptions at WashingtonⒺexplanatory note, when he was General of the Army. I merely saw and shook hands with him along withⒶapparatus note a general crowd but had no conversation. It was there alsoⒶapparatus note that I first saw General SheridanⒺexplanatory note.
MTPDocEd [A Call with W. D. Howells on General Grant]Ⓐapparatus note Howells 1881Ⓔexplanatory note.Ⓐapparatus note HowellsⒺexplanatory note wrote me that his old father, who is well along in the seventies, was in great distress about his poor little consulate, up in Quebec. Somebody not being satisfied with the degree of poverty already conferred upon him byⒶapparatus note a thoughtful and beneficent Providence, was anxious to add to it by acquiring the Quebec consulate.
MTPDocEd Grant and the Chinese 1884.Ⓐapparatus note Early in this yearⒶapparatus note or late in 1883, if my memory serves me, I called on General Grant with YungⒶapparatus note Wing,Ⓐapparatus note late Chinese Minister at WashingtonⒺexplanatory note, to introduce Wing and let him lay before General Grant a proposition. Li-Hung-Chang, one of the greatest and most progressive men in China since the death of Prince KungⒺexplanatory note, had been trying to persuade the Imperial government to build a system of military railroads in ChinaⒺexplanatory note, and had so far succeeded in his persuasions that a majority of the government were willing to consider the matterⒶapparatus note—provided that money could be obtained for that purpose, outside of China—this money to be raised upon the customs of the country and by bonding the railway or some such way.
MTPDocEd [begin page 74] Gerhardt 1884. (September: at the farm at ElmiraⒺexplanatory note.)Ⓐapparatus note Gerhardt arrived home from Paris,—leaving his wife and his little boy behind him. He had found living much more expensive at Paris than it had been in J. Q. A. Ward’s day. ConsequentlyⒶapparatus note Ward’s estimate of $3,000Ⓐapparatus note for five years had fallen woefully short. Gerhardt’sⒶapparatus note expenses for three years and a half had already amounted to $6,000Ⓐapparatus note.
MTPDocEd About General Grant’s Memoirs 1885.Ⓐapparatus note (Spring.)
I want to set down somewhat of a history of General Grant’s memoirsⒺexplanatory note.
By way of preface I will make a remark or two indirectly connected therewith.
During the Garfield campaign General Grant threw the whole weight of his influence and endeavor toward the triumph of the Republican PartyⒺexplanatory note. He made a progress through many of the states, chiefly the doubtful ones, and this progress was a daily and nightly ovation as long as it lasted.
MTPDocEd [begin page 99] [The Rev. Dr. Newman] 1885.Ⓐapparatus note Extract from my note bookⒺexplanatory note: April 4, 1885.Ⓐapparatus note GeneralⒶapparatus note Grant is still living,Ⓐapparatus note this morning. Many a person between the two oceans lay hours awake, last night,Ⓐapparatus note listening for the booming of the fire-bells thatⒶapparatus note should speak to theⒶapparatus note nation inⒶapparatus note simultaneous voice and tell it its calamity. The bell-strokesⒶapparatus note are to be thirty seconds apart and there will be sixty-three—the General’s age.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 101] Clemens’s unsparing account of his own beguilement into financially supporting James W. Paige’s development of an automatic typesetter is so manifestly autobiographical that it is judged to be among the chapters Clemens drafted for the autobiography, although he did not explicitly identify it that way. The manuscript, now in the Mark Twain Papers, was written in two separately paginated stages. The first part (twenty manuscript pages) was written in December 1890, almost ten years after Clemens began investing in the typesetter and at a point when his total investment had reached or exceeded $170,000, despite Paige’s failure to produce a successful prototype.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 107] This manuscript––which has not been published before––was left to a degree unfinished, judging from Clemens’s penciled (tentative) revision of its title to “Travel-Scraps from Autobiog.” Now in the Mark Twain Papers, it is thought to be a draft chapter written for the autobiography on that evidence, and also because, in 1900 during a later stay in London, Clemens wrote a sequel about the city entitled “Travel-Scraps II,” which he ultimately inserted in the Autobiographical Dictation of 27 February 1907.
MTPDocEd [begin page 118] These four manuscripts, now in the Mark Twain Papers, were all written in Vienna in the first half of 1898, near the start of a period during which Clemens seems to have worked more intensively on the autobiography than at any time since 1885. All the manuscripts are specifically dated (February 3, May 6, June 4, and June 26), almost as if they were entries in a diary.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 118] These four manuscripts, now in the Mark Twain Papers, were all written in Vienna in the first half of 1898, near the start of a period during which Clemens seems to have worked more intensively on the autobiography than at any time since 1885. All the manuscripts are specifically dated (February 3, May 6, June 4, and June 26), almost as if they were entries in a diary.
MTPDocEd [Beauties of the German Language]Ⓐapparatus note February 3, Vienna.Ⓐapparatus note Lectured for the benefit of a charity last nightⒺexplanatory note, in the BösendorfersaalⒶapparatus note. Just as I was going on the platform a messenger delivered to me an envelop with my name on it, and this written under it: “Please read one of these tonight.” Enclosed were a couple of newspaper clippings—two versions of an anecdote, one German, the other English.
MTPDocEd [Comment on Tautology and Grammar]Ⓐapparatus note May 6. * * *Ⓔexplanatory note I do not find that the repetition of an important word a few times—say three or four times—in a paragraph, troubles my ear if clearness of meaning is best secured thereby. But tautological repetition whichⒶapparatus note has no justifying object, but merely exposes the fact that the writer’s balance at the vocabulary bank has run short and that he is too lazy to replenish it from the thesaurus—that is another matter.
MTPDocEd [A Group of Servants]Ⓐapparatus note * * * June 4, KaltenleutgebenⒺexplanatory note.Ⓐapparatus note In this family we are four. When a family has been used to a group of servants whose several terms of service with it cover these periods, to witⒶapparatus note: 10 years, 12 years, 13 years, 17 years, 19 years, and 22 years, itⒶapparatus note is not able to understand the new ways of [begin page 121] a new group straight off.
MTPDocEd [A Viennese Procession]Ⓐapparatus note June 26, Sunday;Ⓐapparatus note Kaltenleutgeben. I went in the eightⒶapparatus note o’clock train to Vienna, to see the procession. It was a stroke of luck, for at the last moment I was feeling lazy and was minded not to go. But when I reached the station, five minutes late, the train was still there, a couple of friends were there also, and so I went.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 127] In August 1898, after several months of intensive work on his autobiography, Clemens decided to write up how he came to publish what he called his first magazine article, about the burning at sea of the clipper ship Hornet. At the end of August he told Henry Harper, “I want to write a magazine article of a reminiscent sort. The first magazine article I ever published appeared in Harper’s Monthly 31 years ago under the name of (by typographical error) MacSwain.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 145] The manuscripts for these next three pieces (“Horace Greeley,” “Lecture-Times,” and “Ralph Keeler”) are all in the Mark Twain Papers. Clemens wrote all three in Vienna at about the same time, either in late 1898 or (more likely) in early 1899. He had apparently abandoned (at least briefly) the autobiography as he had originally conceived it in favor of a “portrait gallery of contemporaries,” as he told one interviewer in May 1899: “A man cannot tell the whole truth about himself, even if convinced that what he wrote would never be seen by others.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 146] This manuscript, begun in Vienna in late 1898 or early 1899, was left incomplete, ending in mid-sentence at a moment of unresolved suspense. Like “Horace Greeley” and “Ralph Keeler,” it seems to have been intended as part of a series of biographical portraits of friends and acquaintances which Clemens had temporarily adopted as a substitute for the autobiography as first conceived.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 150] This manuscript, like the previous two, belongs to the series of biographies Clemens was writing in 1898–99 instead of continuing to work in the more traditional format for an autobiography. It is obviously related in other ways to Clemens’s reminiscences in “Lecture-Times,” but it starts somewhat earlier, when he was a newspaper reporter in San Francisco, and extends to his 1871–72 lecture tour, during which he relied on Ralph Keeler for companionship in “lecture-flights” made out to the suburbs around Boston.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 155] Clemens wrote the manuscript of “Scraps from My Autobiography. From Chapter IX” (now in the Mark Twain Papers) in London in 1900. He later asked his daughter Jean to type it, probably in 1902, and then lightly revised her typescript. By early August 1906, when George Harvey was induced to read the autobiography in typescript and instantly suggested selections for publication in the North American Review, Clemens had already decided not to include this long reminiscence of childhood in his plan for the autobiography.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 164] “Scraps from My Autobiography. Private History of a Manuscript That Came to Grief” consists of a manuscript of thirty-six leaves, along with a typewritten section, extensively annotated by Clemens, of some forty pages. It survives in the Mark Twain Papers and previously has been published only in part. In it Clemens vented his very considerable irritation in a sarcastic letter (never sent) to one T.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 181] This untitled manuscript of twenty-two leaves in the Mark Twain Papers, here assigned the title “Reflections on a Letter and Book,” was probably written in late April or early May 1903. Clemens designated it “Auto.” on the first page, which transcribes a letter to him from one Hilary Trent (pseudonym of R. M. Manley), author of Mr. Claghorn’s Daughter. Manley asked Clemens to read his book, obviously hoping that he would comment on it.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 188] This 1903 text survives in an untitled, previously unpublished manuscript now in the Mark Twain Papers. Clemens identified it as “Autobiog.” in the upper left corner of the first page, adding (and later canceling) “Hannibal, 1842,” the place and year of the first anecdote about his experience with castor oil. Clemens was always skeptical of doctors and had long since concluded that they were of little or no assistance to their patients.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 192] This text survives in an untitled 1906 typescript made by Josephine Hobby, now in the Mark Twain Papers. Hobby copied an earlier typescript, now lost, created by Jean Clemens from Isabel Lyon’s notes of Clemens’s original dictation in April 1904, and Clemens briefly revised and corrected Hobby’s copy. It is the only one of the six known Florentine dictations that Clemens did not include in his final text for the autobiography (see the Introduction, note 55).
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 199] The following text is preserved in an untitled manuscript in the Mark Twain Papers. Clemens labeled it “Autobiog.” at the top of the first page, but he did not integrate it with the final text of the autobiography. Paine penciled a title on the first page of the manuscript: “Anecdote of Jean. Her love of Animals.” The disaster portrayed in Jean’s picture book occurred on 1 November 1755, when a powerful series of earthquakes, followed by fires and a tsunami, destroyed much of Lisbon and killed an estimated 60,000 people and an unknown number of animals.
MTPDocEd
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 2 April 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 618–25 (altered in pencil to 627–34), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Times Clipping from the New York Times, 1 April 1906, 1, attached to TS1: ‘PROMOTION FOR . . . his course.’ (3.5–41).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 772–80, made from the revised TS1 with the attached Times clipping and further revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 3 April 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 626–36 (altered in pencil to 635–45), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Times Clippings from the New York Times, 3 April 1906, 5, 2, attached to TS1: ‘BARNES’S APPOINTMENT . . . not encouraging.” ’ (6.22–7.42); ‘MARK TWAIN . . . for each.’ (10.5–28).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 781–93, made from the revised TS1 with the attached Times clippings.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 4 April 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 637–46 (altered in pencil to 646–55; part of 640 and all of 647–48 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Wednesday . . . of itself.’ (11 title–13.39); ‘MARK TWAIN TALKS . . . pleasant chat’ (14.1–17.32).
Times Clippings from the New York Times, 4 April 1906, 1, 9, attached to TS1: ‘MRS.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 5 April 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 649–63 (altered in pencil to 658–72), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 808–22, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
NAR 12pf Galley proofs of NAR 12, typeset from the revised TS2 and further revised: title and ‘Am I . . . those people.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 6 April 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 664–75 (altered in pencil to 673–84), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 823–34, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
NAR 12pf Galley proofs of NAR 12, typeset from the revised TS2 and further revised: ‘Yesterday I . . . sterling man.’ (23.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 9 April 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 676, 680–91 (altered in pencil to 685, 689–700; 677–79 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Monday, April 9 . . . reference is’ (27.36–28.13); ‘Something in . . . Huck up.’ (29.11–33.4).
Clipping Clipping from an unidentified newspaper, attached to TS1: ‘MARK TWAIN INTERDIT . . . le faire.’ (28.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 10 April 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 692–703 (altered in pencil to 701–12), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 847–58, made from the revised TS1.
TS1 was revised by Clemens, evidently with publication in mind (he marked one extract to be set ‘solid’). But he decided against publication in NAR for any part of this dictation.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 11 April 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. World Facsimile of the New York World (the original clippings that Hobby transcribed are now lost), 11 April 1906, 2, 5: ‘STRANGE SEQUEL . . . brother’s death.’ (41.11–42.21); ‘OLIVE LOGAN . . . ruined us.” ’ (44.27–45.17).
TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 692–703 (altered in ink to 704–15, and in pencil to 713–24; part of page 703 is missing, as is the remainder of TS1, an uncertain number of pages); made from Hobby’s notes and the World and revised: ‘Wednesday .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 21 May 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 726–33 (altered in pencil to 736–43), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 883–90, made from the revised TS1.
TS3 Typescript, leaves numbered 4–11, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
NAR 2pf Galley proofs of NAR 2, typeset from the revised TS3 and further revised (the same extent as NAR 2), ViU.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 23 May 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 734–44 (altered in pencil to 744–54), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 891–900, made from the revised TS1.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions into TS2. Clemens wrote ‘used’ on the first page of TS2, which is not accurate: no part of this dictation was published in NAR.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 24 May 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 745–59 (altered in pencil to 755–69), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 901–14, made from the revised TS1 and further revised in pencil.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions into TS2, which he revised entirely in pencil, noting at the top of the first page, ‘Change some of the names, & use it’.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 26 May 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 760–67 (altered in pencil to 769–76), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 915–21, made from the revised TS1.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions into TS2, which was not further revised. Clemens noted at the top of the first page of TS2, ‘Not usable yet’.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 28 May 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 768–81 (altered in pencil to 777–90), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 922–34, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions into TS2, which was further revised but not published in NAR.
X [begin page 60] Monday, May 28, 1906 Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 29 May 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 782–92 (altered in pencil to 791–801), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 935–44, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions into TS2, which was further revised but not published in NAR.
X Tuesday, May 29, 1906 Webster’s fine new quarters—Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 31 May 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 793–801 (altered in pencil to 802–10), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 945–54, made from the revised TS1.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions into TS2, which was not further revised.
X [begin page 68] Thursday, May 31, 1906 The lovely morning and the majestic MountⒶtextual note Monadnock—Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 1 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 802–9 (altered in pencil to 811–18), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 955–62, made from the revised TS1.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions into TS2, which was not further revised.
X FridayⒶtextual note, June 1, 1906 GeneralⒶtextual note Grant wishes Mr. Clemens’s opinion of the literary quality of his Memoirs—Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 2 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 810–28 (altered in pencil to 819–37), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 963–81, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions into TS2, on which Clemens made only one revision; he also wrote ‘not usable yet’ on its first page.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 4 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 829–36 (altered in pencil to 838–45), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Monday . . . append it.’ (80 title–83.17).
Harper’s “Was It Heaven? Or Hell?” Harper’s Monthly Magazine 106 (December 1902), 11–20, attached to TS1: ‘Was it Heaven? . . . Or Hell?’ (83.18–96.37).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 982–90, made from the revised TS1 and further revised in pencil: ‘Monday .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 6 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 837–46 (altered in pencil to 846–55), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 991–1000, made from the revised TS1 and further revised in pencil.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions into TS2, on which the only revision is the deletion of a passage, in pencil (at 98.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 7 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 847–60, [1]–14, 860a, 861–65 (altered in pencil to 856–89), made from Hobby’s notes and SLC to Twichell and revised.
SLC to Crane MS letter, SLC to Susan Crane, 29 and 30 December 1902, attached to TS1: ‘Clara’s Day . . . SLC’ (101.9–103.25).
SLC to Twichell MS letter, SLC to Joseph H.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 11 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 866–72 (altered in pencil to [890]–96), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Since TS2 is missing, TS1 as revised by Clemens is the only witness.
X Monday, June 11, 1906 The beautiful morning—Noble situation of the house—Its one defect, loneliness—The visit of the deer—Sympathy with Adam and Eve in Garden of Eden—IrruptionⒶtextual note of Vesuvius—Earthquake in San Francisco.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 12 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 873–82 (altered in pencil to 897–906), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 1026–35, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions into TS2, which Paine reviewed for possible publication in NAR, querying two passages to suggest omission. Clemens then revised TS2, deleting the summary paragraph and both passages (113.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 13 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 883–95 (altered in pencil to 907–19), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 (lost) Typescript, leaves conjecturally numbered 1036–48, revised (conjecturally) by Clemens and/or Paine; now lost.
Harper’s “Unpublished Chapters from the Autobiography of Mark Twain: Part II.” Harper’s Monthly Magazine 144 (March 1922): 455–58, typeset from the revised TS2: ‘How .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 14 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 896–902 (altered in pencil to 920–26), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 (lost) Typescript, leaves conjecturally numbered 1049–55, revised (conjecturally) by Clemens and/or Paine; now lost.
Harper’s “Unpublished Chapters from the Autobiography of Mark Twain: Part II.” Harper’s Monthly Magazine 144 (March 1922): 458–60, typeset from the revised TS2: ‘Harte was .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 18 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary 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.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 19 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 915–21 (altered in pencil to 940–46), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2, which is now missing, presumably incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions. On TS1 Clemens wrote, ‘Not to be exposed to any eye until the edition of A.D. 2406. SLC’.
X [begin page 128] Tuesday, June 19, 1906 About the character of God, as represented in the New and the Old Testaments.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 20 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 922–28 (altered in pencil to 947–53), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 1079–85, made from the revised TS1.
Hobby incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions into TS2, which was not further revised. Clemens wrote on TS1, ‘Not to be exposed to any eye until the edition of A.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 22 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 929–37 (altered in pencil to 954–62), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Times Clipping from the New York Times, 19 June 1906, 3, attached to TS1: ‘Horrible details . . . an investigation.’ (133.11–46).
TS2, which is now missing, presumably incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions.
X Friday, June 22, 1906 The brutal Russian massacres of the Jews—Compares ancient and modern massacres—Tendency of present generation to turn its attention to war—Evil influence of the Bible upon children—Present God and religion will not last.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 23 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 938–49 (altered in pencil to 963–74), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2, which is now missing, presumably incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions.
X Saturday, June 23, 1906 Concerning the character of the real God.
Let us now consider the real God, the genuine God, the great God, the sublime and supreme God, the authentic Creator of the real Ⓐtextual note universe, whose remotenesses are visited by comets only—comets unto which incredibly distant Neptune is merely an outpost, a Sandy Hook to homeward bound spectres of the deeps of space that have not glimpsed it before for generations—a universe not made with hands and suited to an astronomical nursery, but spread abroad through the illimitable reaches of space by the fiat of the real God just mentioned; that God of unthinkable grandeurⒶtextual note and majesty, by comparison with whom all the other gods whose myriads infest the feebleⒶtextual note imaginations of men are as a swarm of gnats scattered and lost in the infinitudes of the empty sky.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 25 June 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 950–57 (altered in pencil to 975–82), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS2, which is now missing, presumably incorporated Clemens’s TS1 revisions. X Monday, June 25, 1906 Only hearsay evidence that there is to be a heavenⒶtextual note hereafter—Christ does not prove that He is God—Takes up the human race—Man a machine, and not responsible for his actions.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 17 July 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered [1]–17 (renumbered by Hobby as 958–74 and again altered to 983–99), made from Katharine I. Harrison’s notes and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 1116–31, made from the revised TS1.
This dictation was made and typed in New York, in the midst of a period of several weeks in June–July 1906 when Clemens was away from Dublin, New Hampshire, vacationing with Henry H.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 30 July 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 975–83, made from Hobby’s notes.
TS1 is the only extant source of this dictation. The last dictation for which TS2 survives is 7 August 1906, so presumably Hobby continued to type TS2 until at least that date, but it is not extant for the present dictation. TS1 has also a carbon copy; neither copy was revised by Clemens.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 31 July 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Orr to SLC Typed letter, Charles Orr to SLC, 28 June 1906: ‘Cleveland . . . Chas. Orr’ (153.34–42), revised.
TS Orr Excerpt from a typescript of an article by Charles Orr, containing transcriptions of three letters from John Hay to Alexander Gunn: ‘June 21 . . . John Hay’ (154.2–33), revised.
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 984–1000, made from Hobby’s notes, Orr to SLC, and TS Orr and revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 6 August 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 1001–8, made from Hobby’s notes and revised in pencil.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 1001–7 (altered in ink to 1060–66), made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
Clemens’s revisions on TS1 are in pencil, unless otherwise noted. Several of them are designed to rephrase the matter of his income in general terms rather than specific dollar amounts.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 7 August 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon (lost) Typescript, leaves numbered 1009–14, made from Hobby’s notes and revised (conjecturally); now lost.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1009–14, revised.
TS2 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1008–14, made from the revised TS1 ribbon (lost).
TS4 Typescript, leaves numbered 1407–13, made from the revised TS1 ribbon.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 8 August 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1015–26, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1015–26, revised.
Clemens revised TS1 ribbon and TS1 carbon, differently, and clearly at different times. TS1 carbon was revised with a proposed NAR installment in mind. This revision probably occurred after 1 February 1907; Clemens’s notations on the AD of 18 June 1906 show that at one time he intended to pair an excerpt from this dictation with selections from the ADs of 18 June 1906 and 1 February 1907.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 10 August 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Gazette Clipping from the Westminster Gazette of unknown date, formerly pinned to TS1 ribbon: ‘MARK TWAIN TRIPPING . . . a joke.’ (167.7–19).
TS Higbie Typescript of Calvin H. Higbie, “A Little Experience in Nevada and Surrounding Country,” revised by SLC: ‘At that time . . . stand the strain.” ’ (170.29–171.27).
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1027–38, made from Hobby’s notes, the Gazette clipping, and TS Higbie.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 11 August 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 1039–48 (part of 1048 and all of 1049 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Saturday . . . theologian.’ (171 title–175.25).
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1039–49.
TS1 ribbon was marked and abridged by Clemens for a projected NAR installment, but it was never published there; it has been mutilated as well (the anecdote of Kipling has been removed).
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 13 August 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1050–54, made from Hobby’s notes.
The ribbon copy being lost, TS1 (a carbon copy) is our only authoritative source for this dictation. TS4 is extant; it could have been made from the missing ribbon copy, but it shows no revisions. X [begin page 176] Monday, August 13, 1906 Kipling’s visit to Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 15 August 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 1055–59, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Clemens revised TS1. His cancellation of the summary, and his insertion of ellipses before the first words, signal a proposed NAR excerpt, but the dictation never appeared there. These alterations are rejected. All the rest of his revisions, however, seem not to be matters of self-censorship and are accepted.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 27 August 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1060–70 (altered in ink to 1072–82), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1060–70 (altered in ink and pencil to 1072–82), revised.
TS1 ribbon was revised by Clemens. His cancellation of the dateline and summary signal a proposed NAR excerpt, but the dictation never appeared there.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 28 August 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1071–88, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1071–88, revised.
TS1 ribbon was revised by Clemens. Lyon copied Clemens’s TS1 ribbon revisions to TS1 carbon, which Clemens marked ‘Not usable now.’ For Calvin Higbie’s letter to Clemens (183.15–32), the manuscript is lost, and Hobby’s transcription is the unique source of the text.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 29 August 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Beardsley to SLC MS letter, Lillian R. Beardsley to SLC, 25 August 1906: ‘Sound Beach . . . New York City.’ (189.9–36).
Wakeman transcript MS transcript by SLC of Edgar Wakeman to Joseph H. Twichell, 25 December 1874: ‘Christmas day . . . in Calf.’ (195.7–27).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 1089–1105, made from Hobby’s notes, Beardsley to SLC, and Wakeman transcript and revised in pencil.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 30 August 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1188–99 (numbering in pencil by an unidentified hand), made from Hobby’s notes and revised in pencil.
TS1 carbon (incomplete) Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1188–95 (1196–99 are missing; numbering in pencil by an unidentified hand), revised: ‘Thursday . . . who is Captain’ (195 title–198.19).
Clemens revised TS1 ribbon in pencil.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 31 August 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Boyle to SLC Typed letter, B. Butler Boyle to SLC, 24 August 1906: ‘The Boyle . . . Butler Boyle’ (213.16–40).
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1200–1225, made from Hobby’s notes, the MS, and Boyle to SLC and revised; to 1211–17 are attached a set of photographic prints inscribed and numbered 1–7 in SLC’s hand.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 3 September 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1226–37, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1226–37, revised.
Clemens revised TS1 ribbon. Lyon transferred his revisions, somewhat imperfectly, to TS1 carbon; Clemens then made a further round of revisions to TS1 carbon, with an NAR installment in view. None of the dictation appeared in NAR, despite Clemens’s explicit instructions here to make an installment by combining excerpts from it with the entire ADs of 3 October and 19 December 1906.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 4 September 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1238–48, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1238–48, revised.
It seems likely that this text was not dictated but transcribed from manuscript; no antecedent text, however, has been found.
Clemens revised TS1 ribbon. His revisions were transferred to TS1 carbon by Lyon; Clemens then made a further round of revisions to TS1 carbon, with an NAR installment in view.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 5 September 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1249–56, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1249–56, revised.
NAR 19pf Galley proofs of NAR 19, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon (the same extent as NAR 19), ViU.
NAR 19 North American Review 185 (7 June 1907), 247–51: ‘Wednesday .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 7 September 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1257–66, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1257–66, revised.
Clemens revised TS1 ribbon, and Lyon transferred his revisions to TS1 carbon, which he further revised with an NAR installment in view. No excerpt from the dictation, however, was published. Clemens’s draft telegram to Campbell-Bannerman survives at Middlebury College in Vermont (VtMiM); it is addressed to Campbell-Bannerman by name and lacks the words ‘honored sir’ (227.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 10 September 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Alden to SLC Typed letter, Henry Mills Alden to SLC, 6 September 1906: ‘Editorial Rooms . . . Alden’ (231.1–14).
Alden to Rees Typed letter (copy), Henry Mills Alden to Thomas Rees, 27 August 1906, enclosed with Alden to SLC: ‘COPY . . . Illinois.’ (231.15–30).
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1267–83, made from Hobby’s notes, Alden to SLC, and Alden to Rees and revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 2 October 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1284–96, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1284–96, revised.
Clemens revised TS1 ribbon, then transferred his changes to TS1 carbon. In doing so, he overlooked a dozen of the easier-to-overlook revisions. He then further revised TS1 carbon by altering his age from ‘fifteenth’ to ‘twelfth’ at 237.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 3 October 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1297–1305, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1297–1305, revised.
Clemens lightly revised TS1 ribbon, then transferred most of his revisions to TS1 carbon. He then further revised TS1 carbon with the intention of including it in an NAR installment, but it was never published there.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 4 October 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary 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.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 5 October 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Stockbridge to SLC (incomplete) MS letter, Anne Stockbridge to SLC, 27 September 1906, revised: ‘Stockbridge . . . street in’ (246.3–24).
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1314–18, made from Hobby’s notes and Stockbridge to SLC and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1314–18, revised.
Of the letter from Stockbridge, a single sheet (four pages, the first half of the letter) survives, to which Clemens added the page numbers ‘3’ and ‘4’.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 8 October 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1319–27, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1319–27, revised.
NAR 15pf Galley proofs of NAR 15, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon (the same extent as NAR 15), ViU.
NAR 15 North American Review 184 (5 April 1907), 673–77: ‘Monday .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 9 October 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1328–29, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1328–29, revised.
NAR 24pf Galley proofs of NAR 24, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon and further revised (the same extent as NAR 24), ViU.
NAR 24 North American Review 186 (November 1907), 327–28: ‘Tuesday .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 10 October 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1330–40, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1330–40, revised.
NAR 22pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 22, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon and further revised (conjecturally); now lost.
NAR 22 North American Review 186 (September 1907), 8–12: ‘Susy has .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 11 October 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1341–42, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1341–42, revised.
NAR 24pf Galley proofs of NAR 24, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon and further revised (the same extent as NAR 24), ViU.
NAR 24 North American Review 186 (November 1907), 330: ‘Thursday .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 12 October 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1343–45, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon (lost) Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1343–45, revised (conjecturally); now lost.
NAR 24pf Galley proofs of NAR 24, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon (the same extent as NAR 24), ViU.
NAR 24 North American Review 186 (November 1907), 330–31: ‘Friday .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 15 October 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Critic Clipping from The Critic, 28 November 1885, 253, attached to OSC 1885–86: ‘Mark Twain’s . . . Warner.’ (259.29–260.13).
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1346–53, made from Hobby’s notes and The Critic and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1346–53, revised.
NAR 17pf Galley proofs of NAR 17, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon and further revised (the same extent as NAR 17), ViU.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 16 October 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1354–59, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1354–59, revised.
NAR 24pf Galley proofs of NAR 24, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon (the same extent as NAR 24), ViU.
NAR 24 North American Review 186 (November 1907), 328–30: ‘Warner is .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 30 October 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Critic Clipping from The Critic, 28 November 1885, 253, attached to pp. 59–60 of OSC 1885–86: ‘To Mark . . . Chandler Harris.’ (263.31–265.12).
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1360–69, made from Hobby’s notes and The Critic and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescrpt carbon, leaves numbered 1360–69, revised.
Paine reviewed TS1 ribbon for possible publication in NAR; he queried the entire anecdote about Jim Wolf for possible omission.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 7 November 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1372–80, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1372–80, revised.
If Clemens revised in what was by now his usual way, he first revised TS1 ribbon and transferred his revisions to the carbon; in this case the internal evidence does not point entirely one way.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 8 November 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1370–71 (corrected by Hobby to 1379–80) and 1381–88, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1370–71 (corrected by Hobby to 1879–80) and 1381–88, revised.
NAR 21pf Galley proofs of NAR 21, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon (the same extent as NAR 21), ViU.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 19 November 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1389–94, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1389–94, revised.
Circular Mark Twain on Simplified Spelling, Simplified Spelling Board Circular No. 9, 10 November 1906; revised copy attached to TS1 ribbon, unrevised copy attached to TS1 carbon: ‘I am .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 20 November 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1395–1404, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1395–1404, revised.
TS1 ribbon, and its carbon copy, were made by Hobby from her stenographic notes. Both ribbon and carbon bear (nearly identical) sets of authorial revisions. In the one place where a revision on TS1 ribbon is not also made on TS1 carbon (‘interest’ at 279.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 21 November 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 1405–11, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
The sole witness, TS1, was typed by Hobby from her notes. Clemens revised TS1; one passage, in addition to bearing ink revisions, is lightly canceled in pencil, probably not by Clemens. One revision, the alteration of ‘puked’ to ‘vomited’ (at 282.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 22 November 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Clipping Clipping from an unidentified newspaper, attached to OSC 1885–86, p. [89], revised: ‘The Outlook . . . larger part.’ (283.16–284.10).
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1412–18, made from Hobby’s notes and the Clipping and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1412–18, revised.
Clemens revised TS1 ribbon and transferred those revisions to TS1 carbon, which received a further round of revision with NAR publication specifically in mind.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 23 November 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1419–25, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 ribbon, revised by Clemens, is the sole witness for this dictation.
X Friday, November 23, 1906 Mr. Clemens tells of his idea in regard to international copyright, which he disclosed to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes thirty-five years ago.
I was supposing that I had said, yesterday, all that I wanted to say about copyright, but I was probably mistaken.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 24 November 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1426–37, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1426–37, revised.
Clemens revised TS1 ribbon, and copied his revisions (accurately) to TS1 carbon, which he continued to revise. He marked the first page of TS1 carbon ‘Usable. (5 Review pages)’, but no part of the dictation was published.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 30 November 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1438–54, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1438–54, revised.
NAR 19pf Galley proofs of NAR 19, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon (the same extent as NAR 19), ViU.
NAR 19 North American Review 185 (7 June 1907), 245–47: ‘Monday .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 1 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered 1–14 and nine lines of leaf number 15, from a manuscript of thirty-eight leaves written in 1903.
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1455–64, made from the MS and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1455–64, revised.
NAR 9pf Galley proofs of NAR 9, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon (the same extent as NAR 9), ViU.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 2 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered 15–28, from a manuscript of thirty-eight leaves written in 1903.
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1465–74, made from the MS and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1465–74, revised.
NAR 9pf Galley proofs of NAR 9, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon (the same extent as NAR 9), ViU.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 3 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript, leaves originally numbered 1–10 and renumbered 29–38, from a manuscript of thirty-eight leaves written in 1903.
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1475–82, made from the MS and revised.
TS1 carbon (incomplete) Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1475–81 (1482 is missing), revised: ‘December 3 . . . to the’ (304 title–306.23).
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 5 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Sun Facsimile of the New York Sun (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), 5 December 1906, 2: ‘SELLING WIVES . . . each case.’ (307.35–308.4).
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1483–90, made from Hobby’s notes and the Sun and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1483–90, revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 6 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1491–99, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1491–99, revised.
NAR 14pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 14, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon; now lost.
NAR 14 North American Review 184 (15 March 1907), 561–65: ‘Thursday . . . 1906’ (309 title); ‘From Susy’s .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 13 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS (incomplete) Manuscript, leaves numbered [2]–12 (page 1 is missing): ‘He did . . . while yet.’ (312.32–315.4).
NAR 9pf Galley proofs of NAR 9, typeset from the MS and further revised (the same extent as NAR 9), ViU.
NAR 9 North American Review 184 (4 January 1907), 1–5: ‘December . . . while yet.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 17 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1500–1506, made from Hobby’s notes.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1500–1506, revised.
NAR 14pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 14, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon; now lost.
NAR 14 North American Review 184 (15 March 1907), 565–67: ‘Monday . . . 1906’ (315 title); ‘As I .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 18 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1507–15, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1507–15, revised.
Clemens revised TS1 ribbon sparingly and transferred his changes to TS1 carbon, to which he added a few further revisions before noting on the first page, ‘Not usable now.’
X TuesdayⒶtextual note, December 18, 1906 Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 19 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 1516–26, made from Hobby’s notes.
This AD is based on earlier-written material which exists in a variety of related manuscripts and typescripts in the Mark Twain Papers. The entire text, excepting the introductory paragraph, stems from a work written, perhaps, shortly before the date of this dictation: “Copyright Discussed.” It exists in a mixed form: a manuscript, which breaks off with the instruction to ‘Run to’ ‘the typed matter’; and a Hobby typescript with Clemens’s revisions, which is complete.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 20 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1526–32, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1526–32, revised.
NAR 22pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 22, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon; now lost.
NAR 22 North American Review 186 (September 1907), 17–21: ‘Thursday . . . 1906’ (324 title); ‘Six months .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 21 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1527–42 (corrected by Hobby to 1533–48), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1527–42 (corrected by Hobby to 1533–48), revised.
NAR 18pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 18, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon; now lost.
NAR 18 North American Review 185 (17 May 1907), 113–18 and 119–22: ‘December 21, 1906’ (326 title); ‘I wish .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 26 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1543–58 (corrected by Hobby to 1549–64), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon 1 Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1543–58 (corrected by Hobby to 1549–64), revised.
TS1 carbon 2 (incomplete) Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1551–58 (altered in pencil to 1557–64), revised: ‘Statement of . . . like this!
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 27 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1559–69 (corrected by Hobby to 1565–75), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon (incomplete) Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1560–69 (1559 and 1563 are missing; corrected by Hobby to 1566–68, 1570–75), revised: ‘the body’s . . . we pres-’ (342.24–343.28); ‘let it . . . home intact.’ (344.2–345.41).
Clemens revised TS1 ribbon, then transferred his corrections to TS1 carbon.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 28 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 (incomplete) Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1576–85 and 1587–1600 (1586 is missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Friday . . . Virginia—has’ (346 title–350.43); ‘no date . . . at all.’ (351.28–356.20).
OSC MS, Olivia Susan Clemens’s untitled biography of her father written in 1885–86, pages numbered 1–131, annotated by SLC, ViU.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 29 December 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1601–1608, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
The ribbon copy is missing. Clemens revised the carbon copy (TS1), intending it for NAR, where it did not appear.
Marginal Notes on TS1 Concerning Publication in NAR
Location on TS Writer, Medium Exact Inscription Explanation TS1, p.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 6 January 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1609–15, made from Lyon’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1609–15, revised.
NAR 21pf Galley proofs of NAR 21, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon (the same extent as NAR 21), ViU.
NAR 21 North American Review 185 (2 August 1907), 695–98: ‘Hamilton .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 9 January 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS Jean Typescript of “As Concerns Interpreting the Deity” (SLC 1905[bib 32778]), leaves numbered 1–24, prepared by Jean Clemens in 1905 from Clemens’s manuscript, revised: ‘Dublin . . . Mark Twain.’ (363.12–370.26).
TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1616–39, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, which exists only as a carbon, included Josephine Hobby’s retranscription of Jean Clemens’s 1905 typescript of “As Concerns Interpreting the Deity”; both documents contain authorial revisions.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 15 January 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 1640–49, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Parts of a newspaper article (“Service Pensions,” New York Sun, 15 January 1907, 6) are excerpted at 372.37–374.7. Judging by Hobby’s fidelity to the accidentals of the newspaper printing, it seems she copied from a clipping; but it had probably been marked by Clemens, as there are some abridgments and one small change of wording.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 17 January 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1650–54, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
With the ribbon copy of TS1 missing, TS1 (a carbon copy), which Clemens revised, is our only authoritative source for this dictation. TS1 is also the source of the poem “Helen Keller” (quoted at 375.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 22 January 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1655–66, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1655–66, revised.
NAR 15pf Galley proofs of NAR 15, typeset from the revised TS1 ribbon and further revised (the same extent as NAR 15), ViU.
NAR 15 North American Review 184 (5 April 1907), 677–82: ‘Tuesday .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 23 January 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 1667–75 (1676–87 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Wednesday . . . have penetrated.’ (380 title–383.15).
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1667–87, revised.
NAR 20pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 20, typeset from the revised TS1 ribbon and further revised (conjecturally); now lost.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 28 January 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents.
MS MS of twenty-nine leaves, numbered 1–6 (two leaves numbered 5), 10–18, 22–24, and 26–35: ‘Palm Readings . . . a palmist?’ (390.4–391.20); ‘I am . . . the sheriff.’ (392.30–394.18); ‘Paragraph 2 . . . inwardly indifferent.’ (395.42–396.19); ‘1. “Good man,” . . . American’s name!’ (398.6–400.22).
TS Niblo Typescript, leaves numbered 7–9 (altered from 5–7), revised: ‘Reading by .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 29 January 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 1–8, revised: ‘I have . . . the same.’ (405.8–409.18).
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1727–39 and 1–8 (altered in pencil to 1740–47), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Into this dictation Clemens inserted the text of a letter he had written to his brother Orion on 6 February 1861.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 30 January 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1748–58, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
With the ribbon copy of TS1 missing, TS1 (a carbon copy), which Clemens revised, is our only authoritative source for this dictation. Into TS1 Hobby transcribed an unidentified newspaper article about Simon Guggenheim (at 410.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 1 February 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Page transcript Typed transcript of letter from B. B. Page to Helen Keller, 29 November 1903: ‘16 Miles . . . her Driver.’ (414.18–415.17).
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1759–64, made from Hobby’s notes and Page transcript, revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1759–64, revised.
For the dictated part of the text, Hobby typed from her notes; for the text of the B.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 4 February 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Sun Facsimile of the New York Sun (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), 29 January 1907, 1: ‘JESSAMY BRET . . . New York only.’ (427.11–28).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 1765–1811, made from Hobby’s notes and the Sun and revised; pages 1765–1800 are a carbon copy (the ribbon copy is lost), pages 1801–11 are a ribbon copy.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 11 February 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1812–21, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon (incomplete) Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1812–15 (part of 1815 and 1816–21 are missing), revised: ‘Monday . . . them presently.’ (430 title–431.22).
NAR 14pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 14, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon and further revised (conjecturally); now lost.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 12 February 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1822–24, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1822–24, revised.
NAR 14pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 14, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon and further revised (conjecturally); now lost.
NAR 14 North American Review 184 (15 March 1907), 568–70: Tuesday .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 19 February 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1–6, made from an unidentified source and revised, NN-BGC.
TS carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1–6, revised.
The real date of this dictation is not known. Clemens’s vague remarks in it suggest dates ranging from 1904 to 1907. The dictation, which was not typed by Hobby, was never incorporated into the TS1 series; but in a letter to John Y.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 25 February 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Sun Facsimile of the New York Sun, 24 February 1907, 1, 3, 4 (the original clippings that Hobby transcribed are now lost): ‘LAST SURVIVORS . . . the vessel.’ (438.4–440.4); ‘BOLT WRECKS . . . was reached.’ (440.8–441.5).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 1825–38, made from Hobby’s notes and the Sun and revised.
TS1 was made from Hobby’s notes, and from two articles from the New York Sun of the previous day, and revised by Clemens.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 26 February 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Sun Facsimile of the New York Sun (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), 25 February 1907, 2: ‘HORRORS OF . . . the trains.’ (443.11–444.47).
TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1839–44, made from Hobby’s notes and the Sun and revised.
TS1 (a carbon copy) was made by Hobby from her notes and the article in the New York Sun, and revised by Clemens.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 27 February 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Sun 1 Facsimile of the New York Sun (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed does not survive), 25 January 1907, 2: ‘WILLIAM WHITELEY . . . victim’s body.’ (447.21–38).
Sun 2 Facsimile of the New York Sun (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed does not survive), 26 January 1907, 8: ‘WHITELEY, UNIVERSAL .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 28 February 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Harper’s Facsimile of Harper’s Weekly (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), 2 March 1907, 51: 296: ‘The Man . . . eat babies.’ (455.21–456.24).
TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1871–77, made from Hobby’s notes and Harper’s, and revised.
TS1, a carbon copy, was made by Hobby from her notes, and revised by Clemens.
MTPDocEd APPENDIXES TABLE OF CONTENTS SAMUEL L. CLEMENS: A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY FAMILY BIOGRAPHIES PREVIOUS PUBLICATION SAMUEL L. CLEMENS: A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY 1835 Born 30 November in Florida, Mo., the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens. Of his six siblings, only Orion, Pamela, and Henry lived into adulthood. (For details, see the next appendix, “Family Biographies.”)
1839–40 Moves to Hannibal, Mo., on the west bank of the Mississippi River; enters typical western common school in Hannibal (1840).
MTPDocEd NOTE ON THE TEXT The present volume consists of 104 autobiographical dictations, arranged chronologically by the date of their creation, continuing the series begun in Volume 1. It starts with the dictation of 2 April 1906 (Volume 1 ended with that of 30 March 1906), and it concludes with a dictation made on 28 February 1907, two years before the author ceased to add dictations to his text.
MTPDocEd 2 April 1906 [begin page 1] [begin page 2] [begin page 3] Monday, April 2, 1906 Government of new Territory of Nevada—Governor Nye and the practical jokers—Mr. Clemens begins journalistic life on Virginia City Enterprise Ⓐtextual note—Reports legislative sessions—
He and Orion prosper—Orion builds twelve-thousand-dollarⒶtextual note house—GovernorⒶtextual note Nye turns Territory of Nevada into a State.Ⓐtextual note PROMOTION FOR BARNES, WHOM TILLMAN BERATED Ⓔexplanatory note Had Woman Ejected from White House; to be Postmaster.
MTPDocEd X Autobiography of Mark Twain
Volume 2 Edited by
Benjamin Griffin and Harriet Elinor Smith
Associate Editors
Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Sharon K. Goetz, Leslie Diane Myrick
A Publication of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library
General Editor, Robert H. Hirst
University of California Press Berkeley Los Angeles London
2013
The Mark Twain Project is an editorial and publishing program of The Bancroft Library, working since 1967 to create a comprehensive critical edition of everything Mark Twain wrote.
MTPDocEd X The Clemenses’ house on Farmington Avenue, Hartford, winter 1880. X Clara as Lady Jane Grey and Margaret (Daisy) Warner as the pauper in the prince’s clothing for the Prince and the Pauper play, Hartford, March 1886. Photograph by Horace L. Bundy. X Onteora, New York, 1890: Carroll Beckwith, W. F. Clarke, Dora Wheeler, R. Heber Newton, Laurence Hutton, Mary Mapes Dodge, Candace Wheeler, Brander Matthews, Lillie Hamilton French, Eleanor V.
MTPO Doc Ed
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 1 March 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 1878–1900, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
This dictation comprises three sections: one dated ‘March 1, 1907’ (leaves 1878–87, a ribbon copy), followed by two undated sections (1888–91 and 1892–1900, both carbon copies), which are introduced only by summaries. The combined typescript, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for the text.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 6 March 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1901–8, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
The ribbon copy being lost, TS1 (a carbon copy), as revised by Clemens, is the only source for this dictation.
X Wednesday, March 6, 1907 The Frenchman’s scheme for working off pewterⒶtextual note watches on pawnbrokers, thereby making a large profit; his clever plan for reimbursing the pawnbrokers; who is the thief in the several transactions involved?
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 26 March 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1909–15, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
The ribbon copy being lost, TS1 (a carbon copy), as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X Tuesday, March 26, 1907 Mr. Clemens has been taking another vacation, and a flying trip to Bermuda—His experiences with his eighty thousand dollarsⒶtextual note in 10 per centⒶtextual note stock—Miss Clemens’s singing on the concert stage a success; she has learned how to please her audiences—Thomas Bailey Aldrich dead; none of the gay company of old left but Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 27 March 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1916–23, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
The ribbon copy being lost, TS1 (a carbon copy), as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X [begin page 15] Wednesday, March 27, 1907 Mr. Clemens’s experience with his copperⒶtextual note stock as advised by Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 28 March 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 1931–33 (1924–30 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1924–33, revised.
NAR 18pf (lost) Galley proofs of NAR 18, typeset from the revised TS1 ribbon; now lost.
NAR 18 North American Review 185 (17 May 1907), 118–19: ‘Some months .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 8 April 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. McElhinney to SLC Typed letter, Mark G. McElhinney to SLC, 3 April 1907: ‘The Broader View . . . McElhinney’ (23.3–24.13).
TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1934–42, made from Hobby’s notes and McElhinney to SLC and revised.
The ribbon copy being lost, TS1 (a carbon copy), as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 29 April 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered 1–8, 10: ‘Dictated . . . humbug.” ’ (226 title–227.41); ‘We had . . . understand it.’ (228.28–38).
Washburn Clipping from “Shall We Hunt and Fish?” by Henry Bradford Washburn, Atlantic Monthly 101 (May 1908): 672, inserted in MS and numbered as leaf 9: ‘As a . . . Jordan Pond.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 10 April 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 1985–91, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Sun “Delmas Sums Up for Thaw,” clipping from the New York Sun, 9 April 1907, 1–2, attached to TS1: ‘He began . . . of months.’ (41.5–42.45).
The ribbon copy being lost, TS1 (a carbon copy), as revised by Clemens, with the Sun clipping pasted to its last leaf, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 11 April 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 1992–2005, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation. It may represent two mornings’ work: a second summary paragraph, on a new leaf without a dateline, interrupts the text at 45.19–23. Clemens lightly revised the text, but nothing specifically suggests that he was considering it for contemporary publication.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 20 April 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript, eight leaves numbered 1–8: ‘President . . . statute books?’ (49.5–50.39).
TS Typescript, leaves numbered 1–6, made from the MS and revised.
This Autobiographical Dictation is out of the TS1 pagination sequence; Hobby created TS from Clemens’s MS, which is written on buff-colored wove paper measuring 5 11/16 by 8⅞ inches.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 18 May 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Kirlicks Printed poem bound into a booklet, sent by John A. Kirlicks to SLC in a letter of 9 May 1907: ‘To Mark Twain . . . John A. Kirlicks.’ (52.17–53.10).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2006–11, made from Hobby’s notes and Kirlicks and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, and the Kirlicks typescript are the authoritative sources for the text.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 23 May 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2012–16, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X DictatedⒶtextual note Thursday, May 23, 1907 The Oxford degree of Doctor of Letters to be conferred upon Mr. Clemens on June 26th, and some of the other degrees which he has received.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 24 May 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2017–24, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X Friday, May 24, 1907 A description of Tuxedo Park; also of the invasion of Mr. Clemens’s house by the first burglar known to the Park.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 26 May 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2025–36, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X Dictated May 26, 1907 Jim Gillis’s death—Mr. Clemens pictures him as he knew him years ago in Jackass Gulch—The episodes of the boiling and tasting of the wild fruit, and the challenging of the impertinent stranger to fight a duel for having criticised Jim Gillis’s clothing.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 29 May 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Times Facsimile of the New York Times (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), 23 May 1907, 6: ‘ROOSEVELT . . . behind him.” ’ (63.26–66.8).
World Facsimile of the New York World (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), 29 May 1907, 2: ‘SECY. LOEB . . . the heart.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 30 May 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2050–63, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X Dictated Thursday, May 30, 1907Ⓐtextual note More about the Roosevelt-Long natural-history controversy; and Mr. Clemens’s story of the turkey-gobbler that hatched out a doll’s tea-set from a porcelain egg—The curious incident which happened to Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 24 July 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2064–68, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation. Paine marked the text in pencil, abridging and revising it as if he were considering it for publication in MTA —suppressing Ashcroft’s name, for example—but it was not published.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 25 July 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Telegraph “Mark Twain. Guest of the Pilgrims,” clipping from the London Telegraph, 26 June 1907, 9, in Scrapbook 32:46–48: ‘There are . . . (Loud cheers.)’ (75.2–81.26).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2069–86, made from Hobby’s notes and Telegraph and revised.
TS1 transcribes Telegraph from Clemens’s clipping, which is preserved in Scrapbook 32 (CU-MARK).
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 26 July 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Brooks Facsimile of Sydney Brooks, “England’s Ovation to Mark Twain,” Harper’s Weekly 51 (27 July 1907): 1086–89: ‘It would . . . you miss.’ (82.1–8); ‘On Wednesday . . . these islands.’ (83.21–84.48).
TS1 ribbon Typescript, made from Hobby’s notes and Brooks and revised.
TS1 carbon (incomplete) Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 2087–90, 2093–94 (2091–92 are missing), revised: ‘Dictated .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 30 July 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Pageant Facsimile of The Oxford Historical Pageant. In Aid of the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford Eye Hospital, &c. 2d ed. Oxford, 1907 (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost): ‘THE LEGEND . . . grew up.’ (89.4–25); ‘THE FUNERAL . . . in patches.’ (91.1–93.7).
TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 2095–3000 (typescript), 3001–5 (carbon), 3006–12 (typescript), 3013–19 (typescript), 3020–23 (carbon), and 3024–28 (typescript), made from Hobby’s notes and Pageant and revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 10 August 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered [1]–6.
World Clipping from the New York World, 10 August 1907, unknown page, attached to MS: ‘THE MORALS . . . and Rollo?’ (97.2–10).
This is a manuscript, written on buff-colored laid paper measuring 5 11/16 by 8¾ inches. There is no sign this was ever typed up by Hobby; typescript versions in the Mark Twain Papers date from after SLC’s death.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 16 August 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 3034–41 (altered in ink to 2134–41), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 (a carbon copy), as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X Dictated AugustⒶtextual note 16, 1907 The luncheon with Marie Corelli.
I met Marie Corelli at a small dinner party in Germany fifteen years ago, and took a dislike to her at once—a dislike which expanded and hardened with each successive dinner-courseⒶtextual note until,Ⓐtextual note when we partedⒶtextual note at last, the original mere dislike had grown into a very strong aversion.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 17 August 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 3042–45 (altered in ink to 2142–45), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
This is the first dictation to quote an entry from Ashcroft’s record of “What Happened” (Ashcroft 1907). In revising this and ensuing dictations, Clemens styles these quotes from Ashcroft in varying ways. We follow his most usual manner—italicizing the date and leaving the entry roman.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 19 August 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 3046–58 (altered in ink to 2146–58), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 comprises two stints of dictation, the second being undated.
X Dictated AugustⒶtextual note 19, 1907 Dinner with Sidney Lee, and call afterwards at Mrs. Macmillan’s to see Lord and Lady Jersey.
Well, to resumeⒶtextual note from Ashcroft’s notes:
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 22 August 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 3059–65 (altered in ink to 2159–65), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
Following this dictation, TS1 pages 3066–82 are Hobby’s typescript of SLC’s article “Proposition for a Postal Check,” which he designated, in the final sentence of this dictation, as “an Appendix”; for which see pages 662–69.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 23 August 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 3083–87 (altered in ink to 2183–87), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 is the sole source for this dictation. On its first leaf, Paine, considering it for publication, noted in pencil ‘Probably not’.
X Dictated AugustⒶtextual note 23, 1907 Henniker HeatonⒶtextual note luncheon continued—Luncheon with George Bernard Shaw.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 26 August 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 3088–93 (altered in ink to 2188–93), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation. On its first leaf Paine wrote, in pencil, ‘no’.
X Dictated AugustⒶtextual note 26, 1907 Luncheon at Sir James Knowles’s.
Ashcroft’s note:
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 27 August 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 3094–97 (altered in ink to 2194–97), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X [begin page 112] Dictated AugustⒶtextual note 27, 1907 Whitelaw Reid’s reception, which Mr. Clemens was unable to attend—Remarks about Whitelaw Reid’s career.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 28 August 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. World Facsimile of the New York World (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), “Is This Mr. Roosevelt’s Exact Portrait?,” 27 August 1907, 6: ‘MR. ROOSEVELT’S . . . meddling America.’ (113.20–28).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 3098–4006 (altered in ink to 2198–2206), made from Hobby’s notes and World and revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 29 August 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 4007–16 (altered in ink to 3107–16 and subsequently to 2207–16), made from Hobby’s notes and a printing of SLC’s Fourth of July speech (unavailable) and revised.
TS1 incorporates Clemens’s speech “The Day We Celebrate,” delivered on 4 July 1907 in London. He says he replicates and adapts “the official report of that effort .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary 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.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 31 August 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Agnew to SLC MS letter, Joy Agnew to SLC, 15 July 1907 (CU-MARK): ‘15th of July . . . Joy Agnew.’ (125.7–21).
SLC to Agnew Typed letter (copy), SLC to Joy Agnew, 1 August 1907, revised: ‘Tuxedo Park . . . Mark Twain.’ (125.23–126.14).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 4022–27 (altered in ink to 3122–27 and subsequently to 2222–27), made from Hobby’s notes, Agnew to SLC, and SLC to Agnew, and revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 4 September 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 4028–37 (altered in ink to 3128–37 and subsequently to 2228–37), made from Hobby’s notes.
SLC 1906a What Is Man? (SLC 1906a): ‘February, 1905 . . . no other.’ (128.5–13). TS1 has no markings or revisions by SLC, a situation rarely met with in the Autobiography.
One passage derives from the Preface to What Is Man?
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 6 September 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 3138–44 (altered in ink to 2238–44), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 as revised by Clemens is the sole source for this dictation.
X Dictated SeptemberⒶtextual note 6, 1907 Call upon Lady Stanley; and upon Archdeacon Wilberforce, where Holy Grail is exhibited and story of its discovery related to Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 12 September 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2245–50, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 as revised by Clemens is the sole source for this dictation.
X Dictated SeptemberⒶtextual note 12, 1907 The Holy Grail continued.
The Holy Grail was in the house. A proper spirit of reverence forbade its exhibition to a crowd, but Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 13 September 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2251–59, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
The paragraph which quotes ‘a printed statement’ by Alton B. Parker (135.3–7) is copied from an unidentified newspaper; the item first appeared in the New York World for 11 September 1907 and was widely reprinted. Likewise, the clipping “Mark Twain to the President” was first printed in the New York World, and was much reprinted.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 26 September 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2260–78, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
This dictation consists of two sections (the second beginning at 141.4), probably created over the course of more than one day.
The exact printing of the newspaper article (137.32–138.17) which Clemens used has not been identified. Parts of its text were picked up and reprinted in newspapers over the ensuing days.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 1 October 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2279–84, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, the sole source for this dictation, was revised by Clemens in ink and pencil. On the first leaf someone (Lyon?) has inscribed the decision: ‘No’.
X [begin page 144] Dictated OctoberⒶtextual note 1, 1907 The King’s garden party at Windsor.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 2 October 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Post “Mark Twain in Liverpool,” clipping from the Liverpool Post, 11 July 1907, 7–8, in Scrapbook 32:130–32, revised: ‘The Lord Mayor . . . year.’ (146.31–147.6); ‘Our friend . . . other country.’ (147.10–149.21); ‘I don’t think . . . homeward bound!’ (149.25–150.18).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2285–93, made from Hobby’s notes and Post and revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 3 October 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 2294–2305, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript, leaves numbered 2294–2305, revised.
NAR 25pf Galley proofs of NAR 25, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon and further revised (the same extent as NAR 25), ViU.
NAR 25 North American Review 186 (December 1907), 489–94: ‘Dictated .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 5 October 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 2306–14, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
The ribbon copy being lost, TS1 (a carbon copy), as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X Dictated OctoberⒶtextual note 5, 1907 Mr. Robert Porter’s visit to Mr. Clemens, in Tuxedo; also Francesca’s and Dorothy’s—Copy of one of Dorothy’s stories—an Indian tale.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 7 October 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2315–18, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation. The postcard about the ‘four-year-old girl’ survives in the Mark Twain Papers; Clemens wrote on it, ‘Received from the Zeigler people & dictated into my Autobiog. Oct. 7.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 10 October 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. World Facsimile of the New York World of 10 October 1907 (the original clippings that Hobby transcribed are now lost), pages 1, 4, 9, 10, 20: ‘SPECIAL TRAIN . . . Her Pet.’ (160.5–8); ‘MOTHER AND . . . Might Live.’ (160.12–15); ‘CHRISTIAN SCIENCE . . . Were Right.” ’ (160.17–20); ‘MASKED MAN . . . Robbing House.’ (160.22–24); ‘STRANGLED BOY .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 11 October 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2327–56, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only source for this dictation. It was evidently made over several days: according to Hobby’s notes, each of the four sections (introduced by brief summaries) was dictated in two hours, the typical duration of one morning’s session.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 18 October 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. World Facsimile of the New York World (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), 18 October 1907, 1: ‘First Marconigrams . . . Pilgrims’ Committee.’ (172.9–27).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2357–62, made from Hobby’s notes and World and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for the dictated portion of this text.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 21 October 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Times Facsimile of the New York Times (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), 21 October 1907, 1: ‘ROOSEVELT TELLS . . . the Kill.’ (175.1–9).
World Facsimile of the New York World (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), “Official Report of the Bear Hunt,” 21 October 1907, 3: ‘The bear .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 25 October 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered [1]–3, written in 1907.
