Vol 1 Section 0029
1871 – Mark Twain’s (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance is a pamphlet (sometimes issued with cloth binding), published by Galaxy editor Isaac Sheldon early in the year. It was Sam’s third “book,” and the hope was to quickly capitalize on his Innocents Abroad popularity for the 1870 Christmas market, but publication problems delayed release. It consists of two stories “First Romance,” (before named “A Medieval Romance”) which originally appeared in the Buffalo Express in Jan. 1870, and “A Burlesque Autobiography,” published in violation of Twain’s contract with Elisha Bliss. The “Autobiography” was unpublished at the time it was joined with “The First Romance” as a small book. Sam’s A Burlesque Autobiography did not first appear in “Memoranda” in the Galaxy.
The illustrations form an interesting aspect of this book. They have no relationship to the text of the book. Rather, they use cartoons illustrating the children’s poem The House that Jack Built to lampoon the Erie Railroad Ring (the house) and its participants, Jay Gould (1836-1892), John T. Hoffman (1828-1888), and Jim Fisk (1834-1872).
The book was not one of Sam’s favorites. Two years after publication, he bought all of the printing plates of the book and destroyed them. The sketch survived as “A Burlesque Biography” in the $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories (1906).
Have not heard from you for some time—am anxious for your safety—let us know how you are. &c—& how goes the latter. Have looked for advt. of your pamphlet also. Your brother & myself have expected to see it advertised. What is the trouble? Did you get my contracts sent? / Our paper gets on now just perfectly, & will be out by & by, in good shape I think [MTP].
Dear Mark, / I don’t care if letters are a bore to you either to answer or receive, I’ve had so much amusement from your travels, memoranda, &c. I want to thank you for it and I’m going to do it. Accept then the hearty gratitude of one who feels indebted in a higher degree than his subscription to the Galaxy or purchase of “The Innocents Abroad” cancels. Sometimes I think the balance between you writers and we readers is most unfair and while you are racking your brains to amuse us, we in our selfishness swallow it all and also all amusing things that happen to us. That you too may have a little smile let me tell you how they do things in Buffalo.
Stopping there one night a few weeks since I went to the “Tift [Tifft] House” called the nicest I was told. Going up to my room I, as is my invariable custom felt of the bedding to see if there was sufficient to keep me warm as it was during one of the cold spells we have recently had. Found sheet, one blanket and white spread. Coming down I asked the clerk to put more bedding on 106. “Certainly sir.” Going up to bed about 11.30 I found a blanket nicely spread over the outside. Still feeling doubtful as to quantity I felt again and found the blanket had changed places with the counterpane and there was precisely the same amount as at first. You will appreciate this as you know the style they spread at the “Tift House” and prices they charge. Don’t imagine I send this for publication. Tis for you to laugh at [MTPO].
Dear Sir: / I ordered my publisher to send you the book, long ago—& now I have sent him this present letter of yours, with an imperative order to send you the book immediately. He will be very likely to attend to it without this time without fooling away any perceptible amount of time—but if he neglects it, I ask as a personal favor that you will let me know, with dispatch. Things shall go right or else there shall be trouble in the family. / Yrs Truly / Samℓ. L. Clemens [MTP, drop-in letters]. Evans is not identified.
Donn Piatt cited this dinner at Welcker’s Restaurant in Washington, D.C. as his first meeting with Mark Twain. After describing Sam and his manner, Piatt noted Sam’s abrupt departure after receiving Susan Crane’s telegram of Livy’s severe illness. Piatt wrote that Sam left with David Gray [MTL 4: 328-9]. Note: Piatt’s account was printed in the Mar. 2, 1871 Watertown, New York Weekly Reformer, p.1 and included this additional information:
He looks more like a member of the Ohio Legislature (if you know what that is) than anything else. That is, a sort of a man who had narrowly escaped being made a county commissioner, and so was returned to the Legislature. His face is a sad one, and when all are in roars about him he continues in a state of dense solemnity. His voice is the most extraordinary voice I ever heard. It is a cross between Horace Greeley and Tim Lincoln. He draws his words out in the most preposterous manner, that gives a drollery to what he says utterly beyond description [eBay by Headlines in History, Oct. 23, 2009 Item 380170621364].
