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. In addition, there are a number of notebook entries written between 1877 and 1883 (including those for his 1882 river trip) which are to some degree relevant to the composition of the book. These entries have been published in full in N&J2 and N&J3 , and they are selectively cited here.

A total of twenty-nine manuscript pages—all in the Mark Twain Papers (CU-MARK)—are reproduced both in photofacsimile of the original manuscripts and in typographic transcription with accompanying footnotes. This extra measure of care is justified in light of the extraordinary influence these documents have had and still promise to have on our understanding of how and when Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn. Bernard DeVoto pointed out that they “cast a flood of light on the writing of Huckleberry Finn” as well as on “the working of Mark’s mind and talent” (DeVoto 1942, 63).

Each group of working notes is largely consistent as to paper and writing medium. The exceptions are minor—a few words in pencil on a page of ink notes or vice versa, one leaf of differing paper in groups 1 and 2. The order of some of the pages within each group is somewhat arbitrary, although the appearance of the paper and handwriting and the styling and content of the entries often suggest a certain sequence.

Twenty-six pages of the working notes were first transcribed, grouped, and numbered by DeVoto (DeVoto 1942, 61–78). The groups are renamed and renumbered in this appendix to conform with a new chronological sequence. See the list below for the new numbers and equivalent DeVoto numbers. Three additional pages, not identified by DeVoto, are reproduced here. One, 3-14, is added to Group 3, and the remaining two, 4-1 and 4-2, comprise Group 4, a version of the burlesque Hamlet soliloquy in chapter 21.

[begin page 462] In the following list, new numbers are given first and followed by former DeVoto numbers in square brackets, thus: 1-1 [B-2].

Within each group of notes the facsimiles precede the typographic transcriptions, which stop short of type facsimiles: they do not, for instance, necessarily reproduce the lineation of the manuscripts. But they are otherwise as faithful as possible to every transcribable detail of the originals, including several brief entries not noticed or transcribed by DeVoto.

Words underscored once are rendered in italics, words underscored twice are in small capitals (with Initial Capitals if so inscribed), and words underscored three times are in FULL CAPITALS. Canceled text is shown with a horizontal rule (“buttons”) or, for solitary characters, a slash mark (“T”). (Note that Mark Twain’s deletions sometimes indicate not that he rejected an idea, but that he had used it in the story.) Inserted words or characters appear enclosed by carets (“old”); solitary inserted characters appear with a single sublinear caret (“n”). Words that Mark Twain revised internally are transcribed showing the canceled and the revised form separately (“HarveyHarney” rather than the more literal but less legible “Harvney”). Words added in ink or pencil different from the original inscription are transcribed in boldface type. Where part of the original inscription has been torn away or otherwise obscured, the original reading of the text is conjectured within square brackets: shirt. Editorial description within the text itself is always within square brackets and in italic type: added in the left margin. All superscript numbers for footnotes are editorial. All inscription not by Mark Twain has been ignored in the transcription.

Mark Twain wrote these notes (formerly designated as Group B) on two disparate leaves, possibly at different times but certainly between 1876 and 1880. For the most part, he seems to be reviewing his earliest pages (MS1a pages 1–446, written in 1876) and refreshing his memory of characters and situations. He refers to specific passages by word cue and manuscript page number, and he copies marginal notations from the MS1a pages. Unlike the Group 2 and Group 3 working notes, the Group 1 notes do not sketch out ideas for the next section of the book (MS1b pages 447 through 663, written in 1880).

Mark Twain used pencil for all the Group 1 notes: page 1-1 is a torn half-sheet of unlined wove paper bearing the watermark “Antique Parchment Note Paper” and measuring 17.3 by 11.3 centimeters (6 13/16 by 4 7/16 inches); page 1-2 is a torn half-sheet of Crystal-Lake Mills wove paper, the same paper on which most of the first half of the manuscript is written (MS1a, pages 1–446).

The combined evidence of paper and ink color suggests that the notes in Group 2 (formerly designated as Group A), like the MS1b pages, were probably written between March and mid-June 1880. (It was in late March that Mark Twain, then working in purple ink on wove paper, put aside the manuscript of The Prince and the Pauper.) The 1880 period was the second of Mark Twain’s three major stints of work on Huckleberry Finn, when he wrote MS1b pages 447 through 663 (the second half of chapter 18 and all of chapters 19 through 21). It is clear that the eleven pages of Group 2 notes were not all written at one session. Most of the pages contain ideas for the MS1b section, while some look ahead to the final section of the book (MS2). One note in pencil on the back of 2-10 was added in 1883.

