Category: Volume 3

As for the people in Mark Twain’s life, they deserve their own volume or two, or four. I’ve been forced to limit the information on most all but the most important of them to one or two lines, putting in birth and death years where possible, and what they were best known for, and perhaps something unusual as well. But early on I realized that each person who interacted with Twain had a unique and full story, one that cannot be fully presented here. As of this date there are biographies of several of “Twain’s People” as I would call them. And yet, there are no biographies for some important persons, such as Joseph T. Goodman, whose influence on Sam’s early deveopment as a courageous writer was surely profound. I have learned there are many more books to write.

In doing these volumes I have come to know Samuel Clemens beyond what I could discover in all the biographies or all the published volumes of his notebooks and letters. I have been asked if my views of the man have changed through doing this work. Undoubtedly. I see more sides of him now; I recognize his inconsistencies, his flaws, but also have a greater appreciation for his brilliance. I believe he would have been a great man if he had not written a line, though in what way exactly I cannot say. It is true that I am not in awe of him as I was earlier, but this by itself is not loss, but a kind of sanctification. Like Sam, I am a Westerner with Southern roots; have had the advantage of being an ass for well over xx years, and a published fiction writer, of adoring cats, and of being the father of three girls, and the husband to a woman with a heart very much like Olivia Langdon’s. If I’d lived in Sam’s day and we had known each other, I’d like to think we’d be friends. At least we might play chess, smoke a cigar and enjoy a mean game of billiards. I’d even welcome his rules, especially the one that used a kitten in one of the pockets.

David H. Fears 2011

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     – The double dagger was used in reprints of vol. I and II to designate additions or corrections in later print runs. (Not used in Vol. III) These now may now be accessed online:

http://MarkTwainDayByDay.webs.com

Dates: I have followed the conventions used by the University of California Press on the volumes of

Mark Twain’s Letters, except I offer the day of the week, which in some cases is helpful. To wit:

October 5 Thursday – Sources indicate this is a confirmed date, or a deduced date from events or other evidence. Firm dates come before conjectured or circa dates and date ranges.

October 3? Tuesday –

The question mark indicates a conjecture of October 3. Conjecture dates are listed separately following firm dates.

June 24–29 Saturday –

A span of dates joined by a dash indicates a less specific conjecture: the date or dates of composition are thought to fall within this span. Day of the week is ascribed to the last date in the span. The last date in a period is noted by its day of the week. Such entries are listed separately.

June 24 to 29 Saturday – Not a conjecture, but an assertion that some event ran from June 24 through June 29. Such date ranges are listed separately.

May 2 and 3 Friday –

Not a conjecture, but an assertion that the event or activity occurred at least in part on both days. Such inclusive dates are listed separately.

May 1 Friday ca. –

A conjecture of circa a date, month, year or season. Similar to May 1^st? but with less specificity. May also be specified as “on or before,” or “on or after.” Circa dates are listed separately.

February –

Items for which only a month is known, or for magazine-type publications issued for a given month.

1863 –

Items for which a year is known, but not a month or date.

Note: Dates are arranged in order; spans of dates and single dates are sorted by the first date in a span. Conjectured dates are usually separate from known or consensus dates. Thus there are separate entries for May 1 Friday, and May 1? Friday ; May 17 Thursday would follow May 12–20 Sunday. Occasionally entries are labeled “Mid-month” or “End of Month” or “Early Spring,” etc. Confirmed dates are listed first.

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Where unsigned articles have been ascribed to Sam Clemens by major researchers, I have followed their lead but specified, “attributed.” “Sam” when shown without surname is used throughout to mean Mark Twain/ Samuel L. Clemens; likewise “Livy” designates Olivia Louise Clemens; “Susy” has been chosen for Olivia Susan Clemens over the spelling “Susie,” which is seen in earlier references to her. “Jane Clemens” is used for Sam’s mother, “Pamela” or “Pamela Moffett” for his sister, “Orion” for his brother. For certain dominant people in Sam’s life, or dominant within certain periods, last names only are given: Howells, Twichell, Cable, etc. Middle names are now given if known; if not, a middle initial; some middle initials are omitted, when reference is clearly to one person, such as Hjalmar Boyesen. “Frank” is often given for “Francis”; “Joe” for Joseph, when the person was a familiar figure in Sam’s life, such as Joe Twichell, Joe Goodman, Frank Bliss, etc. There are exceptions, as when H.H. Rogers is used for Henry Huttleston Rogers, etc.