Dear Mr. Clemens, /I have been a long while acknowledging the receipt of your cheerful letter; but you understand how a man who writes perpetual “leaders” sometimes finds that the pen he uses for his private correspondence weighs about a ton. Now and then I kick over my personal inkstand; but I have just set it up on end and refilled it, in order to thank you for your entertaining pages. I am glad that I accused you of “The Three Aces”, and ruffled your feelings, and caused you to tell me about poor Artemus Ward, and how the Overland got so striking a design for its cover. Really, that is the best bear story I ever heard. All this wouldn’t have happened if I had not wronged you. Mem: Always abuse people.
When you come to Boston, if you do not make your presence manifest to me, I’ll put a ¶ in “Every Saturday” to the effect that though you are generally known as Mark Twain, your favorite nom de plume is “Barry Gray.” I flatter myself that will bring you. / Yours very truly, / T. B. Aldrich [MTPO]. Note from source: “Barry Gray” was the pseudonym of genteel humorist Robert Barry Coffin (1826–86), who, like Aldrich, had been associated with the New York Home Journal in the late 1850s.
“All galaxy gone to Press impossible to do it notice of withdrawal not in department generally so quiet it need not disturb you my heartiest sympathy / F P Church”
February 10 Friday – Francis P. Church wrote to Sam: “I have your last telegram, but I have already written that I succeeded in stopping Memoranda. / It will delay the Galaxy several days, but I keenly appreciate your feelings & honor you for it. I hope I should feel so myself under similar circumstances” [MTPO].
I have spent all the afternoon in arranging to leave your department out of the March no & I assure you it has been no light task. It was part of a form on the press & all that comes after it in the March no had to be fixed over. Aside from the expense, it will cause us several days delay, which is peculiarly unfortunate as we were very much behind on this number…
The pamphlet I can hold a few days if you desire it, but a few samples of it have got out. I might hold the Editors copies back, while the distant orders are on their way by freight lines & they will not reach their destination for some time to come. Of course it is universally understood that this book was written long ago & has been in the press for some time [MTPO].
February 11 Saturday – Isaac E. Sheldon wrote to Sam: “Your telegram just rec’d. / I write to you this morning. /A note is inserted in the Nebulae & also in Table of Contents giving the reason why your Memoranda is not in this time” [MTP]. Note: Clemens may have sent another telegram on Feb. 10 or 11.
Dear Sir: / I am only too proud of the chance to help, with this the only Valentine I venture to write this day—for although I am twain in my own person I am only half a person in my matrimonial firm, & sometimes my wife shows that she is so much better & nobler than I am, that I seriously question if I am really any more than about a quarter! [MTP, drop-in letters].
Please mail or send in your own way, a cloth copy of Innocents Abroad to
Sidney Moffett
New Market
Shenandoah Co.,Va;
You certainly didn’t read the notice concerning the omission of the March Memoranda aright. I only said that the department would be continued as usual “next month” I had no idea of committing you to its indefinite continuance.
…
I thought it was understood that your farewell was to go in & with it your postscript & then some words of mine…
…
Of course, my dear fellow, I shall not keep the name Memoranda. I had no idea of it.
..
And can’t you work up some thing to start the new department—why not one of the things already in type? But I will have the plates of those pages destroyed, so that they need never arise to bother you if you don’t want them. / Don’t let us quarrel nor shall we, if I can help it by doing the square thing. / Truly F.P.C. [MTP].
James Sutton wrote from the office of The Aldine to acknowledge Sam’s letter to Mr. Chick; Sutton was filling in for Chick [MTP].
My Dear Brother:– / Your very welcome letter contains a great deal of pleasant information.
1. That Livy will soon be well enough to move.
And 2. That we may look for you as a resident of our city. Bliss says he will furnish the information about taxes. I will see him when he comes in and get the figures unless he is going to write you the information himself. He says if you will only write we will take care of your furniture and it shan’t cost you anything. He knows an upper story, new and free of bugs, that can be rented cheap. Besides, we will hunt up any information you want, and do anything else you want done, if you will only write. He is in earnest. He is decidedly worked up about it. He says, put yourself in our place. A new enterprise, in which “Twain” was to be a feature, and so widely advertised. He receives congratulations in New York at the Lotus Club that you and Hay are to write for the paper. Everybody likes it. It starts out booming. Are you going to kick the pail over? Think of yourself as writing for no periodical except the Publisher. “Have you seen Twain’s last?” says one. “It’s in the Publisher.” He goes and buys it because there is no other chance to get it. It gives us prestige. Look how it helps me. I should be an editor with something to edit. This “Publisher” may as well be built up into something large as not. With a great circulation, giving only once a month a taste of “Twain,” to whet people’s appetites for books, it acts as an advertisement, and we have an incentive to “write up” “Twain,” so far as his own efforts leave us anything in that way to do. Under these circumstances, with your pen withdrawn from the Galaxy, and held aloof from small books, and confined to the larger and more elevated description worthy of your mettle, and writing only for us, who publish a paper as a branch of your publisher’s enterprise, you would not be writing too much nor too little, but just exactly enough. Squarely, we must have something from you or we run the risk of going to the dickens. Bliss says he will pay you, but we must have something every number. If you only give us a half column, or even a quarter of a column—a joke or an anecdote, or anything you please—but give us something, so that the people may not brand us as falsifiers, and say we cried “Twain,” “Twain,” when we had no “Twain.” If you don’t feel like writing anything, copy something from your book. Are you going to let the Galaxy have a chapter and give us nothing? If you don’t feel like taking the trouble of copying from the book say we may select something. We shall have time enough if you send some chapters in four or five days, as you proposed. If you prefer it I will hunt out something from my old file of Californians and send it to you to revamp. That paper never had much circulation east.