Clemens’s MS is the only authoritative source for this “dictation.” Clemens wrote ‘Dic.’ in the dateline of his MS; it was not the first time he had used material from a manuscript in the guise of a dictation: see, for example, the ADs of 1 and 2 December 1906.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 1 November 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Times Facsimile of the New York Times (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), “Discuss Roosevelt at Economic Club,” 1 November 1907, 4: ‘NEW HAVEN . . . capital vanished.” ’ (177.11–178.7). TS1 (incomplete) Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 2369–74 (2375 and most of 2376 are missing), 2377–81, made from Hobby’s notes and Times and revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 2 December 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2382–2405, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation. It was evidently made over several days: the first, second, and fourth sections were dictated in one and a half or two hours, each of which was probably one morning’s session; the third section was briefer.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 10 December 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2406–18, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X [begin page 189] Dictated DecemberⒶtextual note 10, 1907 Dinner to Mr. Carnegie given by the Associated Societies of Engineers—The speeches, and Mr. Clemens’s remarks about Carnegie’s Simplified SpellingⒶtextual note.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 12 December 1907 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. World Facsimile of the New York World (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), “Carnegie Gives $2,000,000 More to the Institute,” 11 December 1907, 5: ‘WASHINGTON . . . rented quarters.’ (194.7–21).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2419–22, made from Hobby’s notes and World and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for the dictated portion of this text.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 13 January 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2423–39, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation. Apparently Clemens dictated it over two days; the work of the second day, which begins with the summary at 198.11–13, was created on or after 16 January. The abrupt ending suggests that he dictated additional text, which he decided to omit: see the Explanatory Note at 200.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 12 February 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 2440–44, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
The ribbon copy being lost, TS1 (a carbon copy), as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation, including the text of the advertising circular—‘LADIES . . . Webber.’ (201.1–21)—which has not been found.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 13 February 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered 2445–53, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X Dictated FebruaryⒶtextual note 13, 1908 Bermuda, Margaret, MaudeⒶtextual note, Reginald, and the pedestrian excursions.
My first day in Bermuda paid a dividend—in fact a double dividend: it broke the back of my cold and it added a jewel to my collection.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 14 February 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Quick to SLC MS letter, Dorothy Quick to SLC, 18 February 1908: ‘My Dear . . . Miss Lyon’ (209.8–21).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2454–67, made from Hobby’s notes and Quick to SLC and revised; pages 2454–57 are a carbon copy (the ribbon copy is lost), pages 2458–67 are a ribbon copy.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 19 February 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. SLC to JC Facsimile of manuscript letter, SLC to Jean Clemens, 14 February 1908: ‘Dearest Jean . . . Father.’ (210.8–29).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2468–73, made from Hobby’s notes and SLC to JC and revised.
Clemens’s manuscript letter to Jean was sold at Christie’s in 1987; its current whereabouts are unknown. Our text is therefore based on a photocopy in the Mark Twain Papers; the variants inadvertently introduced by Hobby in TS1 have not been reported.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 16 April 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2474–78, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X [begin page 212] Dictated April 16, 1908 Return from Bermuda—Mr. Clemens’s mistake in not recognizing the Chief Justice—Some characteristics of Earl Grey.
Miss Lyon and the Rogerses and I arrived back from Bermuda three days ago, after a delightful and health-restoring absence of seven weeksⒺexplanatory note.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 17 April 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS1 Manuscript, leaves numbered 1–12 (CU-MARK) and 14–16 (VtMiM), written on 17 April 1908: ‘Dictated . . . 1908’ (213 title); ‘One day . . . it is.’ (213.27–214.3); ‘After my . . . Yes:’ (219.13–220.2); ‘Next is . . . will permit.’ (220.13–221.22); ‘Reverend Twichell . . . People’s Things.’ (221.31–222.16).
MS2 Manuscript, leaves numbered [1]–11 (CU-MARK), written on 18 August 1902: ‘ “In Dim .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 27 April 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. World 1 Facsimile of the New York World (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), “Jerome Rails at Government by Newspapers,” 24 April 1908, 2: ‘Mr. Jerome . . . Legislature.” ’ (222.23–223.41).
World 2 Facsimile of the New York World (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), 18 April 1908, 16: ‘SORROWS .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 28 April 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2495–98, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X [begin page 225] Dictated April 28, 1908 “Lord Dundreary” as played by the elder Sothern and by his son.
Lord Dundreary has been revived, after an age-long silence, and is being played by Sothern’s sonⒺexplanatory note.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 29 April 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered 1–8, 10: ‘Dictated . . . humbug.” ’ (226 title–227.41); ‘We had . . . understand it.’ (228.28–38).
Washburn Clipping from “Shall We Hunt and Fish?” by Henry Bradford Washburn, Atlantic Monthly 101 (May 1908): 672, inserted in MS and numbered as leaf 9: ‘As a . . . Jordan Pond.” ’ (228.1–27).
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 21 May 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2507–20, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X Dictated May 21, 1908 A son of “Buck” Brown writes requesting an interview—“Buck” Brown attended Dawson’s school—The magazine publishers’ [begin page 229] luncheon at the Aldine Club—Although probably every one of these publishers had said harsh things about the Standard Oil chiefs they gave them a hearty welcome at the luncheon, Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 22 May 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2521–26, made from Hobby’s notes.
TS1 is the only authoritative source for this dictation, including the letter ‘dating from Glasgow’ addressed to Isabel Lyon (235.18–45), the original of which has not been found. Clemens did not revise it.
X Dictated May 22, 1908 The Harpers Mr. Clemens’s publishers for fourⒶtextual note years—Sales of his books, amount of royalties during these fourⒶtextual note years, etc.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 3 June 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2527–29, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation. Clemens’s speech (236.5–237.2) was printed in numerous newspapers and periodicals, but Hobby’s exact source has not been identified.
X [begin page 236] Dictated June 3, 1908Ⓐtextual note Copy of Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 26 June 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. Times Facsimile of the New York Times (the original clippings that Hobby transcribed are now lost), 26 June 1908, 1: ‘DOUBLE . . . to appear.’ (237.22–238.9); ‘ARRESTS . . . to descend.’ (238.12–25).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2530–33, made from Hobby’s notes and Times and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for the dictated portion of this dictation.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 3 July 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2534–45, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X Dictated at Innocence at Home,Ⓐtextual note July 3, 1908 What Mr. Clemens would name the Fourth of July—He speaks of the new home, the mantelpiecesⒶtextual note, rugs, etc.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 6 July 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2546–51, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X [begin page 243] Dictated at Innocence at Home, July 6, 1908Ⓐtextual note Joel Chandler Harris’s death—The incident which enlarged Mr. Clemens’s prejudice against Mrs. Aldrich.
Joel Chandler Harris is deadⒺexplanatory note; UncleⒶtextual note Remus, joy of the child and the adultⒶtextual note alike, will speak to us no more.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 7 July 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2552–60, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X Dictated at Innocence at Home, July 7, 1908Ⓐtextual note Murat Halstead’s death—His life contrasted with that of Mr. Clemens—The incident of Murat Halstead getting left on steamer and going to Germany with Mr.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 8 July 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2561–70, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.
TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.
X Dictated at Innocence at Home, July 8, 1908Ⓐtextual note The Aldrich Memorial affair continued.
To resume about the Aldrich Memorial affair: I had not inquired into the amount of travel which would be required.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 9 July 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2571–74, made from Hobby’s notes.
TS1 is the only authoritative source for this dictation. Clemens did not revise it.
X Dictated at Innocence at Home, July 9, 1908 Aldrich Memorial affair concluded.
Governor Guild, talking at ease, made a graceful and animated speech, a speech well suited to the occasion, it having been faultlessly memorized.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 10 July 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2575–82, made from Hobby’s notes. TS1 is the only authoritative source for this dictation. Clemens did not revise it. The MS letter of 8 July 1908 from Howells to Clemens survives at NN-BGC, but the brevity of the excerpts from it—‘That was . . . villa.’ (252.14–15) and ‘I have .
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 14 July 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Collier’s Facsimile of “The Outgoing President,” Collier’s: The National Weekly 41 (11 July 1908): 7: ‘MR. ROOSEVELT . . . mankind.’ (254.34–37); ‘Turned . . . nation.’ (255.36–256.5).
World Facsimile of New York World, 19 June 1908, 8: ‘PRESIDENT TAFT . . . endure.’ (258.17–37).
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 2583–97, made from Hobby’s notes, Collier’s, and World.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 16 July and 12 September 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript of seventeen leaves: part 1, originally numbered 1–7 and then renumbered 2596, 6½, and 7–11 by SLC: ‘Dictated July 16 and September 12, 1908 [¶] Dictated July 16 . . . Roman Republic.’ (258 title–260.18); part 2, numbered 12–14: ‘Dictated September 12 . . . said letter:’ (260.19–40); and part 3, numbered 15–21: ‘1.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 16 August 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered [1]–7.
Collier’s Clipping of excerpt from “Samuel E. Moffett: A Tribute to the Late Editor of ‘What the World Is Doing,’ ” Collier’s: The National Weekly 41 (15 August 1908): 23, attached to MS: ‘If you . . . industrial peace.’ (266.2–15).
MS is written on buff-colored laid paper measuring 5¾ by 8¾ inches.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 6 October 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS Typescript, six unnumbered leaves, made from Howden’s notes and revised.
TS, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation. It is the first typescript that Mary Louise Howden made from Clemens’s dictation (see AD, 6 Oct 1908, note at 267 title). (It is also the first of several typescripts for which she used a typewriter with a small typeface equipped with a purple ribbon; she had typed the manuscripts comprising AD, 16 July and 12 September 1908, on a machine with a larger typeface using a black ribbon.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 31 October 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered 1–6.
World Clipping from the New York World, 30 October 1908, unknown page, attached to MS: ‘Widow . . . tramway line.’ (269.26–33).
TS Typescript, five unnumbered leaves, made by Howden from MS and World and revised.
MS is on buff-colored laid paper measuring 5¾ by 8¾ inches.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 2 November 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Norris to SLC Typed letter, Charles G. Norris to SLC, 30 October 1908: ‘Toronto . . . Norris’ (272.17–273.5).
Norris to Grayson Typed letter (carbon copy, inscribed ‘Copy’ by Lyon in ink), Charles G. Norris to David Grayson, 30 October 1908: ‘Toronto . . . Norris’ (273.6–33).
TS Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), five unnumbered leaves, made from Howden’s notes, Norris to SLC, and Norris to Grayson and revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 5 November 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS Typescript, six unnumbered leaves, made from Howden’s notes.
TS, which Clemens did not revise, is the unique source for this dictation. The original manuscript for the letter to Ashcroft (274.1–16) does not survive. The first two pages of TS were made on the typewriter equipped with a purple ribbon that was used for the AD of 6 October 1908; the last four pages were made on the typewriter used for most of the other dictations this period, equipped with a black ribbon.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 12 November 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Times Facsimile of the New York Times (the original clipping that Howden transcribed does not survive), 11 November 1908, 5: ‘TWAIN’S BURGLARS . . . train.’ (276.6–23).
TS Typescript, seven unnumbered leaves, made from Howden’s notes and Times.
TS, which Clemens did not revise, is the only authoritative text for the dictated portion of the text.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 24 November 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered [1]–7 plus one unnumbered leaf: ‘Copyright . . . S. L. Clemens’ (279.17–280.39).
TSa Typescript carbon (the ribbon copy is lost), leaves numbered [1]–6, made by Howden from MS and revised: ‘Copyright . . . S. L. Clemens’ (279.17–280.39).
TSb Typescript, seven unnumbered leaves, made from Howden’s notes and revised TSa.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 8 December 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Williams to SLC Manuscript letter, Henry Williams to SLC, 29 November 1908: ‘connecticut state prison . . . Williams.’ (281.5–282.41).
TS Typescript, seven unnumbered leaves, made from Howden’s notes and Williams’s letter.
Howden’s TS, which Clemens did not revise, is the only authoritative text for the dictated portion of this text. For Williams’s letter we follow the original, retaining his spelling errors but omitting some typographical features of Williams’s prison stationery letterhead.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 10 December 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. SLC notice Printed one-page notice: ‘To My Guests . . . October 7, 1908.’ (285.8–35).
Sutherland to SLC Typed letter, J. B. Sutherland to SLC, 7 December 1908: ‘Toronto . . . Yours faithfully,’ (286.6–23).
TS Typescript, seven unnumbered leaves, made from Howden’s notes, SLC’s notice, and Sutherland to SLC.
TS is the only authoritative source for the dictated portion of this text.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 16 December 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Taylor to SLC Typed letter, Howard P. Taylor to SLC, 1 December 1908 (CtHMTH): ‘My Dear Sam . . . congratulate you.’ (287.17–288.13).
TS Typescript, five unnumbered leaves (the first a carbon copy, the rest ribbon copies), made from Howden’s notes and a now-lost copy of Taylor to SLC that was revised by SLC.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 22 December 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered 1–3: ‘Dictated December . . . his letter:’ (290 title–30).
Bausch to SLC Manuscript letter, Pieter Bausch to SLC, 9 December 1908: ‘Most honourated . . . Holland’ (290.31–295.9).
TS ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1–12 by SLC, made by Howden from MS and Bausch’s letter and revised.
TS carbon (lost) Typescript carbon, revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, Christmas Day, 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered 1–8.
MS is written on buff-colored wove paper measuring 5 11/16 by 8⅞ inches. Howden made a typescript following MS, but Clemens did not revise it, and it therefore has no authority.
X Dictated ChristmasⒶtextual note Day, 1908Ⓔexplanatory note Ten days ago Robert Collier wrote me that he had bought a baby elephant for my ChristmasⒺexplanatory note, and would send it as soon as he could secure a car for it and get the temporary loan of a trainer from Barnum and Bailey’s winter-quarters menagerie at BridgeportⒺexplanatory note.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 5 January 1909 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered [1]–4, Shapell Manuscript Foundation.
MS is now in private hands, and no contemporary typescript of it has been found. Its form, however, which includes ‘Dictated at Stormfield’ and the date, exactly matches that of two autobiographical typescripts of the period (for which no manuscripts are known to exist): the ADs of 6 October and 24 November 1908.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 11 January 1909 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS Typescript, seven unnumbered leaves, made from Howden’s notes and revised.
This is the last typescript that Howden is known to have made. On 3 February she received her last payment (“Approximate Pay Roll March 1st ’07 to Feb’y 28th ’09,” Schedule 8 of “Accountants’ Statements and Schedules” 1909). Numerous badly inked letters and typographical errors have been corrected in ink, apparently by Howden; these are not reported.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 10 March 1909 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS Typescript, leaves numbered 1–7, made from Grumman’s notes.
This is the first dictation typed by William Edgar Grumman, a stenographer Clemens hired no later than 8 February (see 8 Feb 1909 to JC, MiD). The original TS and two carbon copies all contain corrections made in Grumman’s hand, but none was revised by Clemens.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 25 March 1909 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered 1–6, CU-MARK.
Courier-Post Undated clipping from the Hannibal Courier-Post, attached to MS: ‘Hannibal . . . “Once when I.” ’ (303.30–304.19).
Clipping Clipping from an unidentified Hannibal newspaper, described as ‘Of date 20 days ago,’ attached to MS: ‘Miss Becca . . . Christian woman.’ (304.22–32).
TS Typescript carbon (the original is lost), leaves numbered 1–5, made by Grumman from MS, the Courier-Post, and the clipping and revised.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 16 April 1909 ❉ Textual Commentary Source documents. Post Clipping from the New York Evening Post, 14 April 1909, unknown page, preserved with the TS: ‘Miss Clemens . . . with it.’ (305.15–306.4).
Herald Clipping from the New York Herald, 14 April 1909, unknown page, preserved with the TS: ‘It isn’t . . . hearty applause.’ (306.6–25).
TS Typescript, leaves numbered 1–5, made from Grumman’s notes, Post, and Herald.
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Autobiographical Dictation, 21 October 1909 ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. TS Typescript carbon (the original is lost), leaves numbered [1]–4, made from Grumman’s notes and revised.
The typist is presumably Grumman. He left Clemens’s employ sometime after 16 September 1909; no later mention of him has been found (see 26 Aug 1909 to Picard, MS draft, CU-MARK; 16 Sept 1909 to Thayer, DSI-AAA).
MTPDocEd Show Textual Commentary Closing Words of My Autobiography ❉ Textual Commentary Source document. MS Manuscript, leaves numbered 1–44, written on 24, 25, and 26 December 1909.
MS is written on buff-colored wove paper measuring 5¾ by 9 inches. On 14 January 1910 Clemens wrote to Paine, requesting that Paine’s wife make a typescript from MS and send it to Clara, but no typescript has been found (photocopy in CU-MARK).
MTPDocEd [begin page 637] APPENDIXES TABLE OF CONTENTS SAMUEL L. CLEMENS: A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY FAMILY BIOGRAPHIES CLEMENS’S WORKING NOTES FOR “THE ASHCROFT-LYON MANUSCRIPT” 1873 NOTES; SKETCH BY WARNER 1899 NOTES; SKETCH BY MOFFETT PROPOSITION FOR A POSTAL CHECK ASHCROFT-LYON CHRONOLOGY ASHCROFT TO STANCHFIELD, 30 JULY 1909 PREVIOUS PUBLICATION SAMUEL L. CLEMENS: A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY 1835 Born 30 November in Florida, Mo., the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens.
MTPDocEd [begin page 329] [THE ASHCROFT-LYON MANUSCRIPT] To the Unborn Reader. In your day, a hundred years hence, this Manuscript will have a distinct value; & not a small value but a large one. If it can be preserved an ten centuries it will still have a still larger value—a value augmented tenfold, in fact. For it will furnish an intimate inside view of our domestic life of to-day not to be found in naked & comprehensive detail outside of its pages.
MTPDocEd THE ASHCROFT-LYON MANUSCRIPT Editorial Preface Mark Twain wrote this long manuscript, which he left untitled, over a period of more than four months, from May to September 1909. Presumably among the last additions to the text was a separately paginated preface, “To the Unborn Reader,” which he signed “Mark Twain” and dated simply “1909, autumn.” Scholars have dubbed the text “The Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript,” a title of convenience adopted here.
MTPDocEd NOTE ON THE TEXT The present volume consists of Mark Twain’s last autobiographical dictations, and the manuscripts that he labeled as dictations or included in his Autobiography. They are arranged chronologically, completing the series begun in Volume 1 (which ended with the dictation of 30 March 1906) and continued in Volume 2 (which ended with the dictation of 28 February 1907). This volume begins with the dictation of 1 March 1907 and ends with “Closing Words of My Autobiography,” a moving tribute to Jean Clemens written shortly after her death on 24 December 1909.
MTPO Doc Ed Autobiography of Mark Twain
Volume 3 Edited by
Benjamin Griffin and Harriet Elinor Smith
Associate Editors
Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Amanda Gagel, Sharon K. Goetz, Leslie Diane Myrick, Christopher M. Ohge
A Publication of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library
General Editor, Robert H. Hirst
University of California Press
2015
List of Contents CONTENTS List of Dictations xiv
Acknowledgments xvii
MTPDocEd X Autobiography of Mark Twain
Volume 3 Edited by
Benjamin Griffin and Harriet Elinor Smith
Associate Editors
Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Amanda Gagel, Sharon K. Goetz, Leslie Diane Myrick, Christopher M. Ohge
A Publication of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library
General Editor, Robert H. Hirst
University of California Press
2015
The Mark Twain Project is an editorial and publishing program of The Bancroft Library, working since 1967 to create a comprehensive critical edition of everything Mark Twain wrote.
MTPDocEd X The house at 21 Fifth Avenue, where Clemens and his daughters lived from 1904 to 1908. Culver Pictures. X Clemens being interviewed aboard the SS Minneapolis upon his arrival in England, 18 June 1907. Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford. X Ralph Ashcroft, Mr. and Mrs. John Henniker Heaton, and Clemens on their way to the royal garden party at Windsor Castle, 22 June 1907.
MTPO Doc Ed
"The Tale of the Lost Land" [interlude]XXX [begin page 54] [blank verso]
[begin page 55] X textual noteⒶtextual note The Round Table [interlude] [begin page 59] X Merlin [interlude] [begin page 67] X explanatory noteⒺexplanatory note This Horrible Sky-towering Monster [interlude] [begin page 75] X The King [interlude] [begin page 81] X Sir Boss [interlude] [begin page 89] X One of the People [interlude] [begin page 97] X "
MTPDocEd [begin page 497] APPENDIX A
The Governor’s Island Reading Show Headnote On 11 November 1886, Mark Twain read from the manuscript of A Connecticut Yankee before an audience of notables at a meeting of the Military Service Institute on Governor’s Island (see the introduction, pp. 6–7). After reading from the first three or four chapters, which were much as they are in the finished book, he went on, as he said in his notebook, “with an outline of the probable contents of the future book” ( N&J3 , p.
MTPDocEd [begin page 511] APPENDIX B
Mark Twain’s Working Notes Show Headnote Most of Mark Twain’s notes for A Connecticut Yankee are in his note-books, although some, made during the course of composition, are in the margins of his manuscript and are presented in the textual notes. The working notes in this appendix survive on separate sheets of paper or on the backs of letters and manuscript pages.
MTPDocEd [begin page 516] Mark Twain’s Draft Prefaces Show Headnote Mark Twain wrote these fragments and drafts of prefaces for A Connecticut Yankee while he was writing the final portion of the book between the summer of 1888 and the spring of 1889. Prefaces 1 and 2 are written on the light blue “Blairs Keystone” paper that he used between chapter 21 and the middle of chapter 30; preface 3 is written on the light green paper that he used intermittently from the end of chapter 22 through the end of his manuscript.
MTPDocEd [begin page 519] Edmund C. Stedman to Clemens, 7 July 1889 Show Headnote Stedman’s letter to Mark Twain suggesting revisions in the text of A Connecticut Yankee is reproduced here in full. (It has been published previously, with omissions and minor alterations, in Laura Stedman and George M. Gould, Life and Letters of Edmund Clarence Stedman [New York: Moffat, Yard and Co., 1910[, 2:370–372.) Stedman read the typescript of A Connecticut struck through: 39.
MTPDocEd [begin page 523] Prospectus Illustrations and
Publisher’s Announcement Show Headnote On 16 October 1889, Fred Hall wrote Clemens, “Since you approve of it, we will take sixteen of Beard’s best pictures and make a solid signature of pictures; under each one, in fine type, putting a short description of whatever the picture is intended to represent, as this will be a help to agents in selling the book.
MTPDocEd [begin page 542] The Century Bridge Passages Show Headnote Mark Twain wrote the following passages to link the excerpts from A Connecticut Yankee which were published in the Century magazine in November 1889 (39:74–83). They are keyed to the present edition.
50.23 I am] preceded by ‘[Here follow a few incidents from an impending book of mine which bears the above title. The Yankee tells his own story, and in his own language, beginning with this brief description of himself.
MTPDocEd [begin page 544] The Doheny Proof Show Headnote This page proof, the only proof known to survive for A Connecticut Yankee, is now in The Estelle Doheny Collection of The Edward Laurence Doheny Memorial Library, St. John’s Seminary, Camarillo, California. The proof is from the set sent to William Dean Howells (see the textual introduction, p. 588). Howells underlined “disembowel” and “kidneys” and wrote the question mark in the margin; Mark Twain wrote the notes which run perpendicularly up both margins; E.
MTPDocEd Explanatory Notes
[Headnote] These notes identify some of the source material, topical references, and historical information that Mark Twain wove into the text of A Connecticut Yankee, and provide information about the illustrations as well. They by no means exhaust the influences, sources, and echoes in the book of Mark Twain’s reading. Rather, they comment selectively, in an effort to clarify some of the more obscure allusions and to keep before the reader the curious theory of history Mark Twain employed—his idea that one could take events from, say, eighteenth-century France and transpose them to sixth-century Britain because “inasmuch as they existed in .
MTPDocEd [begin page 571] TEXTUAL INTRODUCTION After nearly five years of intermittent work on A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain completed the manuscript in the spring of 1889. He turned it over to his publishers in April. The process of transforming it into a published book took eight months more. During that time the book changed in many ways: there are hundreds of substantive differences between the manuscript and the first American edition, ranging from one-word substitutions to five-hundred-word additions and eight-hundred-word cuts; and there are some twelve hundred differences between the accidentals of the manuscript—its punctuation, spelling, and so on—and those of the book.
MTPDocEd Textual Notes
[Headnote] These notes specify those features of the text discussed generally in the textual introduction, record all of Mark Twain’s marginalia in the manuscript, and discuss adopted readings and aspects of Mark Twain’s revision which require fuller explanation. When canceled letters or words are included in quotations, they appear as struck through: and then. Superscript letters and figures are lowered to the line. Unless otherwise stated, the marginal notes are written in the same ink as the manuscript at that point.
MTPDocEd Emendations of the Copy-Text
[Headnote] Readings adopted in this edition from a source other than the copy-text are recorded here. The only copy-text readings changed without listing are the typographical features and the forms peculiar to the written page discussed in the textual introduction. Mechanical errors in inscription ocasioned by incomplete revision in the manuscript are noted in the list of alterations in the manuscript.
MTPDocEd Rejected Substantives
[Headnote] This table lists all substantive readings in the first American edition which are rejected from the present text, thus completing the record of variants between the first American edition and the copy-text begun in the emendations list. It also records all substantive readings in the prospectus, the Century magazine excerpts, and the first English edition which vary from the first American edition.
MTPDocEd Alterations in the Manuscript The list of alterations records every change made by Mark Twain in the manuscript. The only exceptions are essential corrections that he made as he wrote or reread his work. These fall into six categories: (1) letters or words that have been mended, traced over, or canceled and rewritten for clarity; (2) false starts and slips of the pen; (3) corrected eye skips; (4) words or phrases that have been inadvertently repeated, then canceled; (5) corrected misspellings; and (6) inadvertent additions of letters or punctuation that have been subsequently canceled—for instance, an incorrect “they” or “then” altered to “the,” or superfluous quotation marks canceled at the end of a narrative passage.
A Word of Explanation [begin page 47] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial A Connecticut Yankee
in King Arthur’s CourtⒶrejected substantiveⒶemendation A WordⒶtextual note of ExplanationⒶalteration in the MSⒶemendation ItⒶtextual note was in Warwick CastleⒺexplanatory note thatⒶalteration in the MS I came across the curious stranger whom I am going to talk about. He attracted me by three things: his candid simplicity, his marvelous familiarity with ancient armor, and the restfulness of his company—for he did all the talking.
“The Tale of the Lost Land" [interlude] “The Tale of the Lost Land" [interlude] [begin page 54] [blank verso]
[begin page 55] X Ⓐtextual note Textual Notes “The Tale of the Lost Land" [interlude] Ⓐ The . . . Land.] The title, engraved by Daniel Beard for the first American edition, occupies a separate page of the manuscript with the penciled instruction “(This title on a blank page by itself.
CHAPTER 1 Camelot [begin page 56] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 1 Camelot * * * * *
Camelot Ⓐemendation—Camelot,”Ⓐalteration in the MS said I to myself. “I don’t seem to remember hearingⒶalteration in the MS of it beforeⒶalteration in the MS. Name of the asylum, likely.”
It was a soft, reposeful, summer landscape, as lovely as a dream, and as lonesome as SundayⒶalteration in the MS.
The Round Table [interlude] The Round Table [interlude] [begin page 59] X
CHAPTER 2 King Arthur’s Court [begin page 60] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 2Ⓐemendation
King Arthur’s Court The moment I got a chance I slipped aside privately and touched an ancient common-looking man on the shoulder and said, in an insinuating, confidential way—
“Friend, do me a kindness. Do you belong to the asylum, or are you just here on a visit, or something like that?
Merlin [interlude] Merlin [interlude] [begin page 67] X Ⓔexplanatory note Explanatory Notes Merlin [interlude] Ⓔ illustration] Beard used Alfred Lord Tennyson’s likeness for his drawings of Merlin, thus underscoring the book’s satirical stance toward literature that idealized feudal values. Tennyson himself had posed as Merlin for a series of photographs taken by Julia Margaret Cameron to illustrate his Idylls of the King. The photographs were published in 1875, and Gneiting believes that they, or woodcuts made from them to illustrate the 1874–1875 edition of Tennyson’s works, served as Beard’s models (“Picture and Text,” pp.
CHAPTER 3 Knights of the Table Round [begin page 68] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 3ⒶemendationⒶtextual note Knights of the
Table Round Mainly, the Round Table talk was monologues—narrative accounts of the adventures in which these prisoners were captured and their friends and backers killed and stripped of their steeds and armor. As a general thing—as far as I could make out—these murderous adventures were not forays undertaken to avengeⒶalteration in the MS injuries, nor to settle old disputes or sudden fallings out; no, asⒶalteration in the MS a rule they were simply duels between strangers—duels between people who had never even been introduced to each other, and between whom existed no cause of offenceⒶemendation whatever.
This Horrible Sky-towering Monster [interlude] This Horrible Sky-towering Monster [interlude] [begin page 75] X
CHAPTER 4 Sir Dinadan the Humorist [begin page 76] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 4ⒶemendationⒶtextual note Sir Dinadan the Humorist It seemed to me that this quaint lie was most simply and beautifully told; but then I had heard it only once, and that makes a difference; it was pleasant to the others when it was fresh, no doubt.
Sir Dinadan the HumoristⒺexplanatory note was the first to awake, and he soon roused the restⒶalteration in the MS with a practical joke of a sufficientlyⒶemendation poor quality.
The King [interlude] The King [interlude] [begin page 81] X
CHAPTER 5 An Inspiration [begin page 82] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 5Ⓐtextual note
An Inspiration I was so tired that even my fears were not able to keep me awake long.
When I next came to myself, I seemed to have been asleep a very long time. My first thought was, “Well, what an astonishing dream I’ve had! I reckon I’ve waked only just in time to keep from being hanged or drowned or burned, or something.
Sir Boss [interlude] Sir Boss [interlude] [begin page 89] X
CHAPTER 6 The Eclipse [begin page 90] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 6Ⓐtextual note
The Eclipse In the stillness and the darkness, realization soon began to supplement knowledge. The mere knowledge of a fact is pale; but when you come to realize yourⒶalteration in the MS fact, it takes on color. It is all the difference between hearing of a man being stabbed to the heart, and seeing it done.
One of the People [interlude] One of the People [interlude] [begin page 97] X
CHAPTER 7 Merlin’s Tower [begin page 98] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 7
Merlin’s Tower Inasmuch as I was now the second personage in the kingdom, as farⒶrejected substantive as politicalⒶalteration in the MS power and authority were concerned, much was made of me. My raiment was ofⒶalteration in the MS silks and velvets and cloth of gold, and byⒶrejected substantive consequence was very showy, alsoⒶalteration in the MS uncomfortable.
“That Was the Church" [interlude] “That Was the Church" [interlude] [begin page 106] [blank verso]
[begin page 107] X explanatory noteⒺexplanatory note Explanatory Notes “That Was the Church" [interlude] Ⓔ illustration] In the margin of a copy of A Connecticut Yankee Beard recalled, “A destitute French waiter posed for this and bitterly complained because the mug was empty.” Next to the picture on page 120, for which he used the same model, he explained further: “I wanted a hungry face for this character and so selected a man who claimed he was starving.
CHAPTER 8 The Boss [begin page 108] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 8
The Boss To be vested with enormous authority is a fine thing; but to have the on-looking world consent toⒶalteration in the MS it is a finer. The tower-episode solidifiedⒶalteration in the MS my power, and made it impregnable.Ⓐalteration in the MS If any were perchanceⒶalteration in the MS disposed to be jealous and critical before that, they experienced a change of heart, now.
Sir Sagramor le Desirous [interlude] Sir Sagramor le Desirous [interlude] [begin page 116] [blank verso]
[begin page 117] X
CHAPTER 9 The Tournament [begin page 118] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 9Ⓐtextual note
The Tournament They were always having grand tournaments there at Camelot; and very stirring, and picturesque and ridiculous human bull-fights they were, too, but just a little wearisome to the practical mind. However, I was generally on hand—for two reasons: a man must not holdⒶalteration in the MS himself aloof from the things which his friends and his community have at heart if he would be liked— especiallyⒶrejected substantive aⒶtextual note statesman; and both as businessⒶtextual note Ⓐalteration in the MS man and statesman I wanted to study the tournament and see if I couldn’t invent an improvement on it.
For I Was afraid of the Church [interlude] For I Was afraid of the Church [interlude] [begin page 125] X explanatory noteⒺexplanatory note Explanatory Notes For I Was afraid of the Church [interlude] Ⓔ illustration] Gneiting has identified a Julia Margaret Cameron photograph of Tennyson, used as the frontispiece for the 1874–1875 edition of the poet’s works and famous as the “Dirty Monk” portrait, as the basis for this illustration.
CHAPTER 10 Beginnings of Civilization [begin page 126] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 10
Beginnings of Civilization The Round Table soon heard of the challenge, and of course it was a good deal discussed, for such things interested the boys. The kingⒶalteration in the MS thought I ought now to set forth in quest of adventures, so that I might gain renown and be the more worthy to meet Sir SagramourⒶemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS when the severalⒶalteration in the MS years should have rolled away.
Sandy [interlude] Sandy [interlude] [begin page 132] [blank verso]
[begin page 133] X Ⓔexplanatory note Explanatory Notes Sandy [interlude] Ⓔ illustration] “The charming actress Annie Russell appears in the pages as Sandy, the heroine,” Beard recalled in his autobiography (Hardly a Man, p. 337). A friend of Beard’s, Russell was particularly noted for her ingénue roles. (In a fragment of a letter of unknown date to an unknown correspondent, Beard says that Russell also served as his “inspiration” for Guenever [photocopy in ]; elsewhere, however, he says a professional model posed for the queen’s pictures.
CHAPTER 11 The Yankee in Search of Adventures [begin page 134] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 11
The Yankee in Search of Adventures There never was such a country for wandering liars; and they were of both sexes. Hardly a month went by without one of these tramps arriving; and generally loaded with a taleⒶalteration in the MS about some princessⒶalteration in the MS or other wanting help to get her out of someⒶalteration in the MS far-away castle where she was held in captivity by a law- [begin page 135] less Ⓐalteration in the MS scoundrel, usually a giant.
The Iron Dude [interlude] The Iron Dude [interlude] [begin page 143] X
CHAPTER 12 Slow Torture [begin page 144] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 12
Slow Torture Straight off, we were in the country. It was most lovely and pleasant in those sylvan solitudes in the early cool morning in the first freshness of autumn. From hill-tops we saw fair green valleys lying spread out below, with streams winding through them, and island-groves of trees here and there, and huge lonely oaks scattered about and casting black blots of shade; and beyond the valleys we saw the ranges ofⒶalteration in the MS hills, blue with haze, stretching away in billowy perspective to the horizon, with at wide intervals a dim fleck of white or gray on a wave-summit, which we knew was a castle.
Audi Alteram [interlude] Audi Alteram [interlude] [begin page 150] [blank verso]
[begin page 151] X Ⓔexplanatory note Explanatory Notes Audi Alteram [interlude] Ⓔ illustration] Along with a careful explication of the picture, the Webster company prospectus offered a translation of the tag from St. Augustine which Beard used as a caption: “Hear the other side.” See Appendix E.
CHAPTER 13 Freemen! [begin page 152] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 13
Freemen! Yes, it is strange Ⓐtextual note how little a while at a time a person can be contented. Only a little while back,Ⓐalteration in the MS when I was riding and suffering, what a heaven this peace, this rest, this sweet serenity in this secluded shady nook, byⒶalteration in the MS this purling stream, would have seemed, where I could keep perfectly comfortable all the timeⒶalteration in the MS by pouring a dipper of water into my armor now and then; yet already I was getting dissatisfied; partly because I could not light my pipe,—for although I had long ago started a match factory, I had forgotten to bring matches with me—Ⓐalteration in the MSand partly because we had nothing to eat.
They Thought... [interlude] They Thought... [interlude] [begin page 162] [blank verso]
[begin page 163] X
CHAPTER 14 “Defend Thee, Lord!” [begin page 164] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 14
“Defend Thee, Lord!” I paid three pennies for my breakfast, and a most extravagant price it was, too, seeing that one could have breakfasted a dozen persons for that money; but I was feeling good, by this time, and I hadⒶemendation always been a kind of spendthrift anyway; and then these people had wanted to give me the food for nothing, scant as their provision was, and so it was a grateful pleasure to emphasize my appreciation and sincere thankfulness with a good big financial lift where the money would do so much more good than it would in my helmet, where, these pennies being made of iron, and not stinted in weight, my halfⒶemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS dollar’sⒶalteration in the MS worth was a good deal of a burden to me.
The Three Maids [interlude] The Three Maids [interlude] [begin page 170] [blank verso]
[begin page 171] X
CHAPTER 15 Sandy’s Tale [begin page 172] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 15Ⓐtextual note
Sandy’s Tale AndⒶemendation so I’mⒶalteration in the MS proprietor of some knights,” said I, as we rode off. “Who would ever have supposed that I should live to list-up assets of that sort. I shan’t know what to do with them; unlessⒶemendation I raffle them off.
Mrs Le Fay [interlude] Mrs Le Fay [interlude] [begin page 182] [blank verso]
[begin page 183] X Ⓔexplanatory note Explanatory Notes Mrs Le Fay [interlude] Ⓔ illustration] Beard adapted Morgan le Fay’s dress and crown from a famous costume of Sarah Bernhardt’s (“Dan Beard Tells,” p. 5). Worn by Bernhardt in the title role in Théodora, a smash hit in Paris and London in 1884 and 1885, the gemencrusted dress was said to be the most expensive costume ever worn on the stage (Gneiting, “Picture and Text,” p.
CHAPTER 16 Morgan le Fay [begin page 184] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 16
Morgan le Fay If knights errant were to be believedⒶalteration in the MS, not all castles were desirable places to seek hospitality in. As a matter of fact, knights errant were not persons to be believed—that is, measured by modern standards of veracity; yetⒶalteration in the MS, measured by the standards of their ownⒶalteration in the MS time, and scaled accordingly, you got the truth.
King Uriens [interlude] King Uriens [interlude] [begin page 192] [blank verso]
[begin page 193] X
CHAPTER 17 A Royal Banquet [begin page 194] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 17
A Royal Banquet Madame, seeing me pacific and unresentful, no doubt judged that I was deceived by her excuseⒶemendation Ⓐtextual note; for her fright dissolved away, and she was soon so importunate to have me give an exhibition and kill somebody, that the thing grew to be embarrassingⒶemendation.
“They have a right..." [interlude] “They have a right..." [interlude] [begin page 204] [blank verso]
[begin page 205] X
CHAPTER 18 In the Queen’s Dungeons [begin page 206] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 18
In the Queen’s Dungeons Well, I arranged all that; and I had the man sent to his home. I had a great desire to rack the executioner; not because he was a good, pains-taking and pain-givingⒶrejected substantive official,—for surely it was not to his discredit that he performed his functions well—but to pay him back for wantonly cuffing and otherwise distressing that young woman.
How Old Are You, Sandy? [interlude] How Old Are You, Sandy? [interlude] [begin page 218] [blank verso]
[begin page 219] X
CHAPTER 19 Knight-Errantry as a Trade [begin page 220] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 19
Knight-Errantry as a Trade Sandy and I were on the road again, next morning, bright and early. It was so good to open up one’s lungs and take inⒶalteration in the MS whole luscious barrels-fullⒶrejected substantive of the blessed God’s untainted,Ⓐalteration in the MS dew-freshened, woodlandscented air once more, after suffocating body and mind for two days and nights in the moral and physical stenches of that intolerable old buzzard-roost!
“The Troublesomest Old Sow of the Lot" [interlude] “The Troublesomest Old Sow of the Lot" [interlude] [begin page 225] X Ⓔexplanatory note Explanatory Notes “The Troublesomest Old Sow of the Lot" [interlude] Ⓔ illustration] Beard based his drawing of “the troublesomest old Sow of the lot” on a current photograph of Queen Victoria (Gneiting, “Picture and Text,” p. 248).
CHAPTER 20 The Ogre’s Castle [begin page 226] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 20
The Ogre’s Castle Between six and nine we made ten miles, which was plenty for a horse carrying triple—man, woman, and armor; then we stopped for a long nooning, under some trees by a limpid brook.Ⓐalteration in the MS Right-so came by and byⒶemendation a knight riding; andⒶalteration in the MS as he drew near he made dolorous moan, and by the words of it I perceived that he was cursing and swearing; yet nevertheless was I glad of his coming, for that I saw he bareⒶrejected substantive a bulletin-board whereon in letters all of shiningⒶtextual note gold was writ—
Supreme Head of the Church [interlude] Supreme Head of the Church [interlude] [begin page 234] [blank verso]
[begin page 235] X Ⓔexplanatory note “the power of training! of influence! of education!
it can bring a body up to believe anything.” Explanatory Notes Supreme Head of the Church [interlude] Ⓔ illustration] Beard’s drawing is a travesty of the figure of the king in a mural painting of Holbein’s, Henry VIII and the Barber-Surgeons.
CHAPTER 21 The Pilgrims [begin page 236] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 21
The Pilgrims When I did get to bedⒶalteration in the MS at last I was unspeakably tired; the stretching out, and the relaxing of the long-tense muscles, how luxurious, how delicious! but that was as far as I could get—sleep was out of the question, for the present. The ripping and tearing and squealing of the nobility up and down the halls and corridors was pandemonium come again, and kept me broad awake.
A Foundling [interlude] A Foundling [interlude] [begin page 249] X
CHAPTER 22 The Holy Fountain [begin page 250] X Ⓔexplanatory note Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 22
The Holy Fountain The pilgrims Ⓐtextual note were human beings. Otherwise they would have acted differently. They had come a long and difficult journey, and now when the journey was nearly finished, and they learned that the main thing they had come for had ceased to exist, they didn’t do as horses or cats or angle-worms would probably have done—turn back and get at something profitable—no, anxious as they had beforeⒶalteration in the MS been to see the miraculous fountain, they were as much as forty times as anxious now to see the place where it had used to be.
I Command the Fell Spirit...[interlude] I Command the Fell Spirit...[interlude] [begin page 261] X
CHAPTER 23 Restoration of the Fountain [begin page 262] X Ⓔexplanatory note Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 23
Restoration of the Fountain Saturday Ⓐtextual note noon I went to the well and looked on a while. Merlin was still burning smoke-powders, and pawing the air, and muttering gibberish as hard as ever, but looking pretty down-hearted, for of course he had not started even a perspirationⒶalteration in the MS in that well yet.
What Is It You Call It? [interlude] What Is It You Call It? [interlude] [begin page 271] X Ⓔexplanatory note Explanatory Notes What Is It You Call It? [interlude] Ⓔ illustration] In a copy of A Connecticut Yankee Beard identified the “chuckleheads” as (top to bottom) the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), his eldest son (Albert Victor, duke of Clarence and Avondale), and Kaiser Wilhelm II (“Dan Beard Tells,” p.
CHAPTER 24 A Rival Magician [begin page 272] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 24
A Rival Magician My influence in the Valley of Holiness was something prodigious, now. It seemed worthwhile to try to turn it to some valuable account. The thought came to me the next morning, and was suggested by my seeing one of my knights who was in the soap line come riding in.
Truly I Find...[interlude] Truly I Find...[interlude] [begin page 283] X
CHAPTER 25 A Competitive Examination [begin page 284] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 25
A Competitive Examination When the king traveled, for change of air, or made a progress, or visited a distant noble whom he wished to bankrupt with the cost of his keep, part of the administration moved with him. It was a fashion of the time. The Commission charged with the examination of candidates for posts in the army came with the king to the valleyⒶemendation, whereas they could have transacted their business just as well at home.
Latest Eruption only Two Cents [interlude] Latest Eruption only Two Cents [interlude] [begin page 297] X
CHAPTER 26 The First Newspaper [begin page 298] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 26
The First Newspaper When I told the king I was going out disguisedⒶalteration in the MS as a petty freeman to scour the country and familiarize myself with the humbler life of the people,Ⓐalteration in the MS he was all afire with the novelty of the thing in a minute, and was bound to take a chance in the adventure himself—nothing should stop him—he would drop everything and go along—it was the prettiest idea he had run across for many a day.
Barber to H.M. the King [interlude] Barber to H.M. the King [interlude] [begin page 309] X
CHAPTER 27 The Yankee and the King Travel Incognito [begin page 310] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 27
The Yankee and the King Travel Incognito About bedtime I took the king to my private quarters to cut his hair and help him get the hang of the lowly raiment he was to wear. The high classes wore their hair banged across the forehead but hanging to the shoulders the rest of the way around, whereas the lowest ranks of commoners were banged fore and aft both; the slaves were bangless and allowed their hair free growth.
The Spirit that Goeth with Burdens...[interlude] The Spirit that Goeth with Burdens...[interlude] [begin page 319] X
CHAPTER 28 Drilling the King [begin page 320] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 28
Drilling the King In the morning of the fourth day, when it was just sunrise, and we had been tramping an hour in the chill dawn, I came to a resolution: the king must be drilled; things could not go on so, he must be taken in hand, and deliberately and conscientiously drilled, or we couldn’t ever venture to enter a dwelling; the veryⒶalteration in the MS catsⒶemendation would know this masquerader for a humbug and no peasant.
He Was Great Now [interlude] He Was Great Now [interlude] [begin page 326] [blank verso]
[begin page 327] X
CHAPTER 29 The Small-Pox Hut [begin page 328] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 29Ⓐtextual noteⒶemendation
The Small-Pox Hut When we arrived at that hut at mid-afternoon, we saw no signs of life about it. The field nearby had been denuded of its crop some time before, and had a skinned look, so exhaustively had it been harvested and gleaned. Fences, sheds, everything had a ruined look, and were eloquent of poverty.
The Tree and the Fruit...[interlude] The Tree and the Fruit...[interlude] [begin page 335] X
CHAPTER 30 The Tragedy of the Manor House [begin page 336] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 30
The Tragedy of the Manor House At midnight all was over, and we sat in the presence of four corpses. We covered them with such rags as weⒶalteration in the MS could find, and startedⒶalteration in the MS away, fasteningⒶemendation the door behind us. Their home must be these people’s grave, for they could not have Christian burial, or be admitted to consecrated ground.
“To the Gentleman..."[interlude] “To the Gentleman..."[interlude] [begin page 347] X
CHAPTER 31 Marco [begin page 348] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 31
Marco We strolled along in a sufficiently indolent fashion, now, and talked. We must dispose of about the amount of time it ought to take to go to the little hamlet of Abblasoure and put justice on the track of those murderers and get back home again. And meantime I hadⒶalteration in the MS an auxiliaryⒶalteration in the MS interest which had neverⒶalteration in the MS paled yet, never lost its novelty for me, since I had been in Arthur’s kingdom: the behavior—born of nice and exact subdivisions of caste—of chance passers-by toward each other.
“Walking on Air..." [interlude] “Walking on Air..." [interlude] [begin page 357] X
CHAPTER 32 Dowley’s Humiliation [begin page 358] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 32
Dowley’s Humiliation Well Ⓐtextual note, when that cargo arrived, toward sunset, Saturday afternoon, I had my hands full to keep the Marcos from fainting. They were sure Jones and I were ruined past help, and they blamed themselves as accessories to this bankruptcy. You see, in addition to the dinner-materials, which called for a sufficiently round sum, I had bought a lot of extras for the future comfort of the family: for instance, a big lot of wheat, a delicacyⒶalteration in the MS as rare to the tables of their class as was ice creamⒶemendation to a [begin page 359] hermit’s; also a sizeable deal dinner-table; also two entire pounds of salt, which wasⒶalteration in the MS anotherⒶalteration in the MS piece of extravagance in those people’s eyes; also crockery, stools, the clothes, a small cask of beer,Ⓐalteration in the MS and so-onⒶemendation.
Rah for Protection! [interlude] Rah for Protection! [interlude] [begin page 366] [blank verso]
[begin page 367] X
CHAPTER 33 Sixth-Century Political Economy [begin page 368] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTERⒶalteration in the MS 33
Sixth-Century Political Economy However, I made a dead set at him, and before the first third of the dinner was reached, I had him happy again. It was easy to do—in a country of ranks and castes. You see, in a country where they have ranks and castes, a man isn’t everⒶalteration in the MS a man, he is only part of a man; he can’t ever get his full growth.
My Lord the earl Grip [interlude] My Lord the earl Grip [interlude] [begin page 380] [blank verso]
[begin page 381] X
CHAPTER 34 The Yankee and the King Sold as Slaves [begin page 382] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 34
The Yankee and the King Sold as Slaves Well, what had I better do? Nothing in a hurry, sureⒶalteration in the MS. I must get up a diversion; anything to employ me while I could think, and while these poor fellows could have a chance to come to life again.
He Was a Man. [interlude] He Was a Man. [interlude] [begin page 394] [blank verso]
[begin page 395] X
CHAPTER 35 A Pitiful Incident [begin page 396] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 35
A PitifulⒶrejected substantive Incident It’s a world of surprises. The king brooded; this was natural. What would he brood about, should you say? Why, about the prodigious nature of his fall, of course—from the loftiest place in the world to the lowest; from the most illustrious station in the world to the obscurest; from the grandest vocation among men to the basest.
The Slave Driver [interlude] The Slave Driver [interlude] [begin page 404] [blank verso]
[begin page 405] X Ⓔexplanatory note Explanatory Notes The Slave Driver [interlude] Ⓔ illustration] The financier Jay Gould served as the model for the slave driver. In one of the copies of the book he annotated, Beard commented, “I wanted a face which showed a high order of intelligence, but was absolutely heartless, cold brutally and cruel.
CHAPTER 36 An Encounter in the Dark [begin page 406] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 36
An Encounter in the Dark London—Ⓐemendation to a slave—was a sufficiently uninterestingⒶrejected substantive Ⓐtextual note place. It was merely a great big village; and mainly mud and thatch. The strees were muddy, crooked, unpaved. The populace was an ever flocking and drifting swarm of rags, and splendors, ofⒶalteration in the MS nodding plumes and shining armor.
Sister your Blind is Disarranged [interlude] Sister your Blind is Disarranged [interlude] [begin page 411] X
CHAPTER 37 An Awful Predicament [begin page 412] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 37
An Awful Predicament Sleep? It was impossible. It would naturally have been impossible in that noisome cavern of a jail, with its mangy crowd of drunken, quarrelsome and song-singing rapscallions. But the thing that made sleep all the more a thing not to be dreamed of, was my racking impatience to get out of this place and find out the whole size of what might have happened yonder in the slave quarters in consequence of that intolerable miscarriage of mine.
“Launcelot swept in" [interlude] “Launcelot swept in" [interlude] [begin page 420] [blank verso]
[begin page 421] X
CHAPTER 38 Sir Launcelot and Knights to the Rescue [begin page 422] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 38
Sir Launcelot and Knights to the Rescue Nearing four in the afternoon. The scene was just outside the walls of London. A cool, comfortable, superb day, with a brilliant sun; the kind of day to make one want to live, not die. The multitude was prodigious and far reaching; and yet we sixteenⒶemendation Ⓐtextual note poor devils hadn’t a friend in it.
Slim Jim [interlude] Slim Jim [interlude] [begin page 427] X
CHAPTER 39 The Yankee’s Fight with the Knights [begin page 428] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 39
The Yankee’s Fight with the Knights Home again, at Camelot. A morning or two later I foundⒶalteration in the MS the paper, damp from the press, by my plate at the breakfast table. I turned to the advertising columns, knowing I should find something of personal interest to me there.
“A Yard of Snowy Church-Warden" [interlude] “A Yard of Snowy Church-Warden" [interlude] [begin page 440] [blank verso]
[begin page 441] X
CHAPTER 40 Three Years Later [begin page 442] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 40
Three Years LaterⒶemendation When I broke the back of knight-errantry, that time, I no longer felt obliged to work in secret. So, the very next day I exposed my hidden schools, my mines, and my vast system of clandestine factories and work-shops to an astonished world. That is to say, I exposed the nineteenth century to the inspection of the sixth.
Snuffing the Candle [interlude] Snuffing the Candle [interlude] [begin page 451] X
CHAPTER 41 The Interdict [begin page 452] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 41
The Interdict However, my attention was suddenly snatched from such matters; our child began to lose ground again, and we had to go to sitting up with her, her case became so serious. We couldn’t bear to allow anybody to help, in this service, so we two stood watch-and-watch, day in and day out.
Sir Mordred [interlude] Sir Mordred [interlude] [begin page 457] X
CHAPTER 42 War! [begin page 458] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTERⒶalteration in the MS 42
War! I found Clarence, alone in his quarters, drowned in melancholy; and in place of the electric light, he had re-institutedⒶalteration in the MS the ancient rag lamp, and sat there in a grisly twilight with all curtains drawn tight. He sprang up and rushed for me eagerly, saying:
One of the 52 [interlude] One of the 52 [interlude] [begin page 470] [blank verso]
[begin page 471] X
CHAPTER 43 The Battle of the Sand-Belt [begin page 472] X Ⓔexplanatory note Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 43
The Battle of the Sand-Belt In Merlin’s Cave—Clarence and I, and fifty-two fresh, bright, well educated, clean-minded young BritishⒶemendation boys. At dawn I sent an orderⒶalteration in the MS to the factories, and to all our great works, to stop operations and remove all life to a safe distance, as everything was going to be blown up,Ⓐalteration in the MS by secret mines, “and no telling at what moment— therefore, Ⓐalteration in the MS vacate at once.
HISTORY OF ENGLAND [interlude] HISTORY OF ENGLAND [interlude] [begin page 487] X
CHAPTER 44 A Postscript by Clarence [begin page 488] X Click the thumbnail to see this chapter’s historiated initial CHAPTER 44
A Postscript by ClarenceⒶemendationⒶrejected substantive IⒶemendation Clarence, must write it for him. He proposed that we two go out and see ifⒶalteration in the MS any help could be afforded the wounded. I was strenuous against the project. I said that if there were many, we could do but little for them; and it would not be wise for us to trust ourselves among them, anyway.
Final P. S. by M. T. [begin page 491] Final P. S. byⒶemendation M. T. The dawn was come when I laid the Manuscript aside.Ⓐalteration in the MS The rain had almost ceased, the world was gray and sad, the exhausted storm was sighing and sobbing itself to rest. I went to the stranger’s room, and listened at his door, which was slightly ajarⒶalteration in the MS; I could hear his voice, and so I knocked.
MTPO Doc Ed The Works of Mark Twain A CONNECTICUT
YANKEE IN KING
ARTHUR’S COURT Edited by
BERNARD L. STEIN
With an Introduction by
HENRY NASH SMITH
published for
THE IOWA CENTER FOR TEXTUAL STUDIES by the
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley, Los Angeles, London
1979, 2020 Acknowledgments ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My first debt of gratitude is to the American people for their willingness to finance this and other efforts to preserve our national heritage.
MTPDocEd The Works of Mark Twain A CONNECTICUT
YANKEE IN KING
ARTHUR’S COURT Edited by
BERNARD L. STEIN
With an Introduction by
HENRY NASH SMITH
published for
THE IOWA CENTER FOR TEXTUAL STUDIES by the
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley, Los Angeles, London
1979, 2020 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My first debt of gratitude is to the American people for their willingness to finance this and other efforts to preserve our national heritage.
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] INTRODUCTION The composition of A Connecticut Yankee has been vigorously investigated by scholars for more than thirty years.1 Some of the details remain obscure, but the outlines of the chronology are clear. Mark Twain’s first contact with Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur probably occurred in November 1880, when someone in the Clemens household ordered from a Hartford bookseller a copy of Sidney Lanier’s shortened version (The Boy’s King Arthur, illustrated by Alfred Kappes, published by Scribner that same year).
MTPDocEd Frontispiece and Title Page X “i saw he meant business.” Ⓔexplanatory note A CONNECTICUT
YANKEE IN KING
ARTHUR’S COURT
Contents Preface A Word of Explanation 1. Camelot 2. King Arthur’s Court 3. Knights of the Table Round 4. Sir Dinadan the Humorist 5. An Inspiration 6. The Eclipse 7. Merlin’s Tower 8. The Boss 9.
MTPO Doc Ed electronic title page
Abbreviations
Introduction
Frontispiece and Title Page
Table of Contents, First Edition
List of Illustrations, First Edition
Preface
A Word of Explanation
"The Tale of the Lost Land" [interlude]
CHAPTER 1 Camelot
The Round Table [interlude]
CHAPTER 2 King Arthur’s Court
Merlin [interlude]
CHAPTER 3 Knights of the Table Round
This Horrible Sky-towering Monster [interlude]
CHAPTER 4 Sir Dinadan the Humorist The King [interlude]
MTPO Doc Ed electronic title page
Note on the Electronic Text (2022)
Abbreviations & Works Cited
Introduction
Section 1: Hannibal and the River (1851–1861)
Section 2: Nevada Territory (1862-1864)
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Explanatory Notes
Textual Introduction
Guide to the Textual Apparatus
Description of Texts
Alterations in the Manuscript
Section 1: Hannibal and the River (1851–1861) Section 1: Hannibal and the River (1851–1861) Section 1:
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] INTRODUCTION This collection brings together for the first time more than 360 of Mark Twain's short works written between 1851, the year of his first extant sketch, and 1871, when he renounced his ties with the Buffalo Express and the Galaxy, resolving to “write but little for periodicals hereafter.”1 In October 1871 Clemens and his family moved to Hartford, where they would live until 1891.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 61] 1. A Gallant Fireman
16 January 1851 “A Gallant Fireman” is “the first known venture of Sam Clemens into print.”1 It is a brief anecdote that appeared in his brother Orion Clemens' Hannibal Western Union not long after Clemens had joined its staff subsequent to his apprenticeship on Joseph P. Ament's Hannibal Missouri Courier. The “fireman” of the brief sketch is Jim Wolf (or Wolfe), an apprentice printer in Orion's shop.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 63] 2. The Dandy Frightening the Squatter
1 May 1852 “The Dandy Frightening the Squatter,” Clemens' first humorous tale of moderate length, was published in the Boston Carpet-Bag with the by-line “S.L.C.” Very possibly it is one of the two pieces that Clemens mistakenly remembered having contributed to the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post early “in 1851.”1 Like much of his later apprentice writing, it appeared in a weekly newspaper that catered to popular forms of comic literature.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 66] 3. Hannibal, Missouri
8 May 1852 This highly selective sketch of Clemens' home town, dated 25 March 1852 and signed “S. L. C.,” appeared in the Philadelphia American Courier exactly one week after the publication of “The Dandy Frightening the Squatter” (no. 2).1 It may well be the second piece that the author, as an old man, believed he had contributed to the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post nearly sixty years earlier.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 69] 4. A Family Muss
9 September 1852 “A Family Muss,” by “W. Epaminondas Adrastus Perkins,” is the earliest substantial piece of writing in Orion's Hannibal Journal which can be confidently attributed to Clemens. One week after its publication the young subeditor altered “Perkins” to “Blab” and, with his brother safely distant in St. Louis, filled several columns of the Journal with his creative efforts.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 72] [THE DOG CONTROVERSY]
§ 5. “Local” Resolves to Commit Suicide
16 September 1852 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 5 and 6.)
These two sketches (5 and 6) were installments in the first of Clemens' journalistic “feuds” and were made possible by Orion's absence in Tennessee. They appeared in two successive issues of the September 1852 Hannibal Journal (a weekly): “ ‘Local’ Resolves to Commit Suicide” on September 16, and “ ‘Pictur’ ” Department” one week later.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [THE DOG CONTROVERSY]
§ 6. “Pictur'” Department
23 September 1852 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 5 and 6.)
These two sketches (5 and 6) were installments in the first of Clemens' journalistic “feuds” and were made possible by Orion's absence in Tennessee. They appeared in two successive issues of the September 1852 Hannibal Journal (a weekly): “ ‘Local’ Resolves to Commit Suicide” on September 16, and “ ‘Pictur'’ Department” one week later.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 78] 7. Historical Exhibition—A No. 1 Ruse
16 September 1852 “Historical Exhibition” is one of three features written by “W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab” for the Hannibal Journal of 16 September 1852, the issue that Clemens edited in his brother's absence.1 No doubt the most famous “sell” described in Clemens' writings is “The King's Camelopard or the Royal Nonesuch,” performed by the king and the duke in Bricksville, Arkansas (chapter 23 of Huckleberry Finn).