Citations:

MLA formatting is followed for in -text and Works Cited, with exceptions made for MT “standard” abbreviations such as MTBus or MTLTP (see abbreviations), and follow the MT Project’s conventions when possible. Use of [brackets] for in-text citations, as well as editor’s inserts within quoted text. When the source uses [brackets] these are replaced by (parentheses).

Some exceptions are made to standard “Twain scholarly convention,” such as MTL with volume numbers used for the MTP volumes, whereas this abbreviation in the past was used for Paine’s volumes of letters, which I cite as MTLP, if I use them at all. A few conventions are modified, such as LM instead of LoM for Life on the Mississippi. See Abbreviations for the full list.

Nearly every date given requires a citation, though some are encyclopedic in nature, or calculated from sources. Because both primary and secondary sources are used, errors and omissions have inevitably been introduced. Hopefully, more study of primary sources will amend such shortcomings.

       /and – Sam’s nearly always wrote “&” rather than “and.” Various editors have handled this either way; as early as Paine in his 1917 two-volume work, Mark Twain’s Letters, replaced his “&” signs with “and”s. The 1969 MTHHR also did this, though the later six volumes of MTL left the “&” signs in. Because I have chosen to cite the most accessible source for the researcher, MTHHR and page number are cited for Clemens’ letters to Rogers, though text may have been taken from MTP transcriptions, which do carry the “&” signs. This matter does not affect meaning in any case.

– This symbol was used in Vol. I for incoming letters not reviewed. (Not used for Vol. 2 & 3)

Editor’s opinions:

The few opinions on events or interpretation of an entry follow all citation designators as well as extra information following “Note”; These remarks are offered as simply one man’s view, and every effort has been made to keep them short and pithy, without obstacle to the meaning of the listing. Of course, I hold title to many more opinions than the few exposed here. Admittedly, a work of this

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Misc: Bold Entries, Italics, Strike-outs, Quotations, use of sic:

All references to dates are bold, save for those within quotes. Also bold are first mentions of persons and places (including lecture halls, etc.) within each date entry. Subjects and titles are not in bold. Indented are letter, newspaper excerpts (boxed) and longer commentaries from biographers and scholars. This aids ease of reading, finding one’s place and appearance. Italics are used when the primary source uses underlines, except for newspaper reports using underlines. They are also used for all inscriptions noted, especially those in books given as gifts. When Sam Clemens uses strikeouts to convey his real or additional meaning, those are usually retained — all other strikeouts, thought to be drafting strikeouts, are not included. Due to all the variant spellings of the day, use of vernacular, and the many misspellings by some writers, the use of sic has been limited to a few instances. Some surnames were spelled in more than one way. Choices were made to stick with one variant, trying to follow the MTP’s examples, or sometimes to put the variant in parentheses.

Corrected sources and method used; the “not in” listings:

Inevitably, sources contain errors. When an error is perceived it is sometimes, but not always, reported. This is not to point any blame or to discredit any source or author, but merely to report findings. Prejudice is given to more contemporary works, with Internet sources taking a much lower priority. Apologies to egos aside, the errors, omissions and oddities should be reported.

Also, some notable material is missing from standard works. Whenever possible these are pointed out, as in “Not in Gribben,” or “Not in MTCI ,” to save the reader/researcher effort in tracing back material. When errors were found in the MTP catalog, such as letters to Livy or Whitmore that were catalogued as to SLC, these are left out or noted. The MTP catalogue misleads when it lists a letter from a person for a company — one particular listing found was a letter from a man FOR the U.S. Senate. Upon review it was discovered the man was a clerk in Washington using Senate letterhead to write asking for Sam’s autograph — hardly a letter FOR the Senate. In every such case the language in this work has been changed to, for example, “John Doe wrote on US Senate letterhead asking for Sam’s autograph for his daughter,” etc. Also, many listings from the Charles Webster & Co., which are nothing more than monthly financial reports of several types, often without corresponding letters, have been catalogued by the MTP under the month of the report. These have been placed in the following month here, as they could not have been sent until the month closed — thus, March 1889’s monthly report is placed as being sent in April, 1889. In all such cases a strict chronology is attempted. Is this an error on the MTP’s part? No, merely a different way to catalog such entries. Likewise, when a pack of Daily Reports was sent, the MTP dates these as a range of dates and places them at the first date. We place them at the last date and note the range within that entry, since they could not have been mailed earlier. Several such changes have been made. These do not reflect on the scholarship of the MTP or of any other source.

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MTFM

Mark Twain’s Fables of Man. Edited by John S Tuckey. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.