….
Do not understand that we fail or slacken in sympathy for you. We appreciate the sad fact that you have been sorely tried by an affliction which brought with it the shadow of a gigantic and irreperable sorrow, brought it close enough to chill you to the marrow; we do appreciate your exhaustion, your prostration, and the fearful strain it would be to you to attempt now to write for us. I could not have found it in my heart to insist now on the imposition of the least labor upon you if it had not been for the very serious moment the matter is to us—and even then we only insist so far as to request the privilege of copying a little from your book, or using other compositions without present labor to you.
Bliss wants me to say (he read the preceding except the paragraph in relation to Mollie’s proposition) that he was so much troubled about the prospect of not getting you into our next two numbers that he may have forgotten to express the earnest sympathy he feels for you, and wishes me to convey the expression of it to you. He says he laid awake till 2 o’clock last night thinking of your com[m]unications for the paper, and of the amount of work he had before him between now and the first of April. He says he wrote you about the taxes—that they are 1½ per cent.
Mollie and I go to-night to a children’s party at Blisss—75 invited, and to-morrow at 6 to tea with a fine lady on Elm Street—Mrs. Sargent. She means to have Hodge and his wife also. Hodge is pastor of our church (Presbyterian) and has had us at his house twice to dinner on Sunday—as we have a long walk. Hodge’s wife has translated some Swiss tracts, which have been published by the Dutch Reformed Church. She has a sister married to Colgate of soap celebrity, and the great telegraph inventor, Morse, is her uncle. She says her Uncle Sidney (five years younger than the telegraph inventor is an enthusiastic inventor, but very quiet, says little, and slowly perfects his inventions. For one he has been offered a hundred thousand dollars by the United States. He refused. He has another under way (though I suppose this is confidential) a new motive power designed to cross the Atlantic in 24 hours. Singular coincidence that it should be so near in the line of what I am trying to do—he working at the engine and I at the wheel—and that without my giving her any more of a hint than that I was merely trying to invent something, she should say that her brother was such a lover of inventions, if she should tell him there was an inventor here wanted his advice it would be her best chance to get him here. My love to Livy and the baby, / Your Bro., / Orion [MTPO]. Note: Sam took umbrage at the ideas he should only publish in Bliss’s new newspaper. See his reply Mar. 11. He wrote on env., “Still urging MSS.”
“…for at least 2 years—I mean to take my time in building a house & build it right—even if it does cost 25 per cent more.” Sam also asked Orion to: “…sit down right away and torture your memory & write down in minute detail every fact & exploit in the desperado Slade’s life that we heard on the Overland…I want to make up a telling chapter from it…” [MTL 4: 348].
“Your letters of the 9th & 10th just received. I showed them to Bliss, who is much pleased.” He gave details on the outlaw Slade, evidently answering Twain’s question. Orion also gave a description: “I think he was about your size, if any difference rather shorter and more slender. He had gray eyes, very light straight hair…and a hard looking face seamed like a man of 60, though otherwise he did not seem over thirty. I think the sides of his face were wrinkled. His face was thin, his nose straight and ordinarily prominent—lips rather thinner than usual—otherwise nothing unusual about his mouth, except that his smile was attractive and his manner pleasant. Nothing peculiar about his voice…neither very fine nor very coarse” [MTP].
My dear fellow / Your letter is perfectly safe in my hands—stop to make it so I have just put it in the stove altho’ I wished to retain a confidential letter written by one I like and admire much as I do you
I am very glad to hear that your dear wife is convalescent and I hope with you that she will soon be well.