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 83] 8. Blab's Jour
23 September 1852 In this letter, published in the Hannibal Journal, “W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab” announced his final appearance in that newspaper. Glasscock's Island, in the Mississippi River across from the mouth of Bear Creek, became “Jackson's Island” in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
Show Textual Commentary Textual Commentary The first printing appeared in the Hannibal Journal for 23 September 1852 (p.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 85] 9. “Connubial Bliss”
4 November 1852 This sketch was published in the Hannibal Journal; its last sentence is taken as sufficient evidence of Clemens' authorship. Like “A Family Muss” (no. 4), the piece springs from the rowdy actions of an Irishman living on Holliday's Hill. But this time the former Cadet of Temperance prefaces his report with a miniature moralistic essay on “the bloated, reeling drunkard,” in a manner, as Dixon Wecter wrote, “to win approval from that cold-water crusader Orion.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 88] 10. The Heart's Lament
5 May 1853 Almost two months after Orion began the Hannibal Daily Journal in conjunction with the Weekly Journal, Clemens reappeared as “Rambler”—first a reporter of local events and then a poet. “The Heart's Lament” was written for the Daily Journal and was dedicated to “Bettie W———e, of Tennessee,” who has not been identified. It is the first of three utterly conventional sentimental love poems by Rambler to appear in the Hannibal newspapers within one week.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 92] [THE “KATIE OF H———L” CONTROVERSY]
§ 11. Love Concealed
6 May 1853 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 11–16.)
Clemens himself recounted the story of “The ‘Katie of H———1’ Controversy” in April 1871 in “My First Literary Venture” (no. 357). This piece conflated his experiences in 1852 and 1853 on Orion's Hannibal Journal, but the portion of his remarks that applies to these six items—published in the Daily Journal on 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, and 13 May 1853—deserves to be quoted here:
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 92] [THE “KATIE OF H———L” CONTROVERSY]
§ 12. First Letter from Grumbler
7 May 1853 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 11–16.)
Clemens himself recounted the story of “The ‘Katie of H———1’ Controversy” in April 1871 in “My First Literary Venture” (no. 357). This piece conflated his experiences in 1852 and 1853 on Orion's Hannibal Journal, but the portion of his remarks that applies to these six items—published in the Daily Journal on 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, and 13 May 1853—deserves to be quoted here:
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 92] [THE “KATIE OF H———L” CONTROVERSY]
§ 13. [First Letter from Rambler]
9 May 1853 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 11–16.)
Clemens himself recounted the story of “The ‘Katie of H———1’ Controversy” in April 1871 in “My First Literary Venture” (no. 357). This piece conflated his experiences in 1852 and 1853 on Orion's Hannibal Journal, but the portion of his remarks that applies to these six items—published in the Daily Journal on 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, and 13 May 1853—deserves to be quoted here:
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 92] [THE “KATIE OF H———L” CONTROVERSY]
§ 14. To Rambler
10 May 1853 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 11–16.)
Clemens himself recounted the story of “The ‘Katie of H———1’ Controversy” in April 1871 in “My First Literary Venture” (no. 357). This piece conflated his experiences in 1852 and 1853 on Orion's Hannibal Journal, but the portion of his remarks that applies to these six items—published in the Daily Journal on 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, and 13 May 1853—deserves to be quoted here:
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 92] [THE “KATIE OF H———L” CONTROVERSY]
§ 15. [Letter from Peter Pencilcase's Son, John Snooks]
12 May 1853 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 11–16.)
Clemens himself recounted the story of “The ‘Katie of H———1’ Controversy” in April 1871 in “My First Literary Venture” (no. 357). This piece conflated his experiences in 1852 and 1853 on Orion's Hannibal Journal, but the portion of his remarks that applies to these six items—published in the Daily Journal on 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, and 13 May 1853—deserves to be quoted here:
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 92] [THE “KATIE OF H———L” CONTROVERSY]
§ 16. [Second Letter from Rambler]
13 May 1853 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 11–16.)
Clemens himself recounted the story of “The ‘Katie of H———1’ Controversy” in April 1871 in “My First Literary Venture” (no. 357). This piece conflated his experiences in 1852 and 1853 on Orion's Hannibal Journal, but the portion of his remarks that applies to these six items—published in the Daily Journal on 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, and 13 May 1853—deserves to be quoted here:
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 100] 17. Separation
12 May 1853 Unlike Rambler's first two poems (“The Heart's Lament” and “Love Concealed,” nos. 10 and 11), both of which were published in Orion's Hannibal Daily Journal, “Separation” appeared in the rival town newspaper, the Hannibal Missouri Courier. This oddity casts some doubt on Clemens' authorship of the poem: it is conceivable that the “Rambler” who signed the verses in the Courier was someone who wished to take advantage of the success of the Journal's columnist.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 102] 18. “Oh, She Has a Red Head!”
13 May 1853 Liberally flavored with dashes of western hyperbole, this mock paean by “A Son of Adam” glorifies redheads—people like the fiery Jane Clemens and her son Sam, who were proud of their auburn hair. The source of the title, perhaps a song, has not been identified, nor has the precise occasion for the sketch, which appeared in the Hannibal Daily Journal.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 106] 19. The Burial of Sir Abner Gilstrap, Editor of the Bloomington “Republican”
23 May 1853 This satire upon Abner Gilstrap was part of the first installment of “Our Assistant's Column,” a new feature that Clemens wrote for the Hannibal Daily Journal shortly before he left home for St. Louis and eventually the East Coast. Clemens parodied Charles Wolfe's “The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna” (1817), a poetic tribute to the British lieutenant general who died in 1809 from wounds received at the battle of Corunna, Spain, during the Peninsular War with Napoleon's armies.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 110] 20. “Jul'us Caesar”
1855–1856 The text of “Jul'us Caesar” is taken from an undated holograph preserved in the Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, now at Vassar. The sketch has not been published before.
The period referred to in the sketch is 1853–1854, a span of several months when Clemens, while rooming with “an Englishman named Sumner,” set type in Philadelphia.1 Although the date of composition remains uncertain, it may be tentatively given as sometime between mid-1855, when Clemens had become acquainted with phrenological terms,2 and late 1856, when he left Keokuk, Iowa, for Cincinnati and eventually the Mississippi River.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 118] 21. To Mollie
20 April 1856 This utterly conventional poem is addressed to Clemens' sister-in-law, Mary Eleanor (Mollie) Stotts Clemens, who had married his brother Orion on 19 December 1854. The text is preserved in the author's holograph in Mollie's memory book, now owned by Dorris B. Schmidt of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Show Textual Commentary Textual Commentary The manuscript of this poem survives in the memory book of Mary Eleanor Stotts Clemens, which is owned by Dorris B.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 120] 22. “Lines Suggested by a Reminiscence, and Which You Will Perhaps Understand”
Early May 1856 This poem and the next one (“To Jennie,” no. 23), both addressed to Ann Virginia Ruffner, were inscribed by Clemens in her autograph album. The text of “Lines” is taken from a printing in the Hannibal Evening Courier-Post for 6 March 1935 because the autograph album itself is not now available.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 124] 23. To Jennie
7 May 1856 Like the previous poem, this one was inscribed in the autograph album of Ann Virginia Ruffner. The text is taken from a photofacsimile of the holograph reproduced in the Hannibal Evening Courier-Post for 6 March 1935.1 Dixon Wecter mistakenly dated this poem in 1853, conjecturing that it was written on the occasion of Clemens' departure from Hannibal in that year.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 126] 24. [River Intelligence]
17 May 1859 During the six years following Clemens' departure from Hannibal, his publications were limited to several out-of-town “travel” letters written for Orion's newspapers in Hannibal and Muscatine (Iowa) and three Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass letters in the Keokuk Post.1 The two-year period Clemens devoted to learning the river proved especially barren in writings. But less than six weeks after he became a licensed pilot on 9 April 1859, Clemens published “River Intelligence” in the New Orleans Crescent.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 134] 25. [The Mysterious Murders in Risse]
1 August 1859 The text of this untitled sketch is taken from a holograph preserved in the Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, now at Vassar. The sketch has not been published before.
The manuscript is written in pencil and is marred by two lacunae: one small (only a few words) and one large (perhaps as many as 400 words).
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 142] 26. [Pilot's Memoranda]
30 August 1860 The impulse to burlesque evident in almost every detail of Clemens' “River Intelligence” (no. 24) is present more subtly in “Pilot's Memoranda,” published over a year later in the St. Louis Missouri Republican. A typical pilot's memoranda1 of the time might record the main events of a steamboat's trip: when and where other boats were met or passed and observations of noteworthy river occurrences and conditions.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 146] 27. [Ghost Life on the Mississippi]
January–June 1861 “Ghost Life on the Mississippi” was probably written in 1861 before Clemens took the overland stage to Nevada in July. Annie Moffett, his niece, remembered having heard her uncle tell or read this tale—or a version of it—when she was a little girl in St. Louis.1 The untitled manuscript, which Clemens probably left with the Moffetts when he went West, is preserved in the Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, now at Vassar.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 155] 28. Petrified Man
4 October 1862 The first printing of “Petrified Man” in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise is not extant, but at least three contemporary newspapers reprinted the complete text. Two of these papers attributed the piece to the Enterprise for 4 October 1862 and gave the title Clemens used in a letter to his brother Orion on October 21 : “Did you see that squib of mine headed ‘Petrified Man?
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 160] [TWO DESCENTS INTO THE SPANISH MINE]
§ 29. The Spanish Mine
Late October 1862 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 29 and 30)
When the Ophir claim was located on the Comstock Lode in June 1859, Emanuel Penrod and Henry Comstock, two members of the Ophir Company, were allotted an extra one hundred feet on the lead. The company gave them this either in return for water rights under their control or, as Penrod later said, because he, supported by Comstock, had identified the ore-bearing quartz lead.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 160] [TWO DESCENTS INTO THE SPANISH MINE]
§ 30. The Spanish
12 or 22 February 1863 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 29 and 30)
When the Ophir claim was located on the Comstock Lode in June 1859, Emanuel Penrod and Henry Comstock, two members of the Ophir Company, were allotted an extra one hundred feet on the lead. The company gave them this either in return for water rights under their control or, as Penrod later said, because he, supported by Comstock, had identified the ore-bearing quartz lead.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 169] 31. The Pah-Utes
13–19 December 1862 The text of “The Pah-Utes,” reprinted from the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, survives in the Marysville (Calif.) Appeal for 21 December 1862. It recorded Clemens' fanciful greeting to the Pi-Utes, a newly formed organization of Nevada pioneers limited to those who had come before the mining rush of May 1860.1 The Appeal prefaced its extract as follows: “The old citizens of Nevada Territory are getting up a Pioneer Association, to be called the ‘Pah-Utes.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 171] 32. The Illustrious Departed
28 December 1862 Dan De Quille (William Wright) left Virginia City by overland stagecoach on 27 December 1862 for a nine-month visit to his home in Iowa. “The Illustrious Departed,” written as a mock eulogy, is Clemens' farewell to him, and it survives in an undated clipping from the Territorial Enterprise, now in the William Wright Papers.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 175] 33. Our Stock Remarks
30–31 December 1862 “Our Stock Remarks” is preserved in a clipping from the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise in one of the scrapbooks Orion kept for his brother. The spoof is the first item in a column of nine routine local items. Although the column is of course unsigned, Clemens identified himself in the piece as “Sam,” some four weeks before he adopted the name “Mark Twain” (see “Letter from Carson City,” no.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 177] 34. More Ghosts
1 January 1863 “More Ghosts” is preserved in a clipping from the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise in one of the scrapbooks Orion kept for his brother. Orion wrote “Sams Column” at the top of the clipping and thus identified it as part of the new local editor's daily contribution.1 The clipping is undated, but Orion pasted a second item from the local column, “New Year's Day” (no.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 179] 35. New Year's Day
1 January 1863 “New Year's Day” is preserved in a clipping from the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, pasted immediately below “More Ghosts” (no. 34). For evidence of Clemens' authorship, see the headnote to that piece.
“New Year's Day” must have appeared on 1 January 1863. Three days later the Enterprise local items column carried a very brief follow-up squib, almost certainly by Clemens as well, elaborating on the custom of “friendly calls”:
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 179] 36. Unfortunate Thief
8 January 1863 Clemens' hat was stolen while he attended the Odd Fellows' Ball in Gold Hill on 7 January 1863.1 This brief sketch—the victim's announcement that inevitable retribution would be visited upon the thief—appeared in the local items column of the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, probably the following morning. The Enterprise for that day is not extant, but the sketch is preserved in the Stockton (Calif.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 183] 37. The Sanitary Ball
10 January 1863 “The Sanitary Ball” filled two-thirds of Clemens' local items column in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise for Saturday, 10 January 1863. A complete copy of that day's paper is preserved in the library of the Nevada Historical Society at Reno.1 The United States Sanitary Commission was founded in 1861 and was headed by Henry W.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 188] 38. Due Notice
10 January 1863 This slight sketch appeared in the same Virginia City Territorial Enterprise column that contained the ambitious “Sanitary Ball” (no. 37). Clemens' allusion to Czar Nicholas' interest in the “minarets of Byzantium”—which had resulted in the 1853 Crimean War—contains a nearly harmless pun. The Enterprise offices, from which the “local” gazed upon “that old gobbler,” were at this time located on A Street.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 190] 39. Territorial Sweets
22–28 January 1863 On 31 January 1863 the Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel reprinted this item from the now lost Virginia City Territorial Enterprise under the title “Territorial Sweets.” The Sentinel editor supplied a brief explanatory preface: “The local of the Enterprise dropped early one morning upon a loose missive which he thus publicly notices.” Clemens was, of course, the Enterprise local at this time.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 192] 40. Letter from Carson City
3 February 1863 In all probability this letter was completed on Saturday evening, 31 January 1863, mailed to Virginia City the next day, and published in the Territorial Enterprise on Tuesday, February 3. (The paper did not publish on Mondays.) The text is preserved in a clipping in one of Clemens' scrapbooks.1 It is likely that this letter was the first piece to which Clemens signed the name “Mark Twain,” in which case his remark “I feel very much as if I had just awakened out of a long sleep” seems deeply appropriate.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 199] 41. Letter from Carson
5 February 1863 “Letter from Carson” survives in one of Mark Twain's scrapbooks in an undated clipping from the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. Clemens' dateline (“Carson, Tuesday Night”) and his opening reference to the morning he arrived in Carson City (“Thursday Morning”) establish the date of writing as 3 February 1863 and the probable date of publication as February 5.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 205] 42. Letter from Carson
8 February 1863 This sketch survives in an undated clipping from the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise in one of Mark Twain's scrapbooks. It is the last of three letters that Mark Twain sent from Carson City before returning to his post as the Enterprise local editor. Clemens headed his letter “Thursday Morning” (5 February 1863) and said that the Wayman-Ormsby wedding took place “last night.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 210] 43. Silver Bars—How Assayed
17–22 February 1863 “Silver Bars—How Assayed” was first published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise but survives only in the Stockton (Calif.) Independent, which reprinted the Enterprise on 26 February 1863. The Independent attributed the article to “the local editor of the Territorial Enterprise,” but gave no publication date. The date assigned here is therefore a conjecture: the piece might easily have appeared somewhat earlier or even a little later.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 215] 44. Ye Sentimental Law Student
19 February 1863 “Ye Sentimental Law Student” is of particular interest for Mark Twain's early career. According to Joseph T. Goodman, it was the “first special article” to which the author signed the name “Mark Twain,” and it appeared in the Enterprise on 19 February 1863. Goodman remembered the title only as “The Sugar Loaf,” and some scholars have therefore presumed that the text was lost.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 220] 45. A Sunday in Carson
24 February–31 March 1863 This sketch was part of a letter that Mark Twain sent to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise from Carson City. The text survives only in Kate Milnor Rabb's The Wit and Humor of America. It was written on an undetermined Sunday, the day Clemens arrived in Carson for a brief visit, probably in late February or March 1863.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 223] 46. The Unreliable
25 February 1863 This sketch appeared in the local items column of the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise for 25 February 18631 and clearly belongs to Mark Twain's continuing comic feud with Clement T. Rice. The immediate occasion of the Unreliable's antics was the Firemen's Ball, held on February 23 at Topliffe's Theater on North C Street, Virginia City, as part of the annual fund raising for Virginia Engine Company No.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 226] 47. Reportorial
26 February 1863 Clemens published an obituary of the Unreliable in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise sometime in late February 1863. The original printing is not extant, but the Marysville (Calif.) Appeal for 28 February 1863 reprinted the concluding paragraphs of the piece, and it is the source of the present text. The Appeal editor noted: “The reporters for the Virginia Union and the Virginia Enterprise, over the mountains, have a lovely time ‘sparring’ at each other.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 229] 48. Examination of Teachers
March–April 1863 “Examination of Teachers” is extant only in an undated clipping from the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, preserved in a scrapbook in the Morse Collection at Yale. The piece probably appeared in that newspaper's local column sometime in March or April 1863, but a more precise date cannot now be determined, and even this conjecture must remain very tentative.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 233] 49. City Marshal Perry
4 March 1863 John Van Buren (Jack) Perry, the subject of this burlesque biography, was reelected city marshal of Virginia City on 2 March 1863.1 Since Clemens tells us in the piece that Perry was reelected “day before yesterday,” we conjecture that it appeared in the Territorial Enterprise on March 4. The Enterprise printing is not extant; our text is taken from Kate Milnor Rabb's The Wit and Humor of America.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 239] 50. [Champagne with the Board of Brokers]
7 March 1863 Myron Angel's History of Nevada is the only extant source of this account of the champagne supper at Almack's Oyster and Liquor Saloon following the organization of the Washoe Stock and Exchange Board in Virginia City on Friday, 6 March 1863. Because Mark Twain “adjourned to make this report,” we can be fairly certain that the item appeared in the Territorial Enterprise the next day.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 241] 51. Advice to the Unreliable on Church-Going
12 April 1863 Kate Milnor Rabb's The Wit and Humor of America supplies us with the text of “Advice to the Unreliable on Church-Going.” The satire was probably published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise on 12 April 1863, for on April 11 Clemens wrote to his mother and his sister, “I have just finished writing up my report for the morning paper, and giving the Unreliable a column of advice about how to conduct himself in church.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 244] 52. Horrible Affair
16–18 April 1863 “Horrible Affair” was first published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise but is extant only in the Oroville (Calif.) Butte Record, from which our text is taken. The double murder by John Campbell to which the piece alludes occurred in the early morning hours of 12 April 1863, and Campbell was captured by April 13.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 248] 53. Letter from Mark Twain
19–21 May 1863 A clipping of this San Francisco letter to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise is preserved in one of Mark Twain's scrapbooks. Since Mark Twain dated his letter 16 May 1863, a Saturday, it probably appeared in the Enterprise sometime between May 19 and 21. It is the first example of Clemens' writing known to use “Mark Twain” in the heading, a change that signifies his growing reputation in Nevada.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 254] 54. “Mark Twain's” Letter
9 July 1863 After spending May and June of 1863 in San Francisco, Clemens arrived by stagecoach in Virginia City on July 2, ready to resume work as the local editor on the Territorial Enterprise. He had made arrangements while away to correspond with the San Francisco Morning Call, and the following letter, dated July 5, was the first of a series of ten that he published there.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 259] 55. “Mark Twain's” Letter
30 July 1863 This installment of Clemens' correspondence to the San Francisco Morning Call was cut short for reasons he has graphically explained. The fire that burned down the White House, where he roomed in Virginia City, transformed him into “a bankrupt community”: he had to abandon his trunk of wildcat stocks when he jumped out the window.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 262] 56. A Duel Prevented
2 August 1863 “A Duel Prevented” was published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise on 2 August 1863. The Enterprise printing is not extant, but the sketch survives in the Sacramento Union of August 4, which attributed it to the Enterprise of August 2. In his History of Nevada Myron Angel also reprinted the latter third of the piece in a somewhat garbled form, and he attributed it to Clemens, who in August 1863 was still handling the local news for the Enterprise in Dan De Quille's continued absence.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 267] 57. [An Apology Repudiated]
4 August 1863 This brief sketch probably appeared in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise for 4 August 1863, which is not extant. Only a portion of it has been preserved in Myron Angel's History of Nevada, the source of the present text.1 According to Angel, Clement T. Rice agreed to write Clemens' local items while Clemens was laid up with a cold, but took advantage of Clemens' absence to play a practical joke on him.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 270] 58. Letter from Mark Twain
25 August 1863 This letter is preserved in clippings in two of Mark Twain's scrapbooks. It originally appeared in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise on 25 August 1863: an Enterprise banner headline for that date has been pasted at the top of one of the clippings.
Clemens caught a severe cold after July 26, when a fire in the White House, where he roomed in Virginia City, consumed most of his belongings (see “ ‘Mark Twain's’ Letter,” no.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 277] 59. “Mark Twain's” Letter
30 August 1863 This installment of Clemens' correspondence with the San Francisco Morning Call was actually written from the Steamboat Springs Hotel three days before the previous letter, but it was not published until ten days later, on 30 August 1863. It is a triumphant example of the kind of newspaper letter that Clemens learned to write: its artful opening, its personal, colloquial tone, its intrinsic narrative interest, and its casually controlled progression from topic to topic are all the work of a craftsman.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 284] 60. Unfortunate Blunder
3 September 1863 This sketch comprises the final part of “ ‘Mark Twain's’ Letter” to the San Francisco Morning Call written on 30 August 1863 and published on September 3. Two sections of the letter, which report political activity and a riot and fire in Virginia City, are not reprinted here.
Virginia City's Union League was probably organized soon after the outbreak of the Civil War when Union clubs were springing up in many communities of California and Nevada.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 288] 61. Bigler vs.Ⓐemendation Jahoe
4–5 September 1863 On 13 September 1863 the San Francisco Golden Era reprinted this spirited sketch from the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise of unknown date. In a brief prefatory remark the Era noted: “In the Territorial Enterprise appears a ‘Letter from Lake Bigler,’ signed ‘Grub’ and addressed personally to ‘Mr. Twain’—and that rough and ready writer last named, who does the humorous local columns of the aforesaid journal, discourses his friend ‘Grub,’ thus wise.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 291] 62. Letter from Mark Twain
17 September 1863 The text of this letter is preserved in a clipping from the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise in one of Mark Twain's scrapbooks. Written in San Francisco on Sunday, 13 September 1863, the letter probably appeared in the Enterprise on the following Thursday, September 17: a dated banner headline from the Enterprise of that date is pasted above the immediately preceding article in the scrapbook, and probably applies to this letter as well.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 296] 63. How to Cure a Cold
20 September 1863 “How to Cure a Cold” was written during the first week or ten days after Clemens arrived in San Francisco on 8 September 1863 and was published in the San Francisco Golden Era on September 20. The sketch is the first of three feature articles that Clemens composed specifically for the Era in September and early October 1863, and one of four he published there during that period.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 304] 64. Mark Twain—More of Him
27 September 1863 The main body of this sketch—Mark Twain's letter headed “All about the Fashions”—is a double-barreled burlesque ridiculing society columns in general and reviews of current fashions in particular. It was written on 19 June 1863 while Mark Twain was still in San Francisco, and it was probably first published sometime between June 21 and 24 in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 313] 65. The Lick House Ball
27 September 1863 “The Lick House Ball” appeared in the same number of the Golden Era which carried the previous sketch, “Mark Twain—More of Him” (no. 64). Two other writers, “Peregrine” and “Pandora,” also gave their impressions of the event in the same issue. “It was on Thursday evening, the 24th inst.,” wrote Peregrine, “when the boarders of that highly popular hotel, the Lick House, gave another of those social and fashionable re-unions which have formed so marked a feature of this establishment.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 320] 66. A Bloody Massacre near Carson
28 October 1863 This famous hoax was published on 28 October 1863 in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, probably under the title adopted here, “A Bloody Massacre near Carson.” Although the Enterprise printing is not extant, three contemporary reprintings from that paper permit a full recovery of the text: on the afternoon of October 28 the Gold Hill News reprinted the item, partly verbatim and partly in paraphrase; the Sacramento Union reprinted it verbatim on October 30; and the San Francisco Evening Bulletin did likewise on October 31.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 327] 67. Letter from Mark Twain
17 November 1863 This letter was written in Carson City on Sunday, 15 November 1863, and probably appeared on Tuesday, November 17, in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. The text is taken from an Enterprise clipping in one of Mark Twain's scrapbooks.
The elaborately casual tone of this sequel to “A Bloody Massacre near Carson” (no.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 331] 68. A Tide of Eloquence
1–3 December 1863 On 6 December 1863 the San Francisco Golden Era published this brief excerpt from what must have been Mark Twain's much longer account in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, which is not extant. In their preface the editors of the Golden Era commented that “ ‘Mark Twain’ . . . lately attended a presentation affair at Virginia City, and distinguished himself—in his own words.
MTPDocEd 69. Letter from Mark Twain
19–20 January 1864 Show Headnote [begin page 333] 68. A Tide of Eloquence
1–3 December 1863 Like “Examination of Teachers” (no. 48) and “An Excellent School” (no. 71), the present sketch contains a vivid testimony to Clemens' interest and pleasure in observing children at work in the classroom. As he admits in the letter itself, the subject literally absorbed him beyond his expectations, and he wrote “a dozen pages” that ultimately left out all other matters of “current news of the day.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 339] 70. Winters' New House
12 February 1864 This sketch of Theodore Winters' new house in Washoe Valley forms the first section of a “Letter from Mark Twain” written on Friday, 5 February 1864, from Carson City.1 It survives in a clipping in one of Mark Twain's scrapbooks; a banner headline for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise of February 12 has been pasted above it.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 343] 71. An Excellent School
12 February 1864 This sketch forms the second section of a “Letter from Mark Twain” written from Carson City on Friday, 5 February 1864, and published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise on February 12.1 The school described in this sketch, conducted by William B. Lawlor, was one of two private schools in Carson City. (See the headnote to “Letter from Mark Twain,” no.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 347] 72. Those Blasted Children
21 February 1864 In mid-December 1863 Artemus Ward visited Virginia City, where he lectured successfully and, in company with Mark Twain, Dan De Quille, and other members of the Territorial Enterprise staff, participated in what Albert Bigelow Paine called “a period of continuous celebration.”1 Mark Twain and Ward became good friends and remained so until his untimely death in March 1867.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 357] 73. Frightful Accident to Dan De Quille
20 April 1864 Although the original printing of this sketch in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise is not extant, both the text and the probable date of publication can be retrieved from three contemporary reprintings: the Nevada (Calif.) Gazette of 26 April 1864, the San Francisco Golden Era of May 1, and the Unionville (Nev.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 362] 74. [Dan Reassembled]
28–30 April 1864 This brief scrap appears to be Mark Twain's further comment on Dan De Quille's accident (see “Frightful Accident to Dan De Quille,” no. 73). The sketch, of which this is presumably only a fragment, was published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise in late April after Mark Twain returned from his assignment in Silver Mountain.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 365] 75. Washoe.—“Information Wanted”
1–15 May 1864 The original printing of “Washoe.—‘Information Wanted’ ” in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise is not extant, but the sketch was reprinted in the San Francisco Golden Era on 22 May 1864. It had probably appeared in the Enterprise shortly before May 15, when Clemens became involved in raising money for the Sanitary Fund.1 Although it seems likely that the Era would republish such an item fairly promptly, the sketch could in fact have appeared in the Enterprise any time in the first two weeks of May.
MTPDocEd [begin page 375] APPENDIX A: Attributed Items: Hannibal and the River (1851–1861) Show Headnote Circumstantial and stylistic evidence suggests that Clemens may have written the three pieces reproduced below. On the other hand, we have rejected as nonauthorial the following items that have been attributed to him in the past: “All Right!”—published in the Boston Carpet-Bag on 14 June 1851, ten months before “The Dandy Frightening the Squatter” (no.
MTPDocEd [begin page 387] APPENDIX B: Attributed Items: Nevada Territory (1862–1864) Show Headnote A number of items which Clemens almost certainly wrote for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, but which lack sufficient corroboration or are too slight to be included in the body of this collection, are reprinted in this appendix.
In January 1878, when Mark Twain had already published The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, The Gilded Age, Tom Sawyer, and many shorter works, a former colleague of his on the Enterprise observed that “the brightest paragraphs ‘Mark’ ever penned were written for the local columns of this journal, while he was part of the dreamy, reckless and adventurous throng whose tents were pitched almost a generation ago along the Comstock.
MTPDocEd [begin page 427] APPENDIX C: Advertisements, Prefaces, and Contracts Show Headnote We have reprinted here a variety of collateral documents—contracts, advertisements, and prefaces—which bear upon Mark Twain's sketchbooks and plans for sketchbooks. They are arranged by title, and the titles are ordered chronologically. The mnemonic abbreviations are those used in the textual introduction and defined in the description of texts. Canceled words are enclosed in angle brackets.
MTPDocEd [begin page 501] TEXTUAL INTRODUCTION From the beginning of his career as a professional journalist Mark Twain took steps to gather and preserve clippings of his work, intending to republish them. “Put all of Josh's letters in my scrap book,” he told Orion Clemens when his first contributions to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise began to appear in 1862, “I may have use for them some day.
MTPDocEd [begin page 664] Guide to the Textual Apparatus But that which is most difficult is not always most important, and to an editor nothing is a trifle by which his authour is obscured.
—Samuel Johnson, “Preface to Shakespeare”
An individual textual apparatus for each sketch provides everything needed to reconstruct the copy-text and Mark Twain's revisions (whenever any survives). Each apparatus usually, but not invariably, includes the elements described below.
MTPDocEd
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] INTRODUCTION The second volume of this collection follows Clemens from his first days as a resident journalist in California, late in May 1864, through the end of his first full year as a California resident, 1865. In this twenty-month period he wrote most of his work for the San Francisco Golden Era, the Morning Call, the Dramatic Chronicle, and the Californian. He began to publish somewhat more regularly in eastern journals, like the New York Saturday Pressand the Weekly Review, and toward the end of the period he started a long assignment as the daily correspondent from San Francisco to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 5] 76. Parting Presentation
13 June 1864 This piece, Clemens' first signed publication following his move from Nevada to San Francisco at the end of May 1864, appeared on June 13 on the front page of the San Francisco Alta California. It was headed by the following preface, possibly also by Mark Twain:
A most interesting and affecting ceremony was performed on the stage of Maguire's Opera House, at 3 p.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 9] 77. “Mark Twain” in the Metropolis
17–23 June 1864 Clemens became the local reporter for the San Francisco Morning Call soon after he arrived from Virginia City at the end of May 1864. This letter to his former newspaper, the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, leaves no doubt that his new pleasurable surroundings had not abated his skeptical cast of mind.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 13] 78. The Evidence in the Case of Smith vs. Jones
26 June 1864 This mock report of trial proceedings was published in the San Francisco Golden Era. The sketch's emphasis on the unreliability of witnesses makes it similar to various reports that Clemens made of other trials in the San Francisco Morning Call, and it is doubtless based on what he had often heard in the local police court: false or obviously conflicting testimony.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 22] 79. Early Rising, As Regards Excursions to the Cliff House
3 July 1864 This sketch appeared in the San Francisco Golden Era one week after the previous piece, “The Evidence in the Case of Smith vs. Jones” (no. 78). It too seems to have emerged from Clemens' work as a reporter on the San Francisco Morning Call, for on 25 June 1864 he had published a straight news story there urging his readers to visit the Cliff House before “the winds get too fresh.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 31] 80. Original Novelette
4 July 1864 This piece is among the more imaginative stories that Clemens succeeded in publishing in the San Francisco Morning Call under the guise of local items. Although ostensibly a news story, Clemens' literary interest is clearly predominant: he is writing a burlesque, or “condensed,” novel in the fashion made popular in the West by Charles Henry Webb and Bret Harte.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 34] 81. What a Sky-Rocket Did
12 August 1864 This brief sketch appeared unsigned in the San Francisco Morning Call, but Clemens' authorship is established by a letter he wrote to Orion and Mollie Clemens shortly after the piece appeared: “I have got Dr Bellows stuck after my local items. He says he never fails to read them—said he went into ‘convulsions of laughter’ over the account of ‘What a Sky-Rocket Did.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 38] [MARK TWAIN ON THE NEW JOSH HOUSE]
§ 82. The New Chinese Temple
19 August 1864 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 82–85.)
These four sketches appeared in the San Francisco Morning Call while Clemens was working as its local reporter. Although they are of course unsigned, Clemens' authorship is assured by the fact that all four are preserved as clippings in his scrapbooks, and by the fact that Albert S.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 38] [MARK TWAIN ON THE NEW JOSH HOUSE]
§ 83. The Chinese Temple
21 August 1864 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 82–85.)
These four sketches appeared in the San Francisco Morning Call while Clemens was working as its local reporter. Although they are of course unsigned, Clemens' authorship is assured by the fact that all four are preserved as clippings in his scrapbooks, and by the fact that Albert S.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 38] [MARK TWAIN ON THE NEW JOSH HOUSE]
§ 84. The New Chinese Temple
23 August 1864 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 82–85.)
These four sketches appeared in the San Francisco Morning Call while Clemens was working as its local reporter. Although they are of course unsigned, Clemens' authorship is assured by the fact that all four are preserved as clippings in his scrapbooks, and by the fact that Albert S.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 38] [MARK TWAIN ON THE NEW JOSH HOUSE]
§ 85. Supernatural Impudence
24 August 1864 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 82–85.)
These four sketches appeared in the San Francisco Morning Call while Clemens was working as its local reporter. Although they are of course unsigned, Clemens' authorship is assured by the fact that all four are preserved as clippings in his scrapbooks, and by the fact that Albert S.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 49] 86. [Sarrozay Letter from “the Unreliable”]
16–22 August 1864 The text of this untitled sketch is taken from a holograph preserved in the Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, now at Vassar. The sketch has not been published before.
The approximate date of composition is established by the close relationship between the present sketch and “Inexplicable News from San José” (no. 87), which Clemens published in the San Francisco Morning Call on 23 August 1864.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 54] 87. Inexplicable News from San José
23 August 1864 This sketch was published in the San Francisco Morning Call. Although it was not signed, Clemens referred to himself as “Mark Twain” in the sketch. In addition, he was demonstrably the author of “Sarrozay Letter from ‘the Unreliable’ ” (no. 86), which amounts to an early version of the present sketch, contains several passages taken nearly verbatim from it, and survives in the author's holograph.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 57] 88. How to Cure Him of It
27 August 1864 Albert Bigelow Paine's account of the howling dog that disturbed Clemens and Steve Gillis on Minna Street was presumably gleaned from conversation with Gillis himself. It establishes, at any rate, Clemens' authorship of “How to Cure Him of It,” which was published in the San Francisco Morning Call for 27 August 1864.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 59] 89. Due Warning
18 September 1864 The author of “Due Warning,” which appeared in the San Francisco Morning Call, identified himself in the text as “Mark Twain.” The sketch elaborates on the similar dire warnings that Clemens had issued in “Unfortunate Thief” (no. 36) twenty months earlier, when his hat was stolen in Gold Hill, Nevada. His statement that the hat was “made by Tiffany” indicates that it was purchased from Tiffany's Eagle Hat Store on Washington Street in San Francisco.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 62] 90. The Mysterious Chinaman
October 1864–mid-1865 The text of this poem is taken from a photographic copy of the holograph, now in the Doheny collection. The location of the holograph itself is not known.
Clemens wrote at the top of the manuscript, “(Written for M. E. G.'s Album.).” Presumably “M. E. G.” was Mary Elizabeth Gillis, the sister of Clemens' good friends Jim and Steve Gillis.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 66] 91. A Notable Conundrum
1 October 1864 Like two earlier sketches published in 1864—“The Evidence in the Case of Smith vs. Jones” and “Early Rising, As Regards Excursions to the Cliff House” (nos. 78 and 79)—the present sketch grew out of Clemens' reporting for the San Francisco Morning Call. During the month of September 1864 he was on continuing assignment to cover the Fourth Industrial Fair of the Mechanics' Institute, an organization interested in promoting technology and industrial prosperity in California.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 72] 92. Concerning the Answer to That Conundrum
8 October 1864 In a letter to his mother and sister written on 25 September 1864 Clemens said, “I wrote two articles last night for the Californian, so that lets me out for two weeks.”1 The first of these articles was probably the previous sketch, “A Notable Conundrum” (no. 91), but the second cannot now be identified.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 79] 93. Still Further Concerning That Conundrum
15 October 1864 This sketch was Clemens' third consecutive weekly contribution to the Californian, and it continued (at least in the title) his rather lame joke about an unanswerable conundrum. Like the previous two sketches, its real subject was Mark Twain himself—here in the role of stuffed shirt, ostensibly showing the Californian editors how to write an opera review.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 86] 94. Whereas
22 October 1864 This sketch was Clemens' most ambitious effort for the Californian to date, and in a manner that was both self-consciously literary and somewhat mechanical it combined humor with satire. The unusual first half of the sketch appears to be good-natured mimicry of the polite personal essay, as practiced by such masters as Goldsmith, Lamb, Irving, and Hawthorne.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 94] 95. A Touching Story of George Washington's Boyhood
29 October 1864 Mark Twain seemed determined to provoke a laugh by giving deceptive titles to his Californian sketches. “Whereas” (no. 94) was an odd combination of humor and satire which had nothing whatever to do with its title. And in the present sketch, his fifth consecutive weekly contribution, he never got around to telling the story of “Little George Washington, who could Not Lie, and the Cherry Tree”—the classic American fable glorifying truth telling.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 100] 96. Daniel in the Lion's Den—and Out Again All Right
5 November 1864 “Daniel in the Lion's Den” appeared in the Californian on 5 November 1864 as Clemens' sixth consecutive weekly contribution. To judge by the prices that Clemens quoted for Burning Moscow and Gould and Curry stock, his sketch probably drew on a visit to the stock exchange made either on the afternoon of October 31 or on the morning of November 1.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 108] 97. The Killing of Julius Cæsar “Localized”
12 November 1864 This sketch, the seventh of Clemens' weekly contributions to the Californian, appeared a month after he “resigned” his position as local reporter for the San Francisco Morning Call. It is an elaborate travesty of what Clemens himself referred to as “sensation items,” those long and minutely detailed accounts of the latest bloody murder, usually found on page one.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 116] 98. A Full and Reliable Account of the Extraordinary Meteoric Shower of Last Saturday Night
19 November 1864 Meteorites lit San Francisco skies on Saturday night, 12 November 1864, one week before this sketch appeared in the Californian. The “November Star-Shower,” as the American Journal of Science called it, was predicted in the San Francisco press by the telegram from Professor Silliman with which Clemens began his sketch: the Morning Call, the Alta California, and the Evening Bulletin all printed it on November 11.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 125] 99. Lucretia Smith's Soldier
3 December 1864 Clemens published “Lucretia Smith's Soldier” in the Californian almost exactly five months after his “Original Novelette” (no. 80) had appeared in the San Francisco Morning Call. Both are burlesque or “condensed” novels after the fashion introduced by Thackeray and practiced most influentially in the United States by Charles Henry Webb and Bret Harte.1 In his preface to the present sketch Clemens implies that his target was not a specific novel or novelist, but the entire corpus of “those nice, sickly war stories in Harper's Weekly.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 134] 100. An Unbiased Criticism
18 March 1865 A gap of some three and one-half months intervenes between this sketch and the previous one. On 4 December 1864 Clemens deserted San Francisco for a three-month stay in the mining camps of Calaveras and Tuolumne counties—an important moratorium that followed what he called his “slinking” days in chapter 59 of Roughing It. He spent most of his time at Angel's Camp and Jackass Hill, usually with Jim Gillis and Jim's fellow pocket miner Dick Stoker.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 144] 101. Important Correspondence
6 May 1865 When Charles Henry Webb resumed editorial control of the Californian on 26 November 1864, Clemens had almost completed his first nine contributions: “Lucretia Smith's Soldier” (no. 99) was published on December 3, just before he left San Francisco. Webb published his tenth, “An Unbiased Criticism” (no. 100), after his return in March 1865. And on April 8 he facetiously assured his readers that Mark Twain would not become a contributor to the newly founded Journal of the Trades and Workingmen.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 157] 102. Further of Mr. Mark Twain's Important Correspondence
13 May 1865 This sketch, published in the Californian on 13 May 1865, continues the record of “Mr. Mark Twain's” involvement with efforts to fill the vacancy in Grace Cathedral. But this time his satire covers the whole spectrum of clerical hypocrites, from Phillips Brooks and George Cummins—whose letters Mark Twain declines to publish because they might awaken “a diseased curiosity in the public mind concerning the private matters of ministers of the gospel”—to the Reverend “T.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 163] 103. How I Went to the Great Race between Lodi and Norfolk
27 May 1865 This sketch appeared in the Californian four days after San Francisco's foremost sports event of the spring season: the two-mile race between the Kentucky-bred horses Lodi and Norfolk, which took place on 23 May 1865 at Ocean Race Course, located on a one-hundred-acre plot northeast of Ocean House.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 169] 104. A Voice for Setchell
27 May 1865 “A Voice for Setchell” appeared in the Californian immediately adjacent to the previous sketch, “How I Went to the Great Race between Lodi and Norfolk” (no. 103). It was probably Bret Harte who introduced it by saying that “a correspondent of The Californian, whose style its readers will probably recognize, sends us the following.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 174] [“ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS” IN THE CALIFORNIAN]
§ 105. Answers to Correspondents
3 June 1865 Without preliminary fanfare the Californian of 3 June 1865 announced that all letters to its new department, “Answers to Correspondents,” should be “addressed to Mr. Mark Twain, who has been detailed from the editorial staff to conduct it. Courting Etiquette, Distressed Lovers, of either sex, and Struggling Young Authors, as yet ‘unbeknown’ to Fame, will receive especial attention.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 181] [“ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS” IN THE CALIFORNIAN]
§ 106. Answers to Correspondents
10 June 1865 The second of Clemens' columns for the Californian contained an item—the communication from “Melton Mowbray, Dutch Flat”—which would haunt him in much the same way that a more outrageous hoax, “A Bloody Massacre near Carson” (no. 66), had done in 1863. Imitating a typical occurrence in correspondents' columns, he had Melton Mowbray submit “a lot of doggerel” ostensibly written in Dutch Flat.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 187] [“ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS” IN THE CALIFORNIAN]
§ 107. Answers to Correspondents
17 June 1865 The third column that Clemens contributed to the Californian was his most spirited and appealing. He combined a choice selection of his own personal grievances, literary and otherwise, with some astute self-advertising. He praised his earlier sketch “Whereas” (no. 94) and continued the joke about Dutch Flat poetry, quoting the Gold Hill News at length (see no.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 197] [“ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS” IN THE CALIFORNIAN]
§ 108. Answers to Correspondents
24 June 1865 Clemens' fourth column for the Californian attacked boorish ostentation and sentimental notions of children. It continued his response to the Dutch Flat poetry hoax, begun in no. 106, and it ridiculed the practice of making accusations of disloyalty to the Union on scant grounds: Clemens' former editor, Charles Henry Webb, had recently suffered from such a charge at the hands of the press, and Clemens, as a son of Missouri, was always in danger of experiencing it in person.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 208] [“ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS” IN THE CALIFORNIAN]
§ 109. Answers to Correspondents
1 July 1865 Clemens' fifth column for the Californian contained some further comments about his contemporary journalists on the San Francisco American Flag, the Golden Era, and the Gold Hill News. It also contained a charming essay on one of his favorite euphemisms, “Geewhillikins.” But the main preoccupation of the column, taking up more than half its length, was his critique of San Francisco theatrical criticism as practiced by the local papers and literary journals.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 219] [“ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS” IN THE CALIFORNIAN]
§ 110. Answers to Correspondents
8 July 1865 Clemens' sixth and final column of answers to correspondents appeared in the Californian shortly after he had begun writing occasional, perhaps even daily, letters to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise in late June. Although this column was his longest, it expressed, both directly and indirectly, his impatience to be done with the weekly obligation.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 233] 111. Enthusiastic Eloquence
23 June 1865 This appreciation of the banjo music played by Tommy Bree, Charley Rhoades, and Sam Pride appeared in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle on 23 June 1865. The Chronicle editors introduced it with these words: “Mark Twain, who occasionally condescends to drop in at the Academy of Music, though as a general thing he prefers negro minstrelsy to Italian opera, thus puts on record his sentiments with reference to the comparative merits of the banjo and the piano.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 236] 112. Just “One More Unfortunate”
27–30 June 1865 This sketch is one of the earliest extant items from a series of letters Clemens wrote, eventually on a daily basis, for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise in 1865 and 1866. The Enterprise printing, which probably appeared in late June 1865, does not survive. The sketch is preserved in the Downieville (Calif.) Mountain Messenger for July 1, which attributed it to “Mark Twain, a correspondent of the Virginia Enterprise.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 240] 113. Advice for Good Little Boys
1 July 1865 This sketch was published in the San Francisco Youths' Companion, probably on 1 July 1865. Since the second volume of the newspaper, covering May to December 1865, is no longer extant, the first printing does not survive. The text is preserved in the Yreka City (Calif.) Weekly Union for July 8, which explained: “Mark Twain (Sam Clemens) is writing occasionally for the San Francisco Youths' Companion, a very interesting little paper and published by Frank Smith.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 243] 114. Advice for Good Little Girls
1 or 8 July 1865 This sketch was probably published in the San Francisco Youths' Companion, either in the same issue as the previous sketch, “Advice for Good Little Boys” (no. 113), or in the issue of the week immediately following. It is clear that the two sketches are companion pieces for which the formula was identical: conventional advice for children's good behavior is subverted by a refined appreciation of those “peculiarly aggravating circumstances” that justify exceptions to the rules.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 246] 115. Mark Twain on the Colored Man
7–19 July 1865 This account of the black marchers in San Francisco's Fourth of July celebration is only a portion of Clemens' letter describing the day's festivities for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. The original letter has been lost. The text of this sketch is preserved in the San Francisco Golden Era for 23 July 1865.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 250] 116. The Facts
26 August 1865 Clemens published this long sketch in the Californian seven weeks after his last contribution, the final installment of “Answers to Correspondents” (no. 110). By now he was earning his living not as a weekly contributor to the Californian, but as a journalist writing a daily letter to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise—a task so grueling that he had little energy left over for the literary weeklies.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 262] [three versions of the “jumping frog”]
§ 117. The Only Reliable Account of the Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
1 September–16 October 1865 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 117–119.)
In 1896 Clemens' close friend Joseph Hopkins Twichell said that the “celebrated ‘Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’ . . . was a story (it had some basis of fact) with which [Clemens] had long been wont on occasion to entertain private circles.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 262] [three versions of the “jumping frog”]
§ 118. Angel's Camp Constable
1 September–16 October 1865 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 117–119.)
In 1896 Clemens' close friend Joseph Hopkins Twichell said that the “celebrated ‘Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’ . . . was a story (it had some basis of fact) with which [Clemens] had long been wont on occasion to entertain private circles.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 262] [three versions of the “jumping frog]
§ 119. Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog
18 November 1865 (This headnote is repeated in numbers 117–119.)
In 1896 Clemens' close friend Joseph Hopkins Twichell said that the “celebrated ‘Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’ . . . was a story (it had some basis of fact) with which [Clemens] had long been wont on occasion to entertain private circles.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 289] [mark twain on the 1865 earthquake]
§ 120. The Cruel Earthquake
10–11 October 1865 Clemens published four sketches about the San Francisco earthquake that took place on 8 October 1865: two of these survive in fragments reprinted by the western press, and two survive in their original printings. “The Cruel Earthquake” originally appeared in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise on about October 10 or 11.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 294] [mark twain on the 1865 earthquake]
§ 121. Popper Defieth Ye Earthquake
15—31 October 1865 This sketch survives in a damaged clipping from an unidentified newspaper in the Yale Scrapbook. The last line of the clipping reads “my last shake.—mark twain in the E,” indicating that the sketch originally appeared in one of Clemens' daily letters to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, and that the clipping itself is a reprinting of the Enterprise, which is lost.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 297] [mark twain on the 1865 earthquake]
§ 122. Earthquake Almanac
17 October 1865 This sketch was published in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle on 17 October 1865, two days before Clemens wrote to Orion: “The Dramatic Chronicle pays me—or rather will begin to pay me, next week—$40 a month for dramatic criticisms.” Unlike “Enthusiastic Eloquence” (no. 111), which Clemens had published there in late June, the present sketch was probably written as part of a concerted effort to get out of debt.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 300] [mark twain on the 1865 earthquake]
§ 123. The Great Earthquake in San Francisco
25 November 1865 On 20 January 1866, two months after this sketch appeared in the New York Weekly Review and three weeks after Bret Harte stepped down as editor of the Californian, Clemens wrote his family that both he and Harte had “quit the ‘Californian.’ He will write for a Boston paper hereafter, and I for the ‘New York Weekly Review’—and possibly for the ‘Saturday Press’ sometimes.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 311] 124. Bob Roach's Plan for Circumventing a Democrat
21–24 October 1865 This sketch was part of Clemens' daily letter to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. The Enterprise printing is lost, and the sketch is preserved only in the San Francisco Examiner for 30 November 1865, which attributed it to the “S. F. Cor. Virginia Enterprise.” Clemens' allusion to the San Francisco city and county elections “yesterday” shows that he wrote the letter on October 19.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 315] 125. [San Francisco Letter]
26–28 October 1865 Clemens wrote this letter on 24 October 1865, and it was probably published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise two or three days later. The first section is preserved in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin, which reprinted it from the Enterprise on October 30, whereas the last two sections are preserved in an undated clipping in the Yale Scrapbook.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 321] 126. Steamer Departures
31 October–2 November 1865 This comically petulant explosion of temper is preserved in the Yale Scrapbook, where it is found in a clipping from an unidentified newspaper. The clipping begins: “ ‘Mark Twain,’ in a late San Francisco letter to the Virginia Enterprise, gets off the following production of a sour temper.” The sketch makes use of a passenger list for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's Colorado, which sailed for Panama on 30 October 1865 with six hundred passengers.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 323] 127. Exit “Bummer”
8 November 1865 The text of Clemens' obituary of the dog Bummer is found in the Californian of 11 November 1865, where Bret Harte introduced it as follows:
As we have devoted but little space to an event which has filled our local contemporaries with as much sorrow (judging from the columns of lamentation it has called forth) as would the decease of the best biped in the city, we give “Mark Twain's” view of the occurrence, as recorded in the Enterprise of the 8th.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 326] 128. Pleasure Excursion
9–12 November 1865 On the afternoon of 7 November 1865 the new tugboat Rescue made its trial trip in San Francisco Bay. Probably on that day or the next Clemens wrote about the bibulous event in his daily letter to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, which published it probably two or three days later. The Enterprise printing has been lost.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 329] [mark twain improves “fitz smythe”]
§ 129. [Editorial “Puffing”]
15–18 November 1865 Under the heading “Good for Mark” the San Francisco Examiner noted on 20 November 1865: “The San Francisco correspondent of the Territorial Enterprise in one of his last letters to that paper, in speaking of the disgusting disposition to puff individuals, manifested by the press of the Bay City, is thus expressive.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 332] [mark twain improves “fitz smythe”]
§ 130. The Old Thing
18 November 1865 This sketch was originally part of Clemens' letter to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise published on 18 November 1865. The Enterprise printing does not survive, but the text is preserved in the Californian of November 25, which introduced it as follows: “ ‘Mark Twain,’ in summing up the facts and theories of the What Cheer House robbery, says (correspondence Virginia Enterprise, Nov.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 336] [mark twain improves “fitz smythe”]
§ 131. San Francisco Letter
24 or 26 December 1865 This installment of Clemens' daily correspondence to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise is not a sustained comic attack on Albert Evans and the Alta California, but his ridicule of them is scattered so promiscuously throughout the rambling and rather diffuse letter that it has seemed best to reproduce virtually all of it here.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 343] [mark twain improves “fitz smythe”]
§ 132. Fitz Smythe's Horse
16–18 January 1866 This sketch was one of two items extracted by the San Francisco Golden Era from the recent “S. F. Correspondence of the Territorial Enterprise” and reprinted on 21 January 1866 under the heading “Mark Twain.”1 The Enterprise printing is lost, but since the Era published weekly, and since it required about three days' travel time for the Enterprise to reach San Francisco, we have estimated that the sketch first appeared in that paper sometime between January 16 and 18, although a slightly earlier date is possible.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 347] [mark twain improves “fitz smythe”]
§ 133. Closed Out
30–31 January 1866 This sketch was included in Clemens' “San Francisco Letter” to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise written on 28 January 1866. It seems likely that it appeared in that paper two or three days later. A clipping of the entire letter is preserved in the Yale Scrapbook.1 Clemens here returned to a technique he had often used in Nevada: the imputation of a ravenously destructive appetite to his comic enemy.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 349] [mark twain improves “fitz smythe”]
§ 134. Take the Stand, Fitz Smythe
6–7 February 1866 This highly personal attack on Albert Evans is part of Clemens' “San Francisco Letter” written on 3 February 1866 and probably published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise on February 6 or 7 (February 5 was a Monday). A clipping of the entire letter is preserved in the Yale Scrapbook.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 353] [mark twain improves “fitz smythe”]
§ 135. Remarkable Dream
8–10 February 1866 “Remarkable Dream” is part of Clemens' “San Francisco Letter” written on 6 February 1866 and probably published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise sometime between February 8 and 10. A clipping of the entire letter is preserved in the Yale Scrapbook.1 Some care and much evident pleasure went into this fanciful satire on Albert Evans.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 359] 136. “Mark Twain” on the Launch of the Steamer “Capital”
18 November 1865 Clemens published this sketch in the Californian on 18 November 1865, the same day that the New York Saturday Press published “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” (no. 119). He did not contribute to the Californian again until “The Christmas Fireside” (no. 148) was published on December 23.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 367] 137. The Pioneers' Ball
19 or 21 November 1865 Clemens' burlesque report of the fashions at the ball of the Society of California Pioneers was probably written shortly after it took place on 16 November 1865: the savage bluntness of his final paragraph, and his repeated allusions to female nudity, suggest temporarily relaxed inhibitions. The sketch was published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise several days later, probably on November 19 or 21 (November 20 was a Monday).
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 371] 138. The Guard on a Bender
25 November 1865 Perhaps as part of his effort to get out of debt,1 Clemens wrote three letters to the Napa County Reporter while he was also contributing a daily letter to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise and frequent squibs to the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle.2 They appeared on 11 and 25 November and 2 December 1865.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 374] 139. Benkert Cometh!
25 November 1865 This sketch formed the second section of Clemens' 25 November 1865 letter from San Francisco to the Napa County Reporter.1 The pianist who provides Clemens with this slight joke, George Felix Benkert, is remembered today chiefly as the composer of several songs and as a teacher of John Philip Sousa. According to a report published two days before Clemens wrote his letter, Benkert had sailed for San Francisco on November 16.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 376] 140. Uncle Lige
28–30 November 1865 This sketch is preserved in the Californian, which reprinted it on 2 December 1865, probably within a few days of its appearance in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. Under the heading “ ‘Mark Twain’ Overpowered” Bret Harte supplied a preface explaining that the Enterprise “having recently published one of those ‘affecting incidents,’ which are occasionally met with by ‘localitems,’ when there is a dearth of fires, runaways, etc.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 380] 141. Webb's Benefit
2 December 1865 This brief sketch was part of Clemens' third and last letter to the Napa County Reporter. It was written in San Francisco on 30 November 1865 and published two days later in Napa City.
Dion Boucicault's second Irish drama, the popular Arrah-na-Pogue, ran for almost two months at San Francisco's Metropolitan Theatre during the fall of 1865.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 385] 142. A Rich Epigram
8–10 December 1865 This verse about Thomas Maguire, San Francisco's leading theater manager and impresario for three decades, was probably written shortly after the event to which it refers, and therefore published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise sometime between 8 and 10 December 1865. The original printing is not extant. The verse survives in the San Francisco American Flag for 20 December 1865, which introduced it with these words: “ ‘Mark Twain’ has constructed the following extremely funny thing, at the expense of the enlightened and war-like ‘Napoleon of the Stage.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 388] 143. A Graceful Compliment
10–31 December 1865 This sketch was probably part of Clemens' regular San Francisco letter to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. An incomplete clipping of it survives in the Yale Scrapbook. The clipping bears an advertisement for the Bank of America on the back dated “de 10 tf,” meaning December 10 until further notice. This suggests that the letter was not published before December 10, but it could have been published on that day or anytime after in December 1865, or perhaps even a little later.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 393] 144. “Christian Spectator”
13–15 December 1865 This sketch is taken from Clemens' “San Francisco Letter” to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise written on 11 December 1865 and published two or three days later. A clipping of the entire letter is preserved in the Yale Scrapbook.
Although “Christian Spectator” is ostensibly a review of the “second number” of the Reverend O. P.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 396] 145. More Romance
13–15 December 1865 This sketch, like “Christian Spectator” (no. 144), is taken from Clemens' “San Francisco Letter” written on 11 December 1865 and published a few days later in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. Rather slight in its overall dimensions, the sketch affords an interesting insight into Clemens' deeply ingrained habit of creating a miniature narrative from the facts.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 399] 146. Grand Fete-Day at the Cliff House
19–21 December 1865 This sketch survives in the San Francisco Examiner for 23 December 1865, which reprinted it with this preface: “Interesting Display.— Mark Twain in a late letter to the Territorial Enterprise furnishes the following bill of festivities to be indulged in at the Cliff House on Christmas day.” The sketch must have appeared in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise sometime between December 19 and 21; the Enterprise printing has been lost.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 402] 147. Macdougall vs. Maguire
22–23 December 1865 This sketch is taken from Clemens' “San Francisco Letter” to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. It was written on 20 December 1865 and probably published two or three days later. A complete clipping of the letter is preserved in the Yale Scrapbook.