Mark Twain wrote these notes on eleven leaves: 2-1 through 2-10 on ten torn half-sheets of unlined wove paper, the same paper as that used for MS1b pages 447 through 663; and 2-11 on a torn half-sheet of laid paper, ruled horizontally in blue and embossed “P&P” (probably for Platner & Porter, the Connecticut paper manufacturer) in the upper left corner. (He used this stationery sporadically, for personal letters and literary manuscript, in the 1870s and in 1880: see Blair 1958, 7-8.) The notes are in the same purple ink used for MS1b pages 447 through 663, except for an addition in blue ink on 2-8 and a few added notations in pencil on 2-8, 2-9, 2-10, and 2-11. Two pages, 2-2 and 2-3, were numbered “1” and “2” by Mark Twain. Nonetheless, it is clear that page 2-1, with its list of characters from the feud episode, is the earliest page within the group.

Mark Twain probably wrote the Group 3 (formerly designated as Group C) notes during spring and summer 1883, when he was completing his book. They include ideas for changes to the chapters he had already written (see 3-3, note 1, and 3-4, notes 3 and 4), ideas for the chapters he had yet to write (3-9 through 3-13), and lists of characters and dialect usages (3-1 and 3-2). They record the minutest details, as well as the broadest possible scenarios: on 3-9, for example, Mark Twain determined the number of hound dogs that would squeeze into Jim’s cabin in chapter 36; and on 3-8 he imagined an episode in which Tom and Huck would adventure around the countryside on an elephant.

This group of notes (except for 3-14) is the last of the three identified by DeVoto. Page 3-14 has been included here because its physical properties match those of the other thirteen pages. They were written on eleven torn half-sheets and two full sheets (3-3 and 3-9/3-10) of Old Berkshire Mills stationery, the same stationery used for the second half of the book (MS2). The top portion, about two-fifths, of page 3-1 was torn off and has not survived. The verso of the page contains notes for Mark Twain’s burlesque “1,002. An Oriental Tale,” which he completed in July 1883, the same summer in which he finished Huckleberry Finn. All the notes are in pencil, except for a few additions on 3-2 and 3-13 in black ink. Mark Twain’s references by word cue and page number are to the lost typescript (TS1), which was prepared from the manuscript (MS1) of much of chapters 1-21 in late 1882 or early 1883. Where possible, these references are identified by page and line in the present text. Identifications have been determined in part by analyzing extant contemporary typescripts of Mark Twain’s letters and literary pieces and by calculating the number of words per page in order to simulate the missing TS1.

The duke’s recitation of “Hamlet’s Immortal Soliloquy” in chapter 21 is a comic pastiche of some of Shakespeare’s most frequently quoted lines (see the explanatory note to 179.10–39). The original soliloquy was written on four pages that were subsequently incorporated into MS1b (618-21), on the same paper and in the same purple ink as the other MS1b pages (see Alterations in the Manuscript). It cannot have been written later than 1880, and, with a few minor changes, matches the text in the first edition. The version of the soliloquy included here as Group 4 (formerly designated as Group D) was written on a letter from Charles L. Webster to Olivia L. Clemens, dated 19 March 1883. It cannot be a draft as previously thought (Blair 1958, 19–20; HF 1988 , 758), but must represent Mark Twain’s unproductive attempt to recall or tinker with his earlier text. Minor variations in the 1883 version as to punctuation and lineation were probably not intended as revisions, but were more likely caused by his failure to recreate the passage from memory. Of the few substantive variants, only one became part of the published text (see note 2, below).

Webster’s letter takes up one side of a folder of stationery, and Mark Twain used two of the three remaining blank sides for the soliloquy, which is written in pencil. It is reproduced here in facsimile. Each side of the folder measures 20.3 by 12.7 centimeters (8 by 5 inches), is made of laid paper with chain lines 2.4 centimeters (15/16 inch) apart, and bears the watermark “Pure Irish Linen F. H. D. & Co.” The notation “Mch 19,” written upside-down at the bottom of the second page of the soliloquy, was made by Albert Bigelow Paine.