I told the Churches I could not take the responsibility of that Dpt for any such sum as the one offered—so they came down and agreed to my demand.
Now I wish on my account you would reconsider your determination and help me a little. I find in print some very capital things from you that you ordered out—now cant you give me some of them?
So soon [as] the Church signs an agreement with me I am going to throw over letter writing and devote myself to editing and book making—We ought to make a shove for an international copy right. The literary and other brain of the country ought to be sufficient to accomplish this
Where are you to be this summer—I propose taking my wife to the Sea side—Narragansett Rhode Island— …Yours sincerely / Donn Piatt [MTP].
The Aldine article, “An Autobiography” (p. 52) recently uncovered, is short enough to be included in its entirety here, along with an engraving by John C. Bruen of Sam’s 1870 photograph by Mathew Brady:
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
——————
MARK TWAIN
————
I was born November 30th, 1835. I continue to live, just the same.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Thus narrow, confined and trivial, is the history of a common human life!—that part of it, at least, which it is proper to thrust in the face of the public. And thus little and insignificant, in print becomes this life of mine, which to me has always seemed so filled with vast personal events and tremendous consequences.
I could have easily made it longer, but not without compromising myself
Perhaps no apology for the brevity of this account of myself is necessary.
And besides, why should I damage the rising prosperity of THE ALDINE ?
Surely THE ALDINE has never done me any harm.
April 1 Saturday – In an article titled “American Humor,” the London Graphic decided that Sam had a “rather forced sense of humor,” but the writer liked Sam “best when he is serious, and he can be both earnest and poetical,” although he lacked the genius of Bret Harte [Tenney 3].
April 3 Monday – In Elmira, Clemens wrote Isaac E. Sheldon. Letter not extant but answered by Sheldon of Apr. 4. Evidently, Sam spelled out details of a desired contract.
April 4 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion, asking for him to resend any “incidents” about the Nevada days he could recall, since notes had been lost in the move. He asked his brother if Bliss was doing anything with the manuscript he’d sent (Roughing It.) Sam added: “Baby in splendid condition. Livy as feeble as ever—has not sat up but once or twice for a week” [MTL 4: 372].
Sam also wrote to Thomas Nast, whom he’d met in Nov. 1867 upon return from the Holy Land excursion, suggesting a piece for Nast’s proposed Th Nast’s Illustrated Almanac for 1872 [373-4n2]. See Apr. 24 entry for Nast’s reply.
Issac E. Sheldon wrote:
Friend Clemmens [sic] / Your favor of Apl 3rd is at hand. I rec’d also a few days since yours of Mar 22nd. Inclosed find a contract as you desire. It is just like the one you sent except that settlements are made 1st of Aug & Feb each year. At these times we make up a/cs of copyright in all our books.
The returns for copyright, after the first settlement, will of course not be large, as a book like this has its main sale at once. As regards the story, I like the idea & it would sell well if it were a good story & had a quiet vein of humor as well as the tragic interest of a story. I do not see why you could not write such a story. If you feel in the spirit of it I should certainly make the attempt. We had better give the public enough for the money next time. I like to have every one satisfied / I am Truly Yours / Isaac E Sheldon [MTPO].
April 6 Thursday – Sam wrote a short note from Elmira to Robert and Louise M. Howland, his old friends from Virginia City days, thanking them for pictures received; he promised to send pictures of the family [MTL 4: 374].
Sam also replied to the Apr. 4 of Isaac E. Sheldon about the pamphlet A Burlesque Autobiography to be published. Sam objected to being put off for the first royalty payment [MTL 4: 375]. Note: By this time in Sam’s life he was very shrewd with publishers and editors.
April 8, 9 and 10 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion. Sam sent a few changes on the new book (Roughing It) and told of Livy’s improvement. Sam was on MS. page 610. He was at Quarry Farm, “a mile & a half up a mountain, where I write every day.” The rest of the family was at the Langdon home [MTL 4: 376-7].
April 12 Wednesday – Sam went to New York City, where he likely met with Isaac E. Sheldon and/or Francis P. Church to follow up on the planned pamphlet and to gain the final payment for his Galaxy contributions [MTL 4: 378n6]. Joe stayed with Clemens several months after his Mar. 24 arrival, and so may have gone with him.
A dinner took place with Clemens, David Ross Locke (Petroleum V. Nasby) and Melville D. Landon (Eli Perkins) at Perkins’ New York residence. “The conversation at that dinner I shall never forget. The stories told and the reminiscences brought out at that dinner would fill a small book” [“A Truthful Trio,” Wit and Humor of the Age, by Perkins (1883) p.194]. Note: Google online gives one of the stories told by Twain about a “very fast horse” he owned in Nevada.