Clemens here returned to the subject, and the form, he had used two weeks earlier in “A Rich Epigram” (no.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 405] 148. The Christmas Fireside
23 December 1865 Although Bret Harte reprinted “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” in the Californian on 16 December 1865, and reprinted several items from the Enterprise on other days, “The Christmas Fireside” was the first of two original sketches by Clemens that Harte published on 23 December 1865. Clemens' story of the bad little boy Jim had been anticipated by “Advice for Good Little Boys” (no.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 411] 149. Enigma
23 December 1865 This was the second sketch by Clemens that Bret Harte published in the Californian on 23 December 1865. It was, as Clemens himself said, his “first effort in the enigma line,” but it was not his last. In the July 1870 Galaxy he published a second “Enigma” (no. 309), which, like this one, obviously had no answer.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 413] 150. Another Enterprise
26–27 December 1865 “Another Enterprise” is taken from Clemens' “San Francisco Letter” written on 23 December 1865 and published probably three or four days later in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. Clemens preserved a clipping of the entire letter in the Yale Scrapbook.
On the same day Clemens wrote his letter the San Francisco Morning Call praised Peter M.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 416] 151. Spirit of the Local Press
26–27 December 1865 Like the previous sketch, “Another Enterprise” (no. 150), this one is taken from Clemens' “San Francisco Letter” written on 23 December 1865 and published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise three or four days later.
Clemens' title deliberately echoes the standard heading used by the local papers for the column which recapitulated news from other cities, as in the Sacramento Bee's “Spirit of the San Francisco Press.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 419] 152. Convicts
31 December 1865 “Convicts” is the last known sketch that Clemens published in 1865. It was part of a “San Francisco Letter” written on December 28 and published three days later in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. It survives in a unique clipping from the Enterprise reproduced in photofacsimile by Richard E. Lingenfelter.1 On December 10 a group of five Comstock reporters sat for their collective portrait (reproduced below) at Sutterly Brothers in Virginia City, and then celebrated the occasion by making the rounds of the saloons and ordering a lavish dinner at the International Hotel.
MTPDocEd [begin page 425] APPENDIX A Attributed Items: San Francisco Morning Call June–September 1864 Show Headnote The following items appeared in the San Francisco Morning Call during Clemens' brief tenure as its local editor in mid-1864. The case for attributing them to Clemens is given in full by Edgar M. Branch in Clemens of the “Call.”1 The interested reader should consult that volume both for a fuller selection than the one given here, and for annotation of names and allusions in the local items.
MTPDocEd [begin page 481] APPENDIX B Attributed Items: San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle 26 October–19 December 1865
Show Headnote On 19 October 1865 Clemens told his brother Orion: “The Dramatic Chronicle pays me—or rather will begin to pay me, next week—$40 a month for dramatic criticisms. Same wages I got on the Call, & more agreeable & less laborious work.”1 The sketches collected in this appendix are not the dramatic criticisms he wrote in the last months of 1865, but a variety of brief notes and squibs that he wrote and published in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle while he was also providing dramatic criticism for that journal.
MTPDocEd [begin page 513] APPENDIX C Miscellaneous Fragments 1864–1865
Show Headnote Published here for the first time are two fragmentary holographs preserved in the Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, now at Vassar. Both fragments were written for publication, the first being part of a longer manuscript, apparently abandoned, and the second being a false start, a gambit that did not inspire completion. They were preserved by the author, who gave them to his sister, Pamela, for safekeeping.
MTPDocEd [begin page 569] Guide to the Textual Apparatus But that which is most difficult is not always most important, and to an editor nothing is a trifle by which his authour is obscured.
—Samuel Johnson, “Preface to Shakespeare”
An individual textual apparatus for each sketch provides everything needed to reconstruct the copy-text and Mark Twain's revisions (whenever any survives). Each apparatus usually, but not invariably, includes the elements described below.
MTPDocEd [begin page 576] X Figure 2. History of reprinting and revision. [begin page 577] Description of Texts The following list identifies and briefly characterizes textually significant editions, impressions, and issues of Mark Twain's early tales and sketches used in the preparation of the present collection. These include editions for which Mark Twain prepared the printer's copy, as well as editions that he did not so prepare but that form part of the chain of transmission.
[begin page 7] Parting Presentation Major Perry:—Permit me, sir, on the part of your countless friends, the noble sons of the forestan—the Diggers, the Pi-Utes, the Washoes, the Shoshones, and the numberless and nameless tribes of aborigines that roam the deserts of the Great Basin to the eastward of the snowy mountains further north—to present you this costly and beautiful cane, reared under their own eyes, and fashioned by their own inspired hands.
[begin page 10] “Mark Twain” in the Metropolis Toe a Christian who has toiled months and months in Washoe; whose hair bristles from a bed of sand, and whose soul is caked with a cement of alkali dust; whose nostrils know no perfume but the rank odor of sage-brush—and whose eyes know no landscape but barren mountains and desolate plains; where the winds blow, and the sun blisters, and the broken spirit of the contrite heartan finds joy and peace only in Limburgere cheese and lager beer— unto such a Christian, verily the Occidental Hotel is Heaven on the half shell.
[begin page 14] The Evidence in the Case of Smith vs. Jones reported by mark twain.te
I reported this trial simply for my own amusement, one idle day last week, and without expecting to publish any portion of it—but I have seen the facts in the case so distorted and misrepresented in the daily papers that I feel it my duty to come forward and do what I can to set the plaintiff and the defendant right before the public.
[begin page 24] Early Rising, As Regards Excursions to the Cliff House Early to bed, and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
—Benjamin Franklin.
I don't see it.e
—George Washington.
Now both of these are high authorities—very high and respectable authorities—but I am with General Washington first, last, and all the time on this proposition.
Because I don't see it, either.
I have tried getting up early, and I have tried getting up late— and the latter agrees with me best.
[begin page 32] Original Novelette The only drawbacke there is to the following original novelette, is, that it contains nothing but truth, and must, therefore, be void of interest for readers of sensational fiction. The gentleman who stated the case to us said there was a moral to it, but up to the present moment we have not been able to find it. There is nothing moral about it.
[begin page 36] What a Sky-Rocket Did Night before last, a stick six or seven feet long, attached to an exploded rocket of large size, came crashing down through the zinc roof of a tenement in Milton Place, Bush street, between Dupont and Kearny, passed through a cloth ceiling, and fetched up on the floor alongside of a gentleman's bed, with a smash like the disruption of a china shop.
[begin page 41] The New Chinese Temple To-day the Ning-Yong Company will finish furnishing and decorating the new Josh house, or place of worship, built by them in Broadway, between Dupont and Kearny streets, and to-morrow they will begin their unchristian devotions in it. The building is a handsome brick edifice, two stories high on Broadway, and three on the alley in the rear; both fronts are of pressed brick.
[begin page 44] The Chinese Temple The new Chinese Temple in Broadway—the “Ning Yong Wae Quong” of the Ning Yong Company, was dedicated to the mighty Josh night before last, with a general looseness in the way of beating of drums, clanging of gongs and burning of yellow paper, commensurate with the high importance of the occasion. In the presence of the great idol, the other day, our cultivated friend, Ah Wae, informed us that the old original Josh (of whom the image was only an imitation, a substitute vested with power to act for the absent God, and bless Chinamen or damn them, according to the best of his judgment,) lived in ancient times on the Mountain of Wong Chu, was seventeen feet high, and wielded a club that weighed two tons; that he died two thousand five hundred years ago, but that he is all right yet in the Celestial Kingdom, and can come on earth, or appear anywhere he pleases, at a moment's notice, and that he could come down here and cave our head in with his club if he wanted to.
[begin page 45] The New Chinese Temple Being duly provided with passes, through the courtesy of our cultivated barbaric friend, Ah Wae, outside business-agent of the Ning-Yong Company, we visited the new Chinese Temple again yesterday, in company with several friends. After suffocating in the smoke of burning punk and josh lights, and the infernal odors of opium and all kinds of edibles cooked in an unchristiane manner, until we were becoming imbued with Buddhism and beginning to lose our nationality, and imbibe, unasked, Chinese instincts, we finally found Ah Wae, who roused us from our lethargy and saved us to our religion and our country by merely breathing the old, touching words, so simple and yet so impressive, and withal so familiar to those whose blessed privilege it has been to be reared in the midst of a lofty and humanizing civilization: “How do, gentlemen—take a drink?
[begin page 47] Supernatural Impudence All that Mr. Stiggers, of the Alta, has to say about his monstrous conduct in the Ning-Yong Temple, day before yesterday, in drinking up all the liquors in the establishment, and breaking the heart of the wretched Chinaman in whose charge they were placed—a crushing exposure of which we conceived it our duty to publish yesterday—is the following: “We found a general festival, a sort of Celestial free and easy, going on, on arrival, and were waited on in the most polite manner by Ah Wee, whoe although a very younge man, is thoroughly well educated, very intelligent, and speaks English quite fluently.
[begin page 51] [Sarrozay Letter from “the Unreliable”] Eds. Golden Era:—Going down to San José last Sunday, to write a letter to the newspaper with which I am connected, I was taken somewhat sick, and the “Unreliable” being along, I ventured to entrust him with my work. I send you the result, for I have no use for it myself. This is the twentieth time I have been deceived by that well-meaning but unstable young man, and it shall be the last.
[begin page 55] Inexplicable News from San José We have before us a letter from an intelligent correspondent, dated “Sarrozay, (San José?) Last Sunday;” we had previously ordered this correspondent to drop us a line, in case anything unusual should happen in San José during the period of his sojourn there. Now that we have got his chatty letter, however, we prefer, for reasons of our own, to make extracts from it, instead of publishing it in full.
[begin page 58] How to Cure Him of It In a court in Minna street, between First and Second, they keep a puppy tied up which is insignificant as to size, but formidable as to yelp. We are unable to sleep after nine o'clock in the morning on account of it. Sometimes the subjecte of these remarks begins at three in the morning and yowls straight ahead for a week.
[begin page 60] Due Warning Some one carried away a costly and beautiful hat from the Occidental Hotel, (where it was doing duty as security for a board bill,) some ten days ago, to the great and increasing unhappiness of its owner. Its return to the place from whence it was ravished, or to this office, will be a kindness which we shall be only too glad to reciprocate if we ever get a precisely similar opportunitye, and the victim shall insist upon it.
[begin page 64] The Mysterious Chinaman Once upon a morning dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious shirt that me and Steve has wore,*
While I was stretching, yawning, gaping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door—
“I guess it's Maim,” I muttered, “tapping at the chamber door—
At least it's she, if nothing more.
[begin page 68] A Notable Conundrum The Fair continues, just the same. It is a nice place to hunt for people in. I have hunted for a friend there for as much as two hours of an evening, and at the end of that time found the hunting just as good as it was when I commenced.
If the projectors of this noble Fair never receive a dollar or even a kindly word of thanks for the labor of their hands, the sweat of their brows and the wear and tear of brain it has cost them to plan their work and perfect it, a consciousness of the incalculable good they have conferred upon the community must still give them a placid satisfaction more precious than money or sounding compliments.
[begin page 74] Concerning the Answer to Thataltte Conundrum I went out, several days ago, to see the whale—I speak in the singular number, because there was only one whale on the beach at that time. The day was excessively warm, and my comrade was an invalid: consequently we travelled slowly, and conversed about distressing diseases and such other matters as I thought would be likely to interest a sick man and make him feel cheerful.
[begin page 81] Still Further Concerning That Conundrum In accordance with your desire, I went to the Academy of Music on Monday evening, to take notes and prepare myself to write a careful critique upon the opera of the Crown Diamondsan. That you considered me able to acquit myself creditably in this exalted sphere of literary labor, was gratifying to me, and I should even have felt flattered by it had I not known that I was so competent to perform the task well, that to set it for me could not be regarded as a flattering concession, but, on the contrary, only a just and deserved recognition of merit.
[begin page 88] Whereashc Love's Bakeryan! I am satisfied I have found the place now that I have been looking for all this time. I cannot describe to you the sensation of mingled astonishment, gladness, hope, doubt, anxiety, and balmy, blissful emotion that suffused my being and quivered in a succession of streaky thrills down my backbone, as I stood on the corner of Third and Minna streets, last Tuesday, and stared, spell-bound, at those extraordinary words, painted in large, plain letters on a neighboring window-curtain—“Love's Bakery.
[begin page 95] A Touching Story of George Washington's Boyhood If it please your neighbor to break the sacred calm of night with the snorting of an unholy trombone, it is your duty to put up with his wretched music and your privilege to pity him for the unhappy instinct that moves him to delight in such discordant sounds. I did not always think thus; this consideration for musical amateurs was born of certain disagreeable personal experiences that once followed the development of a like instinct in myself.
[begin page 101] Daniel in the Lion's Den—and Out Again All Right Some people are not particular about what sort of company they keep. I am one of that kind. Now for several days I have been visiting the Board of Brokers, and associating with brokers, and drinking with them, and swapping lies with them, and being as familiar and sociable with them as I would with the most respectable people in the world.
[begin page 110] The Killing of Julius Cæsar “Localized” being the only true and reliable account ever published, and takenhc from the roman “daily evening fasces,” of the date of that tremendous occurrence.e
Nothing in the world affords a newspaper reporter so much satisfaction as gathering up the details of a bloody and mysterious murder, and writing them up with aggravatedhc circumstantiality. He takes a living delight in this labor of love—for such it is to him—especially if he knows that all the other papers have gone to press and his will be the only one that will contain the dreadful intelligence.
[begin page 118] A Full and Reliable Account of the Extraordinary Meteoric Shower of Last Saturday Night I found the following paragraph in the morning papers of the 11th inst.:
Virginia, November 10.—Astronomers anticipate a recurrence this year of the November meteoric shower of 1833. The mornings from the 11th to the 15th, are all likely to show an unusual number of meteors, especially fromhce the 12th to the 14th.
[begin page 128] Lucretia Smith's Soldier [Note from the Author.—Mr. Editor:hc I am an ardent admirer of those nice, sickly war stories in Harper's Weeklyhc, and for the last three months I have been at work upon one of that character, which I now forward to you for publicationhc. It can be relied upon as true in every particular, inasmuch as the facts it contains were compiled from the official records in the War Department athc Washington.
[begin page 137] An Unbiased Criticismhc the california art union — its moral effects upon the youth of both sexes carefully considered and candidly commented upon.
The Editor of The Californianan ordered me to go to the rooms of the California Art Union and write an elaborate criticism upon the pictures upon exhibition there, and I beg leave to report that the result is hereunto appended, together with bill for same.
[begin page 149] Important Correspondence between mr. mark twain of san francisco, and rev. bishop hawksan, d. d., of new york, rev. phillips brooks of philadelphia, and rev. dr. cumminsteane of chicago, concerning the occupancy of grace cathedral.
For a long time I have taken a deep interest in the efforts being made to induce the above-named distinguished clergymen—or, rather, some one of them—to come out here and occupy the pulpit of the noble edifice known as Grace Cathedral.
[begin page 159] Further of Mr. Mark Twain's Important Correspondence I promised, last week, that I would publish in the present number of The Californian the correspondence held between myself and Rev. Phillips Brooks of Philadelphia, and Rev. Dr. Cumminse of Chicago, but I must now beg you to release me from that promise. I have just received telegrams from these distinguished clergymen suggesting the impolicy of printing their letters; the suggestion is accompanied by arguments so able, so pointed and so conclusive that, although I saw no impropriety in it before, I am forced now to concede that it would be very impolitic to publish their letters.
[begin page 165] How I Went to the Great Race between Lodi and Norfolk There can be no use in my writing any account whatever of the great race, because that matter has already been attended to in the daily papers. Therefore, I will simply describe to you how I went to the race. But before I begin, I would like to tell you about Homestead—Benj. W.
[begin page 172] A Voice for Setchell My voice is for Setchell. What with a long season of sensational, snuffling dramatic bosh, and tragedy bosh, and electioneering bosh, and a painful depression in stocks that was anything but bosh, the people were settling down into a fatal melancholy, and growing prematurely old—succumbing to imaginary miseries and learning to wear the habit of unhappiness like a garment— when Captain Cuttle Setchell appeared in the midst of the gloom, and broke the deadly charm with a wave of his enchanted hook and the spell of his talismanic words, “Awahst!
[begin page 177] Answers to Correspondentsalt Discarded Lover.e—“I loved and still love, the beautiful Edwitha Howard, and intended to marry her. Yet during my temporary absence at Benicia, last week, alas! she married Jones. Is my happiness to be thus blasted for life? Have I no redress?”
Of course you have. All the law, written and unwritten, is on your side. The intention and not the act constitutes crime—in other words, constitutes the deed.
[begin page 182] Answers to Correspondents Amateur Serenader.—Yes, I will give you some advice, and do it with a good deal of pleasure. I live in a neighborhood which is well stocked with young ladies, and consequently I am excruciatingly sensitive upon the subject of serenading. Sometimes I suffer. In the first place, always tune your instruments before you get within three hundred yards of your destination—this will enable you to take your adored unawares, and create a pleasant surprise by launching out at once upon your music; it astonishes the dogs and cats out of their presence of mind, too, so that if you hurry you can get through before they have a chance to recover and interrupt you; besides, there is nothing captivating in the sounds produced in tuning a lot of melancholy guitars and fiddles, and neither does a group of able-bodied, sentimental young men so engaged look at all dignified.
[begin page 189] Answers to Correspondents Moral Statistician.—I don't want any of your statistics. I took your whole batch and lit my pipe with it. I hate your kind of people. You are always ciphering out how much a man's health is injured,e and how much his intellect is impaired, and how many pitiful dollars and cents he wastes in the course of ninety-two years' indulgence in the fatal practice of smoking; and in the equally fatal practice of drinking coffee; and in playing billiards occasionally; and in taking a glass of wine at dinner, etc.
[begin page 200] Answers to Correspondents True Son of the Union.e—Very well, I will publish the following extract from one of the dailies, since you seem to consider it necessary to your happiness, and since your trembling soul has found in it evidence of lukewarm loyalty on the part of the Collector—but candidly, now, don't you think you are in rather small business? I do, anyhow, though I do not wish to flatter you:
[begin page 211] Answers to Correspondents Young Actor.—This gentleman writes as follows: “I am desperate. Will you tell me how I can possibly please the newspaper critics? I have labored conscientiously to achieve this, ever since I made my début upon the stage, and I have never yet entirely succeeded in a single instance. Listen: The first night I played after I came among you, I judged by the hearty applause that was frequently showered upon me, that I had made a ‘hit’—that my audience were satisfied with me—and I was happy accordingly.
[begin page 221] Answers to Correspondents Inquirer, Sacramento.—At your request I have been down and walked under and around and about the grand, gaudy and peculiar
independence arch
which rears its awful form at the conjunction of Montgomery and California streets, and have taken such notes as may enable me to describe it to you and tell you what I think of it. N. B. I am writing this on Monday, the day preceding the Glorious Fourth.
[begin page 235] Enthusiastic Eloquence I havee modified my musical creed a little since I have enjoyed the opportunity of comparing Tommy Bree, the banjoist of the Olympican, with Gottschalk. I like Gottschalk well enough. He probably gets as much out of the piano as there is in it. But the frozen fact is, that all that he does get out of it is “tum, tum.”e He gets “tum, tum,”e out of the instrumente thicker and faster than my landlady's daughter, Mary Ann; but, after all, it simply amounts to “tum, tum.
[begin page 238] Just “One More Unfortunate” Immoralitye is not decreasing in San Francisco. I saw a girl in the city prisonan last night who looked as much out of place there as I did myself—epossibly more so. She was petite and diffident, and only sixteen years and one month old. To judge by her looks, one would say she was as sinless as a child. But such was not the case.
[begin page 242] Advice for good Little Boys You ought never to take anything that don't belong to you—if you can not carry it off.
If you unthinkingly set up a tack in another boy'se seat, you ought never to laugh when he sits down on it—unlesse you can'te “hold in.”
Good little boys must never tell lies when the truth will answer just as well. In fact, real good little boys will never tell lies at all—not ate all—except in case of the most urgent necessity.
[begin page 244] Advice for good Little girls Good little girls ought not to make mouths at their teachers for every trifling offense. This kind of retaliation should only be resorted to under peculiarly aggravatinghc circumstances.
If you have nothing but a rag doll stuffed with saw-dust, while one of your more fortunate little playmates has a costly china one, you should treat her with a show of kindness, nevertheless.
[begin page 248] Mark Twain on the Colored Man Ande at the fag-end of the processione was a long double file of the proudest, happiest scoundrels I saw yesterday—niggers. Or perhaps I should say “them damned niggers,” which is the other name they go by now. They did all it was in their power to do, poor devils, to modify the prominence of the contrast between black and white faces which seems so hateful to their white fellow-creatures, by putting their lightest colored darkies in the front rank, then glooming down by some unaggravating and nicely graduated shades of darkness to the fell and dismal blackness of undefiled and unalloyed niggerdom in the remote extremity of the procession.
[begin page 254] The Factshc concerning the recent trouble between mr. marke twain and mr. john william skae, of virginia city—wherein it is attempted to be proved that the former was not to blame in the matter.
Mysterious.—hcOur esteemed friend, Mr. John William Skaehc, of Virginia City, walked into our officehc at a late hour last night with an expression of profound andhc heartfelt suffering upon his countenance, and sighing heavily, laid the following item reverently upon the desk and walked slowly out again.
[begin page 273] The Only Reliable Account of the Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County together with some reference to thealt decaying city of boomerangan, and a few general remarks concerning mr. simon wheeler,alt a resident of the said city in the day of its grandeur.
Mr. A. Ward—Dear Sir:
In accordance with your request I herewith furnish you with a report of the present condition and appearance of the once flourishing mining town of Boomerang, to supply a vacancy which must necessarily occur in the history of your travels in consequence of your having neglected to travel in that direction.
[begin page 279] Angel's Camp Constable I was told that if I would mention any of the venerable Simon Wheeler's pet heroes casually, he would be sure to tell me all about them, but that I must notalt laughalt during the recital, as he would think I was making fun of them, and it would give him mortal offense. I was fortifiedalt with the names of some of these admired personages.
[begin page 282] Jim Smiley and His Jumping Froghc Mr. A. Ward,
Dear Sir:—Wellhc, I called on good-natured, garruloushc old Simon Wheeler, and Ihc inquired after your friendhc Leonidas W. Smileyhc, as you requested mehc to do, and I hereunto append the result. If you can get any information out of it you are cordially welcome to it.hc I have a lurkinghc suspicion that your Leonidas W.
[begin page 291] The Cruel Earthquake singular effects of the shock on the rev. mr. stebbins.
Now the Rev. Mr. Stebbins acted like a sensible man—a man with his presence of mind about him—he did precisely what I thought of doing myself at the time of the earthquake, but had no opportunity—he came down out of his pulpit and embraced a woman. Some say it was his wife.
[begin page 296] Popper Defieth Ye Earthquake Where's Ajax now, with his boasted defiance of the lightning? Who is Ajax to Popper, and what is lightning to an earthquake? It is taking no chances to speak of to defy the lightning, for it might pelt away at you for a year and miss you every time—but I don't care what corner you hide in, if the earthquake comes it will shake you; and if you will build your house weak enough to give it a fair show, it will melt it down like butter.
[begin page 298] Earthquake Almanachc Eds. Chronicle:—hcAt the instance of several friends who feel a boding anxiety to know beforehand what sort of phenomena we may expect the elements to exhibit during the next month or two, and who have lost all confidence in the various patent medicine almanacs, because of the unaccountable reticence of those works concerning the extraordinary event of the 8th inst., I have compiled the following almanac expressly for this latitudehc:
[begin page 303] The Great Earthquake in San Francisco San Francisco, Oct. 8, 1865.
Editors Review.
Long before this reaches your city, the telegraph will have mentioned to you, casually, that San Francisco was visited by an earthquakee to-day, and the daily prints will have conveyed the news to their readers with the same air of indifference with which it was clothed by the unimpassioned lightning, and five minutes afterward the world will have forgotten the circumstance, under the impression that just such earthquakese are every-day occurrences here, and therefore not worth remembering.
[begin page 313] Bob Roach's Plan for Circumventing a Democrat Where did all these Democrats come from? They grow thicker and thicker and act more and more outrageously at each successive election. Now yesterday they had the presumption to elect S. H. Dwinellean to the Judgeship of the Fifteenth District Court, and not content with this, they were depraved enough to elect four out of the six Justices of the Peace!
[begin page 317] [San Francisco Letter] a love of a bonnet described.
Well, you ought to see the new style of bonnets, and then die. You see, everybody has discarded ringlets and bunches of curls, and taken to the clod of compact hair on the “after-guard,” which they call a “waterfall,” though why they name it so I cannot make out, for it looks no more like one's general notion of a waterfall than a cabbage looks like a cataract.
[begin page 322] Steamer Departures I feel savage this morning. And as usual, when one wants to growl, it is almost impossible to find things to growl about with any degree of satisfaction. I cannot find anything in the steamer departures to get mad at. Only, I wonder who “J. Schmeltzer” is?—and what does he have such an atrocious name for?—and what business has he got in the States?
[begin page 325] Exit “Bummer” Thee old vagrant “Bummer”e is really dead at last; and although he was always more respected than his obsequious vassal, the dog “Lazarus”e, his exit has not made half as much stir in the newspaper world as signalised the departure of the latter. I think it is because he died a natural death: died with friends around him to smooth his pillow and wipe the death-damps from his brow, and receive his last words of love and resignation; because he died full of years, and honor, and disease, and fleas.
[begin page 327] Pleasure Excursione Wee lunched, then, and shortly began to drink champagne—by the basket. I saw the tremendous guns frowning from the fort; I saw San Francisco spread out over the sand-hillse like a picture; I saw the huge fortress at Black Pointan looming hazily in the distance; I saw tall ships sweeping in from the sea through the Golden Gate;eIe saw that it was time to take another drink, and after that I saw no more.
[begin page 331] Editorial “Puffing” Lete “John Wychecombe Smith, Esq., one of our pioneer merchants, and one among our wealthiest and most respected citizens,”e leave in the steamer “to revisit the home of his nativity,”eand one of these papers will give you half a column of sorrow and distress about it, and wind up with the eternal “but we are happy to say that not many months will elapse ere he will be with us again”e—and forget to mention that a distinguished and war-bronzed Major-Generalan went in the same steamer with the wealthy and successful Smith.
[begin page 334] The Old Thing As usual, the Alta reporter fastens the mysterious What Cheer robbery on the same horrible person who knocked young Meyersean in the head with a slung-shot a year ago and robbed his father's pawnbroker shop of some brass jewelry and crippled revolvers, in broad daylight; and he laid that exploit on the horrible wretch who robbed the Mayor's Clerk, who half-murdered detective officer Rose in a lonely spot below Santa Claraan; and he proved that this same monster killed the lone woman in a secluded house up a dark alley with a carpenter's chisel, months before; and he demonstrated by inspired argument that the same villain who chiselled the woman tomahawked a couple of defenceless women in the most mysterious manner up another dark alleyan a few months before that.
[begin page 337] San Francisco Letter San Francisco, Dec. 22.
editorial poem.
The following fine Christmas poem appears in the Altaan of this morning, in the unostentatious garb of an editorial. This manner of “setting it” robs it of half its beauty. I will arrange it as blank verse, and then it will read much more charmingly:
“christmas comes but once a year.”
“The Holidays are approaching.
[begin page 345] Fitz Smythe's Horsee Yesterday, as I was coming along through a back alley, I glanced over a fence, and there was Fitz Smythe's horse. I can easily understand, now, why that horse always lookse so dejected ande indifferent to the things of this world. They feed him on old newspapers. I had often seen Smythe carrying “dead loads” of old exchangese up town, but I never suspected that they were to be put to such a use as this.
[begin page 348] Closed Out The fine restaurant between Clay and Commercial, on Montgomery street, has been sold at auction. It was fitted up three months ago at a cost of thirty-six hundred dollars, and brought only fourteen hundred yesterday under the hammer. At first it did a prosperous business—made money fast. Everybody was glad of it, for the proprietor was an estimable man, and was struggling to gather together by honest industry a small independence, so that he might go back to the Fatherland of his daily dreams, and clasp once more to his breast the wife who has waited and watched for him through weary years, kiss once more his little ones, and hear their innocent prattle, and their childish glee, and the music of their restless little feet.
[begin page 350] Take the Stand, Fitz Smythe Fitz Smythe (“Amigo,” of the Gold Hill Newsan) is the champion of the police, and is always in a sweat because I find fault with them. Now I don't find fault with them often, and when I do I sometimes do it honestly; even Fitz Smythe will not have cheek to say he expresses his honest opinions when he invariably and eternally slobbers them over with his slimy praise and can never find them otherwise than pure and sinless in every case.
[begin page 355] Remarkable Dream I dreamed last night that I was sitting in my room smoking my pipe and looking into the dying embers on the hearth, conjuring up old faces in their changing shapes, and listening to old voices in the moaning winds outside, when there was a knock at the door and a man entered—bowed—walked deliberately forward and sat down opposite me. He was dressed in a queer old garb of I don't know how many centuries ago.
[begin page 361] “Mark Twain” on the Launch of the Steamer “Capital”hc I get Mr. Muff Nickersonan to go with Me and Assiste in Reporting the Great Steamboat Launch. He Relates the Interesting History of the Travelling Panoramist.
I was just starting off to see the launch of the great steamboat Capital, on Saturday week, when I came across Mulph, Mulff, Muff, Mumph, Murph, Mumf, Murf, Mumford, Mulford, Murphy Nickerson—(he is well known to the public by all these names, and I cannot say which is the right one)—bound on the same errand.
[begin page 369] The Pioneers' Ballehc It was estimated that four hundred persons were present at the ball. The gentlemen wore the orthodox costume for such occasions, and the ladies were dressed the best they knew how. N. B.—Most of these ladies were pretty, and some of them absolutely beautiful. Four out of every five ladies present were pretty. The ratio at the Colfax partyan was two out of every five.
[begin page 372] The Guard on a Bender At 2 o'clock yesterday morning, a corporal and five men belonging to the Provost Guardan started up from headquarters to relieve the sentries in front of the mintan. They were as drunk as lords when they started, and the further they went the drunkere they got. Theye brought up at the “Blue Wing” saloonan in the course of their wanderings, and took a drink or so and set out to complete their mission.
[begin page 375] Benkert Cometh! The papers announce that Geo. F. Benkert, an eminent pianist of Philadelphia, is on his way out here to give us some concerts. Now, don't you know that fellow will be mighty popular in California? Certainly he will. That is, if he is the same man who makes the boots. The boys all like those Benkert boots, and they will patronize their manufacturer's concerts liberally.
[begin page 378] Uncle Lige I will now relate an affecting incident of my meeting with Uncle Lige, as a companion novelette to the one published by Dan the other day, entitled “Uncle Henry.”
A day or two since—before the late stormy weather—I was taking a quiet stroll in the western suburbs of the city. The day was sunny and pleasant. In front of a small but neat “bit housean,” seated upon a bank—a worn out and discarded faro bankan—I saw a man and a little girl.
[begin page 383] Webb's Benefit The Academy of Music was well filled on Monday night, the occasion being the benefit of C. H. Webb, author of the new burlesque, “Arrah-no-Pokee.” I believe no play written on the Coast has paid the author as much coin as Mr. Webb has made out of this. During the interval between the pieces, Mr. Setchell read a humorous letter from Webb, which was received with hearty laughter, and then followed it up with a speech which was kindly received, until the orator ventured to branch out into a fine flight of eloquence; the audience would not stand that.
[begin page 387] A Rich Epigram Tom Maguire,
Torn withhc ire,
Lighted on Macdougalle,
Grabbed his throathc,
Tore his coathc,
And split him in the bugle.
Shame! Oh, fiehc!
Maguire, why
Willhc you thus skyugle?
Why bang and clawhc,
And gouge and chawhc
The unpreparedhc Macdougalle?
Of bones bereft,
See how you've lefthc,
Vestvalie, gentle Jew gal—
And now you've slashedhc,
And almost hashed,
The form of poor Macdougalle.
[begin page 390] A Graceful Compliment One would hardly expect to receive a neat, voluntary compliment from so grave an institution as the United States Revenue Office, but such has been my good fortune. I have not been so agreeably surprised in many a day. The Revenue officers, in a communication addressed to me, fondle the flattering fiction that I am a man of means, and have got “goods, chattels and effects” —and even “real estate!
[begin page 394] “Christian Spectator” Rev. O. P. Fitzgerald, of the Minna street Methodist Church South, is fairly under way, now, with his new Christian Spectator. The second number is before me. I believe I can venture to recommend it to the people of Nevada, of both Northern and Southern proclivities. It is not jammed full of incendiary religious matter about hell-fire, and brimstone, and wicked young men knocked endways by a streak of lightning while in the act of going fishing on Sunday.
[begin page 397] More Romance The pretty waiter girls are always getting people into trouble. But I beg pardon—I should say “ladies,” not “girls.” I learned this lesson “in the days when I went gypsying,” which was a long time agoan. I said to one of these self-important hags, “Mary, or Julia, or whatever your name may be, who is that old slab singing at the piano—the girl with the ‘bile’ on her nose?
[begin page 400] Grand Fete-Day at the Cliff House performance to commence precisely at high noon.
The following celebrated artistes have been engaged at a ruinous expense, and will perform the following truly marvelous feats:
Pete Hopkins, the renowned Spectre of the Mountains, will walk a tight rope—the artist himself being tighter than the rope at the time—from the Cliff House to Seal Rock, and will ride back on the Seal known as Ben Butler, or the Seal will ride back on him, as circumstances shall determine.
[begin page 403] Macdougall vs. Maguire The talk occasioned by Maguire's unseemly castigation of Macdougall, while the latter was engaged in conversation with a lady, was dying out, happily for both parties, but Mr. Macdougall has set it going again by bringing that suit of his for $5,000 for the assault and battery. If he can get the money, I suppose that is at least the most profitable method of settling the matter.
[begin page 407] The Christmas Fireside for good little boys and girls.
By Grandfather Twain.
the story of the bad little boy that bore a charmed life.hc
Once there was a bad little boy, whose name was Jim—though, if you will notice, you will find that bad little boys are nearly always called James in your Sunday-school books. It was very strange, but still it was true, that this one was calledhc Jim.
[begin page 412] Enigma I am composed of sixteen or seventeen letters.
My 16, 14, 3, 4, 6, 9, 15, is something or other, in a general way.
My 2, 11, 7, 14, is something else.
My 9, 6, 4, 10, 15, 11, is the other thing.
My 6, 16, 8, 14, 9, 3, 2, 1, 11, is most anything.
My 5, 3, 9, 14, 7, 3, 1, 11, 5, 6, 16, 2, 13, is most anything else.
[begin page 414] Another Enterprise A Mr. P. M. Scoofye, of this city, has been raising oysters for two years past, on the Mexican coast, and his first harvest—eight tons—arrived yesterday on the John L. Stephensan. They arrived in admirable condition—finer and fatter than they were when they started; for oysters enjoy traveling, and thrive on it; and they learn a good deal more on a flying trip than George Marshall did, and nearly as much as some other Washoe European tourists I could mention, but they are dignified and do not gabble about it so much.
[begin page 417] Spirit of the Local Press San Francisco is a city of startling events. Happy is the man whose destiny it is to gather them up and record them in a daily newspaper! That sense of conferring benefit, profit and innocent pleasure upon one's fellow-creatures which is so cheering, so calmly blissful to the plodding pilgrim here below, is his, every day in the year.
[begin page 421] Convicts Some one (I do not know who,) left me a card photograph, yesterday, which I do not know just what to do with. It has the names of Dan De Quille, W. M. Gillespie, Alf. Doten, Robert Lowery and Charles A. Parker on it, and appears to be a pictured group of notorious convicts, or something of that kind. I only judge by the countenances, for I am not acquainted with these people, and do not usually associate with such characters.
MTPO Doc Ed electronic title page
Note on the Electronic Text (2023)
Abbreviations & Works Cited
Introduction
Section 3: California, Part 1 (1864–1865)
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Explanatory Notes
Guide to the Textual Apparatus
Description of Texts
Alterations in the Manuscript
Section 3
California, Part 1
1864–1865 Section 3: California, Part 1 (1864–1865) Section 3:
California, Part 1 (1864–1865) 76. Parting Presentation [begin page 5] 76.
MTPDocEd [begin page 445] APPENDIX A
To the Editor of the American Hebrew Show Headnote For its 1890 Passover issue, The American Hebrew, a New York journal, solicited opinions from prominent Christian clergymen and intellectuals on the reasons and remedies for anti-Semitism. They were asked to consider the following four questions:
I. Can you, of your own personal experience find any justification whatever for the entertainment of prejudice towards individuals solely because they are Jews?
MTPDocEd [begin page 449] APPENDIX B
Adam Monument Proposal—Documents 1. Petition to the Honorable Senate and House Show Headnote The petition is written in ornate calligraphy on two sheets of legal paper and is attached with brads to a legal-style folder, on which is written “Petition of F. G. Hall and others of Elmira N.Y. relating to the proposed monument to Adam.” Since the petition is not in Mark Twain's hand, errors in spelling and punctuation have been silently corrected.
MTPDocEd [begin page 453] Appendix C: Mark Twain's Working Notes Show Headnote Mark Twain's notes are often chaotic or obscure, yet they provide glimpses of his imagination at work, of the germ of his finished work and of the ideas and insights which proved unmanageable and were discarded. Because their relationship to one another and to the finished work is so frequently a matter of interpretation, these notes have been presented with as little editorial mediation as the rendering of handwriting into type permits.
MTPDocEd [begin page 475] Textual Introduction Perhaps no major American author has left so large and varied an archive of literary remains as Mark Twain. If he seems at times to have thrown nothing away, his preservation of so much unachieved writing stems as much from his method of composition as from his well-known inability to distinguish his good work from his bad. It was his habit to compose several works at the same time; to pigeonhole projects when his interest or invention waned, then resurrect them when it was rekindled; and to extract passages from one work and introduce them in another.
MTPDocEd MARK TWAIN'S
FABLES OF MAN Edited with an Introduction by John S. Tuckey
Text Established by Kenneth M. Sanderson
and Bernard L. Stein
Series Editor Frederick Anderson
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley, Los Angeles, London
1972, 2020
Abbreviations The following abbreviations have been used for citations in the notes in this volume. Unless otherwise indicated, all manuscripts are in the Mark Twain Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] Introduction This collection offers Mark Twain's outspoken pieces on such large topics as God, providence, Christianity, and human nature, gathered from the unpublished writings in the Mark Twain Papers. Although Albert Bigelow Paine and Bernard DeVoto printed some of the works included here and various scholars have quoted excerpts in support of their arguments, none of these texts has ever appeared in an authoritative printing, and few are currently accessible.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 33] Little Bessie (1908–1909)
Mark Twain did not clearly designate the order that he intended for these six brief chapters. The present order has been chosen as that which seems to provide the most logical literary progression. “Little Bessie Would Assist Providence” has been chosen as Chapter 1 because it characterizes Bessie and her blasphemous mentor, Mr. Hollister, more fully than do the other chapters, which assume that these persons are already known to the reader.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 45] Little Nelly Tells a Story Out of Her Own Head (1907)
This title appears on the typescript and may have been supplied by Mark Twain; there is no title on the manuscript. In this sketch, headed “Dictated 1907,” Clemens recalls a performance by a group of children of “a brief little drama of ‘The Prince and Pauper’ ” as an event of “Twenty-two-or-three years ago, in Cleveland.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 50] The Second Advent (1881)
On the title page of the manuscript, A. B. Paine called this a “semi burlesque of a new Christ, born in Arkansas” and added, “Hardly usable.” Probably it was again Paine who wrote at some time, “Impossible of use”—a note that was later erased. The objectionable feature was the satire leveled at conventional pieties, including belief in the Virgin Birth and in special providences.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 69] The Holy Children (1870s–1881?)
“The holy children” satirizes the conventional Christian view of the benefits conferred upon humanity by special providences. The story was probably written during the late 1870s but certainly not later than 1881, when Mark Twain appropriated the last two-thirds of the manuscript for “The Second Advent” (as indicated in the textual commentary). That part has been restored to its original form here, eliminating the revisions made for its addition to “The Second Advent.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 78] The International Lightning Trust A Kind of a Love Story (1909)
“The International Lightning Trust,” dated by Paine as 1909,1 was intended by Mark Twain for immediate publication. The first page of his typescript bears at the top a note directing it “To Mr. Duneka” of Harper & Brothers. Paine's explanatory note on the back of the last page, “Recalled from Harpers as not usable,” is elaborated by his editorial comment on a carbon copy of the typescript: “Sent to Harpers but recalled when M.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 105] Colloquy Between a Slum Child and a Moral Mentor (Late 1860s or late 1880s)
Mark Twain did not give this piece a title. “Colloquy Between a Slum Child and a Moral Mentor,” a rather formal title apparently supplied by Dixon Wecter when he was Editor of the Mark Twain Papers, has been retained, since it seems in accord with the pompous gravity of the mentor's religious instruction.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 110] Thoughts of God (Early 1900s)
For Clemens the fly was a symbol of divine malevolence. In his 1903 notebook he wrote:
The morals of a God ought to be minutely perfect. I would not worship a God that made the fly.1 If God invented the fly, that is enough. It gives us the measure of His character. If a man had invented the fly, we should curse his name forever.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 116] The Emperor-God Satire (1870s)
In this satiric fable the Emperor-God displays toward the Unyumians the qualities Clemens had in the 1870s associated with the “God of the Bible.” At the same time, this deity also exhibits toward other peoples some of the attributes of the real God, as Clemens had envisioned him:
Its the Bible's God was strictly proportioned to its dimensions.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 121] The Ten Commandments (1905 or 1906)
In his Autobiographical Dictation of 25 June 1906 Clemens said:
Man is not to blame for what he is. He didn't make himself. He has no control over himself. All the control is vested in his temperament—which he did not create—and in the circumstances which hedge him round, from the cradle to the grave, and which he did not devise and cannot change .
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 124] The Private Secretary's Diary (June 1907)
The charge that the punishments inflicted by God through nature were likely to be incredibly cruel and severe was often made by Clemens in his later writings, perhaps most pointedly in his Autobiographical Dictation of 23 June 1906:
The ten-thousandfold law of punishment is rigorously enforced against every creature, man included. The debt, whether made innocently or guiltily, is promptly collected by Nature—and in this world, without waiting for the ten-billionfold additional penalty appointed—in the case of man—for collection in the next.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 129] In My Bitterness (Summer 1897)
The death of his daughter Olivia Susan—Susy—of meningitis on 18 August 1896 was felt by Clemens as an “unspeakable disaster.”1 Susy had died in the Hartford home before Clemens could return from Europe, where he had just concluded his global lecture tour of 1895/1896. “To me our loss is bitter, bitter, bitter,” he wrote to W.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 133] The Victims (Early 1900s)
Paine's title is apt: at all levels of being, creatures are seen preying upon their inferiors—and in their turn being so served by their superiors. Predation is represented to be the universal condition of life. Mark Twain expressed the same view in “Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes,” in which even the microbes are found to be victims of submicroscopic germs.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 141] The Synod of PraiseⒶalteration in the MS (Early 1900s)
This piece is more nearly a set of working notes than a finished composition. The idea that God was not moral was to be proved by his persecutions of the creatures he had made to suffer without any hope of future reward: “Brutes. They cannot enter heaven. Their sufferings are merely to punish their present sins and discipline them.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 144] The Lost Ear-ring (June 1878)
This rather charming, ironic sketch can hardly be called a satire, but it nevertheless arrives at the point also made in the more overtly satirical “About Asa Hoover”—the Almighty is not blamed when things go wrong (“We are born to suffer—God's will be done!”) but receives much gratuitous credit for favors he has not dispensed. The tale begins with the date 6 June 1878, and the verso of manuscript page 13 bears the heading “Schloss Hotel Heidelberg, June 5.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 149] Goose Fable (1899–1900)
In writing of the foolish trust of the geese in their “gods,” the human race, Mark Twain evidently meant to suggest that man also was too trusting toward his own gods. He made the same point more directly in his Autobiographical Dictation of 25 June 1906: “It is to these celestial bandits that the naïve and confiding and illogical human rabbit looks for a Heaven of eternal bliss, which is to be his reward for patiently enduring the want and sufferings inflicted upon him here below.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 152] About Asa Hoover (1908 or 1909)
The Old Walters who recalls the “village scoundrel,” Hoover, may possibly have been William Thompson Walters (1820–1894), a railroad executive, an art collector, and a breeder of fine horses whom Clemens had known in the 1880s.1 The handwriting on the manuscript and the paper, the same used in four chapters of “Little Bessie,” suggest that “About Asa Hoover” was not written until 1908 or 1909; however, Clemens could have been recalling an earlier visit with Walters.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 157] The Refuge of the Derelicts (1905–1906)
Mark twain began writing “The Refuge of the Derelicts” in March 1905, while he was living at 21 Fifth Avenue in New York City. The winter of that year had been for him a time of great social consciousness. In January and February he had produced “The Czar's Soliloquy” and “King Leopold's Soliloquy,” satirizing both the cynical exploitation practiced by monarchs and the cowardly self-abasement of their subjects.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote “You've Been a Dam Fool, Mary. You Always Was!” (December 1903)
In 1895 Clemens recorded in his notebook:
Man on the steamer abusing southern honesty. Told him about Mr. Hand, northerner who went to S. C. 2 or 3 years before the war; came north & couldn't return. Southerner went to another part of the south & speculated in cotton with the mutual money, $20,000.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 279] Newhouse's Jew Story (Late 1890s)
Clemens saw many gamblers during his Mississippi piloting years, from 1857 to 1861, and must also have heard many stories about them. This tale is offered as one he had “heard . . . first in 1860.” In Chapter 36 of Life on the Mississippi he wrote of an attempt of riverboat gamblers to cheat a wealthy cattleman.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 283] Randall's Jew Story (1890s)
The Jews had appealed to Clemens' imagination from the time that he had attended Dawson's school in Hannibal. He later recalled, “In that school were the first Jews I had ever seen. It took me a good while to get over the awe of it. To my fancy they were clothed invisibly in the damp and cobwebby mold of antiquity.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 290] Mock Marriage (Early 1900s)
The idea behind this unfinished, lightly satirical romance is one that is more somberly presented in some of the other selections in this volume: people cannot rely on an unavailing providence but must help themselves and each other. The practical Minna labels as “twaddle!” the pious notion that a “seeming calamity may be good fortune in disguise” and initiates action to avert disaster and ensure a happy result.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 302] Concerning “Martyrs' Day” (19 September 1902)
Clemens wrote to F. A. Duneka of Harper & Brothers on 19 September 1902, “To-day I have written a little short dab of sarcasm—‘Concerning Martyrs' Day’—and shall mail it when it is type-wrote. Tomorrow or next day I reckon.” He added a postscript: “It is for the Weekly.”1 It is interesting that Paine was able to note the year of composition correctly on the manuscript although he did not have this letter to consult.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 308] Abner L. Jackson (About to Be) Deceased (1880–1881)
This piece takes the form of a letter to “Rodney Dennis.” Geer's 1882 Hartford City Directory lists Rodney Dennis as the secretary of The Travelers Insurance Company—the company from which Jackson has bought his policy in this satiric obituary notice. The Reverend Abner Jackson, President of Trinity College in Hartford, was a member of the Monday Evening Club from 1869 until his death in 1874.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 315] The Secret History of Eddypus, the World-Empire (February—March 1901; February—March 1902)
“It is not worth while to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man's character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible,” Clemens observed in his Autobiographical Dictation of 15 January 1907. On that date he expressed a personal view of history that is essentially the same one he had fantasized five or six years earlier in “Eddypus.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 383] Eddypus Fragment (1901–1902)
Mark Twain probably intended to insert this untitled fragment in his “Eddypus” manuscript; however he failed to indicate where it should be placed, and the writing materials are so common that it cannot be determined whether the fragment was written during the composition of Book 1 or Book 2.
This brief section is interesting for its quotation of “one S.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 386] History 1,000 Years from Now (January 1901)
This “translation” (the title is Paine's) may well have been the germ of “Eddypus.” The second paragraph reads almost like a prospectus: the “flood of history” prompted by the end of a century is to be condensed into “a bare sketch,” “a mere synopsis.” The idea that the sketch is to be the work of some benighted scribe of a new Dark Age is implicit in the reference to the “destruction of historical records which occurred during the long and bloody struggle which released us from the cruel grip of democracy.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 389] Passage from “Glances at History” (suppressed.) Date, 9th century (Early 1900s)
This essay on the duty of righteous dissent is as timeless as it is plain-spoken. Mark Twain had in view, as the immediate target of his criticism, American military actions in the Philippines and the reactions of the American public to those events. The Lincoln of our literature—as Howells once called Clemens—speaks with the force and vision and high resolve of a true leader—but also recognizes that the “citizens of the Great Republic” could be stampeded into an unjust war and into treating men of honor and principle as traitors by “a silly phrase.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 394] Passage from “Outlines of History” (suppressed.) Date, 9th century (Early 1900s)
Like “Glances at History,” this essay is intended to be understood as a fragment of suppressed history. With “Glances at History,” it was published as part of the “Papers of the Adam Family”1 and was also apparently written between 1900 and 1905, probably between 1900 and 1902. Not a part of “Eddypus,” it offers an alternate fantasy of the collapse of the Great Republic and the rise of a form of monarchical tyranny.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 397] Passage from a Lecture (Early 1900s)
“Passage from a Lecture” asks, “Will this wonderful civilization of today perish?” and answers that it will. This essay is thematically related to “Eddypus” and also to the two other “passages” in this volume—those represented to be from two suppressed works. “Glances at History” looks at the Great Republic at a time of moral and political crisis; “Outlines of History” explains that “it was impossible to save the Great Republic” and records the establishing of a totalitarian regime; “Eddypus” more elaborately chronicles the flowering of the great civilization and the rise of the Great Republic and the subsequent decline into a religious despotism in a new Dark Age.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 403] The StupendousⒶalteration in the MS Procession (Early 1901)
Internal and external evidence suggests that “The Stupendous Procession” was probably written in January or February 1901, shortly after Mark Twain had, in 1900, written “A salutation-speech from the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth.”1 It was at the beginning of 1901 that Mark Twain also wrote “To the Person Sitting in Darkness,” which he published in the February North American Review.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 420] Flies and Russians (1904 or 1905)
Probably written between November 1904 and February 1905 while Clemens was following the events of the Russo-Japanese War with the hope that the czarist regime would be ended, “Flies and Russians” superimposes Mark Twain's philosophical viewpoint and fantasy upon contemporary history. The satire is not primarily directed at the Russian subjects who are seen as too foolish and too cowardly to achieve their independence; rather, it is aimed at nature and by implication at the Creator for having apparently made these people (and flies) for no good purpose.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 425] The Fable of the Yellow Terror (1904–1905)
In “The Mysterious Stranger” Mark Twain had written, “the pagan world will go to school to the Christian: not to acquire his religion, but his guns. The Turk and the Chinaman will buy those, to kill missionaries and converts with.”1 This fable offers a similar prophecy: the “Butterflies” (the Western powers) “have taught one tribe of Bees how to use its sting, it will teach its brother-tribe.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 430] The Recurrent Major and Minor Compliment (Early 1900s)
“What is the difference between an optimist of 50 & a fool? Do not know of any,”1 Clemens wrote in 1901. Here he maintains that “any sane man of fifty” must have had enough dreadful experiences to make him “by awful compulsion—at bottom serious.” Mark Twain's list of the sorrows and tragedies that are the common lot of all who have lived for half a century is a comprehensive one.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 434] Ancients in Modern Dress (1896–1897)
It is hardly surprising that the “ancient” whom Clemens is particularly interested in seeing in modern clothes is Adam, for no other figure appealed more strongly and persistently to his imagination—unless it was Satan. The Mark Twain whose eyes become moist as he looks at the portrait of Adam (modernized) recalls the Mark Twain who in The Innocents Abroad weeps before the tomb of Adam, lamenting, “Noble old man—he did not live to see me—he did not live to see his child.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 437] A Letter from the Comet (1880s)
In writing “A Letter from the Comet” Mark Twain at first made a false start. He began with the comet's disdainful comments on its supposed discoverer, after whom it had lately been named:
Sir: So it appears I am “the Brooks Comet.” Is it because one Brooks “discovered” me? I beg pardon; if any discovering has been done, the shoe is on the other foot: for I discovered Brooks; he1 was in his cradle at the time.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 440] Old Age (December 1905)
Shortly after 30 November 1905, his seventieth birthday, Clemens wrote this retrospective essay outlining the stages of his long climb from infancy to old age, a progression that he described more elaborately in the speech which he delivered at the anniversary dinner given in his honor.1 A part of the last paragraph of “Old Age,” in which the author addresses himself as the “belated fag-end of a foolish dream” of which there is “nothing left but You, centre of a snowy desolation,” echoes the conclusion that he had written in 1904 for “No.
MTPDocEd APPENDIX A: To the Editor of the American Hebrew For its 1890 Passover issue, The American Hebrew, a New York journal, solicited opinions from prominent Christian clergymen and intellectuals on the reasons and remedies for anti-Semitism. They were asked to consider the following four questions:
I. Can you, of your own personal experience find any justification whatever for the entertainment of prejudice towards individuals solely because they are Jews?
MTPDocEd APPENDIX B: Adam Monument Proposal—Documents
MTPDocEd APPENDIX C: Mark Twain's Working Notes Mark Twain's notes are often chaotic or obscure, yet they provide glimpses of his imagination at work, of the germ of his finished work and of the ideas and insights which proved unmanageable and were discarded. Because their relationship to one another and to the finished work is so frequently a matter of interpretation, these notes have been presented with as little editorial mediation as the rendering of handwriting into type permits.
MTPDocEd Textual Introduction Perhaps no major American author has left so large and varied an archive of literary remains as Mark Twain. If he seems at times to have thrown nothing away, his preservation of so much unachieved writing stems as much from his method of composition as from his well-known inability to distinguish his good work from his bad. It was his habit to compose several works at the same time; to pigeonhole projects when his interest or invention waned, then resurrect them when it was rekindled; and to extract passages from one work and introduce them in another.
MTPDocEd Note on the Electronic Text of Hannibal, Huck & Tom (2023) Hannibal, Huck & Tom’s (1969) Relation to Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians, and Other Unfinished Stories (1989, 2009)
Originally published in 1969 by UC Press, the Mark Twain Project’s Hannibal, Huck & Tom (abbreviated hereafter as HH&T) contains edited texts of unpublished writings relating to Clemens’s childhood in Hannibal, Missouri, and the two iconic characters inspired by his experiences there, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
MTPDocEd [begin page x] Abbreviations MS Manuscript
MT Mark Twain
MTP The Mark Twain Papers, University of California, Berkeley
SLC Samuel L. Clemens
TS Typescript
WDH William Dean Howells
A1911 Anderson Auction Company, catalog no. 892—1911 (“The Library and Manuscripts of Samuel L. Clemens”)
IE Albert E. Stone, The Innocent Eye (New Haven, 1961)
LLMT The Love Letters of Mark Twain, ed.
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] Introduction I Three of Mark Twain's literary executors have noticed that, “imprisoned in his boyhood,” he apparently was compelled to relate its story “repeatedly, in fiction, semi-fiction, and purported fact,” drawing from it “images he would use in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and all his later writings of major importance.”1 In a letter of 1890 the author himself noticed that although his greatly varied careers had given him a wealth of literary capital, “I confined myself to the boy-life out on the Mississippi because that had a peculiar charm for me .
MTPDocEd [begin page 23] Show Headnote Villagers of 1840—3 The following notes concerning the inhabitants of Hannibal, Missouri, and their lives in the days before the Civil War were written by Mark Twain in 1897.1 The title is his. The manuscript survives as a fragment inasmuch as the last entry breaks off in the middle of a sentence at the bottom of a page. A possible explanation is that the remainder of the piece dealt in a derogatory manner with the author's brother Orion, for Twain wrote much that was highly critical of his erratic sibling.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 41] Jane Lampton Clemens Although Albert Bigelow Paine included this essay in the author's Autobiography without Mark Twain's authority, it is ordered much as that work is. As early as 1876, Twain had told Mrs. James T. Fields that he would write the story of his life “fully and simply . . . as truly as I can tell it . .
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 54] Tupperville-Dobbsville Albert Bigelow Paine noted that this manuscript was “Two unfinished sketches. Unfinished and unusable.” However, the manuscript in MTP is clearly a single piece. Apparently Paine was confused because Mark Twain assigned to the town both the names here given as the title. Despite their fragmentary nature, these paragraphs written in the late 1870's (see Appendix B) are of interest because so many of the author's favorite motifs cluster in them.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 58] Clairvoyant In Sam Clemens of Hannibal Dixon Wecter discusses the “strain of primitive folk belief in dreams and second sight—gained perhaps from Quarleses' slaves, perhaps from . . . backwoods mysticism” (p. 197) which Clemens acquired early in life. The Clemenses claimed that when he was less than four years old, Sam walked in his sleep to his sister Margaret's bedside and plucked at her cover, thus warning of her death a few days later.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 67] A Human Bloodhound (From my Abandoned Autobiography.) Page numberings indicate that “A Human Bloodhound” was first written as a continuous, self-contained narrative which Twain deliberately disguised as an excerpt by using the subhead, “From my Abandoned Autobiography” and by preceding the first sentence with three dots.
At some time while he was writing the abortive story “Indiantown,” Twain decided to endow one of its characters, Orrin Lloyd Godkin, with a bloodhound-like sense of smell.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 81] Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians I Emerging when most respected dramas and novels were romantic, nineteenth-century American humorists often won laughter by attacking such fictions. They did this indirectly in narratives full of realistic (and hence for the time incongruous) details and directly in essays, burlesques, and parodies. When Mark Twain comically contrasted the romantic portrayals of Europe or of the Far West or of the chivalrous South with the reality—in, respectively, The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, and Life on the Mississippi—he was following a well established tradition.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 141] Doughface Many of the experiences of Sam Clemens, the boy, recurred in the mature author's memory again and again. For instance, in many notebooks and in published writings he recalled the death by fire of a tramp in the Hannibal jail shortly after the boy had smuggled matches to the prisoner. He also frequently remembered his coming upon the corpse of a murdered man one night when he sneaked into the office of his father, a justice of the peace.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 145] Tom Sawyer's Gang Plans a Naval Battle As early as 1881 Mark Twain wrote to his friend James R. Osgood, asking him to secure and send to him several of Harper's dime novels concerning sailors—Tom Cringle's Log, Green Hand, Sailor's Sweetheart, and The Cruise of the Midge.1 As Albert Stone has suggested,2 he may have wanted these for his daughters. Since the books were more likely to appeal to masculine readers than to little girls, though, it seems more probable that they were for his own reading as potential sources.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 152] Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy I In 1884, along with a list of memories of Hannibal which Mark Twain thought that he might use “in this unidentified story,” he made a notebook entry, “Pater-rollers and slavery”—a reference to the patrollers who guarded pre-Civil War Missouri towns against abolitionists and escaping slaves.1 The group would figure prominently in “Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy.” One can only guess what stimulated memory at this time.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 243] Tom Sawyer: A Play in Four Acts I In the spring of 1874 Clemens heard that out in San Francisco actor John T. Raymond was staging and starring in an unauthorized dramatization of the humorist's portion of The Gilded Age. He threatened to enjoin performances, paid playwright Gilbert B. Densmore for his script, rewrote the drama in a few weeks, and in July copyrighted the new version of the play, which was performed as Colonel Sellers.
