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.1 Some of the drafts and notes Mark Twain made while preparing his program survive and are presented here in three groups, arranged in the order in which the episodes occur in the book. Group A, “Call this a gov’ment?” consists of two pages of proof containing Pap Finn’s diatribe against the government. These pages, upon which the author marked changes to adapt the text for platform performance, are from a set of [begin page 579] folded and gathered sheets from the first American edition of Huckleberry Finn that he received during the final stages of book production (called “Pfs2” in the Description of Texts, pages 799–801). Group B, “Raftsmen fight,” consists of twelve pages marked for reading in a copy of Life on the Mississippi, which describe the Mississippi River and the fight between the raftsmen. Group C, “A Dazzling Achievement,” consists of six pages of handwritten notes and sixteen additional pages from the pre-publication sheets, marked for platform reading, which describe Jim’s captivity and Tom and Huck’s machinations to contrive his escape.

Mark Twain began to work on his reading program in late September 1884 when he returned to Hartford from his summer sojourn in Elmira. On September 20 he wrote to Charles Webster, “I would like to find an unbound copy of Huck Finn in Hartford when I reach there—I want to select readings from it for the platform, immediately.”2 At about the same time he listed in his notebook some three dozen possible lecture topics, one third of which were episodes from Huckleberry Finn, and he considered the idea of making “a whole reading from Huck.”3 He also gave a set of folded and gathered sheets to Cable and asked him to recommend some readings. Cable replied on October 13: “One passage I know would be great. . . . It is the runaway Jim’s account of his investments winding up with the 10 cents ‘give to de po’.’ ”4

Mark Twain planned to develop at least two programs for use in cities where he gave more than one performance.5 He began the tour with a primary, or first-night, program containing two readings from chapter 14: “King Sollermun” and “How Come a Frenchman Doan’ Talk Like a Man?”6 “King Sollermun” became a staple of Mark Twain’s first-night program, but the second selection was dropped from the printed program after opening night in order to shorten the performance, which ran a full two hours.7 Thereafter, the first-night program remained fairly constant until Christmas, except for the optional encores. The reading recommended by Cable, a passage Mark Twain titled “Jim’s Bank,” was not made part of the announced program, but was often delivered as an encore to “King Sollermun.”8 Mark Twain’s secondary program was continually changing and usually was made up of four selections chosen from a repertoire of about ten additional pieces, none of them from Huckleberry Finn.

Mark Twain’s notebooks show that one of the readings he had considered for the tour was the “Raftsmen fight,” a passage originally written for Huckleberry Finn but published in 1883 in Life on the Mississippi. He probably prepared the reading reproduced below in Group B by early November, but no evidence has been found that he ever delivered it.9

[begin page 580] By December 15 Mark Twain had decided to revise his program and told Livy he planned to “work & study all day long” over the Christmas holiday. “I am by no means satisfied with my program for second nights; & when I leave home again I shall be letter-perfect in a new one—possibly two of them.”10 In a notebook entry of about December 22, he outlined a new program that included a two-part reading from chapters 38 through 40 of Huckleberry Finn, describing Jim’s imprisonment and escape.11 This episode, called “1st Escape” and “2d Escape” in the notebook, was one that Mark Twain had initially planned to read early in the tour. He had announced it, under the title “A Dazzling Achievement,” for his November 6 performance, but changed his mind, canceling the selection from the printed program and writing in a list of alternatives, none of them from Huckleberry Finn.12 And he evidently had considered reading it on 8 November at Providence, Rhode Island, since he wrote “Snakes &c
Prov. Matinee” on the first page of marked proof containing the passage (see C-1 below). But no mention of this piece has been found in the newspaper reviews of the pre-Christmas segment of the tour.

When Mark Twain resumed the tour on December 29, he added “A Dazzling Achievement” to his program. He reported to Livy that “the new piece” was now “the biggest card I’ve got in my whole repertoire. I always thought so. It went a-booming; & Cable’s praises are not merely loud, they are boisterous. Says its literary quality is high & fine—& great; its truth to boy nature unchallengeable; its humor constant & delightful; & its dramatic close full of stir, & boom, & GO. Well, he has stated it very correctly. . . . Ah, if it goes like that in its crude rude state, how won’t it go when I get it well in hand?”13 Later in the tour Mark Twain described the reading as a “triumph . . . from the first word to the last” and it apparently supplanted “King Sollermun” as his most frequently read book selection.14

Mark Twain’s work over the Christmas holiday also resulted in the addition of another Huckleberry Finn episode, one which was entirely new: “Call this a gov’ment?” He entered the title of this piece in his notebook [begin page 581] for the first time during the holiday break, and may have marked Group A of the proofs reproduced below at the same time.15

In marking the Huckleberry Finn proof sheets and Life on the Mississippi pages for his lecture readings, Mark Twain made numerous changes in the texts. He created introductory or bridge passages to explain his characters and their motives, shortened many other passages, and consistently softened his language. Although such changes could not fail at times to be “literary” in tone, their context and content make clear that Mark Twain intended them for public reading, not as revisions for his novel.