MTPDocEd [begin page 343] APPENDIX A: Villagers of 1840–3: A Biographical Directory Names and identifying phrases for persons who appear in “Villagers of 1840–3” are ordered alphabetically below. When traces of the person have been found outside Mark Twain's manuscript, biographical facts are presented. The chief sources of information include: Return Ira Holcombe, History of Marion County, Missouri (St. Louis, 1884); C. P. Greene, A Mirror of Hannibal (Hannibal, 1905); Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain: A Biography (New York, 1912, 1935); Minnie M.
MTPDocEd [begin page 370] APPENDIX B: Dates of Composition Villagers of 1840–3 The fragmentary manuscript in the Mark Twain Papers with the above title is thirty-four pages long. Pages 1 through 7 are ruled, tan paper, 5 5/16 inches by 8 5/16 inches; pages 8 through 34 are cross-barred paper of the same dimensions.
Paine says that while in Weggis, Switzerland, Twain wrote a “half-finished manuscript about Tom and Huck” and another uncompleted manuscript “with the burning title of ‘Hell-Fire Hotchkiss.
MTPDocEd [begin page 380] APPENDIX C: Mark Twain's Working Notes and Related Matter Mark Twain's working notes and other matter related to the manuscripts in this volume are translated into type here as faithfully as possible. Although the author's holograph ampersand has been expanded, instances of misspelling and faulty punctuation have not been corrected. Cancellations are preserved and marked by angle brackets, thus ; editorial explanation is enclosed by square brackets, .
MTPDocEd [begin page 405] Editorial Principles Every effort has been made to preserve Mark Twain's words—his “substantives”—and his “accidentals”—his spelling, punctuation, word-division, and capitalization—in the ten works reproduced in this volume. Spelling has not been corrected except where, as with his habitual misspelling “sieze,” no nineteenth-century authority for a Clemens spelling can be found. Mark Twain was meticulous about his punctuation; it has been left as written except where it is obviously inadequate or in error.
MTPO Doc Ed Frontispiece and Electronic Title Page Mark Twain at the Hannibal train station in June 1902. HUCK FINN AND TOM SAWYER AMONG THE INDIANS and Other Unfinished Stories MARK TWAIN Foreword and Notes by
Dahlia Armon and Walter Blair
Texts established by
Dahlia Armon, Paul Baender, Walter Blair, William M. Gibson, and Franklin R. Rogers Associate Editors
Robert Pack Browning, Richard Bucci, Victor Fischer, Michael B.
MTPDocEd [begin page 265] Explanatory Notes
[General Headnote] These notes give dates and general circumstances of composition for each work reprinted here, and they discuss topical allusions, furnish historical background, and define words or phrases not readily found in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language. Whenever Mark Twain modeled a fictional character after someone he knew, a note names the person. Names printed in Small Capitals indicate the person is more fully identified in the Biographical Directory.
MTPDocEd [begin page 299] Biographical Directory Show Headnote This directory provides biographical information about some one hundred and sixty Missourians, principally residents of Hannibal and St. Louis in the 1840s and 1850s—among them the members of Samuel L. Clemens’s own family. Clemens recalled most of these individuals in the nonfiction pieces published in this volume, “Letter to William Bowen,” “Jane Lampton Clemens,” and “Villagers of 1840–3.” He fictionalized some of them in the eight stories included here and in such works as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).
MTPDocEd
MTPDocEd [begin page 370] [begin page 371] Note on the Text The basic goal of this volume has been to collect the best of what Mark Twain wrote—but did not publish—about the Matter of Hannibal. That goal has occasioned some departure from the usual pattern of the Mark Twain Library. For the first time, texts have been reprinted from four separate volumes in the scholarly edition (The Mark Twain Papers and Works of Mark Twain), each prepared by a different editor, at various intervals between 1967 and 1980.
MTPDocEd Acknowledgments Bernard L. Stein, a former associate editor with the Mark Twain Project, was the first to suggest reprinting these several Hannibal writings together, for which he has our—and we trust the reader’s—thanks. On behalf of the CSE, Kay Seymour House inspected the printer’s copy for this reprinting, as well as the textual apparatus prepared for “Letter to William Bowen” and “Hellfire Hotchkiss” but not published here.
Boy’s Manuscript [begin page 1] Boy’s ManuscriptⒶemendation two manuscript pages (about 300 words) missing Ⓐemendation me that put the apple there. I don’t know how long I waited, but it was very long. I didn’t mind it, because I was fixing up what I was going to say, and so it was delicious. First I thought I would call her Dear AmyⒺexplanatory note, though I was a little afraid; but soon I got used to it and it was beautiful.
Letter to William Bowen [begin page 20] Letter to William Bowen Sunday Afternoon,Ⓔexplanatory note At Home, 472 Delaware Avenue,
Buffalo Feb. 6. 1870
My First, & Oldest & Dearest Friend,
My heart goes out to you just the same as ever. Your letter has stirred me to the bottom. The fountains of my great deep are broken upⒺexplanatory note & I have rained reminiscences for four & twenty hours.
Tupperville-Dobbsville [begin page 24] Tupperville-Dobbsville Chapter 1 The scene of this history is an Arkansas village, on the bank of the Mississippi; the time, a great many years ago. The houses were small and unpretentious; some few were of frame, the others of logs; a very few were whitewashed, but none were painted; nearly all the fences leaned outward or inward and were more or less dilapidated.
Clairvoyant [begin page 27] Clairvoyant When I was a boy, there came to our village of Hannibal, on the Mississippi, a young Englishman named John H. DayⒺexplanatory note, and went to work in the shop of old Mr. Stevens the jeweler, in Main street. He excited the usual two or three days’ curiosity due to a new comer in such a place; and after that, as he seemed to prefer to keep to himself, the people bothered themselves no more about him, and he was left to his own devices.
Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians [begin page 33] Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians Chapter 1 That other book which I made before, was named “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Maybe you remember about it. But if you don’t, it don’t make no difference, because it ain’t got nothing to do with this one. The way it ended up, was this. Me and Tom Sawyer and the nigger JimⒺexplanatory note, that used to belong to old Miss WatsonⒺexplanatory note, was away down in Arkansaw at Tom’s aunt Sally’s and uncle Silas’sⒺexplanatory note.
Jane Lampton Clemens [begin page 82] Jane Lampton Clemens This was my mother. When she died, in October, 1890, she was well along in her eighty-eighth year; a mighty age, a well contested fight for life for one who at forty was so delicate of body as to be accounted a confirmed invalid and destined to pass soon away. I knew her well during the first twenty-five years of my life; but after that I saw her only at wide intervals, for we lived many days’ journey apart.
Villagers of 1840–3 [begin page 93] Villagers of 1840–3 Judge Draper JudgeⒶemendation Draper , dead without issue. Judge Carpenter . Wife, . Sons: , , , . Daughter, .
Dr. Meredith Dr. Meredith . Sons, Charley and John . Two old-maid sisters. He had been a sailor, and had a deep voice. Charley went to California and thence to hell; John, a meek and bashful boy, became the cruelest of bushwhacker-leaders in the war-time.
Hellfire Hotchkiss [begin page 109] Hellfire HotchkissⒶemendation Chapter 1 “But James, he is our son, and we must bear with him. If we cannot bear with him, how can we expect others to do it?”
“I have not said I expected it, Sarah. I am very far from expecting it. He is the most trying ass that was ever born.”
“James! You forget that he is our son.
Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy [begin page 134] Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy Chapter 1 Well, we was back home and I was at the Widow Douglas’sⒺexplanatory note up on Cardiff Hill again getting sivilised some more along of her and old Miss Watson all the winter and spring, and the Widow was hiring JimⒺexplanatory note for wages so he could buy his wife and children’s freedom some time or other, and the summer days was coming, now, and the new leaves and the wind-flowers was out, and marbles and hoops and kites was coming in, and it was already barefoot time and ever so bammy and soft and pleasant, and the damp a-stewing out of the ground and the birds a-carrying on in the woods, and everybody taking down the parlor stoves and stowing them up garret, and speckled straw hats and fish-hooks beginning to show up for sale, and the early girls out in white frocks and blue ribbons, and schoolboys getting restless and fidgetty, and anybody could see that the derned winter was over.
Schoolhouse Hill [begin page 214] Schoolhouse Hill Chapter 1 It was not much short of fifty years ago—and a frosty morning. Up the naked long slant of Schoolhouse Hill the boys and girls of Petersburg village were struggling from various directions against the fierce wind, and making slow and difficult progress. The wind was not the only hindrance, nor the worst; the slope was steel-clad in frozen snow, and the foothold offered was far from trustworthy.
Huck Finn [begin page 260] Huck Finn Ⓐemendation Well, I had a noble big bullfrog that I had traded a hymn-book for, and was all profit, becuz it never cost me anything, deacon Kyle give it to me for saving his daughter’s life time she fell in the river off of the ferry boat going down to the picnic in Cave Holler, and warn’t any use to me on account of my being able to get along without hymns, and I traded the bullfrog for a cat, and sold the cat for a false-face, a horrible thing that was awful to look at and cost fifteen cents when it was new, and so I was prospering right along and was very well satisfied.
MTPDocEd Frontispiece and Electronic Title Page X Mark Twain at the Hannibal train station in June 1902. HUCK FINN AND TOM SAWYER AMONG THE INDIANS and Other Unfinished Stories MARK TWAIN Foreword and Notes by
Dahlia Armon and Walter Blair
Texts established by
Dahlia Armon, Paul Baender, Walter Blair, William M. Gibson, and Franklin R. Rogers Associate Editors
Robert Pack Browning, Richard Bucci, Victor Fischer, Michael B.
MTPDocEd FOREWORD In one of his 1887 notebooks Mark Twain enunciated his fundamental literary tenet:
If you attempt to create & build a wholly imaginary incident, adventure or situation, you will go astray, & the artificiality of the thing will be detectable. But if you found on a fact in your personal experience, it is an acorn, a root, & every created adornment that grows up out of it & spreads its foliage & blossoms to the sun will seem realities, not inventions.
MTPO Doc Ed Frontispiece and Electronic Title Page
Dedication
Foreword
Boy’s Manuscript
Letter to William Bowen
Tupperville-Dobbsville
Clairvoyant
Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians
Jane Lampton Clemens
Villagers of 1840–3
Hellfire Hotchkiss
Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy
Schoolhouse Hill
Huck Finn
Explanatory Notes
Biographical Directory
References
Note on the Text
Foreword FOREWORD In one of his 1887 notebooks Mark Twain enunciated his fundamental literary tenet:
If you attempt to create & build a wholly imaginary incident, adventure or situation, you will go astray, & the artificiality of the thing will be detectable.
MTPO Doc Ed [begin page 363] [begin page 364] [begin page 365] MAPS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY The title page for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn described the book’s setting as the Mississippi Valley “forty to fifty years ago,” that is, between about 1835 and 1845 (counting back from the book’s American publication date in 1885). An earlier version of the title page set the story “forty years ago” or about 1845 (see the explanatory note to xxix.
MTPDocEd [begin page 363] [begin page 364] [begin page 365] MAPS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY The title page for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn described the book’s setting as the Mississippi Valley “forty to fifty years ago,” that is, between about 1835 and 1845 (counting back from the book’s American publication date in 1885). An earlier version of the title page set the story “forty years ago” or about 1845 (see the explanatory note to xxix.
MTPDocEd [begin page 373] Explanatory Notes
[Headnote] These notes identify real people, places, books, and events that Mark Twain drew upon for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. They document historical, literary, and cultural allusions, parallels, analogues, or influences, both in the text and in E. W. Kemble’s illustrations. They identify important moments in the seven-year course of composition and in the process of revision and first publication: when Mark Twain wrote or revised parts of the text, when he stopped or resumed work on them, how he struggled with or commented on them.
MTPDocEd [begin page 452] GLOSSARY Among the lasting achievements of Huckleberry Finn is the ready accessibility of its language: most of its words and idiomatic expressions still require no gloss. We have, therefore, confined the entries here to words and phrases about which there is likely to be genuine uncertainty, or about which we have specialized knowledge pertinent to Mark Twain’s meaning. When vernacular words or phrases (most oaths, for example) are wholly intelligible, we have not defined them.
MTPDocEd [begin page 461] APPENDIX A
Mark Twain’s Working Notes Show Headnote Mark Twain’s working notes for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn show him developing the plot and considering alternatives for it, reviewing his work, perfecting the dialect of his characters, and reminding himself to tie up loose ends. In addition, they provide physical and textual evidence about the course of composition. All the extant working notes are reproduced here except for the notes he wrote in the margins of his manuscript, which are transcribed in Mark Twain’s Marginal Working Notes.
MTPDocEd [begin page 517] APPENDIX B
Mark Twain’s Marginal Working Notes Show Headnote Mark Twain wrote the working notes presented below in the margins of his manuscript for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. They remind him of plot details, suggest subjects that might be developed, record alternate word choices, and dialectal spellings, and in general they demonstrate Mark Twain’s intention to avoid minor contradictions or inconsistencies. Because context is often the key to understanding the notes, their location in the manuscript is described in each case.
MTPDocEd [begin page 527] APPENDIX C
Three Passages from the Manuscript
Mark Twain’s Revisions Show Headnote Three passages from the newly discovered first half of the manuscript, MS1, are reproduced here because of the intrinsic interest of the revisions they contain.
Typically, Mark Twain revised his original handwritten pages, both as he was composing them and as he reviewed them, sometimes more than once. He eventually had this revised manuscript typed, chiefly so that he could continue the process of revision on the typescript.
MTPDocEd [begin page 560] APPENDIX D
Manuscript Facsimiles Show Headnote In 1882, the year before Mark Twain finished his manuscript draft of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he described the first half as “a book I have been working at, by fits and starts, during the past five or six years” (SLC 1883a, 42). That first half of the manuscript, written between 1876 and 1880, was missing and thought permanently lost until 1990, when it was discovered in a Los Angeles attic.
MTPDocEd [begin page 578] APPENDIX E
Mark Twain’s Revisions for Public Reading, 1884–1885 Show Headnote From November 1884 through February 1885, Mark Twain participated in a joint lecture tour with George Washington Cable, traveling in the East, the Midwest, and briefly into Canada. He delivered platform “readings” (actually memorized recitations) from his forthcoming book, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and from older works as well, giving over one hundred performances in more than sixty cities.
MTPDocEd [begin page 617] APPENDIX F
Mark Twain’s Revisions for Public Reading, 1895–1896 Show Headnote Mark Twain prepared several selections from Huckleberry Finn for his 1895–96 world lecture tour by annotating volume one of Bernhard Tauchnitz’s two-volume edition (SLC 1895a), which he had purchased in Paris in 1894 or early 1895. This volume, comprising chapters 1–22, survives among the Mark Twain Papers (CU-MARK). Sixty-five pages (including the front cover) are reproduced here in photofacsimile.
MTPDocEd [begin page 655] APPENDIX G
Publisher’s and General Agents’ Announcements, Advertisements, and Price Lists, 1884–1891 Show Headnote Included here in facsimile is a selection of documents prepared in 1884 and 1885 by Charles L. Webster & Company, New York, and by one of its general agents, the Occidental Publishing Company, San Francisco, to promote the sale of the first American edition of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
MTPDocEd INTRODUCTION [begin page 665] Overview When Samuel Clemens turned forty at the end of 1875, he found himself a long way from the little river town in Missouri where he had grown up in genteel poverty. He was now a prosperous citizen of Hartford, Connecticut, and a literary celebrity known to the world as “Mark Twain,” the author of The Innocents Abroad and Roughing It. He had an open invitation to write for the Atlantic Monthly, edited by his friend William Dean Howells,1 and he was well on his way to having “the largest audience of any English writer above ground,” as Richard Watson Gilder put it nine years later.
MTPDocEd [begin page 795] TEXTUAL APPARATUS The Textual Apparatus consists of the following sections:
Description of Texts describes Mark Twain’s manuscript and identifies which lifetime editions bear his authority, specifying the copies collated or examined.
Textual Notes discuss problematic readings in the edited text and describe authorial revision not fully explained in Alterations in the Manuscript.
Emendations and Historical Collation records every departure from the copy-text, giving the source of the adopted reading.
MTPDocEd [begin page 797] Description of Texts Each of the documents described below contains an authoritative form of the text of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Derivative printings of the complete text and of extracts are separately listed following these descriptions. Collations performed and the specific copies used are given last.
MS Manuscript (MS1 and MS2) LoM-Pr Prospectus of LoM LoM First American edition of Life on the Mississippi Pfs Proof sheets of A Pr Prospectus of A A First American edition of Huckleberry Finn Can Canadian issue of A Cent Century Magazine MS Mark Twain’s complete manuscript in the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Buffalo, New York (NBuBE), was reassembled in 1992 from two portions, each with a distinct documentary history, which are designated MS1 and MS2 in this volume.
MTPDocEd [begin page 810] Textual Notes
[Headnote] These notes explain, for specific variants and classes of variants, how the documentary evidence has been analyzed to identify active authorial intention or revision, or (conversely) to detect errors, inadvertent changes, and changes by typists, compositors, and proofreaders who intended to “improve” the text. The notes also report or describe authorial revision not fully accounted for in Alterations in the Manuscript.
MTPDocEd [begin page 833] Emendations and Historical Collation
[Headnote] This list records every reading that has been adopted from a source other than the copy-text (emendation). It also records every rejected variant found in authoritative sources other than the copy-text (historical collation). The following readings are exceptions: (1) page numbers in the table of contents and the list of illustrations are silently changed to refer to the present edition; (2) picture captions are drawn from the first American edition and, for thirteen illustrations on pages 107–23, from the first American edition of Life on the Mississippi, but only departures from these two sources are noted as emendations; (3) superscript letters are silently lowered to the line; and (4) the style of the opening words of chapters, which appear in the present edition in small capitals and with no paragraph indention as an editorial convention, is not recorded as variant from the copy-text.
MTPDocEd [begin page 994] Alterations in the Manuscript
[Headnote] This list records the changes Mark Twain made on his manuscript of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both in the approximately 49 percent of the story he wrote in 1876 and 1880 (MS1a and MS1b), and in the approximately 51 percent he wrote in 1883 (MS2). The entire manuscript is in the Mark Twain Room of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library (NBuBE).
MTPDocEd [begin page 1118] [begin page 1119] [begin page 1120] [begin page 1121] REFERENCES This list defines the abbreviations used in this book and provides full bibliographic information for works cited by the author’s name, or by name and publication date. Any edition listed here known to be the one that Clemens owned is identified by a heavy asterisk (✱). [The 2009 web edition did not include a list of references; it has been restored as of 2016, together with relevant references introduced in HF 2010.
Frontispieces and Title Page, First American Edition Frontispieces and Title Page, First American Edition X from the bust by karl gerhardt. Ⓐtextual note Ⓔexplanatory note X huckleberry finn.Ⓔexplanatory note ADVENTURES
OFⒶalteration in the MS HUCKLEBERRY FINN
(TOM SAWYER’S COMRADE)Ⓐhistorical collation Scene: The Mississippi Valley
Time: Forty to Fifty Years Ago Ⓐhistorical collation Ⓔexplanatory note Ⓐalteration in the MS BY
MARK TWAINⒶhistorical collation Ⓐtextual note Historical Collation Frontispieces and Title Page, First American Edition Ⓐ (TOM SAWYER’S COMRADE) (C) ● Tom Sawyer’s Comrade.
NOTICE NOTICEⒶemendation Persons attempting to find a MotiveⒶhistorical collation in this narrativeⒶalteration in the MS will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a Moral in itⒶalteration in the MS will be banished;Ⓐemendation persons attempting to find a PlotⒶhistorical collation in it will be shot.Ⓐemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS By Order of the Author.Ⓐhistorical collation Per G. G., Chief of Ordnance.Ⓐhistorical collation Ⓔexplanatory note Ⓐalteration in the MS Historical Collation NOTICE Ⓐ Motive (MS1b) ● motive (A) Ⓐ Plot (MS1b) ● plot (A) Ⓐ By Order of the Author.
EXPLANATORY EXPLANATORYⒶemendation In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods South-Western dialect; the ordinary “Pike-County” dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a hap-hazard fashion, or by guess-work; but pains-takingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech.
Contents Contents CHAPTER I. Civilizing Huck.—Miss Watson.—Tom Sawyer Waits CHAPTER II. The Boys Escape Jim.—Tom Sawyer’s Gang.—Deep-laid Plans CHAPTER III. A Good Going-over.—Grace Triumphant.—“One of Tom Sawyer’sⒶemendation Lies” CHAPTER IV. Huck and the Judge.—Superstition CHAPTER V. Huck’s Father.—The Fond Parent.—Reform CHAPTER VI. He Went for Judge Thatcher.—Huck DecidesⒶemendation to Leave.—Political Economy.—Thrashing Around CHAPTER VII. Laying for Him.—Locked in the Cabin.
Illustrations Illustrations Mark Twain. Frontispiece Ⓐemendation Huckleberry Finn. Frontispiece The Widow’s Ⓐemendation Learning about Moses and the “Bulrushers” Miss Watson Huck Stealing Away They Tip-toed Along Jim Tom Sawyer’s Band of Robbers Huck Creeps into his Window Miss Watson’s Lecture The Robbers Dispersed Rubbing the Lamp ! ! ! ! ! Judge Thatcher surprised Jim Listening “Pap” Huck and his Father Reforming the Drunkard Falling from Grace Getting out of the Way Solid Comfort Thinking it Over Raising a Howl “Git Up!
Chapter I. [begin page 1] X the widow’s. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Chapter I.Ⓔexplanatory noteⒶemendation You Ⓐalteration in the MS Ⓐemendation don’tⒶalteration in the MS Ⓐemendation know about me, without you have read a book by the name of “The Adventures of Tom SawyerⒺexplanatory note,”Ⓔexplanatory note but that ain’t no matter.Ⓐemendation That book was made by Mr.
Chapter II. [begin page 6] X they tip-toed along. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter II.Ⓐemendation We went tip-toeingⒶalteration in the MS along a path amongst the trees back towards the end of the widow’s garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldn’t scrape our heads. When we was passing by the kitchen,Ⓐhistorical collation I fell over a root and made a noise.
Chapter III. [begin page 13] X miss watson’s lecture. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter III.Ⓐemendation Well, I got a good going-over in the morning, from old Miss Watson, on account of my clothes; but the widow she didn’t scold, but only cleaned off the grease and clay and looked so sorry that I thought I would behave a while if I could.
Chapter IV. [begin page 18] X ! ! ! ! ! Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter IV.Ⓐemendation Well, three or four months run along, and it was well into the winter, now. I had been to school most allⒶemendation the time, and could spell, and read, and write just a littleⒺexplanatory note,Ⓐalteration in the MS and couldⒶalteration in the MS say the multiplication table up to six times seven is thirty-five, and I don’t reckon I could ever get any further than that if I was to live forever.
Chapter V. [begin page 23] X “pap.” Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter V.Ⓐemendation I had shut the door to. Then I turned around, and there he was. I used to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much. I reckoned I was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistaken. That is, after the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sortⒶalteration in the MS of hitched—he being so unexpected; but right away after, I see I warn’t scared of him worth bothering about.
Chapter VI. [begin page 29] X getting out of the way. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter VI.Ⓐemendation Well, pretty soon the old man was up and around again, and then he went for Judge ThatcherⒶemendation in the courts to make him give up that money,Ⓐalteration in the MS and he went for me, too, for not stopping school. He catched me a couple of times and thrashed me, but I went to school just the same, and dodged him or out-run him most of the time.
Chapter VII. [begin page 37] X “git up! Ⓐemendation” Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter VII.Ⓐemendation GitⒶemendation Ⓐtextual note up! WhatⒶhistorical collation you ’bout!”Ⓐalteration in the MS I opened my eyes and looked around, trying to make out where I was. It was after sun-up, and I hadⒶalteration in the MS been sound asleep. PapⒶemendation was standingⒶalteration in the MS over me, looking sour—and sick, too.
Chapter VIII. [begin page 45] X in the woods. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter VIII.Ⓐemendation The sun was up so high when I waked, that I judged it was after eight o’clockⒶemendation. I laid there in the grass and the cool shade, thinkingⒶalteration in the MS about things and feeling rested and rutherⒶemendation comfortable and satisfied. I could see the sun out at one or two holes, but mostly it was big trees all about, and gloomy in there amongst them.
Chapter IX. [begin page 58] X exploring the cave. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter IX.Ⓐemendation I wanted to go and look at a place rightⒶalteration in the MS about the middle of the island, that I’d found when I was exploring; so we started, and soon got to it, because the island was only three miles long and a quarter of a mile wide.
Chapter X. [begin page 63] X they found eight dollars. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter X.Ⓐemendation After breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out how he come to be killed, but Jim didn’t want to. He said it would fetch bad luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha’nt us; he said a man that warn’t buried was more likely to go a-ha’ntingⒶalteration in the MS around than one that was planted and comfortable.
Chapter XI. [begin page 68] X “come in.” Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XI.Ⓐemendation ComeⒶtextual note in,” says the woman, and I did. She says:
“Take a cheer.”Ⓐalteration in the MS I done it. She looked me all over with her little shiny eyes, and says:
“What might your name be?”
“Sarah Williams.”
“Where ’boutsⒶemendation do you live? In this neighborhood?”
Chapter XII. [begin page 77] X on the raft. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XII.Ⓐemendation It Ⓐemendation must a been close onto one o’clock when we got belowⒶalteration in the MS the island at last, and the raft did seem to go mighty slow. If a boat was to come alongⒶhistorical collation we was going to take to the canoe and break for the Illinois shore; and it was well a boat didn’t come, for we hadn’t ever thought to put the gun intoⒶemendation the canoe, or a fishing-lineⒶhistorical collation, or anything to eat.
Chapter XIII. [begin page 86] X in a fix. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XIII.Ⓐemendation Well, I catched my breath,Ⓐhistorical collation and most fainted. Shut up on a wreck with such a gang as that! But it warn’t no time to be sentimentering. We’d got to find that boat, now—had to have it for ourselves. So we went a-quaking and shaking down the stabboardⒶemendation side, and slow work it was, too—seemed a week before we got to the stern.
Chapter XIV. [begin page 93] X turning over the truck. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XIV.Ⓐemendation By and by Ⓐhistorical collation,Ⓐalteration in the MS when we got up, we turned over the truck the gang had stole off of the wreck, and found boots, and blankets, and clothes, and all sorts of other things, and a lot of books, and a spyglassⒶhistorical collation and three boxes of seegarsⒶalteration in the MS.
Chapter XV. [begin page 99] X “we would sell the raft.” Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XV.Ⓐemendation We judged that three nightsⒶalteration in the MS more would fetch us to CairoⒺexplanatory note, at the bottom of Illinois, where the Ohio riverⒶhistorical collation comes in, and that was what we was after. We would sell the raft and get on a steamboatⒶemendation and go wayⒶemendation up the Ohio amongst the free StatesⒺexplanatory note, and then be out of trouble.
Chapter XVI. [begin page 106] X “it amounted Ⓐemendation to something being a raftsman.” Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XVI.Ⓐemendation We slept mostⒶemendation all day, and started out,Ⓐhistorical collation at night, a little ways behind a monstrous long raft that was as long going by as a procession. She had four long sweeps at each end, so we judged she carried as many as thirty men, likely.
Chapter XVII. [begin page 132] X “who’s there?” Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XVII.Ⓐemendation In about half a minute somebody spoke out of a window, without putting his head out, and says:
“Be done, boys! Who’s there?”
I says:
“It’s me.”
“Who’s me?Ⓐemendation”
“George Jackson, sir.”
“What do you want?”
“I don’tⒶalteration in the MS want nothing, sir. I only want to go along by, but the dogs won’tⒶhistorical collation let me.
Chapter XVIII. [begin page 142] X col. Ⓐemendation grangerford. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XVIII.Ⓐemendation Col.Ⓐhistorical collation Grangerford was a gentleman, you see. He was a gentleman all over; and so was his family. He was well bornⒶhistorical collation, as the saying is, and that’s worth as much in a man as it is in a horse, so the widowⒶhistorical collation DouglasⒶhistorical collation saidⒶemendation, and nobody everⒶemendation denied that she was of the first aristocracy in our townⒶemendation; and papⒶalteration in the MS Ⓐemendation heⒶemendation always said itⒶhistorical collation too, though he warn’t no more quality than a mud-catⒶhistorical collation, himself.
Chapter XIX. [begin page 156] X hiding daytimes Ⓐemendation. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XIX.Ⓐemendation Two or three days and nights went by; I reckon I might say they swumⒶemendation by, they slid along so quiet and smooth and lovelyⒶhistorical collation. HereⒶhistorical collation is the way we put in the time.Ⓐalteration in the MS ItⒶemendation was a monstrous big river down there—sometimes a mile and a half wide; weⒶhistorical collation run,Ⓐhistorical collation nights, and laid up and hid,Ⓐhistorical collation daytimesⒶhistorical collation;Ⓐalteration in the MS soon as nightⒶalteration in the MS was mostⒶalteration in the MS gone, we stoppedⒶalteration in the MS navigating,Ⓐhistorical collation and tiedⒶalteration in the MS up—nearly always in the dead water under a tow-headⒶhistorical collation;Ⓐalteration in the MS and then cut young cottonwoodsⒶhistorical collation and willows and hidⒶalteration in the MS the raft with them.
Chapter XX [begin page 166] X on the raft Ⓐhistorical collation. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXⒶemendation They asked us considerable many questions; wanted to know whatⒶalteration in the MS we covered up the raft that way,Ⓐhistorical collation for, and laid by in the daytimeⒶhistorical collation insteadⒶemendation of running—was Jim a runawayⒶemendation nigger? Says I—Ⓐhistorical collation “Goodness sakes, would a runaway nigger run south?
Chapter XXI. [begin page 177] X practicing.Ⓐemendation Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXI.Ⓐemendation It was after sun-up,Ⓐhistorical collation now, but we went right on, and didn’t tie up. The king and the duke turned out,Ⓐhistorical collation by and byⒶhistorical collation, looking pretty rusty; but after they’dⒶemendation jumped overboard and took a swimⒶhistorical collation it chippered them up a good deal. After breakfast the king heⒶemendation took a seat on a corner of the raft, and pulled off his boots and rolled up his britches, and letⒶalteration in the MS his legs dangle in the water, so as to be comfortable, and lit his pipe,Ⓐalteration in the MS and went to getting his Romeo and JulietⒶhistorical collation by heart.
Chapter XXII. [begin page 189] X sherburn steps out. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXII. TheyⒶemendation swarmed up the street,Ⓐhistorical collation towards Sherburn’s house, a-whooping and yellingⒶalteration in the MS and ragingⒶalteration in the MS like Injuns, and everything had to clear the way or get run over and trompedⒶalteration in the MS to mush, and it was awful to see. Children was heeling itⒶalteration in the MS ahead of the mob, screaming and trying to get out of the way; and every window along the road was full of women’s heads, and there was nigger boys in every tree, and bucks and wenches looking over every fence; and as soon as the mob would get nearly to them they would break and skaddle back out of reach.
Chapter XXIII. [begin page 196] X tragedy. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXIII.Ⓐemendation Well, all day him and the king was hard at it, rigging up a stage, and a curtain, and a row of candles for footlightsⒶhistorical collation; and that night the house was jam full of men in no time. When the place couldn’t hold noⒶemendation more, the duke heⒶemendation quit tending doorⒶhistorical collation and went around the back way and come onto the stage and stood upⒶemendation before the curtain, and made a little speech, and praised up this tragedy, and said it was the most thrillingest one that ever was; and so he went on,Ⓐhistorical collation a-braggingⒶemendation about the tragedy,Ⓐhistorical collation and about Edmund Kean the ElderⒶalteration in the MS, which was to play the main principalⒶemendation part in it; and at last when he’dⒶemendation got everybody’s expectations up high enough, he rolled up the curtain, and the next minute the king come a-prancing out on all fours, nakedⒶemendation; and he was painted,Ⓐhistorical collation all overⒶalteration in the MS, ring-streaked-and-stripedⒶemendation, all sorts of colors, as splendidⒶalteration in the MS as a rain-bowⒶhistorical collation.
Chapter XXIV. [begin page 203] X harmless. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXIV.Ⓐhistorical collation Next day, towards night, we laid up under a little willow towheadⒶhistorical collation outⒶalteration in the MS in the middleⒶalteration in the MS, where there was a village on each side of the river, and the duke and the king begun to lay out a plan for working them towns.
Chapter XXV. [begin page 211] X harmless. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXV.Ⓐemendation The news was all over town in two minutes, and you could see the people tearing down on the run, fromⒶemendation every which wayⒶemendation, some of them putting on their coatsⒶemendation as they comeⒺexplanatory note. Pretty soon we was in the middle of a crowd, and the noise of the tramping was like a soldier-marchⒶemendation.
Chapter XXVI. [begin page 220] X harmless. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXVI.Ⓐemendation Well,Ⓐhistorical collation when they was all gone, the king he asksⒶemendation Mary Jane how they was off for spare rooms, and she said she hadⒶalteration in the MS one spare room, which would do for uncleⒶhistorical collation Ⓐalteration in the MS William, and she’d give her own room to uncleⒶhistorical collation Harvey, which was a little bigger, and she would turn into the room with her sisters and sleep on a cot; and up garret was a little cubby, with a pallet in it.
Chapter XXVII. [begin page 230] X a crack in the dining room Ⓐemendation door. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXVII.Ⓐemendation I crept to their doors and listened; they was snoring, so I tip-toedⒶhistorical collation along, and got down stairsⒶhistorical collation all right. There warn’t a sound anywheresⒶalteration in the MS. I peeped through a crack of the dining roomⒶhistorical collation door, and see the men that was watching the corpse all sound asleep on their chairs.
Chapter XXVIII. [begin page 238] X in trouble. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXVIII.Ⓐemendation By and byⒶhistorical collation it was getting-up time; so I come down the ladder and started for down stairsⒶhistorical collation, but as I comeⒶalteration in the MS to the girls’Ⓐalteration in the MS Ⓐemendation room,Ⓐhistorical collation the door was open, and I see Mary JaneⒶalteration in the MS setting by her old hairⒶalteration in the MS trunk, which was open and she’d been packing things in it—getting ready to go to England.
Chapter XXIX. [begin page 249] X the true brothers. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXIX.Ⓐemendation They Ⓐemendation was fetching a very nice lookingⒶhistorical collation old gentleman along, and a nice lookingⒶhistorical collation younger one, with his right arm in a sling. And my souls, how the people yelled, and laughed, and kept it up.Ⓐhistorical collation But IⒶemendation didn’t see no joke about it, and I judged it would strain the duke and the king some,Ⓐhistorical collation toⒶalteration in the MS see any.
Chapter XXX. [begin page 261] X the king shakes huck Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXX. WhenⒶemendation they got aboard, the king went for me, and shook me by the collar, and says:
“Tryin’ to give us the slip, was ye, you pup! Tired of our company—hey?”
I says:
“No, your majesty, we warn’tⒶemendation—please don’t, your majesty!”
“QuickⒶalteration in the MS, then, and tell us what was your idea, or I’ll shake the insides out o’ you!
Chapter XXXI. [begin page 265] X spanish moss. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXXI.Ⓐemendation We dasn’t stop again at any town, for days andⒶalteration in the MS days; kept right along down the river. We was down south in the warm weather, now, and a mighty long ways from home. We begun to come to trees with Spanish moss on them, hanging down from the limbs like long gray beards.
Chapter XXXII. [begin page 276] X still and sunday-like. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXXII.Ⓐemendation When I got there it was all still and Sunday-likeⒶhistorical collation, and hot and sunshiny —the hands was gone to the fieldsⒶalteration in the MS; and there was themⒶalteration in the MS kind of faintⒶalteration in the MS dronings of bugs and fliesⒶemendation in the air that makes it seem so lonesome and like everybody’sⒶemendation dead and gone; and if a breeze fans along and quivers the leaves, it makes youⒶalteration in the MS feel mournful, because you feel like it’sⒶemendation spirits whispering—spirits that’s been deadⒶalteration in the MS ever so many years—and you always think they’reⒶemendation talking about you.
Chapter XXXIII. [begin page 283] X “it was tom sawyer.” Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXXIII. SoⒶemendation I started for town, in the wagon, and when I was half wayⒶhistorical collation I see a wagon coming, and sure enough it was Tom Sawyer, and I stopped and waited till he come along. I saysⒶalteration in the MS “Hold on!Ⓐemendation” and it stopped alongside, and his mouth opened upⒶemendation like a trunkⒶemendation, and staid so; and he swallowed two or three times,Ⓐhistorical collation like a person that’s got a dry throat, and then says:
Chapter XXXIV. [begin page 291] X “it was tom sawyer.” Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXXIV.Ⓐemendation We stopped talking, and got to thinking. By and byⒶhistorical collation, Tom says:
“Looky-hereⒶhistorical collation, Huck, what fools we are, to not think of it before! I betⒶemendation I know where Jim is.”
“No! Where?”
“In that hut downⒶemendation by the ash-hopperⒶemendation. Why, looky-hereⒶhistorical collation. When we was at dinner, didn’t you see a nigger man go in there with some vittles?
Chapter XXXV. [begin page 298] X getting wood. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXXV.Ⓐemendation It would be most anⒶalteration in the MS hour, yet, till breakfast, so we left, and struck down into the woods; because Tom said we got to have some light to see how to dig by, and a lantern makesⒶemendation too much, and might get us into trouble; what we must have was a lot of them rotten chunks that’sⒶemendation calledⒶalteration in the MS fox-fire,Ⓐhistorical collation and just makes a soft kind of a glow when you lay them in a dark place.
Chapter XXXVI. [begin page 306] X going down the lightning rod Ⓐemendation. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXXVI. AsⒶemendation soon as we reckoned everybody was asleep, that night, we went down the lightning rodⒶhistorical collation, and shut ourselves up in the lean-to, and got out our pile of fox-fire, and went to work. We cleared everything out of the way, about four or five footⒶemendation along the middle of the bottom log.
Chapter XXXVII. [begin page 313] X the rubbage pile Ⓐhistorical collation. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXXVII.Ⓐemendation ThatⒶemendation was all fixed. So then we went away,Ⓐhistorical collation and went to the rubbage pileⒶhistorical collation in the back yard where they keep the old boots, and rags, and pieces of bottles, and wore-out tin thingsⒶalteration in the MS, and all such truck, and scratched around and found an old tin washpanⒶhistorical collation and stopped up the holes as well as we could, to bake the pie in, and took it down cellar and stole it full of flour, and started forⒶemendation breakfast,Ⓐhistorical collation and found a couple of shingle nailsⒶhistorical collation that Tom said would be handy for a prisoner to scrabbleⒶalteration in the MS his name and sorrows on the dungeon walls with, and dropped one of them inⒶalteration in the MS auntⒶhistorical collation Sally’s apron pocket which was hanging on a chair, and t’other we stuck in the band of uncleⒶhistorical collation Silas’s hat, which was on the bureau, because we heard the children say their pa and ma was going to the runaway nigger’s house this morning, and then went to breakfast, and Tom dropped the pewter spoon inⒶemendation uncleⒶhistorical collation Silas’s coat pocket, and auntⒶhistorical collation Sally wasn’t come yet, so we had to wait a little while.
Chapter XXXVIII. [begin page 321] X jim’s coat of arms. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXXVIII.Ⓐemendation MakingⒶalteration in the MS them pens was a distressid toughⒶhistorical collation job, and so was the saw; and Jim allowed the inscription was going to beⒶalteration in the MS the toughest of all. That’sⒶemendation the one which the prisoner has to scrabble on the wall. But we had to have it; Tom said we’d got to:Ⓐhistorical collation there warn’t no case of a state prisoner not scrabblingⒶalteration in the MS his inscription to leave behind, and his coat of arms.
Chapter XXXIX. [begin page 329] X keeping off dull times. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XXXIX.Ⓐemendation In the morning we went up to the village and bought a wireⒶalteration in the MS rat trap and fetched it down, and unstopped the best rat hole, and in about an hour we had fifteen of the bulliest kind of ones; and then we took it and putⒶalteration in the MS it in a safe place under auntⒶhistorical collation Sally’s bed.
Chapter XL. [begin page 335] X fishing. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XL.Ⓐemendation We was feeling pretty good, after breakfast, and took my canoe and went over the river a-fishingⒶhistorical collation, with a lunch, and had a good time, and took a look at the raft and found her all right, and got home late to supper, and found them in such a sweat and worry they didn’t know which end they was standing on, and made us go right off to bed the minute we was done supper, and wouldn’t tell us what the trouble was, and never let on a word about the new letter, but didn’t need to, because we knowed as much about it as anybody did, and as soon as we was half up stairs and her back was turned, we slidⒶalteration in the MS for the cellar cubboard and loaded up a good lunch and took itⒶalteration in the MS up to our room and went to bed, and got up about half pastⒶhistorical collation Ⓐalteration in the MS eleven, and Tom put on auntⒶhistorical collation Sally’s dress that he stoleⒶalteration in the MS and was going to start with the lunch, but says:
Chapter XLI. [begin page 343] X the doctor. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XLI.Ⓐemendation The doctor was an old man;Ⓐemendation a very nice, kind lookingⒶhistorical collation old man, when I got him up. I told him me and my brother was over on Spanish islandⒶhistorical collation hunting, yesterday after noonⒶhistorical collation, and camped on a piece of a raft we found, and about midnight he must a kicked his gunⒶalteration in the MS in his dreams, for it went off and shot him in the leg;Ⓐhistorical collation and we wanted him to go over there and fix it and not say nothing about it, nor let anybody know, because we wanted to come home this evening, and surprise the folks.
Chapter XLII. [begin page 351] X tom sawyer wounded. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter XLII.Ⓐemendation TheⒶemendation old man was up town again, before breakfast, but couldn’t get no track of Tom; and both of them set at the table, thinking, and not saying nothing, and looking mournful, and their coffeeⒶalteration in the MS getting cold, and not eating anything. And by and byⒶhistorical collation the old man says:
Chapter the last. [begin page 360] X out of bondage. Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading Chapter the last.Ⓐemendation The first time I catched Tom, private, I asked himⒶalteration in the MS what was his idea,Ⓐalteration in the MS time of the evasionⒶalteration in the MS?—what it was he’d planned to do ifⒶalteration in the MS the evasion worked all right and he managed to set a nigger free that was already free before?
MTPO Doc Ed Frontispiece and Electronic Title Page Mark Twain in 1884. Photograph taken in New York by Benjamin J. Falk. The Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library. ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN MARK TWAIN Illustrated by E. W. Kemble and John Harley
Edited by
VICTOR FISCHER and LIN SALAMO
With the late
WALTER BLAIR Contributing Editors
Robert Pack Browning, Anh Q. Bui, Michael B. Frank, Kenneth M.
MTPDocEd X Mark Twain in 1884. Photograph taken in New York by Benjamin J. Falk. The Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library. ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN MARK TWAIN Illustrated by E. W. Kemble and John Harley
Edited by
VICTOR FISCHER and LIN SALAMO
With the late
WALTER BLAIR Contributing Editors
Robert Pack Browning, Anh Q. Bui, Michael B. Frank, Kenneth M. Sanderson, Harriet Elinor Smith
A Publication of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library
MTPO Doc Ed Frontispiece and Electronic Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Frontispieces, First Edition
Title Page, First Edition
Notice
Explanatory
Table of Contents, First Edition
List of Illustrations, First Edition
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Chapter XI.
Chapter XII.
Chapter XIII.
Chapter XIV.
Chapter XV.
Chapter XVI.
Chapter XVII.
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX.
Chapter 1 [begin page 35] Chapter 1 It was 1702—May.Ⓐtextual note Austria was far away from the world, and asleep; it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so forever. Some evenⒶalteration in the MS set it away back centuries uponⒶalteration in the MS centuries and said that by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Faith in Austria.
Chapter 2 Chapter 2 Three of us boys were always together, and had been so from the cradle, being fond of each other from the beginning, and this affection deepening as the years went on—Nikolaus Baumann, son of the principalⒶalteration in the MS judge of the localⒶalteration in the MS court; Seppi Wohlmeyer, son ofⒶalteration in the MS the keeper of the principal inn, the “Golden Stag,” which had a nice garden, with shade trees, reaching down to the river-side, and pleasure-boats for hire; and I was the third—Theodor Fischer, son of the church organist, who was also leader of the village band, teacher of the violin, composer,Ⓐalteration in the MS tax collector of the commune, sexton,Ⓐalteration in the MS and in other ways a useful citizen and respected by all.
Chapter 3 Chapter 3Ⓐalteration in the MS It made immense talk next day, when Father Peter paid Solomon Isaacs in gold and left the rest of the money with him at interest. Also, there was a pleasant change: manyⒶalteration in the MS people called at the house to congratulate, and a numberⒶalteration in the MS of cool old friends became kind andⒶalteration in the MS friendly again; and to top all,Ⓐalteration in the MS MargetⒶalteration in the MS was invited to a party.
Chapter 4 Chapter 4 There was a very dull week, now, for Satan did not come, nothing much was going on, and we boys could not venture to go and see Marget,Ⓐalteration in the MS because the nights were moonlit and our parents might find us out if we tried. But we came across Ursula a couple of times taking a walk in the meadows beyond the river to air the cat, and we learned from her that things were going well.
Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Next day everybody was talking—but under their breath. They were talking sharply critical talk about the witch-commission. “Why haven't the commission summoned Father Adolf for examination? if it were some friendless old woman who had done those Satanic miracles with the bowl, the bottle and the brazen balls, would they be so lax?” That is what the public said—in a whisper. Always confidentially; adding, “Please don't quote me—don't say I said anything.
Chapter 6 Chapter 6 When I looked in on Lilly that night after she was abed, her eyes were red and sheⒶalteration in the MS had been crying; but I found that the source of it was not Satan's indiscriminate ways, but only resentment against Marget for her attitude toward him. She thought it was scandalous in Marget to act so, considering that she already had a lover.
Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Next day and every day we spent all of our spare time with Nikolaus; and also added to it time which we (and he) stole from work and other duties, and this cost the three of us some sharp scoldings and some threats of punishment. Every morning two of us woke with a start and a shudder, saying, as the days flew along, “Only ten days left;” “only nine days left;” “only eight;” “only seven.
Chapter 8 Chapter 8 One day, a little while after this, Satan appeared again. We were always watching out for him—Seppi and I—and longingⒶalteration in the MS for him; for life was never very stagnant when he was by. He came upon us at that place in the woods where we had first met him. [begin page 134] Being boys, we wanted to be entertained, and we asked him to do a show for us.
Chapter 9 [begin page 147] Chapter 9 I wanted to know my whole history in advance, but I never asked Satan for it. I was afraid, for it might be an unhappy history. I could change it if I had the plan of it, but any change might happen to be for the worse. I knew this because Satan had shown me other people's lives and I saw that in nearly all cases there would be little or no advantage in altering them.
Chapter 10 [begin page 157] Chapter 10 Days and days went by, now, and no Satan. It was dull without him. But Father Adolf was around braving public opinion in his impudent way and getting a stone in the middle of his back now and then when some witch-hater got a safeⒶalteration in the MS chance to throw it and dodge out of sight. Meantime two influences had been working well for Marget.
Chapter 11 Chapter 11 My appetite was not satisfied, it was only sharpened; I wanted to see Satan show off some more. It was a delight to me to see him astonish people; it was a private pride to me, too, and pleased my vanity, for I was envied, as beingⒶalteration in the MS friend and comrade to so great a magician. Satan was willing to content my desire, and said there was an opportunity now, up in the hills not twenty miles away, in the palace of a native of wealth and high degree.
MTPDocEd [begin page 409] APPENDIX A:
Marginal Notes Show Headnote This list of marginalia includes those of Albert Bigelow Paine and F. A. Duneka as well as Mark Twain, but nothing added later than that has been included. The notes have been printed as written; the color of ink is specified only when it indicates that the note was written later than the manuscript page. Superscript letters and numbers have been lowered to the line.
MTPDocEd [begin page 414] APPENDIX B
Working Notes and Related Matter Show Headnote Because Mark Twain's notes bear directly on the texts and branch out in so many imaginative paths indirectly, the notes are translated into type as faithfully as possible.
They have been grouped on the basis of physical characteristics, comparisons with the manuscript, the matter treated within each set, internal cohesion, and topical references. When Mark Twain numbered his pages, his numbers have been printed.
Because Mark Twain's notes bear directly on the texts and branch out in so many imaginative paths indirectly, the notes are translated into type as faithfully as possible.
They have been grouped on the basis of physical characteristics, comparisons with the manuscript, the matter treated within each set, internal cohesion, and topical references. When Mark Twain numbered his pages, his numbers have been printed. In addition, I have given a number to each manuscript leaf within a sequence.
St. Petersburg FragmentGroup A [begin page 415] St. Petersburg Fragment
Group A These notes, on two sheets of Hotel Metropole stationery in black ink, were probably written just after Mark Twain's arrival in Vienna in 1897.1 The notes on p. A-2 eventually found expression in “Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes” ( WWD , pp. 433–553).
A-1 1
Human Race,
Destroy Moral Sense; or
“ the Race?
The Chronicle of Young Satan [begin page 417] The Chronicle of Young Satan Group A This first group is probably the earliest set of working notes for “The Chronicle of Young Satan.” It was written in pencil on a sheet of heavy buff paper identical to the original pp. 1–96 of the manuscript, probably in November 1897 before the composition of the first chapter. Later notes were added in ink after the first chapter was written, but before the second was begun.
Schoolhouse Hill [begin page 428] Schoolhouse Hill Notebook Entry, November 1898 This sketch for the adventures of “little Satan, jr” with Huck and Tom, in St. Petersburg and in hell, immediately precedes in time the composition of “Schoolhouse Hill,” but bears a relationship to the “Schoolhouse Hill” fragment in only a few particulars. It was written shortly after 8 November 1898 in Notebook 32.
Story of little Satan, jr, who came to Petersburg (Hannibal) went to school, was popular and greatly liked by Huck and Tom who knew his secret.
No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger [begin page 450] No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger Group A These notes, on a single sheet of glossy pearl-gray Par Value tablet paper, are in the same dark blue ink as the first 171 pages of the manuscript and were probably written during their composition.
A-1 lightning rod
not permitted
to search
Arthur tales—
Go it, Galahad
Launcelot
Japan
rocket
Notes.
Page of Discarded Manuscript Page of Discarded Manuscript This single discarded page of manuscript on cross-barred paper may be an early effort to explore the material used in these manuscripts. It may equally have come from some closely related manuscript: only once in the Mysterious Stranger stories is Traum or Satan or 44 characterized as “The Prince of Darkness.”
1
The rain continued to beat softly upon the panes, & the wind to sigh & wail about the eaves.
MTPDocEd Glossary of Print Workshop Terms Show Headnote Rather than define each printing term as it occurs in the text, I have assembled them here in a glossary. The definitions, often condensed, derive mostly from Herbert Simon and Harry Carter, Printing Explained (Leicester, 1931). As early as 1886, Clemens used many of these same terms in his speech, “The Compositor,” delivered to a group of printers on Franklin's birthday; Hartford Courant, 20 January 1886.
MTPDocEd [begin page 487] Textual Commentary Description of the Texts
In the eleven-year period during which he worked on, set aside, and returned to the three Mysterious Stranger manuscripts, Mark Twain employed a variety of materials. The physical characteristics of the manuscripts make it possible to distinguish the stages in which the works were composed and revised, and, taken together with external evidence and the literary analysis presented in the Introduction, to establish an accurate chronology of composition.
MTPDocEd Editorial Emendations of the Copy-Texts
[Headnote] The emended reading as it appears in the text of this edition is given first, followed by a square bracket and an identification of the source for the change. Corrections made by Mark Twain's typist in the course of transcription are designated “TS”; Albert Bigelow Paine's corrections on the typescripts “TS-ABP”; those which appear in the 1916 edition are designated “Paine I.
MTPDocEd MARK TWAIN'S
MYSTERIOUS STRANGER MANUSCRIPTS Edited with an Introduction by
William M. Gibson
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley and Los Angeles
1969, 2019
Mark Twain's
Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts
Mark Twain Project Online Edition
Foreword (2019) The Mark Twain Project Online (MTPO) edition of Mark Twain's Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts reproduces the text of William M. Gibson's 1969 edition. Additional endnotes have been added to the MTPO edition.
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] Introduction Mark twain's The Mysterious Stranger, A Romance, as published in 1916 and reprinted since that date, is an editorial fraud perpetrated by Twain's official biographer and literary executor, Albert Bigelow Paine, and Frederick A. Duneka of Harper & Brothers publishing company. When I first read the three manuscript versions of the narrative in the Mark Twain Papers, like other scholars who had seen them, I found this dismaying conclusion to be inescapable.
MTPO Doc Ed 1
Introduction Mark twain's The Mysterious Stranger, A Romance, as published in 1916 and reprinted since that date, is an editorial fraud perpetrated by Twain's official biographer and literary executor, Albert Bigelow Paine, and Frederick A. Duneka of Harper & Brothers publishing company. When I first read the three manuscript versions of the narrative in the Mark Twain Papers, like other scholars who had seen them, I found this dismaying conclusion to be inescapable.
MTPDocEd The Chronicle of Young Satan [begin page 35] Chapter 1 It was 1702—May.Ⓐtextual note Austria was far away from the world, and asleep; it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so forever. Some evenⒶalteration in the MS set it away back centuries uponⒶalteration in the MS centuries and said that by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Faith in Austria.
MTPDocEd Schoolhouse HillⒶtextual note [begin page 175] Chapter 1 It was not much short of fifty years ago—and a frosty morning. Up the nakedⒶalteration in the MS long slant of Schoolhouse Hill the boys and girls of Petersburg village were struggling from various directions against the fierce wind, and making slow and difficult progress. The wind was not the only hindrance, nor the worst; the slope was steel-clad in frozen snow, and the foothold offered was far from trustworthy.
MTPDocEd No. 44, The Mysterious StrangerⒶtextual note [begin page 221] Chapter 1 It was in 1490—winterⒶtextual note. Austria was far away from the world, and asleep; it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so forever. Some even set it away back centuries upon centuries and said that by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Faith in Austria.
MTPO Doc Ed APPENDIX A: Marginal Notes This list of marginalia includes those of Albert Bigelow Paine and F. A. Duneka as well as Mark Twain, but nothing added later than that has been included. The notes have been printed as written; the color of ink is specified only when it indicates that the note was written later than the manuscript page. Superscript letters and numbers have been lowered to the line.
MTPO Doc Ed The emended reading as it appears in the text of this edition is given first, followed by a square bracket and an identification of the source for the change. Corrections made by Mark Twain's typist in the course of transcription are designated “TS”; Albert Bigelow Paine's corrections on the typescripts “TS-ABP”; those which appear in the 1916 edition are designated “Paine I.” Mark Twain's authoritative revisions are designated “TS-MT.
MTPO Doc Ed Rather thans define each printing term as it occurs in the text, I have assembled them here in a glossary. The definitions, often condensed, derive mostly from Herbert Simon and Harry Carter, Printing Explained (Leicester, 1931). As early as 1886, Clemens used many of these same terms in his speech, “The Compositor,” delivered to a group of printers on Franklin's birthday; Hartford Courant, 20 January 1886.
MTPO Doc Ed APPENDIX B: Working Notes and Related Matter Because Mark Twain's notes bear directly on the texts and branch out in so many imaginative paths indirectly, the notes are translated into type as faithfully as possible.
They have been grouped on the basis of physical characteristics, comparisons with the manuscript, the matter treated within each set, internal cohesion, and topical references. When Mark Twain numbered his pages, his numbers have been printed.
Chapter 1 [begin page 221] Chapter 1 It was in 1490—winterⒶ. Austria was far away from the world, and asleep; it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so forever. Some even set it away back centuries upon centuries and said that by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Faith in Austria. But they meant it as a compliment, not a slur, and it was so taken, and we were all proud of it.
Chapter 2 Chapter 2 I had been familiar with that village life, but now for as much as a year I had been out of it, and was busy learning a trade. I was more curiously than pleasantly situated. I have spoken of Castle Rosenfeld; I have also mentioned a precipiceⒶ which overlooked the river. Well, along this precipice stretched the towered and battlemented mass of a similar castle—prodigious, vine-clad,Ⓐ stately and beautiful, but mouldering to ruin.
Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Of several conveniences there was no lack; among them, fire-wood and room. There was no end of room, we had it to waste. Big or little chambers for all—suit yourself, and change when you liked. For a kitchen we used a spacious room which was high up over the massive and frowning gateway of the castle and looked down the woody steeps and southward over the receding plain.
Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Did it make a stir? Oh, on your life! For nearly two minutes the herd were speechless; and if I may judge by myself, they quaked, and felt pale;Ⓐ then they all broke out at once, and discussed it with animation and most of themⒶ said what an astonishing thing it was—and unbelievable, too, if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes.
Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Things were against that poor waif.Ⓐ HeⒶ had maintained silence when he had had an opportunity to deny that he was a Jail-Bird, and that was bad for him. It got him that name, and he was likely to keep it. The men considered him a milksop because he spared [begin page 244] Ernest Wasserman when it was evident that he could have whipped him.
Chapter 6 Chapter 6 He closed the door, and we sat down and began to talk, and he said it was good and generous of me to come and see him, and he hoped I would be his friend, for he was lonely and so wanted companionship. His words made me ashamed—so ashamed, and I felt so shabby and mean, that I almost had courage enough to come out and tell him how ignoble my errand was and how selfish.
Chapter 7 Chapter 7 To my astonishment I got up thoroughly refreshed when called at sunrise. There was not a suggestion of wine or its effects in my head.
“ItⒶ was all a dream,” I said, gratefully.Ⓐ “I can get along without the mate to it.”
By and by, on a stairway I met 44 coming up with a great load of wood, and he said, beseechingly,
Chapter 8 Chapter 8 I slipped out and fled. It was wise, for in this way I escaped the first heat of their passion, or I should have gotten not merely insults but kicks and cuffs added. I hid deep down and far away, in an unvisited part of the castle among a maze of dark passages and corridors. Of courseⒶ I had no thought of keeping my promise to visit 44; but in the circumstances he would not expect it—I knew that.
Chapter 9 Chapter 9 It was a black and mournful time, that Friday morning that the works stood idle for the first time in their history. There was no hope. As usual the men went over to early mass in the village, like the rest of us, but they did not come back for breakfast—naturally. They came an hour later, and idled about and put in the dullⒶ timeⒶ the best they could, with dreary chat, and gossip, and prophecies, and cards.
Chapter 10 [begin page 271] Chapter 10 It was a lovely Sunday, calm and peaceful and holy,Ⓐ and bright with sunshine. It seemed strange that there could be jarrings and enmities in so beautiful a world. As the forenoon advancedⒶ the household began to appear, one after another, and all in their best; the women in their comeliest gowns, the men in velvetsⒶ and laces, with snug-fitting hose that gave the tendons and muscles of their legs a chance to show their quality.
Chapter 11 Chapter 11 To katrina and me the miracle meant that my card had turned up, and we were full of joy and confidence. Doangivadam was coming, we were sure of it. I hurried to the Owl Tower and resumed my watch.
But it was another disappointment. The day wasted away, hour by hour, the night closed down, the moon rose, and still he did not come.
Chapter 12 Chapter 12 We arrivedⒶ back to our beer-and-chess room troubled and miserable. Our adventure went the rounds ofⒶ the castle, and soon the ladies and the servants came, pale and frightened, and when they heard the facts it knocked them dumb for one while, which was not a bad thing.
But the men were not dumb. They boldly proposed to denounce the magician to the Church and get him burnt, for this thing was a [begin page 284] little too much, they said.
Chapter 13 Chapter 13 Next dayⒶ was pretty dreary. The men wouldn't go to work, but loafed around moody and sour and uncomfortable. There was not much talk; what there was was mumbled, in the main, by pairs. There was no general conversation. At meals silence was the rule. At night there was no jollityⒶ, and before ten all had disappeared to their rooms and the castle was a dim and grim solitude.
Chapter 14 Chapter 14 The freight wagon left at dawn; the honored guests had a late breakfast, paid down theⒶ money on the contract, then after a good-bye bottle they departed in their carriage. About ten the master, full of happiness and forgiveness and benevolent feeling, had the men assembled in the beer-and-chess room, and began a speech that was full of praises of the generous way they had thrown ill-will to the winds at the last moment and loaded the wagon last night and saved the honor and the life of his house—and went on and on, like that, with the water in his eyes and his voice trembling; and there the men sat and stared at one another, and at the master, [begin page 293] with their mouths open and their breath standing still; till at last Katzenyammer burst out with—
Chapter 15 Chapter 15 But whenⒶ we got there I saw that 44 was not minded to pray, but was full of other and temporalⒶ interests. I was shocked, and deeply concerned; for I felt rising in me with urgencyⒶ a suspicion which had troubled me several times before, but which I had ungently put from me each time—that he was indifferent to religion. I questioned him—he confessed it!
Chapter 16 Chapter 16 Forty-four, by grace of his right to wear a swordⒶ, was legally a gentleman. It suited his whim, now, to come out dressed as one. He was clever, but ill balanced; and whenever he saw a particularly good chance to be a fool, pie couldn't persuade him to let it go by; he had to sample it, he couldn't seem to help it.
Chapter 17 Chapter 17 I went invisible the most of the next day, for I had no heart to talk about common matters, and had rather a shrinking from talking about the matter which was uppermost in all minds. I was full of sorrow, and also of remorse, which is the way with us in the first days of a bereavement, and at such times we wish to be alone with our trouble and our bitter recallings of failings of loyalty or love toward the comrade who is gone.
Chapter 18 Chapter 18 My senses forsook meⒶ and I should have fallen, but it put up its hand and flipped its fingers toward me and this brought an influence of some kind which banished my faint and restored me; yes, more than that, for I was fresher and finer now than I had been before the fatigues of the funeral. I started away at once and with such hasteⒶ as I could command, for I had never seen the day that I was not afraid of a ghost or would stay where one was if there was another place convenient.
Chapter 19 Chapter 19 Day after day went by, and Father AdolfⒶ was a busy man, for he was the head of the Commission charged with trying and punishing the magician; but he had no luck, he could come upon no trace of the necromancer. He was disappointed and exasperated, [begin page 317] and he swore hard and drank hard, but nothing came of it, he made no progress in his hunt.
Chapter 20 Chapter 20 A week passed.
Meantime, where was he? what was become of him? I had gone often to his room, but had alwaysⒶ foundⒶ it vacant. I was missing him sorely. Ah, he was so interesting! there was none that could approach him for that. And there could not be a more engaging mystery than he. He was always doing and saying strange and curious things, and then leaving them but half explained or not explained at all.
Chapter 21 Chapter 21 I spent a wearying and troubled night, for in my dreams I was a memberⒶ of that ruined family and suffering with it through a dragging long stretch of years; and the infamous priest whose life had been saved at cost of these pains and sorrowsⒶ seemed always present and drunk and mocking. At last I woke. In the dimmest of cold gray dawns I made out a figure sitting by my bed—an old and white-headed man in the coarse dress of a peasant.
Chapter 22 Chapter 22 It was in my room. He brought it—the breakfast—dish after dish, smoking hot, from my empty cupboard, and briskly set the table, talking all the while—ah, yes, and pleasantly, fascinatingly, winningly; and not about that so-recent episode, but about these fragrant refreshments and the far countries he had summonedⒶ them [begin page 330] from—Cathay,Ⓐ India, and everywhere; and as I was famishing, this talk was pleasingⒶ, indeed captivating, and under its influence my sour mood presently passed from me.
Chapter 23 [begin page 335] Chapter 23 Young as I was—I was barely seventeen—Ⓐmy days were now sodden with depressions, there was little or no rebound.Ⓐ My interest in the affairs of the castle and of its occupants faded out and disappeared; I kept to myself and took little or no note of the daily happenings; my Duplicate performed all my duties, and I had nothing to do but wander aimlessly about and be unhappy.
Chapter 24 [begin page 342] Chapter 24 I floated off to my room through the unresisting air, and stirred up my fire and sat down to enjoy my happiness and study over the enigma of those names. By ferretingⒶ out of my memory certain scraps and shredsⒶ of information garnered from 44's talks I presently untangled the matter, and arrived at an explanation—which was this: the presence of my flesh-and-bloodⒶ personality was not a circumstance of any interest to Marget Regen,Ⓐ but my presence as a spirit acted upon her hypnotically—as 44 termed it—and plunged her into the somnambulic sleep.
Chapter 25 Chapter 25 That nightⒶ I had a terrible misfortune. The way it came about was this. I was so unutterably happy and so unspeakably unhappy that my life was become an enchanted ecstasy and a crushing burden. I did not know what to do, and took to drink. Merely for [begin page 351] that evening.Ⓐ It was by Doangivadam's suggestion that I did this. He did not know what the matter was, and I did not tell him; but he could see that something was the matter and wanted regulating, and in his judgment it would be well to try drink, for it might do good and couldn't do harm.
Chapter 26 Chapter 26 I was so miserable! A whole endless hour dragged along.Ⓐ Oh, why didn't he come, why didn't he come! wouldn't he ever come, and I so in need of his help and comfort!
It was awfully still and solemn and midnighty, and this made me feel creepy and shivery and afraid of ghosts; and that was natural, for the placeⒶ was foggyⒶ with them, as Ernest Wasserman said,Ⓐ who was the most unexact person in his language in the whole castle, foggy beingⒶ a noun of multitude and not applicable to ghosts, for they seldom appear in large companies, but mostly by ones and twos, and then—oh, then, whenⒶ they go flitting by in the gloom like forms made of delicateⒶ smoke, and you see the furniture through them—
Chapter 27 Chapter 27 I woke up fresh and fine and vigorous, and found I had been asleep a little more than six minutes. The sleeps which he furnished had no dependence upon time, no connection with it, no relation to it; sometimes they did their work in one interval, sometimes in another, sometimes in half a second, sometimes in half a day, according to whether there was an interruption or wasn't; but let the interval be long or short, the result was the same: that is to say, the reinvigoration was perfect, the physical and mental refreshment complete.
Chapter 28 Chapter 28 He could not speak, for emotion; for the same cause my voice forsook me; and so,Ⓐ in silence we grasped hands again; and that grip, strong and warm, said for us what our tongues could not utter. At that moment the cat entered, and stood looking at us. Under her [begin page 371] grave gaze a shame-faced discomfort, a sense of embarrassment, began to steal over me, just as would have been the case if she had been a human being who had caught me in that gushyⒶ and sentimental situation, and I felt myself blushing.
Chapter 29 Chapter 29 I stirred my brotherⒶ up, and we talked the time away while waiting for the magician to come. I said his coming was a most uncertain thing, for he was irregular, and not at all likely to come when wanted, but Schwarz was anxious to stay and take the chances; so we did as I have said—talked and waited. He told me a great deal about his life and ways as a dream-spriteⒶ, and did it in a skipping and disconnected fashion proper to his species.
Chapter 30 Chapter 30 The cat walked in, waving her tail, then gathered it upⒶ in her right arm, as she might a train, and minced her way to the middle of the room, where she faced the magician and rose up and bent lowⒶ and spread her hands wide apart, as if it was a gown she was spreading, then sank her body grandly rearward—certainly the neatest thing you ever saw, considering the limitedness of the materials.
Chapter 31 Chapter 31 It was a dark, sour, gloomy morning, and bleak and cold, with a slanting veil of powdery snow driving along,Ⓐ and a clamorous hollow wind bellowing down the chimneys and rumbling around the battlements and towers—just the right weather for the occasion, 44 said, nothing could improve it but an eclipse. That gave him an idea, and he said he would do an eclipse; not a real one, but an artificial one that nobody but Simon Newcomb could tellⒺ from the original Jacobs—so he started it at once, and it certainly did make those yawning old stone tunnels pretty dim and sepulchral, and also of course it furnished an additional uncanniness and muffledness to way-off footfalls, taking the harshness out of them and the edge off their echoes, because when you walk on that kind of eclipsy gloominess on a stone floor it squshes under the foot and makes that dull effect which is so shuddery and uncomfortable in these crumbly old castles where there has been such ages of cruelty and captivity and murder and mystery.
Chapter 32 Chapter 32 Forty-Four, still playing Balthasar Hoffman the magician, entered briskly now, and threw himself in a chair. The cat emerged with confidence, spread herself, purring, in his lap, and said—
“This Duplicate wouldn't believe me when I told him, and when [begin page 395] I proved it he tried to cram a boot-jackⒶ down my throat, thinking to scare me, which he didn't, didn't you, Duplicate?
Chapter 33 Chapter 33 Surely Forty-Four was the flightiest creature that ever was! Nothing interested him long at a time. He would contrive the most elaborate projects, and put his whole mind and heart into them, then he would suddenly drop them, in the midst of their fulfilment, and start something fresh. It was just so with his Assembly of the Dead. He summoned those forlorn wrecks from all the world and from all the epochs and ages, and then, when everything was ready for the exhibition, he wanted to flit back to Moses's time and see the EgyptiansⒶ floundering around in the Dead Sea, and take me along with him.
Chapter 34 Chapter 34 “And you are going awayⒶ, and will not come back any more.”
“Yes,” he said. “We have comraded long together, and it has been pleasant—pleasant for both; but I must go now, and we shall not see each other any more.”
“In this life, 44, but in another? We shall meet in another, surely, 44?”
Then all tranquilly and soberly he made the strange answer—
Chapter 1 [begin page 175] Chapter 1 It was not much short of fifty years ago—and a frosty morning. Up the nakedⒶalteration in the MS long slant of Schoolhouse Hill the boys and girls of Petersburg village were struggling from various directions against the fierce wind, and making slow and difficult progress. The wind was not the only hindrance, nor the worst; the slope was steel-clad in frozen snow, and the foothold offered was far from trustworthy.
Chapter 2 Chapter 2 The girls went vivaciously chattering away, eager to get home and tell of the wondersⒶalteration in the MS they had seen; but outside of the schoolhouse the boys grouped themselves together and waited; silent, expectant, and nervous. They paid but little attention to the bitter weather, they were apparently under the spell of a more absorbing interest. Henry Bascom stood apart from the others, in the neigh- [begin page 186] borhood of the door.
Chapter 3 [begin page 190] Chapter 3 Within an hour afterward people began to drop in at the Hotchkiss house; ostensibly to make a friendly call, really to get sight of the miraculous boy. The news they brought soon made the Hotchkisses proud of their prize and glad that they had caught him. Mr. Hotchkiss's pride and joy were frank and simple; every new marvel that any comer added to the list of his lodger's great deeds made him a prouder and happier man than he was before, he being a person substantially without jealousies and by nature addicted to admirations.
Chapter 4 Chapter 4 As the darkness closed down an hour later, what is to this day called the Great Storm began. It was in reality a Blizzard, but that expressiveⒶalteration in the MS word had not then been invented. It was this storm'sⒶalteration in the MS mission to bury the farms and villages ofⒶalteration in the MS a long narrow strip of country for ten daysⒶalteration in the MS, and do it as compactly and as thoroughly as the mud and ashes had buried Pompeii nearly eighteen centuries before.
Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Hotchkiss sank into his chair weak and limp, and began to pour out broken words and disjointed sentences whose meanings were not always clear but whose general idea was comprehensible. To this effect: from custom bred of his upbringing and his associations he had often talked about Satan with a freedom which was regrettableⒶemendation, but it was really only talk, mere idle talk, he didn't mean anything by it; in fact there were many points about Satan's character which he greatly admired, and although he hadn't said so, publicly, it was an oversight and not intentional—but from this out he meant to open his mouth boldly, let people say what they might and think what they chose—
Chapter 6 [begin page 219] Chapter 6 In the morning the world was still invisible, for the powdery snow was still sifting thickly down—noiselessly, now, for the wind had ceased to blow. The new devil appeared in the kitchen and scared aunt Rachel and uncle Jeff out of it, and they fled to the master's room with the tale. Hotchkiss explained the situation and told them there was no harm in this devil, but a great deal of good; and that he was the property of the wonderful boy, who had strongly recommended him.
MTPO Doc Ed Electronic Title Page The Works of Mark Twain THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER Edited by VICTOR FISCHER and LIN SALAMO
With the Assistance of
MARY JANE JONES
PUBLISHED FOR
THE IOWA CENTER FOR TEXTUAL STUDIES BY THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley, Los Angeles, London
1979, 2019
Abbreviations ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations and location symbols have been used in annotations. AD Autobiographical Dictation
MTPDocEd [begin page 345] APPENDIX A
Mark Twain’s Working Notes Show Headnote Mark Twain's notes for The Prince and the Pauper provide a remarkably varied record of the author at work. They comprise extensive notes on English history and long lists of words and idioms which Mark Twain copied from his reading, interspersed with some of his earliest ideas for the book. Later notes, obviously made during the course of composition, show the author jotting down new ideas and refining what he had already written.
MTPDocEd [begin page 376] APPENDIX B
A Boy's Adventure The original manuscript of the whipping boy's story is lost; this edition reproduces the episode as it appeared in the Hartford Bazar Budget, 4 June 1880, pp. 1–2. It has also been published in Kenneth R. Andrews' Nook Farm (pp. 243–246) and was privately printed by Merle Johnson in 1928. Mark Twain included a similar story, sometimes called “The Bull and the Bees,” in Book II, chapter 36, of Joan of Arc.
MTPDocEd Explanatory Notes
[Headnote] [See the introduction (pp. 19–25) for a general discussion of the historical sources of The Prince and the Pauper and for complete publication information on the works cited below only by author and short title.]
MTPDocEd [begin page 389] TEXTUAL INTRODUCTION Mark twain's manuscript of The Prince and the Pauper has survived, but the secretarial transcription that evidently served as printer's copy and the proof sheets that the author saw and revised have both been lost. The textual history of the first American edition, published in Boston by James R. Osgood and Company on 12 December 1881, therefore rests chiefly on the evidence obtained from collations of the author's manuscript, the publisher's prospectus, and the two states of that edition.
MTPDocEd Guide to the Textual Apparatus Description of Texts identifies and discusses editions published in Mark Twain's lifetime and specifies copies collated and examined in the preparation of this edition.
Textual Notes specify those features of the text discussed generally in the textual introduction, record all of Mark Twain's marginalia in the manuscript, and discuss adopted readings and aspects of Mark Twain's revision which require fuller explanation.
MTPDocEd Description of Texts The following texts have been collated, and the collation results are reported in the textual apparatus because of the light they shed on the writing and revision of The Prince and the Pauper. The symbols on the left are used in this volume to identify the texts. Following the description of texts is a list of the specific copies of each edition used in the preparation of this volume.
MTPDocEd Textual Notes
[Headnote] These notes specify features of the text which are treated generally in the textual introduction, and discuss adopted readings and aspects of authorial revision which require fuller explanation. Mark Twain's marginalia in the manuscript are included here in full; usually they are self-explanatory or explained by their context, and are therefore merely quoted and described without comment. Other features of the manuscript included here are drafts of letters, notes or fragments from other literary works, and notations in handwriting other than Mark Twain's.
MTPDocEd Emendations of the Copy-Text
[Headnote] Readings adopted in this edition from a source other than the copy-text, Mark Twain's manuscript, are recorded here. The only copy-text readings changed without listing are the forms peculiar to the written page and the typographical features discussed in the textual introduction. Mechanical errors in inscription occasioned by incomplete revision in the manuscript are noted in the list of alterations in the manuscript.
MTPDocEd Historical Collation
[Headnote] This collation records all variant substantive readings among the following texts:
MS Mark Twain's manuscript
Pr Publisher's prospectus for the first American edition
A First American edition
E First English edition
C First Canadian edition
In each entry, a dot separates the adopted reading on the left from the rejected variant or variants on the right. Variant states of a single edition are designated by lowercase letters following the symbol for the edition.
MTPDocEd Alterations in the Manuscript
[Headnote and Ink-type List] The list of alterations records every change made by Mark Twain in the manuscript. The only exceptions are the essential corrections that he made as he wrote or reread his work. These fall into six categories: (1) letters or words that have been mended, traced over, or canceled and rewritten for clarity; (2) false starts and slips of the pen; (3) corrected eye skips; (4) words or phrases that have been inadvertently repeated, then canceled; (5) corrected misspellings; and (6) inadvertent additions of letters or punctuation that have been subsequently canceled—for instance, an incorrect “they” or “then” altered to “the,” or superfluous quotation marks canceled at the end of a narrative passage.
[...on the birth of the Prince of Wales...] [begin page 28] [...on the birth of the Prince of Wales...] Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, to Lord Cromwell, on the birth of the Prince of Wales (afterward Edward VI.). ———
from the national manuscripts preserved by the british government.
———
X [begin page 29] Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, to Lord Cromwell, on the birth of the Prince of Wales (afterward Edward VI.
[Frontispiece and Title Page] [Frontispiece and Title Page] [begin page 30] X [begin page 31] THE PRINCE
AND THE PAUPER
A TALE
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE OF ALL AGESⒶtextual note BY
MARK TWAIN
Textual Notes [Frontispiece and Title Page] Ⓐ The Prince and the Pauper . . . AGES] Mark Twain took pains with the title and subtitle of his book. The manuscript includes a title page (written in ink 3 on white wove paper) which originally read “The Little Prince | and the | Little Pauper.
[Dedication] [Dedication] [begin page 32] [blank verso]
[begin page 33] to those good-mannered and agreeable children,
Susie and Clara Clemens ,
this book is affectionately inscribed by their father.
[Epigraph] [Epigraph] [begin page 34] [blank verso]
[begin page 35] The quality of mercy . . .
is twice bless’d;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes;
’Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The thronèdⒶemendation monarch better than his crown.
Merchant of Venice.
Editorial Emendations [Epigraph] Ⓐ thronèd (I-C) ● thronéd
CONTENTS CONTENTS 1. The Birth of the Prince and the Pauper 2. Tom’s Early Life 3. Tom’s Meeting with the Prince 4. The Prince’s Troubles Begin 5. Tom as a Patrician 6. Tom Receives Instructions 7. Tom’s First Royal Dinner 8. The Question of the Seal 9. The River Pageant 10. The Prince in the Toils 11. At Guildhall 12. The Prince and His Deliverer 13. The Disappearance of the Prince 14.
List of Illustrations List of Illustrations The Great Seal (Frontispiece) The Birth of the Prince and the Pauper (Chapter 1) “Splendid pageants and great bonfires.” Tom’s Early Life (Chapter 2) Offal Court “With any miserable crust.” “He often read the priest’s books.” “Saw poor Anne Askew burned.” “Brought their perplexities to Tom.” “Longing for the pork-pies.” Tom’s Meeting with the Prince (Chapter 3) “At Temple Bar.
[Preface] [Preface] I will setⒶtextual note down a tale as it was told to me by one who had it of his father, which latter had it of his father, this last having in like manner had it of his father—and so on, back and still back, three hundred years and more, the fathers transmitting it to the sons and so preserving it. It may be history, it may be only a legend, a tradition.
CHAPTER 1 [begin page 47] CHAPTERⒶhistorical collation 1Ⓐalteration in the MS X In the ancient city of London, on a certain autumn day in the second quarter of the sixteenth century,Ⓐalteration in the MS a boy was born to a poorⒶalteration in the MS family of the name of Canty, who did not want him. On the same day another English child was born to a richⒶalteration in the MS family of the name of Tudor, who did want him.
CHAPTER 2 [begin page 49] CHAPTER 2 X Let us skip Ⓐtextual note a number ofⒶalteration in the MS years.
London was fifteen hundred years old, and was a great town—for thatⒶalteration in the MS day. It had a hundred thousand inhabitants—some thinkⒶalteration in the MS double as many.Ⓐalteration in the MS The streets were very narrow, and crooked, and dirty,Ⓐalteration in the MS especially in the part where Tom Canty livedⒶtextual note, which was not far from London Bridge.
CHAPTER 3 [begin page 57] CHAPTER 3 X Tom got up hungryⒶalteration in the MS and sauntered hungry away but with his thoughts busy with the shadowy splendors of his night’s dreams.Ⓐalteration in the MS He wandered here and there in the city, hardly noticing where he was going or what was happening around him. People jostled him, and some gave him rough speech, but it was all lost on the musingⒶalteration in the MS boy.
CHAPTER 4 [begin page 67] CHAPTER 4Ⓐalteration in the MS X After hours of persistent pursuit and persecution,Ⓐalteration in the MS the little prince was at last deserted by the rabble and left to himself. As longⒶalteration in the MS as he had been able to rage against the mob, and threaten it royally, and royally utter commands that were good stuff to laugh at, he was very entertaining; but when weariness finally forced him to be silent, he was no longer of useⒶalteration in the MS to his tormentors, and they sought amusement elsewhere.
CHAPTER 5 [begin page 73] CHAPTER 5Ⓐalteration in the MS X Tom canty, left alone in the prince’s cabinet,Ⓐalteration in the MS made good use of his opportunity. He turned himself this way and that, before the greatⒶalteration in the MS mirror, admiring his finery; then walked away,Ⓐalteration in the MS imitatingⒶalteration in the MS the prince’s high-bred carriage, and still observing results in the glass. Next he drew the beautiful sword, and bowed, kissingⒶalteration in the MS the blade and laying it across his breast, as he had seen a noble knight do, by way of salute to the Lieutenant of the Tower, five or six weeks before, when deliveringⒶalteration in the MS the great lords of Norfolk andⒶalteration in the MS Surrey into his hands for captivity.
CHAPTER 6 [begin page 85] CHAPTER 6Ⓐalteration in the MS X Tom was conducted to the principal apartment of a noble suite, and made to sit down—a thing which he was loth to do, sinceⒶalteration in the MS there were elderly menⒶalteration in the MS and men of high degree about him. He begged them to be seated, also, but they only bowed their thanks or murmured them, and remained standing.
CHAPTER 7 [begin page 97] CHAPTER 7Ⓐalteration in the MS X Somewhat after one in the afternoon, Tom resignedly underwent the ordeal of being dressed for dinner. He found himself as finely clothed as before, but everything different, everything changed, from his ruff to his stockings. He was presently conducted with much state to a spacious and ornate apartment where a tableⒶalteration in the MS was already set—for one.
CHAPTER 8 [begin page 103] CHAPTER 8Ⓐalteration in the MS X About five o’clock Henry VIIIⒶalteration in the MS awoke out of an unrefreshing nap, and muttered to himself,Ⓐalteration in the MS “TroublousⒶalteration in the MS dreams, troublous dreams! Mine end is now at hand—so say these warnings, and my failing pulses do confirm it.” PresentlyⒶalteration in the MS a wicked light flamed upⒶalteration in the MS in his eye,Ⓐalteration in the MS and he muttered, “Yet will not I die till he go before!
CHAPTER 9 [begin page 107] CHAPTER 9Ⓐalteration in the MS X At nine in the eveningⒶalteration in the MS the whole vast river-front of the palace was blazing with light. The river itself, as far as the eye could reach, citywards,Ⓐalteration in the MS was so thickly covered with watermen’s boats and with pleasure-barges, all fringed with colored lanternsⒶalteration in the MS, and gentlyⒶalteration in the MS agitated by the waves, that it resembled a glowing and limitless garden of flowers stirred to soft motion by summer winds.
CHAPTER 10 [begin page 111] CHAPTER 10Ⓐalteration in the MS X We left Ⓐtextual note John Canty dragging the rightful prince into Offal Court, with a noisy and delighted mob at his heels. There was but one person in it who offered a pleading word for the captive, and he was not heeded; he was hardly even heard, so great was the turmoil. The prince continued to struggle for freedom and to rageⒶalteration in the MS against the treatment he was suffering, until John Canty lost what little patience was left in him, and raised his oaken cudgel in a sudden fury over the prince’s head.
CHAPTER 11 [begin page 123] CHAPTER 11Ⓐalteration in the MS X The royal barge, attended by its gorgeous fleet, took its stately way down the Thames through the wilderness of illuminated boats. The air was laden with music; the river banks were beruffled with joy-flames;Ⓐalteration in the MS the distant city lay in a soft luminous glow from its countless invisible bonfires; above it rose many a slender spire into the sky, encrusted with sparkling lights, wherefore in their remoteness they seemed like jeweled lances thrust aloft; as the fleet swept along,Ⓐalteration in the MS it was greeted from the banks with a continuous hoarse roar of cheers and the ceaseless flash and boom of artillery.
CHAPTER 12 [begin page 131] CHAPTER 12Ⓐalteration in the MS X As soon as Miles Hendon and the little prince were clear of the mobⒶalteration in the MS, they struck down through back lanes and alleys toward the river. Their way was unobstructed until they approached London BridgeⒶemendation; then they plowed into the multitude again, Hendon keeping a fast grip upon the prince’s—no, the king’s—wrist. The tremendous news was already abroad, and the boy learned it fromⒶalteration in the MS a thousand voices at once—“The king is dead!
CHAPTER 13 [begin page 147] CHAPTER 13Ⓐalteration in the MS X A heavy drowsiness presently fell upon the two comrades.Ⓐalteration in the MS The king said—
“Remove these rags”—Ⓐalteration in the MSmeaning his clothing.
Hendon disappareled the boy without dissent or remark, tuckedⒶalteration in the MS him up in bed, then glanced about the room, saying to himself, ruefully, “He hath taken my bed again, as before—marry, what shall I do?
CHAPTER 14 [begin page 155] CHAPTER 14Ⓐalteration in the MS X Toward daylight of the same morning,Ⓐalteration in the MS Tom Canty stirred out of a heavy sleep and opened his eyes in the dark. He lay silent a few moments, trying to analyze his confused thoughts and impressions,Ⓐalteration in the MS and get some sort of meaning out of them, then suddenly he burst out in a rapturousⒶalteration in the MS but guarded voice—
CHAPTER 15 [begin page 169] CHAPTER 15Ⓐalteration in the MS X The next day the foreign ambassadors came, with their gorgeous trains;Ⓐalteration in the MS and Tom, throned in awful state,Ⓐalteration in the MS received them. The splendors of the scene delighted his eye and fired his imaginationⒶalteration in the MS, at first, but the audience was longⒶalteration in the MS and dreary, and so were mostⒶalteration in the MS of the addresses—wherefore,Ⓐalteration in the MS what began as a pleasure, grewⒶalteration in the MS into weariness and homesicknessⒶemendation by and by.
CHAPTER 16 [begin page 181] CHAPTER 16Ⓐalteration in the MS X The dinner hour drew near—yet strangely enough, the thought brought but slight discomfort to Tom, and hardly any terror. The morning’s experiences had wonderfully built up his confidence; the poor little ash-catⒶemendation was already more wonted to his strange garret, after four days’ habit,Ⓐalteration in the MS than a mature person could have become in a full month.
CHAPTER 17 [begin page 187] CHAPTER 17Ⓐalteration in the MS X Miles Hendon Ⓐtextual note hurried along toward the Southwark end of the BridgeⒶemendation, keeping a sharp lookout for the persons he sought, and hoping and expecting to overtake them presently. He was disappointedⒶalteration in the MS in this, however.Ⓐalteration in the MS By asking questions, he was enabled to track them part of the way through Southwark; then all traces ceased, and he was perplexed as to how to proceed.
CHAPTER 18 [begin page 203] CHAPTER 18Ⓐalteration in the MS X The troop of vagabonds turned out at early dawn, and set forward on their march. There was a lowering sky overhead, sloppy ground under foot, and a winter chill in the air. All gaiety was gone from the company; some were sullen and silent, some were irritable and petulant, none were gentle-humored, all were thirsty.
CHAPTER 19 [begin page 215] CHAPTER 19Ⓐalteration in the MS X When the king awoke in the early morning, he found that a wet but thoughtful rat had crept into the place during the night and made a cosy bed for itself in his bosom. Being disturbed, now, it scampered away. The boy smiled, and said, “Poor fool, why so fearful? I am as forlorn as thou.
CHAPTER 20 [begin page 223] CHAPTER 20Ⓐalteration in the MS X The Ⓐalteration in the MS high hedge hid him from the house, now; and so, under the impulse of a deadly fright, he let out all his forces and sped toward a wood in the distance. He never looked back until he had almost gained the shelter of the forest; then he turned and descried two figures in the distance.
CHAPTER 21 [begin page 233] CHAPTER 21Ⓐalteration in the MS X The old man glided away, stooping, stealthy, cat-likeⒶemendation, and brought the low bench. He seated himself upon it, halfⒶalteration in the MS his body in the dim and flickering light, and the other half in shadow; and so, with his cravingⒶalteration in the MS eyes bent upon the slumbering boy, he kept his patient vigil there, heedless of the drift of time, and softly whetted his knife, and mumbled and chuckled; and in aspect and attitude he resembled nothing so much as a grisly,Ⓐalteration in the MS monstrous spider, gloating over some hapless insect that lay bound and helpless in his web.
CHAPTER 22 [begin page 239] CHAPTER 22Ⓐalteration in the MS X Once more “King Foo-fooⒶemendation the First” was roving with the tramps and outlaws, a butt for their coarse jestsⒶalteration in the MS and dull-witted railleries, and sometimes the victim of small spitefulnesses at the hands of Canty and Hugo when the Ruffler’s back was turned. None but Canty and Hugo really disliked him. Some of the others liked him, and all admired his pluck and spirit.
CHAPTER 23 [begin page 247] CHAPTER 23Ⓐalteration in the MS X Hendon forced back a smile, and bent down and whispered in the king’s ear—
“Softly, softly, my prince, wag thy tongue warily—nay, suffer it not to wag at all. Trust in me—all shall go well in the end.” Then he added, to himself: “Sir Miles! Bless me, I had totally forgot I was a knightⒶhistorical collation Ⓐemendation!
CHAPTER 24 [begin page 253] CHAPTER 24Ⓐalteration in the MS X The short winter day was nearly ended. The streets were deserted, save for a few random stragglers, and these hurried straightⒶalteration in the MS along, with the intent look of people who were only anxiousⒶalteration in the MS to accomplish their errands as quickly as possible and then snugly house themselves from the rising wind and the gathering twilight.
CHAPTER 25 [begin page 257] CHAPTER 25Ⓐalteration in the MS X As soon as Hendon and the king were out of sight of the constable, his majesty was instructed to hurry to a certain place outside the town, and wait there, whilst Hendon should go to the inn and settle his account. Half an hour later the two friends were blithelyⒶalteration in the MS jogging eastward on Hendon’s sorry steeds.
CHAPTER 26 [begin page 267] CHAPTER 26Ⓐalteration in the MS X The king Ⓐtextual note sat musing a few moments, then looked up and said—
“’Tis strange—most strange. I cannot account for it.”
“No, it is not strange, my liege. I know him, and this conduct is but natural. He was a rascal from his birthⒶhistorical collation Ⓐemendation.”
“OⒶhistorical collation, I spake not of him, Sir Miles.
CHAPTER 27 [begin page 273] CHAPTER 27Ⓐalteration in the MS X The cells were all crowded; so the two friends were chained in a large room where persons charged with trifling offenses were commonlyⒶalteration in the MS kept. They had company, for there were some twenty manacled and fettered prisoners here, of both sexes and of varying ages,Ⓐalteration in the MS —an obscene and noisy gang. The king chafed bitterly over the stupendous indignity thus put upon his royalty, but Hendon was moodyⒶalteration in the MS and taciturn.
CHAPTER 28 [begin page 285] CHAPTER 28Ⓐalteration in the MS X Meantime Miles was growing sufficiently tired of confinement and inaction. But nowⒶalteration in the MS his trial came on, to his great gratification, and he thought he could welcome any sentence provided a further imprisonment should not be a part of it. But he was mistaken about that. He was in a fine fury when he found himself described as a “sturdy vagabond” andⒶalteration in the MS sentenced to sit two hours in the pillory for bearing that character and for assaulting the master of Hendon Hall.
CHAPTER 29 [begin page 291] CHAPTER 29Ⓐalteration in the MS X When Hendon’s term of service in the stocks was finished, he was released and ordered to quit the region and come back no more. His sword was restored to him, and also his mule and his donkey.Ⓐalteration in the MS He mounted and rode off, followed by the king, the crowd opening with quiet respectfulness to let them pass, and then dispersing when they were gone.
CHAPTER 30 [begin page 295] CHAPTER 30Ⓐalteration in the MS X Whilst the true king wandered about the land; poorly clad, poorly fed;Ⓐalteration in the MS cuffed and derided by tramps, one while; herdingⒶalteration in the MS with thieves and murderers in a jail, another; and called idiot and impostor by all, impartially, the mock kingⒶemendation, Tom Canty, enjoyed a quiteⒶalteration in the MS Ⓐhistorical collation different experience.
CHAPTER 31 [begin page 299] CHAPTER 31Ⓐalteration in the MS X When Tom Canty awoke, the next morning, the air was heavy with a thunderous murmur—all the distances were charged with it. It was music to him, for it meant that the English world was out in its strength to give loyal welcome to the great day.
Presently Tom found himself once more the chief figure in a wonderful floating pageant on the Thames—for, by ancient custom, the “recognition-procession” through London must start from the Tower, and he was bound thither.
CHAPTER 32 [begin page 309] CHAPTER 32Ⓐalteration in the MS X Let us go backward a few hours, and place ourselves in West-minster Abbey, at four o’clock in the morning of this memorable Coronation Day. We are not without company; for although it is still night, we find the torch-lighted galleries already filling up with people who are well content to sit still and wait seven or eight hours till the time shall come for them to see what they may not hope to see twice in their lives—the coronation of a king.
CHAPTER 33 [begin page 323] CHAPTER 33Ⓐalteration in the MS X Miles Hendon was picturesque enoughⒶalteration in the MS before he got into the riot on London Bridge—he was more so when he got out of it.Ⓐalteration in the MS He had but little money when he got in, none at allⒶalteration in the MS when he got out. The pickpockets had stripped him of his last farthing.
CONCLUSION [begin page 333] CONCLUSION X When the mysteries were all cleared up, it came out, by confession of Hugh Hendon, that his wife had repudiated MilesⒶalteration in the MS by his command, that day at Hendon Hall—a command assisted and supported by theⒶalteration in the MS perfectly trustworthy promise that if she did not deny that he was Miles Hendon, and stand firmly to it, he would have her life; whereupon she said take it, she did not value it—and she would not repudiate Miles; then the husband said he would spare her life but have Miles assassinated!
NOTES NOTES [begin page 337] X Note 1Ⓐalteration in the MS.—Page 68.
Christ’s Hospital Costume.
It is mostⒶalteration in the MS reasonable to regardⒶalteration in the MS the dress as copied from the costume of the citizens of London of that period, when long blue coats were the common habit of apprentices and serving-men, and yellow stockings were generally worn; the coat fits closely to the body, but has loose sleeves, and beneath is worn a sleeveless yellow under-coat; around the waist is a red leathern girdle; a clerical band roundⒶhistorical collation the neck, and a small flat black cap, about the size of a saucer, completes the costume.
MTPDocEd Electronic Title Page The Works of Mark Twain THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER Edited by VICTOR FISCHER and LIN SALAMO
With the Assistance of
MARY JANE JONES
PUBLISHED FOR
THE IOWA CENTER FOR TEXTUAL STUDIES
BY THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley, Los Angeles, London
1979, 2019
MTPDocEd ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations and location symbols have been used in annotations.
AD Autobiographical Dictation
Berg Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
CWB Clifton Waller Barrett Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
MS Manuscript
MTP Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] INTRODUCTION In the years since its publication The Prince and the Pauper has been read primarily as a children's story. Yet the book was not intended by its author solely for the nursery bookshelves. Indeed, Mark Twain was never strictly respectful of the distinction between juvenile and adult literature. In later life he remarked, “I have never written a book for boys; I write for grown-ups who have been boys.
MTPO Doc Ed Electronic Title Page
Abbreviations
Introduction
[Preliminaries]
Contents
List of Illustrations
[Epigraph]
CHAPTER 1 The Birth of the Prince and the Pauper
CHAPTER 2 Tom's Early Life CHAPTER 3 Tom's Meeting with the Prince CHAPTER 4 The Prince's Troubles Begin CHAPTER 5 Tom as a Patrician CHAPTER 6 Tom Receives Instructions CHAPTER 7 Tom's First Royal Dinner CHAPTER 8 The Question of the Seal CHAPTER 9 The River Pageant CHAPTER 10 The Prince in the Toils CHAPTER 11 At Guildhall CHAPTER 12 The Prince and His Deliverer CHAPTER 13 The Disappearance of the Prince CHAPTER 14 “le Roi Est Mort—vive le roi” CHAPTER 15 Tom as King CHAPTER 16 The State Dinner CHAPTER 17 Foo-Foo the First CHAPTER 18 The Prince with the Tramps
MTPO Doc Ed Frontispiece and Electronic Title Page Samuel L. Clemens in 1863 (above) and 1872. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK). ROUGHING IT MARK TWAIN Illustrated by True Williams, Edward F. Mullen, and Others Edited by
Harriet Elinor Smith and Edgar Marquess Branch
Associate Editors
Lin Salamo, Robert Pack Browning
Contributing Editors
Richard Bucci, Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Kenneth M. Sanderson
A Publication of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library General Editor, Robert H.
MTPDocEd EXPLANATORY NOTES
[Headnote] In his Prefatory to Roughing It Mark Twain confessed, “Yes, take it all around, there is quite a good deal of information in the book.” These notes are intended to clarify and supplement this information by identifying people, places, and incidents, and by explaining literary allusions and topical references. In addition, they attempt to demonstrate the factuality of the narrative, so that the reader may more fully appreciate the artistry that Mark Twain used to shape his experiences into a work of literature.
MTPDocEd [begin page 769] SUPPLEMENT A
Background Material Supplied by Orion Clemens Item 1: Orion Clemens to Mollie Clemens,
8 and 9 September 1861 When Clemens began to work on Roughing It in July 1870, he asked his brother Orion to help him recall the details of their stagecoach trip to Nevada Territory in July–August 1861: “Have you a memorandum of the route we took—or the names of any of the Stations we stopped at?
MTPDocEd [begin page 782] [begin page 783] SUPPLEMENT B
Maps: Overland Route and Nevada Territory Map i, divided into four adjoining segments, is a large-scale representation of the western United States and territories that figure in the Roughing It narrative. It depicts the route that Samuel Clemens and his brother Orion followed on their journey by overland-mail stagecoach from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Carson City, Nevada Territory, in July–August 1861.
MTPDocEd [begin page 794] SUPPLEMENT C
Horace Greeley to Samuel L. Clemens, 7 May 1871 The letter reproduced here from the original in the Mark Twain Papers (87 percent of actual size, CU-MARK) almost certainly served as the inspiration for Mark Twain’s parody of Greeley’s illegible handwriting in chapter 70. A transcription of the letter is provided below. Greeley evidently wrote it in response to an acknowledgment from Clemens, to whom he had recently given a copy of his new book, What I Know of Farming (1871).
MTPDocEd [begin page 796] [begin page 797] INTRODUCTION 1. An Unexpected Success Roughing It was published in February 1872, a year and a half after Mark Twain began it. His second major book, it was also his second major success, comparable in some ways to his first, The Innocents Abroad (1869). Like Innocents, it was a thickly illustrated six-hundred-page volume published by Elisha Bliss and the American Publishing Company of Hartford and sold exclusively by subscription, at least in the United States.
MTPDocEd [begin page 912] [begin page 913] TEXTUAL APPARATUS
[Headnote] The Textual Apparatus consists of the following sections:
Description of Texts consists of three parts. The first part lists and characterizes the several copy-texts and sources of emendation used in the preparation of this edition of Roughing It. The second part lists derivative texts—that is, partial or complete reprintings which appeared during the author’s lifetime but which show no relevant authorial intervention.
MTPDocEd [begin page 914] Description of Texts Each of the fifteen texts described in “Authoritative Texts” below contains readings pertinent to the establishment of an accurate text for this edition of Roughing It. Many of these are texts written by Mark Twain before he composed Roughing It—sketches, articles, and newspaper letters—which he revised and incorporated into the book (BE, G, SU, TE63). Others are texts written by other authors, from which he quoted in the book (BoM, HoHI, MP, NYT, PCA, TE70, VoM), or which reprinted material subsequently included in the book and which thus intervened in the chain of textual transmission (PT).
MTPDocEd [begin page 934] Textual Notes
[Headnote] The textual notes explain and defend editorial decisions, including extensions of, and occasional exceptions to, the overall policy described in the Introduction (pages 896–911). All abbreviations for texts are fully defined in the Description of Texts.
MTPDocEd [begin page 947] Emendations of the Copy-Text and Rejected Substantives
[Headnote and List of the Text's Correspondences to Copy-texts] This list records every departure of the edited text from each of the successive copy-texts on which it is based. The list therefore identifies alterations presumably made by Mark Twain for Roughing It (A), as well as corrections made independently by the editors (C). Found in the same list (rather than separately, as with previous volumes in the Works of Mark Twain) are also those few substantives in A which the editors reject in favor of the copy-text variants.
MTPDocEd [begin page 1022] [begin page 1023] REFERENCES This list defines the abbreviations used in this book and provides full bibliographic information for works cited by an author’s name, by the author’s name and publication date, or by a short title.
AAA. 1927. The Notable Library of Major W. Van R. Whitall of Pelham, New York. Sale of 14, 15, and 16 February. New York: American Art Association.
X the miner’s dream.
ROUGHING
IT
BY
MARK TWAIN (SAMUEL L. CLEMENS)
FULLY ILLUSTRATED BY EMINENT ARTISTS
TO
CALVIN H. HIGBIE,
Of California,
An Honest Man, a Genial Comrade, and a Steadfast Friend,
THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED
By the Author,
In Memory of the Curious Time
When We Two
WERE MILLIONAIRES FOR TEN DAYS.
PREFATORY PREFATORY This book is merely a personal narrative, and not a pretentious history or a philosophical dissertation. It is a record of several years of variegated vagabondizing, and its object is rather to help the resting reader while away an idle hour than afflict him with metaphysics, or goad him with science. Still, there is information in the volume; information concerning an interesting episode in the history of the Far West, about which no books have been written by persons who were on the ground in person, and saw the happenings of the time with their own eyes.
X 1. The Miner’s Dream (Full Page). Frontispiece Ⓐemendation 2. Envious Contemplations 3. Innocent Dreams 4. Light Traveling Order 5. The “Allen” 6. Inducements to Purchase 7. The Facetious Driver 8. Pleasing News 9. The Sphynx 10. Meditation 11. On Business 12. Author as Gulliver 13. A Tough Statement 14. Third Trip of the Unabridged 15. A Powerful Glass 16. An Heirloom 17. Our Landlord 18. Dignified Exile 19.
CONTENTS CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 My Brother Appointed Secretary of Nevada—I Envy His Prospective Adventures—Am Appointed Private Secretary under Him—My Contentment Complete—Packed in One Hour—Dreams and Visions—On the Missouri River—A “Bully”Ⓐemendation Boat
CHAPTER 2 Arrive at St. Joseph—Only Twenty-five Pounds Baggage Alowed—Farewell to Kid Gloves and Dress Coats—Armed to the Teeth—The “Allen”—A Cheerful Weapon—Persuaded to Buy a Mule—Schedule of Luxuries—We Leave “the States”Ⓐemendation—Our CoachⒶemendation—Mails for the Indians—Between a Wink and an Earthquake—A Modern Sphynx and How She Entertained Us—A Sociable Heifer
CHAPTER 1 [begin page 1] CHAPTER 1 My brother had just been appointed Secretary of Nevada TerritoryⒺexplanatory note—an office of such majesty that it concentrated in itself the duties and dignities of Treasurer, Comptroller, Secretary of State, and Acting Governor in the Governor’s absence. A salary of eighteen hundred dollars a year and the title of “Mr. Secretary,” gave to the great position an air of wild and imposing grandeur.
CHAPTER 2 [begin page 4] CHAPTER 2 The first thing we did on that glad evening that landed us at St. Joseph was to hunt up the stage-office, and pay a hundred and fifty dollars apiece for ticketsⒺexplanatory note per overland coach to Carson City, Nevada.
The next morning, bright and early, we took a hasty breakfast, and hurried to the starting-place. Then an inconvenience presented itself which we had not properly appreciated before, namely, that one cannot make a heavy traveling trunk stand for twenty-five pounds of baggage—because it weighs a good deal more.
CHAPTER 3 [begin page 10] CHAPTER 3 About an hour and a half before daylight we were bowling along smoothly over the road—so smoothly that our cradle only rocked in a gentle, lulling way, that was gradually soothing us to sleep, and dulling our consciousness—when something gave away under us! We were dimly aware of it, but indifferent to it. The coach stopped. We heard the driver and conductor talking together outside, and rummaging for a lantern, and swearing because they could not find it—but we had no interest in whatever had happened, and it only added to our comfort to think of those people out there at work in the murky night, and we snug in our nest with the curtains drawn.
CHAPTER 4 [begin page 18] CHAPTER 4 As the sun went down and the evening chill came on, we made preparation for bed. We stirred up the hard leather letter-sacks, and the knotty canvas bags of printed matter (knotty and uneven because of projecting ends and corners of magazines, boxes and books). We stirred them up and redisposed them in such a way as to make our bed as level as possible.
CHAPTER 5 [begin page 29] CHAPTER 5 Another night of alternate tranquillity and turmoil. But morning came, by and by. It was another glad awakening to fresh breezes, vast expanses of level greensward, bright sunlight, an impressive solitude utterly without visible human beings or human habitations, and an atmosphere of such amazing magnifying properties that trees that seemed close at hand were more than three miles away.
CHAPTER 6 [begin page 35] CHAPTER 6 Our new conductor (just shipped) had been without sleep for twenty hours. Such a thing was very frequent. From St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, by stage-coachⒶemendation, was nearly nineteen hundred miles, and the trip was often made in fifteen days (the cars do it in four and a half, now), but the time specified in the mail contracts, and required by the schedule, was eighteen or nineteen days, if I remember rightlyⒺexplanatory note.
CHAPTER 7 [begin page 41] CHAPTER 7 It did seem strange enough to see a town again after what appeared to us such a long acquaintance with deep, still, almost lifeless and houseless solitude! We tumbled out into the busy street feeling like meteoric people crumbled off the corner of some other world, and wakened up suddenly in this. For an hour we took as much interest in Overland City as if we had never seen a town before.
CHAPTER 8 [begin page 50] CHAPTER 8 In Ⓐemendation a little whileⒶemendation all interest was taken up in stretching our necks and watching for the “pony-rider”—the fleet messenger who sped across the continent from St. Joe to Sacramento, carrying letters nineteen hundred miles in eight daysⒺexplanatory note! Think of that for perishable horse and human flesh and blood to do! The pony-rider was usually a little bit of a man, brim fullⒶemendation of spirit and endurance.
CHAPTER 9 [begin page 55] CHAPTER 9 We passed Fort Laramie in the night, and on the seventh morning out we found ourselves in the Black Hills, with Laramie PeakⒺexplanatory note at our elbow (apparently) looming vast and solitary—a deep, dark, rich indigo blue in hue, so portentously did the old colossus frown under his beetling brows of storm-cloud. He was thirty or forty miles away, in reality, but he only seemed removed a little beyond the low ridge at our right.
CHAPTER 10 [begin page 60] CHAPTER 10 Really and truly, two-thirdsⒶemendation of the talk of drivers and conductors had been about this man Slade, ever since the day before we reached Julesburg. In order that the eastern reader may have a clear conception of what a Rocky Mountain desperado is, in his highest state of development, I will reduce all this mass of overland gossip to one straightforward narrativeⒺexplanatory note, and present it in the following shape:
CHAPTER 11 [begin page 69] CHAPTER 11 And sure enough, two or three years afterward, we did hear of him again. News came to the Pacific coast that the Vigilance Committee in Montana (whither Slade had removed from Rocky Ridge) had hanged himⒺexplanatory note. I find an account of the affair in the thrilling little book I quoted a paragraph from in the last chapter—“The Vigilantes of Montana; being a Reliable Account of the Capture, Trial and Execution of Henry Plummer’s Notorious Road Agent Band:Ⓔexplanatory note By Prof.
CHAPTER 12 [begin page 76] CHAPTER 12 Just beyond the breakfast-station we overtook a Mormon emigrant train of thirty-three wagons; and tramping wearily along and driving their herd of loose cows, were dozens of coarse-clad and sad-looking men, women and children, who had walked as they were walking now, day after day for eight lingering weeks, and in that time had compassed the distance our stage had come in eight days and three hours Ⓔexplanatory note—seven hundred and ninety-eight miles!
CHAPTER 13 [begin page 88] CHAPTER 13 We had a fine supper, of the freshest meats and fowls and vegetables—a great variety and as great abundance. We walked about the streets some, afterward, and glanced in at shops and stores; and there was fascination in surreptitiously staring at every creature we took to be a Mormon. This was fairy-land to us, to all intents and purposes—a land of enchantment, and goblins, and awful mystery.
CHAPTER 14 [begin page 94] CHAPTER 14 Mr. Street Ⓐemendation was very busy with his telegraphic matters—and considering that he had eight or nine hundred miles of rugged, snowy, uninhabited mountains, and waterless, treeless, melancholy deserts to traverse with his wireⒺexplanatory note, it was natural and needful that he should be as busy as possible. He could not go comfortably along and cut his poles by the roadsideⒶemendation, either, but they had to be hauled by ox teams across those exhausting deserts—and it was two days’ journey from water to water, in one or two of them.
CHAPTER 15 [begin page 99] CHAPTER 15 It is a luscious country for thrilling evening stories about assassinations of intractable Gentiles. I cannot easily conceive of anything more cosy than the night in Salt Lake which we spent in a Gentile den, smoking pipes and listening to tales of how Burton galloped in among the pleading and defenceless “MorrisitesⒶemendation” and shot them down, men and women, like so many dogsⒺexplanatory note.
CHAPTER 16 [begin page 107] CHAPTER 16Ⓐemendation All men have heard of the Mormon Bible, but few except the “elect” have seen it, or, at least, taken the trouble to read it. I brought away a copy from Salt LakeⒺexplanatory note. The book is a curiosity to me, it is such a pretentious affair, and yet so “slow,” so sleepy; such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print.
CHAPTER 17 [begin page 116] CHAPTER 17 At the end of our two days’ sojourn, we left Great Salt Lake City hearty and well fed and happy—physically superb but not so very much wiser, as regards the “Mormon question,”Ⓔexplanatory note than we were when we arrived, perhaps. We had a deal more “information” than we had before, of course, but we did not know what portion of it was reliable and what was not—for it all came from acquaintances of a day—strangers, strictly speaking.
CHAPTER 18 [begin page 122] CHAPTER 18 At eight in the morning we reached the remnant and ruin of what had been the important military station of “Camp Floyd,” some forty-five or fifty miles from Salt Lake City. At 4Ⓐemendation p.m. we had doubled our distance and were ninety or a hundred miles from Salt Lake. And now we entered upon one of that species of deserts whose concentrated hideousness shames the diffused and diluted horrors of Sahara—an “alkali” desert.
CHAPTER 19 [begin page 126] CHAPTER 19 On the morning of the sixteenth day out from St. Joseph we arrived at the entrance of Rocky CañonⒶemendation, two hundred and fifty miles from Salt LakeⒺexplanatory note. It was along in this wild country somewhere, and far from any habitation of white men, except the stage stations, that we came across the wretchedest type of mankind I have ever seen, up to this writing.
CHAPTER 20 [begin page 130] CHAPTER 20 On the seventeenth day we passed the highest mountain peaks we had yet seen, and although the day was very warm the night that followed upon its heels was wintry cold and blankets were next to useless.
On the eighteenth day we encountered the eastward-bound telegraph-constructorsⒺexplanatory note at Reese riverⒶemendation station and sent a message to his Excellency Gov. NyeⒺexplanatory note at Carson City (distant one hundred and fifty-six miles).
CHAPTER 21 [begin page 137] CHAPTER 21 We were approaching the end of our long journey. It was the morning of the twentieth day. At noon we would reach Carson City, the capital of Nevada Territory. We were not glad, but sorry. It had been a fine pleasure trip; we had fed fat on wonders every day; we were now well accustomed to stage life, and very fond of it; so the idea of coming to a stand-still and settling down to a humdrum existence in a village was not agreeable, but on the contrary depressing.
CHAPTER 22 [begin page 147] CHAPTER 22 It was the end of August, and the skies were cloudless and the weather superb. In two or three weeks I had grown wonderfully fascinated with the curious new country, and concluded to put off my return to “the States” awhile. I had grown well accustomed to wearing a damaged slouch hat, blue woolen shirt, and pants crammed into boot-tops, and gloried in the absence of coat, vest and braces.
CHAPTER 23 [begin page 152] CHAPTER 23 If there is any life that is happier than the life we led on our timber ranch for the next two or three weeksⒺexplanatory note, it must be a sort of life which I have not read of in books or experienced in person. We did not see a human being but ourselves during the time, or hear any sounds but those that were made by the wind and the waves, the sighing of the pines, and now and then the far-off thunder of an avalanche.
CHAPTER 24 [begin page 158] CHAPTER 24Ⓐemendation I resolved to have a horse to ride. I had never seen such wild, free, magnificent horsemanship outside of a circus as these picturesquely-clad Mexicans, Californians and Mexicanized Americans displayed in Carson streets every day. How they rode! Leaning just gently forward out of the perpendicular, easy and non-chalant, with broad slouch-hat brim blown square up in front, and long riata swinging above the head, they swept through the town like the wind!
CHAPTER 25 [begin page 166] CHAPTER 25 Originally, Nevada was a part of Utah and was called Carson CountyⒶemendation; and a pretty large county it was, too. Certain of its valleys produced no end of hay, and this attracted small colonies of Mormon stock-raisers and farmers to them. A few orthodox Americans straggled in from California, but no love was lost between the two classes of colonists.
CHAPTER 26 [begin page 174] CHAPTER 26 By and by I was smitten with the silver fever. “Prospecting parties” were leaving for the mountains every day, and discovering and taking possession of rich silver-bearing lodes and ledges of quartz. Plainly this was the road to fortune. The great “Gould &Ⓐemendation Curry” mine was held at three or four hundred dollars a foot when we arrived; but in two months it had sprung up to eight hundred.
CHAPTER 27 [begin page 179] CHAPTER 27 Hurry, was the word! We wasted no time. Our party consisted of four persons—a blacksmith sixty years of age, two young lawyers, and myself. We bought a wagon and two miserable old horses. We put eighteen hundred pounds of provisions and mining tools in the wagon and drove out of Carson on a chilly December afternoonⒺexplanatory note. The horses were so weak and old that we soon found that it would be better if one or two of us got out and walked.
CHAPTER 28 [begin page 184] CHAPTER 28 After leaving the Sink, we traveled along the Humboldt river a little way. People accustomed to the monster mile-wide Mississippi, grow accustomed to associating the term “river” with a high degree of watery grandeur. Consequently, such people feel rather disappointed when they stand on the shores of the Humboldt or the Carson and find that a “river” in Nevada is a sickly rivulet which is just the counterpart of the Erie CanalⒶemendation in all respects save that the canal is twice as long and four times as deep.
CHAPTER 29 [begin page 189] CHAPTER 29 True knowledge of the nature of silver mining came fast enough. We went out “prospecting” with Mr. Ballou. We climbed the mountain sides, and clambered among sage-brushⒶemendation, rocks and snow till we were ready to drop with exhaustion, but found no silver—nor yet any gold. Day after day we did this. Now and then we came upon holes burrowed a few feet into the declivities and apparently abandoned; and now and then we found one or two listless men still burrowing.
CHAPTER 30 [begin page 195] CHAPTER 30 I met men at every turn who owned from one thousand to thirty thousand “feet” in undeveloped silver mines, every single foot of which they believed would shortly be worth from fifty to a thousand dollars—and as often as any other way they were men who had not twenty-five dollars in the world. Every man you met had his new mine to boast of, and his “specimens” ready; and if the opportunity offered, he would infallibly back you into a corner and offer as a favor to you, not to him, to part with just a few feet in the “Golden Age,” or the “Sarah Jane,” or some other unknown stack of croppings, for money enough to get a “square meal” with, as the phrase went.
CHAPTER 31 [begin page 201] CHAPTER 31 There were two men in the company who caused me particular discomfort. One was a little Swede, about twenty-five years old, who knew only one song, and he was forever singing it. By day we were all crowded into one small, stifling bar-roomⒶemendation, and so there was no escaping this person’s music. Through all the profanity, X “mr. arkansas.” whisky-guzzling, “old sledge”Ⓔexplanatory note and quarreling, his monotonous song meandered with never a variation in its tiresome sameness, and it seemed to me, at last, that I would be content to die, in order to be rid of the torture.