Since it was Mark Twain’s practice to memorize and continually improve his lecture selections, it is unlikely that he read from any of these materials while performing, and they may not represent the precise text he delivered to his audience.16

The Huckleberry Finn proofs and pages from Life on the Mississippi that Mark Twain revised for lecture performance are reproduced in photofacsimile, and his handwritten lecture notes are reproduced in typographic transcription. The facsimiles of the printed texts are accompanied by transcriptions of Mark Twain’s holograph insertions, which are sometimes hard to read in the facsimiles, but his deletions of printed text, normally clear in the facsimiles, are not transcribed. Words underscored once are rendered in italics, and words underscored twice are rendered in small caps. Within handwritten text, deletions are shown with a horizontal rule (“visiting”), or, for solitary characters, a slash mark (“&”). Inserted words or characters appear enclosed by carets (“was”); solitary inserted characters appear with a single sublinear caret (“—”). Revisions are transcribed in the order in which they were intended to be read, when that order can be determined. Distinct additions to a single line of printed text are separated by a vertical rule (“our M town | each raft”). Mark Twain’s word counts, directions on where to begin or end a reading, and notes to himself about tone of voice or delivery (including underscores added by hand) are not transcribed from the printed pages unless they are illegible in the facsimile. Transcribed revisions to the printed pages are preceded by a page and line cue indicating their intended placement. Line numbers do not include titles or picture captions.

The two pages reproduced below are in the Mark Twain Papers (CU-MARK). They are from the group of Huckleberry Finn proof sheets called “Pfs2” in the Description of Texts (see pages 799–801). All revisions are in pencil.

The twelve pages reproduced below are from Mark Twain’s copy of Life on the Mississippi in the Clifton Waller Barrett Library at the University of Virginia (ViU). On pages B-10 and B-11, Mark Twain turned one raftsman’s lengthy boast into an exchange between the “corpse-maker” (“CM”) and the “Child of Sin” (“CS”). The notation “CD” on B-10 may refer to “Child of Death” or “Child of Desolation.” Revisions are in pencil.

The documents below are of two types: Mark Twain’s holograph lecture notes, transcribed, and his marked page proofs, reproduced in facsimile. All are in the Mark Twain Papers (CU-MARK). The content of the notes (C-3 through C-8) ties them closely to the proofs (C-1 and C-2, and C-9 through C-22), which, like Group A, are from among those called “Pfs2” in the Description of Texts (see pages 799–801). When Mark Twain began revising the proofs, he evidently intended to divide the readings into four parts, parts 1 and 2 perhaps comprising chapters 36 and 37. Only portions of parts 3 and 4, which became the basis for readings he delivered, survive. He prepared some material for part 3 near the beginning of chapter 38, canceling page 325 (C-1), summarizing the action of pages 324–25 on page 326 (C-2), and then copying the revised page 326 onto two manuscript pages (C-3 and C-4). Manuscript notes C-5 through C-8 (which are missing at least one manuscript page to complete the sequence) evidently supersede the work on C-1 through C-4. They also provide a new beginning for the reading, summarizing the action of chapters 36 and 37. Note C-8 (which in part repeats the language of the second paragraph of proof page 335, note C-15) concludes with “Tom, he thought of something & says.” Virtually the same words introduce Tom’s discourse on the need for spiders and other vermin if Jim is to be a properly literary prisoner (page 328, missing from the proofs; 324.9 in this edition). Although Mark Twain at one time planned to divide parts 3 and 4 of his reading at the end of chapter 38 (he wrote the words “10 min” and “To be contin” at the end of the chapter on C-12), he noted other proposed divisions on the proofs as well. At the beginning of chapter 40 he wrote “Part 4 properly begins here” (C-17), and two pages later again noted “No 4”; his final division is not evident from these proofs.

Mark Twain wrote notes C-3 and C-4, which are numbered 1 and 2, on two sheets of laid tablet paper which measure 14.3 by 22.6 centimeters (5⅝ by 8⅞ inches) and have horizontal chain lines 1.9 centimeters (¾ inch) apart; these leaves are watermarked “PURE LINEN.” Notes C-5 through C-8 were written on four sheets of Blair’s Keystone Linen laid paper, torn from a tablet. The leaves measure 14 by 22.4 centimeters (5½ by 8 13/16 inches) and have vertical chain lines 2.4 centimeters (15/16 inch) apart. These pages are numbered 1, 2, 4, and 5; page 3 is missing. All the notes are in pencil.