CHAPTER 32 [begin page 211] CHAPTER 32 We seemed to be in a road, but that was no proof. We tested this by walking off in various directions—the regular snow-mounds and the regular avenues between them convinced each man that he had found the true road, and that the others had found only false ones. Plainly the situation was desperate. We were cold and stiff and the horses were tired.
CHAPTER 33 [begin page 217] CHAPTER 33 I do not know how long I was in a state of forgetfulness, but it seemed an age. A vague consciousness grew upon me by degrees, and then came a gathering anguish of pain in my limbs and through all my body. I shuddered. The thought flitted through my brain, “this is death—this is the hereafter.”
Then came a white upheaval at my side, and a voice said, with bitterness:
CHAPTER 34 [begin page 221] CHAPTER 34 The Ⓐemendation mountains are very high and steep about Carson, Eagle and Washoe Valleys—very high and very steep, and so when the snow gets to melting off fast in the springⒶemendation and the warm surface-earth begins to moisten and soften, the disastrous land-slides commence. The reader cannotⒶemendation know what a land-slide is, unless he hasⒶemendation lived in that country and seen the whole side of a mountain taken off some fine morning and deposited down in the valley, leaving a vast, treeless, unsightly scar upon the mountain’s front to keep the circumstance fresh in hisⒶemendation memory all the years that heⒶemendation may go on living within seventy miles of that place.
CHAPTER 35 [begin page 228] CHAPTER 35 When we finally left for Esmeralda, horseback, we had an addition to the companyⒺexplanatory note in the person of Capt. John Nye, the Governor’s brother. He had a good memory, and a tongue hung in the middleⒺexplanatory note. This is a combination which gives immortality to conversation. Capt. John never suffered the talk to flag or falter once during the hundred and twenty miles of the journey.
CHAPTER 36 [begin page 232] CHAPTER 36 I had already learned how hard and long and dismal a task it is to burrow down into the bowels of the earth and get out the coveted ore; and now I learned that the burrowing was only half the work; and that to get the silver out of the ore was the dreary and laborious other half of it.
CHAPTER 37 [begin page 238] CHAPTER 37 It Ⓐemendation was somewhere in the neighborhood of Mono Lake that the marvelousⒶemendation Whiteman cement mine was supposed to lieⒺexplanatory note. Every now and then it would be reported thatⒶemendation Mr. W. had passed stealthily through Esmeralda at dead of night, in disguise,Ⓐemendation and then we would have a wild excitement—because he must be steering for his secret mine, and now was the time to follow him.
CHAPTER 38 [begin page 245] CHAPTER 38 Mono Lake Ⓐemendation lies in a lifeless, treeless, hideous desert, eight thousandⒶemendation feet above the level of the sea, and is guarded by mountains two thousandⒶemendation feet higher, whose summitsⒶemendation are always clothed inⒶemendation clouds. This solemn, silent, sailless sea—this lonely tenant of the loneliest spot on earth—is little graced with the picturesque. It is an unpretending expanse of grayishⒶemendation water, about a hundred miles in circumference, with two islands in its centreⒺexplanatory note, mere up-heavals of rentⒶemendation and scorched and blistered lava, snowed over with grayⒶemendation banks and drifts of pumice stone and ashes, the winding sheet of the dead volcano, whose vast crater the lake has seized upon and occupied.
CHAPTER 39 [begin page 250] CHAPTER 39 About seven o’clock one blistering hot morning—for it was now dead summer time—Higbie and I took the boat and started on a voyage of discovery to the two islands. We had often longed to do this, but had been deterred by the fear of storms; for they were frequent, and severe enough to capsize an ordinary row-boat like ours without great difficulty—and once capsized, death would ensue in spite of the bravest swimming, for that venomous water would eat a man’s eyes out like fire, and burn him out inside, too, if he shipped a sea.
CHAPTER 40 [begin page 256] CHAPTER 40 I now come to a curious episode—the most curious, I think, that had yet accented my slothful, valueless, heedless career. Out of a hillside toward the upper end of the town, projected a wall of reddish looking quartz-croppings, the exposed comb of a silver-bearing ledge that extended deep down into the earth, of course. It was owned by a company entitled the “Wide West.
CHAPTER 41 [begin page 264] CHAPTER 41 Capt. Nye Ⓐemendation was very ill indeed, with spasmodic rheumatismⒺexplanatory note. But the old gentleman was himself—which is to say, he was kind-hearted and agreeable when comfortable, but a singularly violent wild-cat when things did not go well. He would be smiling along pleasantly enough, when a sudden spasm of his disease would take him and he would go out of his smile into a perfect fury.
CHAPTER 42 [begin page 271] CHAPTER 42 What to do next?
It was a momentous question. I had gone out into the world to shift for myself, at the age of thirteen (for my father had endorsed for friendsⒺexplanatory note; and although he left us a sumptuous legacy of pride in his fine Virginian stock and its national distinction, I presently found that I could not live on that alone without occasional bread to wash it down with).
CHAPTER 43 [begin page 278] CHAPTER 43 However, as I grew better acquainted with the business and learned the run of the sources of information I ceased to require the aid of fancy to any large extent, and became able to fill my columns without diverging noticeably from the domain of fact.
I struck up friendships with the reporters of the other journals, and we swapped “regulars” with each other and thus economized work.
CHAPTER 44 [begin page 285] CHAPTER 44 My salary was increased to forty dollars a weekⒺexplanatory note. But I seldom drew it. I had plenty of other resources, and what were two broad twenty-dollar gold pieces to a man who had his pockets full of such and a cumbersome abundance of bright half dollars besides? [Paper money has never come into use on the Pacific coast.] Reporting was lucrative, and every man in the town was lavish with his money and his “feet.
CHAPTER 45 [begin page 292] CHAPTER 45 The “flush times” held bravely on. Something over two years before, Mr. Goodman and another journeyman printer, had borrowed forty dollars and set out from San Francisco to try their fortunes in the new city of Virginia. They found the Territorial Enterprise, a poverty-stricken weekly journal, gasping for breath and likely to die. They bought it, type, fixtures, good-will and all, for a thousand dollarsⒺexplanatory note, on long time.
CHAPTER 46 [begin page 299] CHAPTER 46 There were nabobs in those days—in the “flush times,” I mean. Every rich strike in the mines created one or two. I call to mind several of these. They were careless, easy-going fellows, as a general thing, and the community at large was as much benefited by their riches as they were themselves—possibly more, in some cases. Two cousinsⒶemendation, teamsters, did some hauling for a manⒶemendation, and had to take a small segregated portion of a silver mine in lieu of three hundred dollarsⒶemendation cash.
CHAPTER 47 [begin page 308] CHAPTER 47 Somebody has said that in order to know a community, one must observe the style of its funerals and know what manner of men they bury with most ceremony. I cannot say which class we buried with most eclat in our “flush times,” the distinguished public benefactor or the distinguished rough—possibly the two chief grades or grand divisions of society honored their illustrious dead about equally; and hence, no doubt the philosopher I have quoted from would have needed to see two representative funerals in Virginia before forming his estimate of the people.
CHAPTER 48 [begin page 318] CHAPTER 48 The first twenty-six graves in the Virginia cemetery were occupied by murdered menⒺexplanatory note. So everybody said, so everybody believed, and so they will always say and believe. The reason why there was so much slaughtering done, was, that in a new mining district the rough element predominates, and a person is not respected until he has “killed his man.
CHAPTER 49 [begin page 326] CHAPTER 49 An extract or two from the newspapers of the day will furnish a photograph that can need no embellishment:
Fatal Shooting Affray.—An affray occurred, last evening, in a billiard saloon on C street, between Deputy Marshal Jack Williams and Wm. Brown, which resulted in the immediate death of the latter. There had been some difficulty between the parties for several months.
CHAPTER 50 [begin page 331] CHAPTER 50 These murder and jury statistics remind me of a certain very extraordinary trial and execution of twenty years ago; it is a scrap of history familiar to all old Californians, and worthy to be known by other peoples of the earth that love simple, straightforward justice unencumbered with nonsense. I would apologize for this digression but for the fact that the information I am about to offer is apology enough in itself.
CHAPTER 51 [begin page 339] CHAPTER 51 Vice flourished luxuriantly during the hey-day of our “flush times.” The saloons were overburdened with custom; so were the police courts, the gambling dens, the brothels and the jails—unfailing signs of high prosperity in a mining region—in any region for that matter. Is it not so? A crowded police court docket is the surest of all signs that trade is brisk and money plenty.
CHAPTER 52 [begin page 354] CHAPTER 52 Since I desire, in this chapter, to say an instructive word or two about the silver mines, the reader may take this fair warning and skip, if he chooses. The year 1863 was perhaps the very top blossom and culmination of the “flush times.”Ⓔexplanatory note Virginia swarmed with men and vehicles to that degree that the place looked like a very hive—that is when one’s vision could pierce through the thick fog of alkali dust that was generally blowing in summer.
CHAPTER 53 [begin page 361] CHAPTER 53 Every now and then, in these days, the boys used to tell me I ought to get one Jim Blaine to tell me the stirring story of his grandfather’s old ramⒺexplanatory note—but they always added that I must not mention the matter unless Jim was drunk at the time—just comfortably and sociably drunk. They kept this up until my curiosity was on the rack to hear the story.
CHAPTER 54 [begin page 369] CHAPTER 54 Of course there was a large Chinese populationⒺexplanatory note in Virginia—it is the case with every town and city on the Pacific coast. They are a harmless race when white men either let them alone or treat them no worse than dogs; in fact they are almost entirely harmless anyhow, for they seldom think of resenting the vilest insults or the cruelest injuries.
CHAPTER 55 [begin page 376] CHAPTER 55 I began to get tired of staying in one place so long. There was no longer satisfying variety in going down to Carson to report the proceedings of the legislature once a year, and horse-races and pumpkin-shows once in three months; (they had got to raising pumpkins and potatoes in Washoe Valley, and of course one of the first achievements of the legislature was to institute a ten-thousand-dollar Agricultural FairⒺexplanatory note to show off forty dollars’ worth of those pumpkins in—however, the TerritorialⒶemendation legislature was usually spoken of as the “asylum”).
CHAPTER 56 [begin page 385] CHAPTER 56 We rumbled over the plains and valleys, climbed the Sierras to the clouds, and looked down upon summer-clad California. And I will remark here, in passing, that all scenery in California requires distance to give it its highest charm. The mountains are imposing in their sublimity and their majesty of form and altitude, from any point of view—but one must have distance to soften their ruggedness and enrich their tintings; a Californian forest is best at a little distance, for there is a sad poverty of variety in species, the trees being chiefly of one monotonous family—redwood, pine, spruce, fir—and so, at a near view there is a wearisome sameness of attitude in their rigid arms, stretched downward and outward in one continued and reiterated appeal to all men to “Sh!
CHAPTER 57 [begin page 391] CHAPTER 57Ⓐemendation It was in this Sacramento Valley, just referred to,Ⓐemendation that a deal of the most lucrative of the early gold mining was done, and you may still see, in places, its grassy slopes and levels torn and guttered and disfigured by the avaricious spoilers of fifteen and twenty years ago. You may see such disfigurements far and wide over California—and in some such places, where only meadows and forests are visible—not a living creature, not a house, no stick or stone or remnant of a ruin, and not a sound, not even a whisper to disturb the Sabbath stillness—you will find it hard to believe that there stood at one time a fiercely-flourishingⒶemendation little city, of two thousand or three thousand souls, with its newspaper, fire company, brass band, volunteer militia, bank, hotels, noisy Fourth of July processions and speeches, gambling hells crammed with tobacco smoke, profanity, and rough-bearded men of all nations and colors, with tables heaped with goldⒶemendation dust sufficient for the revenues of a German principality—streets crowded and rife with business—town lots worth four hundred dollarsⒶemendation a front foot—labor, laughter, music, dancing, swearing, fighting, shooting, stabbing—a bloody inquest and a man for breakfast every morning— everything Ⓐemendation that delights and adorns existenceⒶemendation—all the appointments and appurtenances of a thriving and prosperous and promising young city,—and now nothing is left of it allⒶemendation but a lifeless, homeless solitude.
CHAPTER 58 [begin page 396] CHAPTER 58 For a few months I enjoyed what to me was an entirely new phase of existence—a butterfly idleness; nothing to do, nobody to be responsible to, and untroubled with financial uneasiness. I fell in love with the most cordial and sociable city in the Union. After the sage-brush and alkali deserts of Washoe, San Francisco was Paradise to me. I lived at the best hotel, exhibited my clothes in the most conspicuous places, infested the opera, and learned to seem enraptured with music which oftener afflicted my ignorant ear than enchanted it, if I had had the vulgar honesty to confess it.
CHAPTER 59 [begin page 405] CHAPTER 59 For a time I wrote literary screeds for the Golden Era Ⓔexplanatory note. C. H. Webb had established a very excellent literary weekly called the Californian, but high merit was no guaranty of success; it languished, and he sold out to three printers, and Bret HarteⒺexplanatory note became editor at twenty dollarsⒶemendation a week, and I was employed to contribute an article a week at twelve dollarsⒺexplanatory note Ⓐemendation.
CHAPTER 60 [begin page 412] CHAPTER 60 By and by, an old friend of mine, a miner, came down from one of the decayed mining camps of Tuolumne, California, and I went back with himⒺexplanatory note. We lived in a small cabin on a verdant hillside, and there were not five other cabins in view over the wide expanse of hill and forest. Yet a flourishing city of two or three thousand population had occupied this grassy dead solitude during the flush times of twelve or fifteen years before, and where our cabin stood had once been the heart of the teeming hive, the centre of the city.
CHAPTER 61 [begin page 416] CHAPTER 61Ⓐemendation One of my comrades there—another of those victims of eighteen years of unrequited toil and blighted hopes—was one of the gentlest spirits that ever bore its patient cross in a weary exile: grave and simpleⒶemendation Dick Baker, pocket-minerⒺexplanatory note of Dead-Horse GulchⒶtextual note.Ⓔexplanatory note Ⓐemendation He was forty-six, gray as a rat, earnest, thoughtful, slenderly educated, slouchily dressed and clay-soiled, but his heart was finer metal than any gold his shovel ever brought to light—than any, indeed, that ever was mined or minted.
CHAPTER 62 [begin page 421] CHAPTER 62 After a three months’ absence, I found myself in San Francisco again, without a cent. When my credit was about exhausted, (for I had become too mean and lazy, now, to work on a morning paperⒺexplanatory note, and there were no vacancies on the evening journals,) I was created San Francisco correspondent of the Enterprise, and at the end of five months I was out of debtⒺexplanatory note, but my interest in my work was gone; for my correspondence being a daily one, without rest or respite, I got unspeakably tired of it.
CHAPTER 63 [begin page 431] CHAPTER 63 On a certain bright morning the Islands hove in sightⒺexplanatory note, lying low on the lonely sea, and everybody climbed to the upper deck to look. After two thousand miles of watery solitude the vision was a welcome one. As we approached, the imposing promontory of Diamond Head rose up out of the ocean,Ⓐemendation its rugged front softened by the hazy distance, and presently the details of the land began to make themselves manifest: first the line of beach; then the plumed cocoanutⒶemendation trees of the tropics; then cabins of the natives; then the white townⒶemendation of Honolulu, saidⒶemendation to contain between twelve and fifteen thousandⒶemendation inhabitants,Ⓐemendation Ⓐtextual note spread over a dead level; withⒶemendation streets from twenty to thirty feet wide, solid and level as a floor, most of them straight as a line and a fewⒶemendation as crooked as a corkscrew.
CHAPTER 64 [begin page 436] CHAPTER 64 In my diary of our third day in Honolulu, I find this: IⒶemendation am probably the most sensitive man in HawaiiⒶemendation to-night—especially about sitting down in the presence of my betters. I have ridden fifteen or twenty miles on horsebackⒶemendation since 5 p.m. Ⓐemendation, and to tell the honest truth, I have a delicacy about sitting down at all.Ⓐemendation An excursion to Diamond Head and the King’s Cocoanut Grove was planned to-day—time, 4:30 p.
CHAPTER 65 [begin page 442] CHAPTER 65 By and by, after a rugged climb, we halted on the summit of a hill which commanded a far-reaching view. The moon rose and flooded mountain and valley and ocean with a mellow radiance, and out of the shadows of the foliage the distant lights of Honolulu glinted like an encampment of fire-fliesⒶemendation. The air was heavy with the fragrance of flowers.
CHAPTER 66 [begin page 450] CHAPTER 66Ⓐemendation Passing Ⓐemendation through the market place we saw that feature of Honolulu under its most favorable auspices—that is, in the full glory of Saturday afternoon, which is a festive day with the natives. X sandwich island girls. The native girls by twos and threes and parties of a dozen, and sometimes in whole platoons and companies, went cantering up and down the neighboring streets astride of fleet but homely horses, and with their gaudy riding habits streaming like banners behind them.
CHAPTER 67 [begin page 457] CHAPTER 67 I still quote from my journal:Ⓐemendation I found the nationalⒶemendation Legislature to consist of half a dozen white men and some thirty or forty natives. It was a dark assemblage. The nobles and Ministers (about a dozen of them altogether) occupied the extreme left of the hall, with David Kalakaua (the King’s Chamberlain)Ⓔexplanatory note and Prince WilliamⒺexplanatory note at the head.
CHAPTER 68 [begin page 466] CHAPTER 68 While I was in Honolulu I witnessed the ceremonious funeral of the King’s sister, her Royal Highness the Princess Victoria. According to the royal custom, the remains had lain in state at the palace thirty days Ⓔexplanatory note, watched day and night by a guard of honor. And during all that time a great multitude of natives from the several islands had kept the palace grounds well crowded and had made the place a pandemonium every night with their howlings and wailings, beating of tom-toms and dancing of the (at other times) forbidden hula-hula Ⓐemendation by half-clad maidens to the music of songs of questionable decency chanted in honor of the deceased.
CHAPTER 69 [begin page 475] CHAPTER 69Ⓐemendation Bound Ⓐemendation for Hawaii, (a hundred and fifty miles distant,)Ⓐemendation to visit the great volcano and behold the other notable things which distinguish thatⒶemendation island above the remainder of the group, we sailed from Honolulu on a certain Saturday afternoon, in the good schooner BoomerangⒺexplanatory note.
The Boomerang was about as long as two street cars, and about as wide as one.
CHAPTER 70 [begin page 481] CHAPTER 70 We stopped some time at one of the plantationsⒺexplanatory note, to rest ourselves and refresh the horses. We had a chatty conversation with several gentlemen present; but there was one person, a middle aged man, with an absent look in his face, who simply glanced up, gave us good-day and lapsed again into the meditations which our coming had interrupted.
CHAPTER 71 [begin page 489] CHAPTER 71 At Ⓐemendation four o’clock in the afternoon we were winding down a mountain of dreary and desolate lava to the sea, and closing our pleasant land journey. This lava is the accumulation of ages; one torrent of fire after another has rolled down here in old times, and built up the island structure higher and higher. Underneath, it is honey-combed with caves; it would be of no use to dig wells in such a place; they would not hold water—you would not find any for them to hold, for that matter.
CHAPTER 72 [begin page 493] CHAPTER 72 In the breezy morning we went ashore and visited the ruined temple of the lostⒶemendation godⒶtextual note LonoⒺexplanatory note. TheⒶemendation high chief cook of this temple—the priest who presided over it and roasted the human sacrifices—was uncle to ObookiahⒶemendation, and at one time that youth was an apprentice-priest under him. ObookiahⒶemendation was a young native of fine mind, who, together with three other native boys, was taken to New England by the captain of a whaleship during the reign of Kamehameha I, and theyⒶemendation were the means of attracting the attention of the religious world to their country.
CHAPTER 73 [begin page 499] CHAPTER 73Ⓐemendation At noon, we hired a Kanaka to take us down to the ancient ruins at HonaunauⒺexplanatory note in his canoe—price two dollars—reasonable enough, for a sea voyage of eight miles, counting both ways.
The native canoe is an irresponsible looking contrivance. I cannot think of anything to liken it to but a boy’s sled runner hollowed out, and that does not quite convey the correct idea.
CHAPTER 74 [begin page 507] CHAPTER 74 We got back to the schooner in good time, and then sailed down to Kau, where we disembarked and took final leave of the vessel. Next day we bought horses and bent our way over the summer-clad mountain-terraces, toward the great volcano of KilaueaⒺexplanatory note (Ke-low-way-ah). We made nearly a two days’ journey of it, but that was on account of laziness.
CHAPTER 75 [begin page 513] CHAPTER 75 The next night was appointed for a visit to the bottom of the craterⒺexplanatory note, for we desired to traverse its floor and see the “North Lake” (of fire) which lay two miles away, toward the further wall. After dark half a dozen of us set out, with lanterns and native guides, and climbed down a crazy, thousand-foot pathway in a crevice fractured in the crater wall, and reached the bottom in safety.
CHAPTER 76 [begin page 518] CHAPTER 76Ⓐemendation We rode horseback all around the island of Hawaii (the crooked road making the distance two hundred miles), and enjoyed the journey very much. We were more than a week making the tripⒺexplanatory note, because our Kanaka horses would not go by a house or a hut without stopping—whip and spur could not alter their minds about it, and so we finally found that it economized time to let them have their way.
CHAPTER 77 [begin page 526] CHAPTER 77 I stumbled upon one curious character in the islandⒶemendation of MauiⒺexplanatory note Ⓐemendation. He became a sore annoyance to me in the course of time. My first glimpse of him was in a sort of public room in the town of Lahaina. He occupied a chair at the opposite side of the apartment, and sat eyeing our party with interest for some minutes, and listening as critically to what we were saying as if he fancied we were talking to him and expecting him to reply.
CHAPTER 78 [begin page 532] CHAPTER 78Ⓐemendation After half a year’s luxurious vagrancy in the IslandsⒶemendation, I took shipping in a sailing vessel, and regretfully returned to San FranciscoⒺexplanatory note—a voyage in every way delightful, but without an incident: unless lying two long weeks in a dead calm, eighteen hundred miles from the nearest land, may rank as an incident. Schools of whales grew so tame that day after day they played about the ship among the porpoises and the sharks without the least apparent fear of us, and we pelted them with empty bottles for lack of better sport.
CHAPTER 79 [begin page 537] CHAPTER 79 I launched out as a lecturer, now, with great boldness. I had the field all to myself, for public lectures were almost an unknown commodity in the Pacific market. They are not so rare, now, I suppose. I took an old personal friend along to play agent for meⒺexplanatory note, and for two or three weeks we roamed through Nevada and CaliforniaⒺexplanatory note and had a very cheerful time of it.
APPENDIX A [begin page 545] APPENDIX AⒶemendation BRIEF SKETCH OF MORMON HISTORYⒶemendation Mormonism is only about forty years old, but its career has been full of stir and adventure from the beginning, and is likely to remain so to the end. Its adherents have been hunted and hounded from one end of the country to the other, and the result is that for years they have hated all “Gentiles” indiscriminately and with all their might.
APPENDIX B [begin page 550] APPENDIX BⒶemendation THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACREⒶemendation The persecutions which the Mormons suffered so long—and which they consider they still suffer in not being allowed to govern themselves—they have endeavored and are still endeavoring to repay. The now almost forgotten “Mountain Meadows massacre” was their work. It was very famous in its day. The whole United States rang with its horrors. A few items will refresh the reader’s memory.
APPENDIX C [begin page 554] APPENDIX CⒶemendation CONCERNING A FRIGHTFUL ASSASSINATION
THAT WAS NEVER CONSUMMATEDⒶemendation [If ever there was a harmless man, it is Conrad Wiegand, of Gold Hill, NevadaⒺexplanatory note. If ever there was a gentle spirit that thought itself unfired gunpowderⒶemendation and latent ruin, it is Conrad Wiegand. If ever there was an oyster that fancied itself a whale; or a jack-o-lantern, confined to a swamp, that fancied itself a planet with a billion-mile orbit; or a summer zephyr that deemed itself a hurricane, it is Conrad Wiegand.
MTPDocEd Frontispiece and Electronic Title Page X Samuel L. Clemens in 1863 (above) and 1872. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK). ROUGHING IT MARK TWAIN Illustrated by True Williams, Edward F. Mullen, and Others
Edited by
Harriet Elinor Smith and Edgar Marquess Branch
Associate Editors
Lin Salamo, Robert Pack Browning
Contributing Editors
Richard Bucci, Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Kenneth M. Sanderson
A Publication of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library
MTPO Doc Ed Frontispiece and Electronic Title Page
Acknowledgments
Frontispiece, First Edition
Title Page, First Edition
Dedication
Prefatory
List of Illustrations, First Edition
Table of Contents, First Edition
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
CHAPTER I. [begin page 1] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER I. “TOM!”
No answer.
“Tom!”
No answer.
“What’s gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!”
No answer.
The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them, about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for “style,” not service;—she could have seen through a pair of stove lids just as well.
CHAPTER II. [begin page 10] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER II. Saturday morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. The locust trees were in bloom and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air.
CHAPTER III. [begin page 17] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER III. Tom presented himself before aunt Polly, who was sitting by an open window in a pleasant rearward apartmentⒺexplanatory note which was bed-room, breakfast-room, dining room and library combined. The balmy summer air, the restful quiet, the odor of the flowers, and the drowsing murmur of the bees had had their effect, and she was nodding over her knitting—for she had no company but the cat, and it was asleep in her lap.
CHAPTER IV. [begin page 26] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER IV. The sun rose upon a tranquil world, and beamed down upon the peaceful village like a benediction. Breakfast over, aunt Polly had family worship; it began with a prayer built from the ground up of solid courses of Scriptural quotations welded together with a thin mortar of originality; and from the summit of this she delivered a grim chapter of the Mosaic Law, as from Sinai.
CHAPTER V. [begin page 37] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER V. About half past ten the cracked bell of the small church began to ring, and presently the people began to gather for the morning sermon. The Sunday-school children distributed themselves about the house and occupied pews with their parents, so as to be under supervision. Aunt Polly came, and Tom and Sid and Mary sat with her—Tom being placed next the aisle, in order that he might be as far away from the open window and the seductive outside summer scenes as possible.
CHAPTER VI. [begin page 44] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER VI. Monday morning found Tom Sawyer miserable. Monday morning always found him so—because it began another week’s slow suffering in school. He generally began that day with wishing he had had no intervening holiday, it made the going into captivity and fetters again so much more odious.
Tom lay thinking. Presently it occurred to him that he wished he was sick; then he could stay home from school.
CHAPTER VII. [begin page 57] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER VII. The harder Tom tried to fasten his mind on his book, the more his ideas wandered. So at last, with a sigh and a yawn, he gave it up. It seemed to him that the noon recess would never come. The air was utterly dead. There was not a breath stirring.
CHAPTER VIII. [begin page 63] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER VIII. Tom dodged hither and thither through lanes until he was well out of the track of returning scholars, and then fell into a moody jog. He crossed a small “branch” two or three times, because of a prevailing juvenile superstition that to cross water baffled pursuit. Half an hour later he was disappearing behind the Douglas mansion on the summit of Cardiff Hill, and the school-house was hardly distinguishable away off in the valley behind him.
CHAPTER IX. [begin page 70] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER IX. At half past nine, that night, Tom and Sid were sent to bed, as usual. They said their prayers, and Sid was soon asleep. Tom lay awake and waited, in restless impatience. When it seemed to him that it must be nearly daylight, he heard the clock strike ten! This was despair.
CHAPTER X. [begin page 78] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER X. The two boys flew on and on, toward the village, speechless with horror. They glanced backward over their shoulders from time to time, apprehensively, as if they feared they might be followed. Every stump that started up in their path seemed a man and an enemy, and made them catch their breath; and as they sped by some outlying cottages that lay near the village, the barking of the aroused watch-dogs seemed to give wings to their feet.
CHAPTER XI. [begin page 86] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XI. Close upon the hour of noon the whole village was suddenly electrified with the ghastly news. No need of the as yet undreamed-of telegraph; the tale flew from man to man, from group to group, from house to house with little less than telegraphic speed. Of course the schoolmaster gave holiday for that afternoon; the town would have thought strangely of him if he had not.
CHAPTER XII. [begin page 92] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XII. One of the reasons why Tom’s mind had drifted away from its secret troubles was, that it had found a new and weighty matter to interest itself about. Becky Thatcher had stopped coming to school. Tom had struggled with his pride a few days, and tried to “whistle her down the wind,”Ⓔexplanatory note but failed.
CHAPTER XIII. [begin page 98] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XIII. Tom’s mind was made up, now. He was gloomy and desperate. He was a forsaken, friendless boy, he said; nobody loved him; when they found out what they had driven him to, perhaps they would be sorry; he had tried to do right and get along, but they would not let him; since nothing would do them but to be rid of him, let it be so; and let them blame him for the consequences—why shouldn’t they?
CHAPTER XIV. [begin page 106] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XIV. When Tom awoke in the morning, he wondered where he was. He sat up and rubbed his eyes and looked around. Then he comprehended. It was the cool gray dawn, and there was a delicious sense of repose and peace in the deep pervading calm and silence of the woods.
CHAPTER XV. [begin page 114] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XV. A few minutes later Tom was in the shoal water of the bar, wading toward the Illinois shore. Before the depth reached his middle he was half-way over; the current would permit no more wading, now, so he struck out confidently to swim the remaining hundred yards. He swam quartering up stream, but still was swept downward rather faster than he had expected.
CHAPTER XVI. [begin page 119] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XVI. After dinner all the gang turned out to hunt for turtle eggs on the bar. They went about poking sticks into the sand, and when they found a soft place they went down on their knees and dug with their hands. Sometimes they would take fifty or sixty eggs out of one hole.
CHAPTER XVII. [begin page 129] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XVII. But there was no hilarity in the little town that same tranquil Saturday afternoon. The Harpers, and Aunt Polly’s family, were being put into mourning, with great grief and many tears. An unusual quiet possessed the village, although it was ordinarily quiet enough, in all conscience. The villagers conducted their concerns with an absent air, and talked little; but they sighed often.
CHAPTER XVIII. [begin page 133] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XVIII. That was Tom’s great secret—the scheme to return home with his brother pirates and attend their own funerals. They had paddled over to the Missouri shore on a log, at dusk on Saturday, landing five or six miles below the village; they had slept in the woods at the edge of town till nearly daylight, and had then crept through back lanes and alleys and finished their sleep in the gallery of the church among a chaos of invalided benches.
CHAPTER XIX. [begin page 144] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XIX. Tom arrived at home in a dreary mood, and the first thing his aunt said to him showed him that he had brought his sorrows to an unpromising market:
“Tom, I’ve a notion to skin you alive!”
“Auntie, what have I done?”
“Well, you’ve done enough. Here I go over to Sereny Harper, like an old softy, expecting I’m going to make her believe all that rubbage about that dream, when lo and behold you she’d found out from Joe that you was over here and heard all the talk we had that night.
CHAPTER XX. [begin page 147] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XX. There was something about aunt Polly’s manner, when she kissed Tom, that swept away his low spirits and made him light-hearted and happy again. He started to school and had the luck of coming upon Becky Thatcher at the head of Meadow Lane. His mood always determined his manner. Without a moment’s hesitation he ran to her and said:
CHAPTER XXI. [begin page 153] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXI. Vacation was approaching. The schoolmaster, always severe, grew severer and more exacting than ever, for he wanted the school to make a good showing on “Examination” day. His rod and his ferule were seldom idle now—at least among the smaller pupils. Only the biggest boys, and young ladies of eighteen and twenty escaped lashing.
CHAPTER XXII. [begin page 161] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXII. Tom joined the new order of Cadets of Temperance, being attracted by the showy character of their “regalia.”Ⓔexplanatory note He promised to abstain from smoking, chewing and profanity as long as he remained a member. Now he found out a new thing—namely, that to promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.
CHAPTER XXIII. [begin page 166] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXIII. At last the sleepy atmosphere was stirred—and vigorously: the murder trial came on in the court. It became the absorbing topic of village talk immediately. Tom could not get away from it. Every reference to the murder sent a shudder to his heart, for his troubled conscience and his fears almost persuaded him that these remarks were put forth in his hearing as “feelers;” he did not see how he could be suspected of knowing anything about the murder, but still he could not be comfortable in the midst of this gossip.
CHAPTER XXIV. [begin page 173] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXIV. Tom was a glittering hero once more—the pet of the old, the envy of the young. His name even went into immortal print, for the village paper magnified him. There were some that believed he would be President, yet, if he escaped hanging.
As usual, the fickle, unreasoning world took Muff Potter to its bosom and fondled him as lavishly as it had abused him before.
CHAPTER XXV. [begin page 175] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXV. There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure. This desire suddenly came upon Tom one day. He sallied out to find Joe Harper, but failed of success. Next he sought Ben Rogers; he had gone fishing.
CHAPTER XXVI. [begin page 184] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXVI. About noon the next day the boys arrived at the dead tree; they had come for their tools. Tom was impatient to go to the haunted house; Huck was measurably so, also—but suddenly said—
“Lookyhere, Tom, do you know what day it is?”
Tom mentally ran over the days of the week, and then quickly lifted his eyes with a startled look in them—
CHAPTER XXVII. [begin page 193] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXVII. The adventure of the day mightily tormented Tom’s dreams that night. Four times he had his hands on that rich treasure, and four times it wasted to nothingness in his fingers as sleep forsook him and wakefulness brought back the hard reality of his misfortune. As he lay in the early morning recalling the incidents of his great adventure, he noticed that they seemed curiously subdued and far away—somewhat as if they had happened in another world, or in a time long gone by.
CHAPTER XXVIII. [begin page 197] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXVIII. That night Tom and Huck were ready for their adventure. They hung about the neighborhood of the tavern until after nine, one watching the alley at a distance and the other the tavern door. Nobody entered the alley or left it; nobody resembling the Spaniard entered or left the tavern door.
CHAPTER XXIX. [begin page 202] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXIX. The first thing Tom heard on Friday morning was a glad piece of news—Judge Thatcher’s family had come back to town the night before. Both Injun Joe and the treasure sunk into secondary importance for a moment, and Becky took the chief place in the boy’s interest. He saw her and they had an exhausting good time playing “hi-spy” and “gully-keeper”Ⓔexplanatory note with a crowd of their schoolmates.
CHAPTER XXX. [begin page 211] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXX. As the earliest suspicion of dawn appeared on Sunday morning, Huck came groping up the hill and rapped gently at the old Welchman’s door. The inmates were asleep but it was a sleep that was set on a hair-trigger, on account of the exciting episode of the night. A call came from a window—
CHAPTER XXXI. [begin page 222] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXXI. Now to return to Tom and Becky’s share in the pic-nic. They tripped along the murky aisles with the rest of the company, visiting the familiar wonders of the cave—wonders dubbed with rather over-descriptive names, such as “The Drawing Room,” “The Cathedral,” “Aladdin’s Palace,” and so on. Presently the hide-and-seek frolicking began, and Tom and Becky engaged in it with zeal until the exertion began to grow a trifle wearisome; then they wandered down a sinuous avenue holding their candles aloft and reading the tangled web-work of names, dates, post-office addresses and mottoes with which the rocky walls had been frescoed (in candle smoke.
CHAPTER XXXII. [begin page 233] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXXII. Tuesday afternoon came, and waned to the twilight. The village of St. Petersburg still mourned. The lost children had not been found. Public prayers had been offered up for them, and many and many a private prayer that had the petitioner’s whole heart in it; but still no good news came from the cave.
CHAPTER XXXIII. [begin page 238] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXXIII. Within a few minutes the news had spread, and a dozen skiff-loads of men were on their way to McDougal’s cave, and the ferry-boat, well filled with passengers, soon followed. Tom Sawyer was in the skiff that bore Judge Thatcher.
When the cave door was unlocked, a sorrowful sight presented itself in the dim twilight of the place.
CHAPTER XXXIV. [begin page 250] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXXIV. Huck said:
“Tom, we can slopeⒺexplanatory note, if we can find a rope. The window ain’t high from the ground.”
“Shucks, what do you want to slope for?”
“Well I ain’t used to that kind of a crowd. I can’t stand it. I ain’t going down there, Tom.”
“O, bother!
CHAPTER XXXV. [begin page 254] X Click the thumbnail to see the illustrated chapter heading CHAPTER XXXV. The reader may rest satisfied that Tom’s and Huck’s windfall made a mighty stir in the poor little village of St. Petersburg. So vast a sum, all in actual cash, seemed next to incredible. It was talked about, gloated over, glorified, until the reason of many of the citizens tottered under the strain of the unhealthy excitement.
CONCLUSION [begin page 260] CONCLUSION So endeth this chronicle. It being strictly a history of a boy, it must stop here; the story could not go much further without becoming the history of a man. When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop—that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can.
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] Introduction These selected later writings of Samuel L. Clemens—Mark Twain—are here published for the first time, with but two exceptions: “The Great Dark” appeared in Letters from the Earth, as edited by Bernard DeVoto;1 and a 5,000-word excerpt from “Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes” was published by Albert Bigelow Paine in his biography.2
Editorial Notes 1 Letters from the Earth (New York: Harper & Row, 1962)—hereafter designated as LE, pp.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 31] Which Was the Dream? “Which Was the Dream?” was planned at the beginning of 1895 but was not written until 1897. The first twelve manuscript pages of the husband's narrative were written on 23 May, five days after Mark Twain had finished his composition of Following the Equator. For this initial chapter he drew upon his early memories of Hannibal in sketching the Tom-Sawyer-and-Becky-Thatcher-like courtship of Major General “X” and Alison Sedgewick.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 74] The Enchanted Sea-Wilderness This story fragment is a discarded part of Following the Equator, Mark Twain's account of his round-the-world tour of 1895–1896. His travels took him through the “stupendous island wilderness of the Pacific”1 and across the Indian Ocean. While in the South Pacific Ocean bound for Australia, he had noted, on 6 September 1895, “There are spots at sea where the compass loses its head and whirls this way and that; then you give it up and steer by the sun, wind, stars, moon or guess, and trust to luck to save you till you get by that insane region.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 87] An Adventure in Remote Seas In april 1896, Mark Twain wrote in his notebook, “All world-distances have shrunk to nothing. . . . The mysterious and the fabulous can get no fine effects without the help of remoteness; and there are no remotenesses any more.”1 There was, nevertheless, the little explored Antarctic region. And in writing “An Adventure in Remote Seas,” he evidently sought to exploit the romantic possibilities of that yet remaining faraway and fabulous sector of the globe.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 99] The Great Dark Mark Twain did not give this story a title, and A. B. Paine, his literary executor, designated the manuscript simply as “Statement of the Edwardses.” In his dictation of 30 August 1906, the author said that he would probably have called one of his unfinished stories “The Refuge of the Derelicts.” He added that his manuscript had no title, but that it began with a “pretty brusque remark by an ancient admiral, who is Captain Ned Wakefield sic under a borrowed name.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 151] Indiantown “Indiantown” presents a gallery of characters for “Which Was It?” and was probably written in 1899 at about the time Mark Twain began work upon the latter story. George Harrison is identified in the working notes as a character drawn from the author's brother Orion Clemens. His friend the Rev. Joseph H. Twichell is mentioned as the original of the Rev.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 177] Which Was It? Mark Twain at first called this novel “Which Was Which?” but by 1902, when he wrote much of it, he was referring to it as “Which Was It?” And he used the latter name again when he spoke of it as one of his unfinished books in his autobiographical dictation of 30 August 1906. During the summer and fall of 1899 he wrote approximately the first one-third of the manuscript, working sometimes in London and more often in Sanna, Sweden, where Jean was receiving osteopathic treatment.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 430] Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes “Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes” was written at Dublin, New Hampshire, between 20 May and 23 June 1905. During that time Mark Twain worked rapidly and exuberantly. On 11 June he wrote to his daughter Clara that he had reached page 240 of the manuscript and exulted, “It beats the record (—oh, all to smash!
MTPDocEd [begin page 557] The Passenger's Story. It was on an American liner—couple of years ago. I was a second cabin passenger. It was after midnight, and very dark—and misty and damp. There was some sea on. I was on the upper deck, away aft, snuggled under the lee of the canvassed rail on the starboard side, doing nothing. That is, thinking. Nobody stirring; the whole deck was a solitude.
MTPDocEd [begin page 560] The Mad Passenger The dinner was a failure. While it was still unfinished the company began to1 break up and slip out, one after another; and presently none was left but the stranger at my side and me. We were sipping black coffee and smoking. The stranger said, with a sigh—
“Ah, well, that is the way with them. They are mad—that captain and that mate.
MTPDocEd [begin page 568] Dying Deposition Show Headnote In “Which Was It?” the deposition of the dying Andrew Harrison is taken, to be presented at the trial of the squire. This fragment Mark Twain apparently intended to bring into that story in a later part that he never wrote. The confession (or accusation) of Andrew can perhaps be viewed as an invention of his crazed imagination. However, an alternate possibility is that Mark Twain at one time planned to reveal at the end that the squire and not George Harrison had, after all, dealt the killing blow to Jake Bleeker.
MTPDocEd [begin page 571] Trial of the Squire Show Headnote This fragment, a variant of the George Harrison story, was probably written in the summer of 1899. The story is presented “from the outside” in that the reader is not given George Harrison's thoughts as in “Which Was It?” Both the name of the squire—Baldwin rather than Brewster or Fairfax—and the time of the initial action—July rather than November—show that this is a quite early draft.
Show Headnote [Three Statements of the Eighties] The present texts are based upon three untitled manuscripts, DV2745 and Paine 102d, the only phases under Mark Twain's control. In all three he used the same pen, ink (brown or faded to brown), handwriting, and brand of stationery. He probably wrote them at about the same time, perhaps on the same day, but even the decade of composition is conjectural.
Show Headnote [Letter from the Recording Angel] The present text is based upon an untitled manuscript, DV53, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. He could hardly have written the satire after September 1887. A canceled fragment of A Connecticut Yankee, DV22, paged 371–396, contains many of its passages, and by 15 August Mark Twain had completed 350 pages: see Howard G. Baetzhold, “The Course of Composition of A Connecticut Yankee: A Reinterpretation,” American Literature 33, no.
Show Headnote [Bible Teaching and Religious Practice] The present text is based upon an incomplete manuscript, DV354, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. On the first page Paine inscribed “written in 1890,” a date supported by hand and paper. The green-tinted unwatermarked laid paper, 5½” × 9”, often occurs around 1890—in at least two speeches of the late 1880s, correspondence from 1889 through 1891, part of A Connecticut Yankee, and all of The American Claimant.
Show Headnote [Macfarlane] The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV274, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. At the top of the first page Paine inscribed “written about 1898” (see 1MTA: 143). The phrase “about 1898” suggests he picked that year because he thought the work belonged with the brief autobiographical sketches Mark Twain wrote in 1897 and 1898, but the paper is not like that of the sketches.
Show Headnote [Man's Place in the Animal World] The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV11, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. He began it around 13 August 1896 and completed it about two months later; for details of composition see Paul Baender, “The Date of Mark Twain's ‘The Lowest Animal,’ ” American Literature 36, no. 2 (May 1964): 174–179. The paper is of two kinds, a white laid (80.
Show Headnote [Something about Repentance] The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV234, probably the only phase under Mark Twain's control. Two typescripts prepared in his lifetime are extant, yet neither shows correction or revision other than Paine's. On one of them Paine wrote “dictated in 1908,” but it is merely a copy of the manuscript. The manuscript paper is a light double-ruled stationery of European manufacture which Mark Twain occasionally used in 1897–1898.
Show Headnote Corn-Pone Opinions The present text is based upon a manuscript, Box 28 no. 7, probably the only phase under Mark Twain's control. A typescript possibly prepared in his lifetime is extant, but it lacks his correction and revision. The manuscript paper is a cream, unwatermarked wove, normally measuring 5¾″ × 9″, from one of the tablets (in this instance possibly “Pratt's Greater New York Tablet”) Mark Twain often used after his return to America in 1900.
Show Headnote Was the World made for Man? The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV12, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. External evidence (see the Explanatory Notes) suggests composition around April 1903, and the hand and paper (from a “Par Value” tablet; see What Is Man? table below, item 5) are consistent with this date. Contrary to Mark Twain's practice the title is in quotes in the manuscript, evidently to indicate that the question was not so much his own as one of current interest.
Show Headnote God The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV9, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. The paper is from a “Pratt's Greater New York Tablet.” The date of composition is probably 1905, for Mark Twain's script follows the long dimension of the leaves (see description of Supplement A7). The present title is Mark Twain's; DeVoto invented the title for the only previous publication (LE, pp.
Show Headnote As Concerns Interpreting the Deity The present text is based upon Mark Twain's final holographic text, a manuscript (Paine 186) together with revisions he inscribed in a typescript prepared by Jean Clemens. In the manuscript the lines of writing again follow the long dimension of “Pratt's” tablet leaves. Mark Twain dated the manuscript June 1905 and the typescript “Summer-end” of 1905. The title in the manuscript is “Interpreting the Deity”; Mark Twain changed it to the present title in the typescript.
Show Headnote In the Animal's Court The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV8, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. The paper is from a “Pratt's” tablet and the script placement is the same as for “God” and “As Concerns Interpreting the Deity”; the date of composition is probably 1905. Paine wrote “Gospel” at the top of the first leaf, meaning that the piece was a fragment of What Is Man?
Show Headnote Things a Scotsman Wants to Know The present text is based upon a manuscript previously unpublished, DV263, the only extant phase. External evidence (see the Explanatory Notes) suggests that the date at the head—31 August 1909—was the actual date of composition. Mark Twain used a cream tablet paper, probably the “Pratt's” brand, for this and the next two works of this volume, “Letters from the Earth” and “ ‘The Turning Point of My Life’.
Show Headnote Letters from the Earth The present text is based upon two manuscripts, DV33a, the only phases under Mark Twain's control, here grouped under the title of the second. The first manuscript, untitled and covering pp. 401–406 of this volume, has its own pagination (1–13) and breaks off in midsentence at the end of the last leaf. On p. 13 Paine wrote: “This is all he ever wrote of this M.
Show Headnote “ The Turning Point of My Life” For all except the last two paragraphs the present text is based upon Mark Twain's final holographic text, a manuscript (Paine 13, 14) together with revisions he inscribed in a typescript (University of Wisconsin) evidently prepared by Jean Clemens. The last two paragraphs, not in manuscript, typescript, or proof (proofs also at the University of Wisconsin), are taken from the first publication of the work in Harper's Bazar for February 1910.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [Three Statements of the Eighties] The present texts are based upon three untitled manuscripts, DV2745 and Paine 102d, the only phases under Mark Twain's control. In all three he used the same pen, ink (brown or faded to brown), handwriting, and brand of stationery. He probably wrote them at about the same time, perhaps on the same day, but even the decade of composition is conjectural.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [Letter from the Recording Angel] The present text is based upon an untitled manuscript, DV53, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. He could hardly have written the satire after September 1887. A canceled fragment of A Connecticut Yankee, DV22, paged 371–396, contains many of its passages, and by 15 August Mark Twain had completed 350 pages: see Howard G. Baetzhold, “The Course of Composition of A Connecticut Yankee: A Reinterpretation,” American Literature 33, no.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [Bible Teaching and Religious Practice] The present text is based upon an incomplete manuscript, DV354, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. On the first page Paine inscribed “written in 1890,” a date supported by hand and paper. The green-tinted unwatermarked laid paper, 5½” × 9”, often occurs around 1890—in at least two speeches of the late 1880s, correspondence from 1889 through 1891, part of A Connecticut Yankee, and all of The American Claimant.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [Macfarlane] The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV274, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. At the top of the first page Paine inscribed “written about 1898” (see 1MTA: 143). The phrase “about 1898” suggests he picked that year because he thought the work belonged with the brief autobiographical sketches Mark Twain wrote in 1897 and 1898, but the paper is not like that of the sketches.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [Man's Place in the Animal World] The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV11, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. He began it around 13 August 1896 and completed it about two months later; for details of composition see Paul Baender, “The Date of Mark Twain's ‘The Lowest Animal,’ ” American Literature 36, no. 2 (May 1964): 174–179. The paper is of two kinds, a white laid (80.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [Something about Repentance] The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV234, probably the only phase under Mark Twain's control. Two typescripts prepared in his lifetime are extant, yet neither shows correction or revision other than Paine's. On one of them Paine wrote “dictated in 1908,” but it is merely a copy of the manuscript. The manuscript paper is a light double-ruled stationery of European manufacture which Mark Twain occasionally used in 1897–1898.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Corn-Pone Opinions The present text is based upon a manuscript, Box 28 no. 7, probably the only phase under Mark Twain's control. A typescript possibly prepared in his lifetime is extant, but it lacks his correction and revision. The manuscript paper is a cream, unwatermarked wove, normally measuring 5¾″ × 9″, from one of the tablets (in this instance possibly “Pratt's Greater New York Tablet”) Mark Twain often used after his return to America in 1900.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Was the World made for Man? The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV12, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. External evidence (see the Explanatory Notes) suggests composition around April 1903, and the hand and paper (from a “Par Value” tablet; see What Is Man? table below, item 5) are consistent with this date. Contrary to Mark Twain's practice the title is in quotes in the manuscript, evidently to indicate that the question was not so much his own as one of current interest.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote God The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV9, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. The paper is from a “Pratt's Greater New York Tablet.” The date of composition is probably 1905, for Mark Twain's script follows the long dimension of the leaves (see description of Supplement A7). The present title is Mark Twain's; DeVoto invented the title for the only previous publication (LE, pp.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote As Concerns Interpreting the Deity The present text is based upon Mark Twain's final holographic text, a manuscript (Paine 186) together with revisions he inscribed in a typescript prepared by Jean Clemens. In the manuscript the lines of writing again follow the long dimension of “Pratt's” tablet leaves. Mark Twain dated the manuscript June 1905 and the typescript “Summer-end” of 1905. The title in the manuscript is “Interpreting the Deity”; Mark Twain changed it to the present title in the typescript.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote In the Animal's Court The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV8, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. The paper is from a “Pratt's” tablet and the script placement is the same as for “God” and “As Concerns Interpreting the Deity”; the date of composition is probably 1905. Paine wrote “Gospel” at the top of the first leaf, meaning that the piece was a fragment of What Is Man?
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Things a Scotsman Wants to Know The present text is based upon a manuscript previously unpublished, DV263, the only extant phase. External evidence (see the Explanatory Notes) suggests that the date at the head—31 August 1909—was the actual date of composition. Mark Twain used a cream tablet paper, probably the “Pratt's” brand, for this and the next two works of this volume, “Letters from the Earth” and “ ‘The Turning Point of My Life’.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Letters from the Earth The present text is based upon two manuscripts, DV33a, the only phases under Mark Twain's control, here grouped under the title of the second. The first manuscript, untitled and covering pp. 401–406 of this volume, has its own pagination (1–13) and breaks off in midsentence at the end of the last leaf. On p. 13 Paine wrote: “This is all he ever wrote of this M.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote “ The Turning Point of My Life” For all except the last two paragraphs the present text is based upon Mark Twain's final holographic text, a manuscript (Paine 13, 14) together with revisions he inscribed in a typescript (University of Wisconsin) evidently prepared by Jean Clemens. The last two paragraphs, not in manuscript, typescript, or proof (proofs also at the University of Wisconsin), are taken from the first publication of the work in Harper's Bazar for February 1910.
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] Introduction This collection offers Mark Twain's outspoken pieces on such large topics as God, providence, Christianity, and human nature, gathered from the unpublished writings in the Mark Twain Papers. Although Albert Bigelow Paine and Bernard DeVoto printed some of the works included here and various scholars have quoted excerpts in support of their arguments, none of these texts has ever appeared in an authoritative printing, and few are currently accessible.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 33] Little Bessie (1908–1909)
Mark Twain did not clearly designate the order that he intended for these six brief chapters. The present order has been chosen as that which seems to provide the most logical literary progression. “Little Bessie Would Assist Providence” has been chosen as Chapter 1 because it characterizes Bessie and her blasphemous mentor, Mr. Hollister, more fully than do the other chapters, which assume that these persons are already known to the reader.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 45] Little Nelly Tells a Story Out of Her Own Head (1907)
This title appears on the typescript and may have been supplied by Mark Twain; there is no title on the manuscript. In this sketch, headed “Dictated 1907,” Clemens recalls a performance by a group of children of “a brief little drama of ‘The Prince and Pauper’ ” as an event of “Twenty-two-or-three years ago, in Cleveland.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 50] The Second Advent (1881)
On the title page of the manuscript, A. B. Paine called this a “semi burlesque of a new Christ, born in Arkansas” and added, “Hardly usable.” Probably it was again Paine who wrote at some time, “Impossible of use”—a note that was later erased. The objectionable feature was the satire leveled at conventional pieties, including belief in the Virgin Birth and in special providences.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 69] The Holy Children (1870s–1881?)
“The holy children” satirizes the conventional Christian view of the benefits conferred upon humanity by special providences. The story was probably written during the late 1870s but certainly not later than 1881, when Mark Twain appropriated the last two-thirds of the manuscript for “The Second Advent” (as indicated in the textual commentary). That part has been restored to its original form here, eliminating the revisions made for its addition to “The Second Advent.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 78] The International Lightning Trust A Kind of a Love Story (1909)
“The International Lightning Trust,” dated by Paine as 1909,1 was intended by Mark Twain for immediate publication. The first page of his typescript bears at the top a note directing it “To Mr. Duneka” of Harper & Brothers. Paine's explanatory note on the back of the last page, “Recalled from Harpers as not usable,” is elaborated by his editorial comment on a carbon copy of the typescript: “Sent to Harpers but recalled when M.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 105] Colloquy Between a Slum Child and a Moral Mentor (Late 1860s or late 1880s)
Mark Twain did not give this piece a title. “Colloquy Between a Slum Child and a Moral Mentor,” a rather formal title apparently supplied by Dixon Wecter when he was Editor of the Mark Twain Papers, has been retained, since it seems in accord with the pompous gravity of the mentor's religious instruction.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 110] Thoughts of God (Early 1900s)
For Clemens the fly was a symbol of divine malevolence. In his 1903 notebook he wrote:
The morals of a God ought to be minutely perfect. I would not worship a God that made the fly.1 If God invented the fly, that is enough. It gives us the measure of His character. If a man had invented the fly, we should curse his name forever.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 116] The Emperor-God Satire (1870s)
In this satiric fable the Emperor-God displays toward the Unyumians the qualities Clemens had in the 1870s associated with the “God of the Bible.” At the same time, this deity also exhibits toward other peoples some of the attributes of the real God, as Clemens had envisioned him:
Its the Bible's God was strictly proportioned to its dimensions.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 121] The Ten Commandments (1905 or 1906)
In his Autobiographical Dictation of 25 June 1906 Clemens said:
Man is not to blame for what he is. He didn't make himself. He has no control over himself. All the control is vested in his temperament—which he did not create—and in the circumstances which hedge him round, from the cradle to the grave, and which he did not devise and cannot change .
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 124] The Private Secretary's Diary (June 1907)
The charge that the punishments inflicted by God through nature were likely to be incredibly cruel and severe was often made by Clemens in his later writings, perhaps most pointedly in his Autobiographical Dictation of 23 June 1906:
The ten-thousandfold law of punishment is rigorously enforced against every creature, man included. The debt, whether made innocently or guiltily, is promptly collected by Nature—and in this world, without waiting for the ten-billionfold additional penalty appointed—in the case of man—for collection in the next.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 129] In My Bitterness (Summer 1897)
The death of his daughter Olivia Susan—Susy—of meningitis on 18 August 1896 was felt by Clemens as an “unspeakable disaster.”1 Susy had died in the Hartford home before Clemens could return from Europe, where he had just concluded his global lecture tour of 1895/1896. “To me our loss is bitter, bitter, bitter,” he wrote to W.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 133] The Victims (Early 1900s)
Paine's title is apt: at all levels of being, creatures are seen preying upon their inferiors—and in their turn being so served by their superiors. Predation is represented to be the universal condition of life. Mark Twain expressed the same view in “Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes,” in which even the microbes are found to be victims of submicroscopic germs.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 141] The Synod of PraiseⒶalteration in the MS (Early 1900s)
This piece is more nearly a set of working notes than a finished composition. The idea that God was not moral was to be proved by his persecutions of the creatures he had made to suffer without any hope of future reward: “Brutes. They cannot enter heaven. Their sufferings are merely to punish their present sins and discipline them.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 144] The Lost Ear-ring (June 1878)
This rather charming, ironic sketch can hardly be called a satire, but it nevertheless arrives at the point also made in the more overtly satirical “About Asa Hoover”—the Almighty is not blamed when things go wrong (“We are born to suffer—God's will be done!”) but receives much gratuitous credit for favors he has not dispensed. The tale begins with the date 6 June 1878, and the verso of manuscript page 13 bears the heading “Schloss Hotel Heidelberg, June 5.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 149] Goose Fable (1899–1900)
In writing of the foolish trust of the geese in their “gods,” the human race, Mark Twain evidently meant to suggest that man also was too trusting toward his own gods. He made the same point more directly in his Autobiographical Dictation of 25 June 1906: “It is to these celestial bandits that the naïve and confiding and illogical human rabbit looks for a Heaven of eternal bliss, which is to be his reward for patiently enduring the want and sufferings inflicted upon him here below.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 152] About Asa Hoover (1908 or 1909)
The Old Walters who recalls the “village scoundrel,” Hoover, may possibly have been William Thompson Walters (1820–1894), a railroad executive, an art collector, and a breeder of fine horses whom Clemens had known in the 1880s.1 The handwriting on the manuscript and the paper, the same used in four chapters of “Little Bessie,” suggest that “About Asa Hoover” was not written until 1908 or 1909; however, Clemens could have been recalling an earlier visit with Walters.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 157] The Refuge of the Derelicts (1905–1906)
Mark twain began writing “The Refuge of the Derelicts” in March 1905, while he was living at 21 Fifth Avenue in New York City. The winter of that year had been for him a time of great social consciousness. In January and February he had produced “The Czar's Soliloquy” and “King Leopold's Soliloquy,” satirizing both the cynical exploitation practiced by monarchs and the cowardly self-abasement of their subjects.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote “You've Been a Dam Fool, Mary. You Always Was!” (December 1903)
In 1895 Clemens recorded in his notebook:
Man on the steamer abusing southern honesty. Told him about Mr. Hand, northerner who went to S. C. 2 or 3 years before the war; came north & couldn't return. Southerner went to another part of the south & speculated in cotton with the mutual money, $20,000.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 279] Newhouse's Jew Story (Late 1890s)
Clemens saw many gamblers during his Mississippi piloting years, from 1857 to 1861, and must also have heard many stories about them. This tale is offered as one he had “heard . . . first in 1860.” In Chapter 36 of Life on the Mississippi he wrote of an attempt of riverboat gamblers to cheat a wealthy cattleman.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 283] Randall's Jew Story (1890s)
The Jews had appealed to Clemens' imagination from the time that he had attended Dawson's school in Hannibal. He later recalled, “In that school were the first Jews I had ever seen. It took me a good while to get over the awe of it. To my fancy they were clothed invisibly in the damp and cobwebby mold of antiquity.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 290] Mock Marriage (Early 1900s)
The idea behind this unfinished, lightly satirical romance is one that is more somberly presented in some of the other selections in this volume: people cannot rely on an unavailing providence but must help themselves and each other. The practical Minna labels as “twaddle!” the pious notion that a “seeming calamity may be good fortune in disguise” and initiates action to avert disaster and ensure a happy result.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 302] Concerning “Martyrs' Day” (19 September 1902)
Clemens wrote to F. A. Duneka of Harper & Brothers on 19 September 1902, “To-day I have written a little short dab of sarcasm—‘Concerning Martyrs' Day’—and shall mail it when it is type-wrote. Tomorrow or next day I reckon.” He added a postscript: “It is for the Weekly.”1 It is interesting that Paine was able to note the year of composition correctly on the manuscript although he did not have this letter to consult.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 308] Abner L. Jackson (About to Be) Deceased (1880–1881)
This piece takes the form of a letter to “Rodney Dennis.” Geer's 1882 Hartford City Directory lists Rodney Dennis as the secretary of The Travelers Insurance Company—the company from which Jackson has bought his policy in this satiric obituary notice. The Reverend Abner Jackson, President of Trinity College in Hartford, was a member of the Monday Evening Club from 1869 until his death in 1874.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 315] The Secret History of Eddypus, the World-Empire (February—March 1901; February—March 1902)
“It is not worth while to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man's character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible,” Clemens observed in his Autobiographical Dictation of 15 January 1907. On that date he expressed a personal view of history that is essentially the same one he had fantasized five or six years earlier in “Eddypus.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 383] Eddypus Fragment (1901–1902)
Mark Twain probably intended to insert this untitled fragment in his “Eddypus” manuscript; however he failed to indicate where it should be placed, and the writing materials are so common that it cannot be determined whether the fragment was written during the composition of Book 1 or Book 2.
This brief section is interesting for its quotation of “one S.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 386] History 1,000 Years from Now (January 1901)
This “translation” (the title is Paine's) may well have been the germ of “Eddypus.” The second paragraph reads almost like a prospectus: the “flood of history” prompted by the end of a century is to be condensed into “a bare sketch,” “a mere synopsis.” The idea that the sketch is to be the work of some benighted scribe of a new Dark Age is implicit in the reference to the “destruction of historical records which occurred during the long and bloody struggle which released us from the cruel grip of democracy.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 389] Passage from “Glances at History” (suppressed.) Date, 9th century (Early 1900s)
This essay on the duty of righteous dissent is as timeless as it is plain-spoken. Mark Twain had in view, as the immediate target of his criticism, American military actions in the Philippines and the reactions of the American public to those events. The Lincoln of our literature—as Howells once called Clemens—speaks with the force and vision and high resolve of a true leader—but also recognizes that the “citizens of the Great Republic” could be stampeded into an unjust war and into treating men of honor and principle as traitors by “a silly phrase.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 394] Passage from “Outlines of History” (suppressed.) Date, 9th century (Early 1900s)
Like “Glances at History,” this essay is intended to be understood as a fragment of suppressed history. With “Glances at History,” it was published as part of the “Papers of the Adam Family”1 and was also apparently written between 1900 and 1905, probably between 1900 and 1902. Not a part of “Eddypus,” it offers an alternate fantasy of the collapse of the Great Republic and the rise of a form of monarchical tyranny.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 397] Passage from a Lecture (Early 1900s)
“Passage from a Lecture” asks, “Will this wonderful civilization of today perish?” and answers that it will. This essay is thematically related to “Eddypus” and also to the two other “passages” in this volume—those represented to be from two suppressed works. “Glances at History” looks at the Great Republic at a time of moral and political crisis; “Outlines of History” explains that “it was impossible to save the Great Republic” and records the establishing of a totalitarian regime; “Eddypus” more elaborately chronicles the flowering of the great civilization and the rise of the Great Republic and the subsequent decline into a religious despotism in a new Dark Age.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 403] The StupendousⒶalteration in the MS Procession (Early 1901)
Internal and external evidence suggests that “The Stupendous Procession” was probably written in January or February 1901, shortly after Mark Twain had, in 1900, written “A salutation-speech from the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth.”1 It was at the beginning of 1901 that Mark Twain also wrote “To the Person Sitting in Darkness,” which he published in the February North American Review.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 420] Flies and Russians (1904 or 1905)
Probably written between November 1904 and February 1905 while Clemens was following the events of the Russo-Japanese War with the hope that the czarist regime would be ended, “Flies and Russians” superimposes Mark Twain's philosophical viewpoint and fantasy upon contemporary history. The satire is not primarily directed at the Russian subjects who are seen as too foolish and too cowardly to achieve their independence; rather, it is aimed at nature and by implication at the Creator for having apparently made these people (and flies) for no good purpose.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 425] The Fable of the Yellow Terror (1904–1905)
In “The Mysterious Stranger” Mark Twain had written, “the pagan world will go to school to the Christian: not to acquire his religion, but his guns. The Turk and the Chinaman will buy those, to kill missionaries and converts with.”1 This fable offers a similar prophecy: the “Butterflies” (the Western powers) “have taught one tribe of Bees how to use its sting, it will teach its brother-tribe.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 430] The Recurrent Major and Minor Compliment (Early 1900s)
“What is the difference between an optimist of 50 & a fool? Do not know of any,”1 Clemens wrote in 1901. Here he maintains that “any sane man of fifty” must have had enough dreadful experiences to make him “by awful compulsion—at bottom serious.” Mark Twain's list of the sorrows and tragedies that are the common lot of all who have lived for half a century is a comprehensive one.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 434] Ancients in Modern Dress (1896–1897)
It is hardly surprising that the “ancient” whom Clemens is particularly interested in seeing in modern clothes is Adam, for no other figure appealed more strongly and persistently to his imagination—unless it was Satan. The Mark Twain whose eyes become moist as he looks at the portrait of Adam (modernized) recalls the Mark Twain who in The Innocents Abroad weeps before the tomb of Adam, lamenting, “Noble old man—he did not live to see me—he did not live to see his child.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 437] A Letter from the Comet (1880s)
In writing “A Letter from the Comet” Mark Twain at first made a false start. He began with the comet's disdainful comments on its supposed discoverer, after whom it had lately been named:
Sir: So it appears I am “the Brooks Comet.” Is it because one Brooks “discovered” me? I beg pardon; if any discovering has been done, the shoe is on the other foot: for I discovered Brooks; he1 was in his cradle at the time.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 440] Old Age (December 1905)
Shortly after 30 November 1905, his seventieth birthday, Clemens wrote this retrospective essay outlining the stages of his long climb from infancy to old age, a progression that he described more elaborately in the speech which he delivered at the anniversary dinner given in his honor.1 A part of the last paragraph of “Old Age,” in which the author addresses himself as the “belated fag-end of a foolish dream” of which there is “nothing left but You, centre of a snowy desolation,” echoes the conclusion that he had written in 1904 for “No.
MTPDocEd APPENDIX A: To the Editor of the American Hebrew For its 1890 Passover issue, The American Hebrew, a New York journal, solicited opinions from prominent Christian clergymen and intellectuals on the reasons and remedies for anti-Semitism. They were asked to consider the following four questions:
I. Can you, of your own personal experience find any justification whatever for the entertainment of prejudice towards individuals solely because they are Jews?
MTPDocEd APPENDIX B: Adam Monument Proposal—Documents
MTPDocEd APPENDIX C: Mark Twain's Working Notes Mark Twain's notes are often chaotic or obscure, yet they provide glimpses of his imagination at work, of the germ of his finished work and of the ideas and insights which proved unmanageable and were discarded. Because their relationship to one another and to the finished work is so frequently a matter of interpretation, these notes have been presented with as little editorial mediation as the rendering of handwriting into type permits.
MTPDocEd Textual Introduction Perhaps no major American author has left so large and varied an archive of literary remains as Mark Twain. If he seems at times to have thrown nothing away, his preservation of so much unachieved writing stems as much from his method of composition as from his well-known inability to distinguish his good work from his bad. It was his habit to compose several works at the same time; to pigeonhole projects when his interest or invention waned, then resurrect them when it was rekindled; and to extract passages from one work and introduce them in another.
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] Introduction I Three of Mark Twain's literary executors have noticed that, “imprisoned in his boyhood,” he apparently was compelled to relate its story “repeatedly, in fiction, semi-fiction, and purported fact,” drawing from it “images he would use in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and all his later writings of major importance.”1 In a letter of 1890 the author himself noticed that although his greatly varied careers had given him a wealth of literary capital, “I confined myself to the boy-life out on the Mississippi because that had a peculiar charm for me .
MTPDocEd [begin page 23] Show Headnote Villagers of 1840—3 The following notes concerning the inhabitants of Hannibal, Missouri, and their lives in the days before the Civil War were written by Mark Twain in 1897.1 The title is his. The manuscript survives as a fragment inasmuch as the last entry breaks off in the middle of a sentence at the bottom of a page. A possible explanation is that the remainder of the piece dealt in a derogatory manner with the author's brother Orion, for Twain wrote much that was highly critical of his erratic sibling.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 41] Jane Lampton Clemens Although Albert Bigelow Paine included this essay in the author's Autobiography without Mark Twain's authority, it is ordered much as that work is. As early as 1876, Twain had told Mrs. James T. Fields that he would write the story of his life “fully and simply . . . as truly as I can tell it . .
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 54] Tupperville-Dobbsville Albert Bigelow Paine noted that this manuscript was “Two unfinished sketches. Unfinished and unusable.” However, the manuscript in MTP is clearly a single piece. Apparently Paine was confused because Mark Twain assigned to the town both the names here given as the title. Despite their fragmentary nature, these paragraphs written in the late 1870's (see Appendix B) are of interest because so many of the author's favorite motifs cluster in them.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 58] Clairvoyant In Sam Clemens of Hannibal Dixon Wecter discusses the “strain of primitive folk belief in dreams and second sight—gained perhaps from Quarleses' slaves, perhaps from . . . backwoods mysticism” (p. 197) which Clemens acquired early in life. The Clemenses claimed that when he was less than four years old, Sam walked in his sleep to his sister Margaret's bedside and plucked at her cover, thus warning of her death a few days later.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 67] A Human Bloodhound (From my Abandoned Autobiography.) Page numberings indicate that “A Human Bloodhound” was first written as a continuous, self-contained narrative which Twain deliberately disguised as an excerpt by using the subhead, “From my Abandoned Autobiography” and by preceding the first sentence with three dots.
At some time while he was writing the abortive story “Indiantown,” Twain decided to endow one of its characters, Orrin Lloyd Godkin, with a bloodhound-like sense of smell.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 81] Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians I Emerging when most respected dramas and novels were romantic, nineteenth-century American humorists often won laughter by attacking such fictions. They did this indirectly in narratives full of realistic (and hence for the time incongruous) details and directly in essays, burlesques, and parodies. When Mark Twain comically contrasted the romantic portrayals of Europe or of the Far West or of the chivalrous South with the reality—in, respectively, The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, and Life on the Mississippi—he was following a well established tradition.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 141] Doughface Many of the experiences of Sam Clemens, the boy, recurred in the mature author's memory again and again. For instance, in many notebooks and in published writings he recalled the death by fire of a tramp in the Hannibal jail shortly after the boy had smuggled matches to the prisoner. He also frequently remembered his coming upon the corpse of a murdered man one night when he sneaked into the office of his father, a justice of the peace.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 145] Tom Sawyer's Gang Plans a Naval Battle As early as 1881 Mark Twain wrote to his friend James R. Osgood, asking him to secure and send to him several of Harper's dime novels concerning sailors—Tom Cringle's Log, Green Hand, Sailor's Sweetheart, and The Cruise of the Midge.1 As Albert Stone has suggested,2 he may have wanted these for his daughters. Since the books were more likely to appeal to masculine readers than to little girls, though, it seems more probable that they were for his own reading as potential sources.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 152] Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy I In 1884, along with a list of memories of Hannibal which Mark Twain thought that he might use “in this unidentified story,” he made a notebook entry, “Pater-rollers and slavery”—a reference to the patrollers who guarded pre-Civil War Missouri towns against abolitionists and escaping slaves.1 The group would figure prominently in “Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy.” One can only guess what stimulated memory at this time.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 243] Tom Sawyer: A Play in Four Acts I In the spring of 1874 Clemens heard that out in San Francisco actor John T. Raymond was staging and starring in an unauthorized dramatization of the humorist's portion of The Gilded Age. He threatened to enjoin performances, paid playwright Gilbert B. Densmore for his script, rewrote the drama in a few weeks, and in July copyrighted the new version of the play, which was performed as Colonel Sellers.
MTPDocEd [begin page 343] APPENDIX A: Villagers of 1840–3: A Biographical Directory Names and identifying phrases for persons who appear in “Villagers of 1840–3” are ordered alphabetically below. When traces of the person have been found outside Mark Twain's manuscript, biographical facts are presented. The chief sources of information include: Return Ira Holcombe, History of Marion County, Missouri (St. Louis, 1884); C. P. Greene, A Mirror of Hannibal (Hannibal, 1905); Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain: A Biography (New York, 1912, 1935); Minnie M.
MTPDocEd [begin page 370] APPENDIX B: Dates of Composition Villagers of 1840–3 The fragmentary manuscript in the Mark Twain Papers with the above title is thirty-four pages long. Pages 1 through 7 are ruled, tan paper, 5 5/16 inches by 8 5/16 inches; pages 8 through 34 are cross-barred paper of the same dimensions.
Paine says that while in Weggis, Switzerland, Twain wrote a “half-finished manuscript about Tom and Huck” and another uncompleted manuscript “with the burning title of ‘Hell-Fire Hotchkiss.
MTPDocEd [begin page 380] APPENDIX C: Mark Twain's Working Notes and Related Matter Mark Twain's working notes and other matter related to the manuscripts in this volume are translated into type here as faithfully as possible. Although the author's holograph ampersand has been expanded, instances of misspelling and faulty punctuation have not been corrected. Cancellations are preserved and marked by angle brackets, thus ; editorial explanation is enclosed by square brackets, .
MTPDocEd [begin page 405] Editorial Principles Every effort has been made to preserve Mark Twain's words—his “substantives”—and his “accidentals”—his spelling, punctuation, word-division, and capitalization—in the ten works reproduced in this volume. Spelling has not been corrected except where, as with his habitual misspelling “sieze,” no nineteenth-century authority for a Clemens spelling can be found. Mark Twain was meticulous about his punctuation; it has been left as written except where it is obviously inadequate or in error.
Chapter 1 [begin page 35] Chapter 1 It was 1702—May.Ⓐtextual note Austria was far away from the world, and asleep; it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so forever. Some evenⒶalteration in the MS set it away back centuries uponⒶalteration in the MS centuries and said that by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Faith in Austria.
Chapter 2 Chapter 2 Three of us boys were always together, and had been so from the cradle, being fond of each other from the beginning, and this affection deepening as the years went on—Nikolaus Baumann, son of the principalⒶalteration in the MS judge of the localⒶalteration in the MS court; Seppi Wohlmeyer, son ofⒶalteration in the MS the keeper of the principal inn, the “Golden Stag,” which had a nice garden, with shade trees, reaching down to the river-side, and pleasure-boats for hire; and I was the third—Theodor Fischer, son of the church organist, who was also leader of the village band, teacher of the violin, composer,Ⓐalteration in the MS tax collector of the commune, sexton,Ⓐalteration in the MS and in other ways a useful citizen and respected by all.
Chapter 3 Chapter 3Ⓐalteration in the MS It made immense talk next day, when Father Peter paid Solomon Isaacs in gold and left the rest of the money with him at interest. Also, there was a pleasant change: manyⒶalteration in the MS people called at the house to congratulate, and a numberⒶalteration in the MS of cool old friends became kind andⒶalteration in the MS friendly again; and to top all,Ⓐalteration in the MS MargetⒶalteration in the MS was invited to a party.
Chapter 4 Chapter 4 There was a very dull week, now, for Satan did not come, nothing much was going on, and we boys could not venture to go and see Marget,Ⓐalteration in the MS because the nights were moonlit and our parents might find us out if we tried. But we came across Ursula a couple of times taking a walk in the meadows beyond the river to air the cat, and we learned from her that things were going well.
Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Next day everybody was talking—but under their breath. They were talking sharply critical talk about the witch-commission. “Why haven't the commission summoned Father Adolf for examination? if it were some friendless old woman who had done those Satanic miracles with the bowl, the bottle and the brazen balls, would they be so lax?” That is what the public said—in a whisper. Always confidentially; adding, “Please don't quote me—don't say I said anything.
Chapter 6 Chapter 6 When I looked in on Lilly that night after she was abed, her eyes were red and sheⒶalteration in the MS had been crying; but I found that the source of it was not Satan's indiscriminate ways, but only resentment against Marget for her attitude toward him. She thought it was scandalous in Marget to act so, considering that she already had a lover.
Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Next day and every day we spent all of our spare time with Nikolaus; and also added to it time which we (and he) stole from work and other duties, and this cost the three of us some sharp scoldings and some threats of punishment. Every morning two of us woke with a start and a shudder, saying, as the days flew along, “Only ten days left;” “only nine days left;” “only eight;” “only seven.
Chapter 8 Chapter 8 One day, a little while after this, Satan appeared again. We were always watching out for him—Seppi and I—and longingⒶalteration in the MS for him; for life was never very stagnant when he was by. He came upon us at that place in the woods where we had first met him. [begin page 134] Being boys, we wanted to be entertained, and we asked him to do a show for us.
Chapter 9 [begin page 147] Chapter 9 I wanted to know my whole history in advance, but I never asked Satan for it. I was afraid, for it might be an unhappy history. I could change it if I had the plan of it, but any change might happen to be for the worse. I knew this because Satan had shown me other people's lives and I saw that in nearly all cases there would be little or no advantage in altering them.
Chapter 10 [begin page 157] Chapter 10 Days and days went by, now, and no Satan. It was dull without him. But Father Adolf was around braving public opinion in his impudent way and getting a stone in the middle of his back now and then when some witch-hater got a safeⒶalteration in the MS chance to throw it and dodge out of sight. Meantime two influences had been working well for Marget.
Chapter 11 Chapter 11 My appetite was not satisfied, it was only sharpened; I wanted to see Satan show off some more. It was a delight to me to see him astonish people; it was a private pride to me, too, and pleased my vanity, for I was envied, as beingⒶalteration in the MS friend and comrade to so great a magician. Satan was willing to content my desire, and said there was an opportunity now, up in the hills not twenty miles away, in the palace of a native of wealth and high degree.
Chapter 1 [begin page 175] Chapter 1 It was not much short of fifty years ago—and a frosty morning. Up the nakedⒶalteration in the MS long slant of Schoolhouse Hill the boys and girls of Petersburg village were struggling from various directions against the fierce wind, and making slow and difficult progress. The wind was not the only hindrance, nor the worst; the slope was steel-clad in frozen snow, and the foothold offered was far from trustworthy.
Chapter 2 Chapter 2 The girls went vivaciously chattering away, eager to get home and tell of the wondersⒶalteration in the MS they had seen; but outside of the schoolhouse the boys grouped themselves together and waited; silent, expectant, and nervous. They paid but little attention to the bitter weather, they were apparently under the spell of a more absorbing interest. Henry Bascom stood apart from the others, in the neigh- [begin page 186] borhood of the door.
Chapter 3 [begin page 190] Chapter 3 Within an hour afterward people began to drop in at the Hotchkiss house; ostensibly to make a friendly call, really to get sight of the miraculous boy. The news they brought soon made the Hotchkisses proud of their prize and glad that they had caught him. Mr. Hotchkiss's pride and joy were frank and simple; every new marvel that any comer added to the list of his lodger's great deeds made him a prouder and happier man than he was before, he being a person substantially without jealousies and by nature addicted to admirations.
Chapter 4 Chapter 4 As the darkness closed down an hour later, what is to this day called the Great Storm began. It was in reality a Blizzard, but that expressiveⒶalteration in the MS word had not then been invented. It was this storm'sⒶalteration in the MS mission to bury the farms and villages ofⒶalteration in the MS a long narrow strip of country for ten daysⒶalteration in the MS, and do it as compactly and as thoroughly as the mud and ashes had buried Pompeii nearly eighteen centuries before.
Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Hotchkiss sank into his chair weak and limp, and began to pour out broken words and disjointed sentences whose meanings were not always clear but whose general idea was comprehensible. To this effect: from custom bred of his upbringing and his associations he had often talked about Satan with a freedom which was regrettableⒶemendation, but it was really only talk, mere idle talk, he didn't mean anything by it; in fact there were many points about Satan's character which he greatly admired, and although he hadn't said so, publicly, it was an oversight and not intentional—but from this out he meant to open his mouth boldly, let people say what they might and think what they chose—
Chapter 6 [begin page 219] Chapter 6 In the morning the world was still invisible, for the powdery snow was still sifting thickly down—noiselessly, now, for the wind had ceased to blow. The new devil appeared in the kitchen and scared aunt Rachel and uncle Jeff out of it, and they fled to the master's room with the tale. Hotchkiss explained the situation and told them there was no harm in this devil, but a great deal of good; and that he was the property of the wonderful boy, who had strongly recommended him.
Chapter 1 [begin page 221] Chapter 1 It was in 1490—winterⒶ. Austria was far away from the world, and asleep; it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so forever. Some even set it away back centuries upon centuries and said that by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Faith in Austria. But they meant it as a compliment, not a slur, and it was so taken, and we were all proud of it.
Chapter 2 Chapter 2 I had been familiar with that village life, but now for as much as a year I had been out of it, and was busy learning a trade. I was more curiously than pleasantly situated. I have spoken of Castle Rosenfeld; I have also mentioned a precipiceⒶ which overlooked the river. Well, along this precipice stretched the towered and battlemented mass of a similar castle—prodigious, vine-clad,Ⓐ stately and beautiful, but mouldering to ruin.
Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Of several conveniences there was no lack; among them, fire-wood and room. There was no end of room, we had it to waste. Big or little chambers for all—suit yourself, and change when you liked. For a kitchen we used a spacious room which was high up over the massive and frowning gateway of the castle and looked down the woody steeps and southward over the receding plain.
Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Did it make a stir? Oh, on your life! For nearly two minutes the herd were speechless; and if I may judge by myself, they quaked, and felt pale;Ⓐ then they all broke out at once, and discussed it with animation and most of themⒶ said what an astonishing thing it was—and unbelievable, too, if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes.
Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Things were against that poor waif.Ⓐ HeⒶ had maintained silence when he had had an opportunity to deny that he was a Jail-Bird, and that was bad for him. It got him that name, and he was likely to keep it. The men considered him a milksop because he spared [begin page 244] Ernest Wasserman when it was evident that he could have whipped him.
Chapter 6 Chapter 6 He closed the door, and we sat down and began to talk, and he said it was good and generous of me to come and see him, and he hoped I would be his friend, for he was lonely and so wanted companionship. His words made me ashamed—so ashamed, and I felt so shabby and mean, that I almost had courage enough to come out and tell him how ignoble my errand was and how selfish.
Chapter 7 Chapter 7 To my astonishment I got up thoroughly refreshed when called at sunrise. There was not a suggestion of wine or its effects in my head.
“ItⒶ was all a dream,” I said, gratefully.Ⓐ “I can get along without the mate to it.”
By and by, on a stairway I met 44 coming up with a great load of wood, and he said, beseechingly,
Chapter 8 Chapter 8 I slipped out and fled. It was wise, for in this way I escaped the first heat of their passion, or I should have gotten not merely insults but kicks and cuffs added. I hid deep down and far away, in an unvisited part of the castle among a maze of dark passages and corridors. Of courseⒶ I had no thought of keeping my promise to visit 44; but in the circumstances he would not expect it—I knew that.
Chapter 9 Chapter 9 It was a black and mournful time, that Friday morning that the works stood idle for the first time in their history. There was no hope. As usual the men went over to early mass in the village, like the rest of us, but they did not come back for breakfast—naturally. They came an hour later, and idled about and put in the dullⒶ timeⒶ the best they could, with dreary chat, and gossip, and prophecies, and cards.
Chapter 10 [begin page 271] Chapter 10 It was a lovely Sunday, calm and peaceful and holy,Ⓐ and bright with sunshine. It seemed strange that there could be jarrings and enmities in so beautiful a world. As the forenoon advancedⒶ the household began to appear, one after another, and all in their best; the women in their comeliest gowns, the men in velvetsⒶ and laces, with snug-fitting hose that gave the tendons and muscles of their legs a chance to show their quality.
Chapter 11 Chapter 11 To katrina and me the miracle meant that my card had turned up, and we were full of joy and confidence. Doangivadam was coming, we were sure of it. I hurried to the Owl Tower and resumed my watch.
But it was another disappointment. The day wasted away, hour by hour, the night closed down, the moon rose, and still he did not come.
Chapter 12 Chapter 12 We arrivedⒶ back to our beer-and-chess room troubled and miserable. Our adventure went the rounds ofⒶ the castle, and soon the ladies and the servants came, pale and frightened, and when they heard the facts it knocked them dumb for one while, which was not a bad thing.
But the men were not dumb. They boldly proposed to denounce the magician to the Church and get him burnt, for this thing was a [begin page 284] little too much, they said.
Chapter 13 Chapter 13 Next dayⒶ was pretty dreary. The men wouldn't go to work, but loafed around moody and sour and uncomfortable. There was not much talk; what there was was mumbled, in the main, by pairs. There was no general conversation. At meals silence was the rule. At night there was no jollityⒶ, and before ten all had disappeared to their rooms and the castle was a dim and grim solitude.
Chapter 14 Chapter 14 The freight wagon left at dawn; the honored guests had a late breakfast, paid down theⒶ money on the contract, then after a good-bye bottle they departed in their carriage. About ten the master, full of happiness and forgiveness and benevolent feeling, had the men assembled in the beer-and-chess room, and began a speech that was full of praises of the generous way they had thrown ill-will to the winds at the last moment and loaded the wagon last night and saved the honor and the life of his house—and went on and on, like that, with the water in his eyes and his voice trembling; and there the men sat and stared at one another, and at the master, [begin page 293] with their mouths open and their breath standing still; till at last Katzenyammer burst out with—
Chapter 15 Chapter 15 But whenⒶ we got there I saw that 44 was not minded to pray, but was full of other and temporalⒶ interests. I was shocked, and deeply concerned; for I felt rising in me with urgencyⒶ a suspicion which had troubled me several times before, but which I had ungently put from me each time—that he was indifferent to religion. I questioned him—he confessed it!
Chapter 16 Chapter 16 Forty-four, by grace of his right to wear a swordⒶ, was legally a gentleman. It suited his whim, now, to come out dressed as one. He was clever, but ill balanced; and whenever he saw a particularly good chance to be a fool, pie couldn't persuade him to let it go by; he had to sample it, he couldn't seem to help it.
Chapter 17 Chapter 17 I went invisible the most of the next day, for I had no heart to talk about common matters, and had rather a shrinking from talking about the matter which was uppermost in all minds. I was full of sorrow, and also of remorse, which is the way with us in the first days of a bereavement, and at such times we wish to be alone with our trouble and our bitter recallings of failings of loyalty or love toward the comrade who is gone.
Chapter 18 Chapter 18 My senses forsook meⒶ and I should have fallen, but it put up its hand and flipped its fingers toward me and this brought an influence of some kind which banished my faint and restored me; yes, more than that, for I was fresher and finer now than I had been before the fatigues of the funeral. I started away at once and with such hasteⒶ as I could command, for I had never seen the day that I was not afraid of a ghost or would stay where one was if there was another place convenient.
Chapter 19 Chapter 19 Day after day went by, and Father AdolfⒶ was a busy man, for he was the head of the Commission charged with trying and punishing the magician; but he had no luck, he could come upon no trace of the necromancer. He was disappointed and exasperated, [begin page 317] and he swore hard and drank hard, but nothing came of it, he made no progress in his hunt.
Chapter 20 Chapter 20 A week passed.
Meantime, where was he? what was become of him? I had gone often to his room, but had alwaysⒶ foundⒶ it vacant. I was missing him sorely. Ah, he was so interesting! there was none that could approach him for that. And there could not be a more engaging mystery than he. He was always doing and saying strange and curious things, and then leaving them but half explained or not explained at all.
Chapter 21 Chapter 21 I spent a wearying and troubled night, for in my dreams I was a memberⒶ of that ruined family and suffering with it through a dragging long stretch of years; and the infamous priest whose life had been saved at cost of these pains and sorrowsⒶ seemed always present and drunk and mocking. At last I woke. In the dimmest of cold gray dawns I made out a figure sitting by my bed—an old and white-headed man in the coarse dress of a peasant.
Chapter 22 Chapter 22 It was in my room. He brought it—the breakfast—dish after dish, smoking hot, from my empty cupboard, and briskly set the table, talking all the while—ah, yes, and pleasantly, fascinatingly, winningly; and not about that so-recent episode, but about these fragrant refreshments and the far countries he had summonedⒶ them [begin page 330] from—Cathay,Ⓐ India, and everywhere; and as I was famishing, this talk was pleasingⒶ, indeed captivating, and under its influence my sour mood presently passed from me.
Chapter 23 [begin page 335] Chapter 23 Young as I was—I was barely seventeen—Ⓐmy days were now sodden with depressions, there was little or no rebound.Ⓐ My interest in the affairs of the castle and of its occupants faded out and disappeared; I kept to myself and took little or no note of the daily happenings; my Duplicate performed all my duties, and I had nothing to do but wander aimlessly about and be unhappy.
Chapter 24 [begin page 342] Chapter 24 I floated off to my room through the unresisting air, and stirred up my fire and sat down to enjoy my happiness and study over the enigma of those names. By ferretingⒶ out of my memory certain scraps and shredsⒶ of information garnered from 44's talks I presently untangled the matter, and arrived at an explanation—which was this: the presence of my flesh-and-bloodⒶ personality was not a circumstance of any interest to Marget Regen,Ⓐ but my presence as a spirit acted upon her hypnotically—as 44 termed it—and plunged her into the somnambulic sleep.
Chapter 25 Chapter 25 That nightⒶ I had a terrible misfortune. The way it came about was this. I was so unutterably happy and so unspeakably unhappy that my life was become an enchanted ecstasy and a crushing burden. I did not know what to do, and took to drink. Merely for [begin page 351] that evening.Ⓐ It was by Doangivadam's suggestion that I did this. He did not know what the matter was, and I did not tell him; but he could see that something was the matter and wanted regulating, and in his judgment it would be well to try drink, for it might do good and couldn't do harm.
Chapter 26 Chapter 26 I was so miserable! A whole endless hour dragged along.Ⓐ Oh, why didn't he come, why didn't he come! wouldn't he ever come, and I so in need of his help and comfort!
It was awfully still and solemn and midnighty, and this made me feel creepy and shivery and afraid of ghosts; and that was natural, for the placeⒶ was foggyⒶ with them, as Ernest Wasserman said,Ⓐ who was the most unexact person in his language in the whole castle, foggy beingⒶ a noun of multitude and not applicable to ghosts, for they seldom appear in large companies, but mostly by ones and twos, and then—oh, then, whenⒶ they go flitting by in the gloom like forms made of delicateⒶ smoke, and you see the furniture through them—
Chapter 27 Chapter 27 I woke up fresh and fine and vigorous, and found I had been asleep a little more than six minutes. The sleeps which he furnished had no dependence upon time, no connection with it, no relation to it; sometimes they did their work in one interval, sometimes in another, sometimes in half a second, sometimes in half a day, according to whether there was an interruption or wasn't; but let the interval be long or short, the result was the same: that is to say, the reinvigoration was perfect, the physical and mental refreshment complete.
Chapter 28 Chapter 28 He could not speak, for emotion; for the same cause my voice forsook me; and so,Ⓐ in silence we grasped hands again; and that grip, strong and warm, said for us what our tongues could not utter. At that moment the cat entered, and stood looking at us. Under her [begin page 371] grave gaze a shame-faced discomfort, a sense of embarrassment, began to steal over me, just as would have been the case if she had been a human being who had caught me in that gushyⒶ and sentimental situation, and I felt myself blushing.
Chapter 29 Chapter 29 I stirred my brotherⒶ up, and we talked the time away while waiting for the magician to come. I said his coming was a most uncertain thing, for he was irregular, and not at all likely to come when wanted, but Schwarz was anxious to stay and take the chances; so we did as I have said—talked and waited. He told me a great deal about his life and ways as a dream-spriteⒶ, and did it in a skipping and disconnected fashion proper to his species.
Chapter 30 Chapter 30 The cat walked in, waving her tail, then gathered it upⒶ in her right arm, as she might a train, and minced her way to the middle of the room, where she faced the magician and rose up and bent lowⒶ and spread her hands wide apart, as if it was a gown she was spreading, then sank her body grandly rearward—certainly the neatest thing you ever saw, considering the limitedness of the materials.
Chapter 31 Chapter 31 It was a dark, sour, gloomy morning, and bleak and cold, with a slanting veil of powdery snow driving along,Ⓐ and a clamorous hollow wind bellowing down the chimneys and rumbling around the battlements and towers—just the right weather for the occasion, 44 said, nothing could improve it but an eclipse. That gave him an idea, and he said he would do an eclipse; not a real one, but an artificial one that nobody but Simon Newcomb could tellⒺ from the original Jacobs—so he started it at once, and it certainly did make those yawning old stone tunnels pretty dim and sepulchral, and also of course it furnished an additional uncanniness and muffledness to way-off footfalls, taking the harshness out of them and the edge off their echoes, because when you walk on that kind of eclipsy gloominess on a stone floor it squshes under the foot and makes that dull effect which is so shuddery and uncomfortable in these crumbly old castles where there has been such ages of cruelty and captivity and murder and mystery.
Chapter 32 Chapter 32 Forty-Four, still playing Balthasar Hoffman the magician, entered briskly now, and threw himself in a chair. The cat emerged with confidence, spread herself, purring, in his lap, and said—
“This Duplicate wouldn't believe me when I told him, and when [begin page 395] I proved it he tried to cram a boot-jackⒶ down my throat, thinking to scare me, which he didn't, didn't you, Duplicate?
Chapter 33 Chapter 33 Surely Forty-Four was the flightiest creature that ever was! Nothing interested him long at a time. He would contrive the most elaborate projects, and put his whole mind and heart into them, then he would suddenly drop them, in the midst of their fulfilment, and start something fresh. It was just so with his Assembly of the Dead. He summoned those forlorn wrecks from all the world and from all the epochs and ages, and then, when everything was ready for the exhibition, he wanted to flit back to Moses's time and see the EgyptiansⒶ floundering around in the Dead Sea, and take me along with him.
Chapter 34 Chapter 34 “And you are going awayⒶ, and will not come back any more.”
“Yes,” he said. “We have comraded long together, and it has been pleasant—pleasant for both; but I must go now, and we shall not see each other any more.”
“In this life, 44, but in another? We shall meet in another, surely, 44?”
Then all tranquilly and soberly he made the strange answer—
Boy’s Manuscript [begin page 1] Boy’s ManuscriptⒶemendation two manuscript pages (about 300 words) missing Ⓐemendation me that put the apple there. I don’t know how long I waited, but it was very long. I didn’t mind it, because I was fixing up what I was going to say, and so it was delicious. First I thought I would call her Dear AmyⒺexplanatory note, though I was a little afraid; but soon I got used to it and it was beautiful.
Letter to William Bowen [begin page 20] Letter to William Bowen Sunday Afternoon,Ⓔexplanatory note At Home, 472 Delaware Avenue,
Buffalo Feb. 6. 1870
My First, & Oldest & Dearest Friend,
My heart goes out to you just the same as ever. Your letter has stirred me to the bottom. The fountains of my great deep are broken upⒺexplanatory note & I have rained reminiscences for four & twenty hours.
Tupperville-Dobbsville [begin page 24] Tupperville-Dobbsville Chapter 1 The scene of this history is an Arkansas village, on the bank of the Mississippi; the time, a great many years ago. The houses were small and unpretentious; some few were of frame, the others of logs; a very few were whitewashed, but none were painted; nearly all the fences leaned outward or inward and were more or less dilapidated.
Clairvoyant [begin page 27] Clairvoyant When I was a boy, there came to our village of Hannibal, on the Mississippi, a young Englishman named John H. DayⒺexplanatory note, and went to work in the shop of old Mr. Stevens the jeweler, in Main street. He excited the usual two or three days’ curiosity due to a new comer in such a place; and after that, as he seemed to prefer to keep to himself, the people bothered themselves no more about him, and he was left to his own devices.
Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians [begin page 33] Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians Chapter 1 That other book which I made before, was named “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Maybe you remember about it. But if you don’t, it don’t make no difference, because it ain’t got nothing to do with this one. The way it ended up, was this. Me and Tom Sawyer and the nigger JimⒺexplanatory note, that used to belong to old Miss WatsonⒺexplanatory note, was away down in Arkansaw at Tom’s aunt Sally’s and uncle Silas’sⒺexplanatory note.
Jane Lampton Clemens [begin page 82] Jane Lampton Clemens This was my mother. When she died, in October, 1890, she was well along in her eighty-eighth year; a mighty age, a well contested fight for life for one who at forty was so delicate of body as to be accounted a confirmed invalid and destined to pass soon away. I knew her well during the first twenty-five years of my life; but after that I saw her only at wide intervals, for we lived many days’ journey apart.
Villagers of 1840–3 [begin page 93] Villagers of 1840–3 Judge Draper JudgeⒶemendation Draper , dead without issue. Judge Carpenter . Wife, . Sons: , , , . Daughter, .
Dr. Meredith Dr. Meredith . Sons, Charley and John . Two old-maid sisters. He had been a sailor, and had a deep voice. Charley went to California and thence to hell; John, a meek and bashful boy, became the cruelest of bushwhacker-leaders in the war-time.
Hellfire Hotchkiss [begin page 109] Hellfire HotchkissⒶemendation Chapter 1 “But James, he is our son, and we must bear with him. If we cannot bear with him, how can we expect others to do it?”
“I have not said I expected it, Sarah. I am very far from expecting it. He is the most trying ass that was ever born.”
“James! You forget that he is our son.
Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy [begin page 134] Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy Chapter 1 Well, we was back home and I was at the Widow Douglas’sⒺexplanatory note up on Cardiff Hill again getting sivilised some more along of her and old Miss Watson all the winter and spring, and the Widow was hiring JimⒺexplanatory note for wages so he could buy his wife and children’s freedom some time or other, and the summer days was coming, now, and the new leaves and the wind-flowers was out, and marbles and hoops and kites was coming in, and it was already barefoot time and ever so bammy and soft and pleasant, and the damp a-stewing out of the ground and the birds a-carrying on in the woods, and everybody taking down the parlor stoves and stowing them up garret, and speckled straw hats and fish-hooks beginning to show up for sale, and the early girls out in white frocks and blue ribbons, and schoolboys getting restless and fidgetty, and anybody could see that the derned winter was over.
Schoolhouse Hill [begin page 214] Schoolhouse Hill Chapter 1 It was not much short of fifty years ago—and a frosty morning. Up the naked long slant of Schoolhouse Hill the boys and girls of Petersburg village were struggling from various directions against the fierce wind, and making slow and difficult progress. The wind was not the only hindrance, nor the worst; the slope was steel-clad in frozen snow, and the foothold offered was far from trustworthy.
Huck Finn [begin page 260] Huck Finn Ⓐemendation Well, I had a noble big bullfrog that I had traded a hymn-book for, and was all profit, becuz it never cost me anything, deacon Kyle give it to me for saving his daughter’s life time she fell in the river off of the ferry boat going down to the picnic in Cave Holler, and warn’t any use to me on account of my being able to get along without hymns, and I traded the bullfrog for a cat, and sold the cat for a false-face, a horrible thing that was awful to look at and cost fifteen cents when it was new, and so I was prospering right along and was very well satisfied.
MTPDocEd [begin page 467] [Editorial Headnote] Unless otherwise stated, incorrect or inconsistent spellings and usages have not been emended when these present no problem for an understanding of the text. Errors which are troublesome have been corrected in square brackets. Empty brackets—[ ]—indicate editorial recognition that the preceding word or punctuation is redundant. The same use of brackets is followed in the Textual Notes.
MTPDocEd [begin page 468] SUPPLEMENT A: What Is Man? Fragments THESE items were never part of the dialogue or were deleted by Mark Twain. They appear in known or conjectured order of composition.
A1. Draft of The Moral Sense MARK TWAIN probably wrote this prior to the main dialogue, inasmuch as he used numbers rather than “O.M.–Y.M.” to designate the speakers. The paper is a double-ruled stationery of European make similar to paper he used for What Is Man?
MTPDocEd [begin page 504] SUPPLEMENT B:
Christian Science Fragments THE following items were deleted from or never became part of the Christian Science text. Several pages of reading notes are omitted, along with Mark Twain's illustrations and a few short fragments somewhere between outline and manuscript. The items are in the order they had or might have had in the book.
B1.Christian Science and the Book of Mrs.
MTPDocEd [begin page 521] SUPPLEMENT C: “The Turning Point of My Life”: First Version MARK TWAIN wrote this version late in 1909, apparently after his seventy-fourth birthday on 30 November. The manuscript and most of a typescript with author's revisions are in the Mark Twain Papers; a copy of another typescript fragment is at the University of Wisconsin. The copy was made in 1944 by the owner, Mr.
MTPDocEd Note on the Electronic Text (2025) This note explains differences between the electronic version of What Is Man? (2025) and the printed version (1973).
The notes reporting emendations and historical collations in this electronic version differ from those in the printed volume. The following note reports a rejected variant reading for the date at the bottom of the “Preface” for Christian Science. The accepted reading (or lemma) is on the left, and the rejected variant reading is on the right:
MTPDocEd ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations and location symbols have been used in annotations. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials quoted in the documentation are transcribed from originals in the Mark Twain Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. “DV” and “Paine” numbers are catalog numbers in the Mark Twain Papers. Volume numbers for multi-volume works appear before the abbreviation, thus, “37Z.”
MT Mark Twain
MTP Mark Twain Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California (Berkeley)
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] INTRODUCTION Development of the Ideas In January 1870, writing with romantic eloquence to his fiancée, Olivia Langdon, Samuel L. Clemens exclaimed that “the world we are so proud of is to the universe of careening globes as is one mosquito to the winged & hoofed flocks & herds. . . .”1 He went on to ask: “Verily, What is Man, that he should be considered of God?
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Sabbath Reflections No manuscript is extant, nor any file of the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise for the period. The only text possibly authorized survives as a clipping from the Territorial Enterprise for 28 January 1866 in a scrapbook evidently kept by Orion Clemens, now in the Morse Collection, Yale University; see MTCor, pp. 5–6. The present text is based upon that printing, with the insertion of quotation marks after “broom!
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Reflections on the Sabbath No manuscript extant. See the Explanatory Notes for consideration whether the piece first appeared in the Golden Era or the Territorial Enterprise. The present text is based upon the only text possibly authorized: Golden Era 14, no. 16 (18 March 1866): 3 (Bancroft Library, University of California). Two misprints in that text have been corrected, “Arevet” emended to Brevet (40.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Mr. Beecher and the Clergy No manuscript extant. The present text is based upon the only text possibly authorized: Elmira Daily Advertiser, 10 April 1869, p. 1 (Micro Photo). Three misprints in that text have been corrected, “Jone's” Jones' (45.32), “pyrotenics” pyrotechnics (46.15), and “uniformerly” uniformly (46.20). The two-word formation “every body” (44.29) has been closed up in accordance with Mark Twain's known preference for this word.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote About Smells No manuscript extant. The present text is based upon the only text possibly authorized: Galaxy 9, no. 5 (May 1870): 721–722 (University of Iowa, University of Texas). Two misprints in that text have been corrected (a curved dash stands for the word previously quoted), “Terra” Tierra (48.15), “day,” ~. (49.24). “Saviour” (49.18) has been emended to “Savior”—Mark Twain's usual spelling. Compare the text at 43.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote The Indignity Put upon the Remains of george Holland by the Rev. Mr. Sabine No manuscript extant. The present text is based upon the only text possibly authorized: Galaxy 11, no. 2 (February 1871): 320–321 (University of Iowa, University of Texas). A garbled reading in that text has been emended, “to protest” should protest (55.7). An infinitive in the following sentence of the text suggests that the mistake resulted from an eye-skip.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [Three Statements of the Eighties] The present texts are based upon three untitled manuscripts, DV2745 and Paine 102d, the only phases under Mark Twain's control. In all three he used the same pen, ink (brown or faded to brown), handwriting, and brand of stationery. He probably wrote them at about the same time, perhaps on the same day, but even the decade of composition is conjectural.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote The Character of Man The present text is based upon a heavily revised manuscript, DV32, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. According to the Autobiographical Dictation of 24 January 1906, he wrote “The Character of Man” early in 1885, three or four months after Grover Cleveland's first election. Hand and paper are consistent with this date. The latter is Mark Twain's familiar buff laid paper with the “Keystone Linen” watermark, measuring 5½″ × 8⅞″.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [Letter from the Recording Angel] The present text is based upon an untitled manuscript, DV53, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. He could hardly have written the satire after September 1887. A canceled fragment of A Connecticut Yankee, DV22, paged 371–396, contains many of its passages, and by 15 August Mark Twain had completed 350 pages: see Howard G. Baetzhold, “The Course of Composition of A Connecticut Yankee: A Reinterpretation,” American Literature 33, no.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [Bible Teaching and Religious Practice] The present text is based upon an incomplete manuscript, DV354, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. On the first page Paine inscribed “written in 1890,” a date supported by hand and paper. The green-tinted unwatermarked laid paper, 5½” × 9”, often occurs around 1890—in at least two speeches of the late 1880s, correspondence from 1889 through 1891, part of A Connecticut Yankee, and all of The American Claimant.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [Macfarlane] The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV274, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. At the top of the first page Paine inscribed “written about 1898” (see 1MTA: 143). The phrase “about 1898” suggests he picked that year because he thought the work belonged with the brief autobiographical sketches Mark Twain wrote in 1897 and 1898, but the paper is not like that of the sketches.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Contract with Mrs. T. K. Beecher The present text is based upon three stone fragments Mark Twain inscribed for Mrs. Beecher in 1895, the only phase known to have been under his control. He had just begun his world lecture tour of 1895–1896, and was somewhere between Crookston, Minnesota, and Butte, Montana, when the poem appeared in the New York Tribune for 31 July 1895.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [Man's Place in the Animal World] The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV11, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. He began it around 13 August 1896 and completed it about two months later; for details of composition see Paul Baender, “The Date of Mark Twain's ‘The Lowest Animal,’ ” American Literature 36, no. 2 (May 1964): 174–179. The paper is of two kinds, a white laid (80.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [Something about Repentance] The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV234, probably the only phase under Mark Twain's control. Two typescripts prepared in his lifetime are extant, yet neither shows correction or revision other than Paine's. On one of them Paine wrote “dictated in 1908,” but it is merely a copy of the manuscript. The manuscript paper is a light double-ruled stationery of European manufacture which Mark Twain occasionally used in 1897–1898.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Corn-Pone Opinions The present text is based upon a manuscript, Box 28 no. 7, probably the only phase under Mark Twain's control. A typescript possibly prepared in his lifetime is extant, but it lacks his correction and revision. The manuscript paper is a cream, unwatermarked wove, normally measuring 5¾″ × 9″, from one of the tablets (in this instance possibly “Pratt's Greater New York Tablet”) Mark Twain often used after his return to America in 1900.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote The Five Boons of Life No manuscript discovered. The present text is based upon the first printing in Harper's Weekly, 5 July 1902 (copies at the University of Iowa, University of Texas). Other printings in Mark Twain's lifetime show only variation in format, notably in heading the sections “Chapter I,” etc., rather than “I,” etc.
The title appears by itself in a notebook of 1897 (Notebook 32B, TS p.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Was the World made for Man? The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV12, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. External evidence (see the Explanatory Notes) suggests composition around April 1903, and the hand and paper (from a “Par Value” tablet; see What Is Man? table below, item 5) are consistent with this date. Contrary to Mark Twain's practice the title is in quotes in the manuscript, evidently to indicate that the question was not so much his own as one of current interest.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote God The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV9, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. The paper is from a “Pratt's Greater New York Tablet.” The date of composition is probably 1905, for Mark Twain's script follows the long dimension of the leaves (see description of Supplement A7). The present title is Mark Twain's; DeVoto invented the title for the only previous publication (LE, pp.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote As Concerns Interpreting the Deity The present text is based upon Mark Twain's final holographic text, a manuscript (Paine 186) together with revisions he inscribed in a typescript prepared by Jean Clemens. In the manuscript the lines of writing again follow the long dimension of “Pratt's” tablet leaves. Mark Twain dated the manuscript June 1905 and the typescript “Summer-end” of 1905. The title in the manuscript is “Interpreting the Deity”; Mark Twain changed it to the present title in the typescript.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote In the Animal's Court The present text is based upon a manuscript, DV8, the only phase under Mark Twain's control. The paper is from a “Pratt's” tablet and the script placement is the same as for “God” and “As Concerns Interpreting the Deity”; the date of composition is probably 1905. Paine wrote “Gospel” at the top of the first leaf, meaning that the piece was a fragment of What Is Man?
MTPDocEd Show Headnote What Is Man?
Textual Note, Description of Texts, and Collation Schedule All of the several pre-publication phases of What Is Man? (1906) survive except printer's proof: the first draft (1898), manuscripts added during the years 1898–1905, two passages Mark Twain dictated to his secretary, Isabel V. Lyon, and three typescripts in lineal descent, the last used as printer's copy for the first edition, and all containing Mark Twain's holograph revisions.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Christian Science
Textual Note, Description of Texts, and Collation Schedule All of the original manuscript of Christian Science (1907) survives except book 1, chapters 7–8.1 Chapters 1–4 of book 1 were printed four times, under the title “Christian Science and the Book of Mrs. Eddy,” before the preparation of the first-edition printer's copy: in the Cosmopolitan (October 1899); in unpublished pages from an unidentified book setting with predominantly American spellings; in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Sketches (London: Chatto & Windus, 1900); and in a resetting of the English Hadleyburg text (Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1900).
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Things a Scotsman Wants to Know The present text is based upon a manuscript previously unpublished, DV263, the only extant phase. External evidence (see the Explanatory Notes) suggests that the date at the head—31 August 1909—was the actual date of composition. Mark Twain used a cream tablet paper, probably the “Pratt's” brand, for this and the next two works of this volume, “Letters from the Earth” and “ ‘The Turning Point of My Life’.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote Letters from the Earth The present text is based upon two manuscripts, DV33a, the only phases under Mark Twain's control, here grouped under the title of the second. The first manuscript, untitled and covering pp. 401–406 of this volume, has its own pagination (1–13) and breaks off in midsentence at the end of the last leaf. On p. 13 Paine wrote: “This is all he ever wrote of this M.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote “ The Turning Point of My Life” For all except the last two paragraphs the present text is based upon Mark Twain's final holographic text, a manuscript (Paine 13, 14) together with revisions he inscribed in a typescript (University of Wisconsin) evidently prepared by Jean Clemens. The last two paragraphs, not in manuscript, typescript, or proof (proofs also at the University of Wisconsin), are taken from the first publication of the work in Harper's Bazar for February 1910.
MTPDocEd Headnotes [begin page 31] Which Was the Dream? “Which Was the Dream?” was planned at the beginning of 1895 but was not written until 1897. The first twelve manuscript pages of the husband's narrative were written on 23 May, five days after Mark Twain had finished his composition of Following the Equator. For this initial chapter he drew upon his early memories of Hannibal in sketching the Tom-Sawyer-and-Becky-Thatcher-like courtship of Major General “X” and Alison Sedgewick.
MTPDocEd [begin page 557] The Passenger's Story. It was on an American liner—couple of years ago. I was a second cabin passenger. It was after midnight, and very dark—and misty and damp. There was some sea on. I was on the upper deck, away aft, snuggled under the lee of the canvassed rail on the starboard side, doing nothing. That is, thinking. Nobody stirring; the whole deck was a solitude.
MTPDocEd [begin page 560] The Mad Passenger The dinner was a failure. While it was still unfinished the company began to1 break up and slip out, one after another; and presently none was left but the stranger at my side and me. We were sipping black coffee and smoking. The stranger said, with a sigh—
“Ah, well, that is the way with them. They are mad—that captain and that mate.
MTPDocEd [begin page 568] Dying Deposition In “Which Was It?” the deposition of the dying Andrew Harrison is taken, to be presented at the trial of the squire. This fragment Mark Twain apparently intended to bring into that story in a later part that he never wrote. The confession (or accusation) of Andrew can perhaps be viewed as an invention of his crazed imagination. However, an alternate possibility is that Mark Twain at one time planned to reveal at the end that the squire and not George Harrison had, after all, dealt the killing blow to Jake Bleeker.
MTPDocEd [begin page 571] Trial of the Squire This fragment, a variant of the George Harrison story, was probably written in the summer of 1899. The story is presented “from the outside” in that the reader is not given George Harrison's thoughts as in “Which Was It?” Both the name of the squire—Baldwin rather than Brewster or Fairfax—and the time of the initial action—July rather than November—show that this is a quite early draft.
MTPDocEd MARK TWAIN'S
WHICH
WAS THE DREAM? and Other Symbolic Writings of the Later Years
Edited with an Introduction by
John S. Tuckey
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley and Los Angeles
1967, 2020
Abbreviations MTP Mark Twain Papers, University of California, Berkeley
LE Letters from the Earth, ed. Bernard DeVoto (New York, 1962)
LLMT The Love Letters of Mark Twain, ed. Dixon Wecter (New York, 1949)
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] Introduction These selected later writings of Samuel L. Clemens—Mark Twain—are here published for the first time, with but two exceptions: “The Great Dark” appeared in Letters from the Earth, as edited by Bernard DeVoto;1 and a 5,000-word excerpt from “Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes” was published by Albert Bigelow Paine in his biography.2
The Biographical Background All of the selections in this volume were composed between 1896 and 1905.
MTPDocEd [begin page 1] Introduction These selected later writings of Samuel L. Clemens—Mark Twain—are here published for the first time, with but two exceptions: “The Great Dark” appeared in Letters from the Earth, as edited by Bernard DeVoto;1 and a 5,000-word excerpt from “Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes” was published by Albert Bigelow Paine in his biography.2 The Biographical Background All of the selections in this volume were composed between 1896 and 1905.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 31] Which Was the Dream? “Which Was the Dream?” was planned at the beginning of 1895 but was not written until 1897. The first twelve manuscript pages of the husband's narrative were written on 23 May, five days after Mark Twain had finished his composition of Following the Equator. For this initial chapter he drew upon his early memories of Hannibal in sketching the Tom-Sawyer-and-Becky-Thatcher-like courtship of Major General “X” and Alison Sedgewick.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 74] The Enchanted Sea-Wilderness This story fragment is a discarded part of Following the Equator, Mark Twain's account of his round-the-world tour of 1895–1896. His travels took him through the “stupendous island wilderness of the Pacific”1 and across the Indian Ocean. While in the South Pacific Ocean bound for Australia, he had noted, on 6 September 1895, “There are spots at sea where the compass loses its head and whirls this way and that; then you give it up and steer by the sun, wind, stars, moon or guess, and trust to luck to save you till you get by that insane region.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 87] An Adventure in Remote Seas In april 1896, Mark Twain wrote in his notebook, “All world-distances have shrunk to nothing. . . . The mysterious and the fabulous can get no fine effects without the help of remoteness; and there are no remotenesses any more.”1 There was, nevertheless, the little explored Antarctic region. And in writing “An Adventure in Remote Seas,” he evidently sought to exploit the romantic possibilities of that yet remaining faraway and fabulous sector of the globe.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 99] The Great Dark Mark Twain did not give this story a title, and A. B. Paine, his literary executor, designated the manuscript simply as “Statement of the Edwardses.” In his dictation of 30 August 1906, the author said that he would probably have called one of his unfinished stories “The Refuge of the Derelicts.” He added that his manuscript had no title, but that it began with a “pretty brusque remark by an ancient admiral, who is Captain Ned Wakefield sic under a borrowed name.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 151] Indiantown “Indiantown” presents a gallery of characters for “Which Was It?” and was probably written in 1899 at about the time Mark Twain began work upon the latter story. George Harrison is identified in the working notes as a character drawn from the author's brother Orion Clemens. His friend the Rev. Joseph H. Twichell is mentioned as the original of the Rev.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 177] Which Was It? Mark Twain at first called this novel “Which Was Which?” but by 1902, when he wrote much of it, he was referring to it as “Which Was It?” And he used the latter name again when he spoke of it as one of his unfinished books in his autobiographical dictation of 30 August 1906. During the summer and fall of 1899 he wrote approximately the first one-third of the manuscript, working sometimes in London and more often in Sanna, Sweden, where Jean was receiving osteopathic treatment.
MTPDocEd Show Headnote [begin page 430] Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes “Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes” was written at Dublin, New Hampshire, between 20 May and 23 June 1905. During that time Mark Twain worked rapidly and exuberantly. On 11 June he wrote to his daughter Clara that he had reached page 240 of the manuscript and exulted, “It beats the record (—oh, all to smash!
MTPDocEd [begin page 557] The Passenger's Story. It was on an American liner—couple of years ago. I was a second cabin passenger. It was after midnight, and very dark—and misty and damp. There was some sea on. I was on the upper deck, away aft, snuggled under the lee of the canvassed rail on the starboard side, doing nothing. That is, thinking. Nobody stirring; the whole deck was a solitude.
MTPDocEd [begin page 560] The Mad Passenger The dinner was a failure. While it was still unfinished the company began to1 break up and slip out, one after another; and presently none was left but the stranger at my side and me. We were sipping black coffee and smoking. The stranger said, with a sigh—
“Ah, well, that is the way with them. They are mad—that captain and that mate.
MTPDocEd [begin page 568] Dying Deposition Show Headnote In “Which Was It?” the deposition of the dying Andrew Harrison is taken, to be presented at the trial of the squire. This fragment Mark Twain apparently intended to bring into that story in a later part that he never wrote. The confession (or accusation) of Andrew can perhaps be viewed as an invention of his crazed imagination. However, an alternate possibility is that Mark Twain at one time planned to reveal at the end that the squire and not George Harrison had, after all, dealt the killing blow to Jake Bleeker.
MTPDocEd [begin page 571] Trial of the Squire Show Headnote This fragment, a variant of the George Harrison story, was probably written in the summer of 1899. The story is presented “from the outside” in that the reader is not given George Harrison's thoughts as in “Which Was It?” Both the name of the squire—Baldwin rather than Brewster or Fairfax—and the time of the initial action—July rather than November—show that this is a quite early draft.