April 14 Friday – Sam returned to Elmira.
April 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote a short note from Elmira to Orion. Sam directed him to leave the “Bull Story” alone until it appeared in the book and not to put it in the paper (American Publisher). Joe Goodman was visiting at Quarry Farm and would come up every day and write a novel, and read the California book critically. Sam didn’t want the story “Jack & Moses” used by the paper, but saved for possible lectures next winter [MTL 4: 378-9].
Sam also wrote a short note to Mary Mason Fairbanks that he “cannot see that she [Livy] has gained a single hair’s breadth in 30 days” [MTL 4: 379].
April 20 Thursday – Sam went to Buffalo to dispose of his interest in the Buffalo Express to George H. Selkirk, a previous part-owner of the paper [MTL 4: 380n1]. Sam took a financial beating on the sale.
April 22 Saturday – Elisha Bliss wrote to Sam fearing that Orion had “written in a manner to give” the wrong impression. After clearing this up, Bliss felt that the issuance of “an occasional Twainish thing…would aid the future sale of the book.” After his signature, he wrote: “Your brother says he wrote you Knox had written up something similar to the Bull story—I never saw it & do not know anything about it. Yours struck me as a good thing, every way. Your first chap. Is splendid—smacks of the old style—” [MTP]. Note: possibly Thomas Wallace Knox (1835-1896), journalist and world traveler who wrote 45 books.
April 24 Monday – Thomas Nast replied to Sam’s Apr. 4 letter:
The “beef contract” is very good, but I do not think it is as suitable for my almanac, as some of your other things, for I must bear in mind that I cater for the children in my almanac as well as the big folks, so I think “the good little boy who never prospered”, or “advice to little girls”, or “the last Benjamin Franklin”, would suit me better, therefore, if you will graciously accord me your permission to use any of the aforesaid, I shall be happy to avail myself of it [MTP].
April 26 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Mary Mason Fairbanks, who had suffered some sort of injury. Sam wrote that Livy was better, even “bright & cheerful.” After a couple of poor reviews of his Burlesque Autobiography, Sam was feeling low about his writing:
Sam’s letter to Nast, reported (with partial text) as Apr. 27? In MTL 4: 382, has recently been up for sale. The date is herein corrected to Apr. 26, and the full text reads:
Elmira, 26th /Dear Nast: / Take any sketch you please — & you are the man to make the selection because you can tell what will illustrate best. Take any one you want. You needn’t ask anybody’s permission but mine. I own them.
I daren’t got into a book or pamphlet speculation.—Contracts forbid it. / Yrs Ever / Twain
[ABE books accessed April 27, 2009; Hirst at MTP verified by email].
Indeed I would like to find that Canadian “Innocents” if you can get it.
I am well & flourishing & hard at work on a book similar to the “Innocents” but my wife is still confined to her bed & has been over three months / Yours / Clemens [MTP, drop-in letters].
May 7 Sunday – Horace Greeley wrote to Sam on NY Tribune letterhead. See MTB p 437 for facsimile of the letter with Greeley’s scrawl and Paine’s comments [MTP].
May 8 Monday – Joe Twichell wrote from Hartford to Sam, opening with what Twain would undoubtedly call “drivel” and then asking what had become of him? “Pray let us hear from you soon” [MTP].
May 11 Thursday – James Florant Meline (1811-1873), author of Two Thousand Miles on Horseback: Santa Fe and Back (1867) wrote from Brooklyn asking for publication help in the form of a letter of introduction to Elisha Bliss [MTP]. Note: not in Gribben.
May 12 Friday – Frank Bliss wrote to Sam, sending a royalty check for $703.35 [MTP].
May 14 Sunday – In a bound scrapbook with autographic comments in Sam’s handwriting, dated 1869, there is an entry with this date. The scrapbook calls for “mental” photographic statements and even has a place for an actual photograph, though none is included in the book. Sam answers a series of questions; this is similar to other “surveys” he answered about his favorites and preferences:
Samuel L. Clemens , May 14, 1871
Color: Anything but dun
Flower: The bright blooming Sirius the dog star which …[in a footnote he calls this constellation a “flower”]
Tree: Any that bears forbidden fruit
Object in Nature: A dumb belle
Hour in the day: The leisure hour
Season of the year: the present
Perfume: Cent per cent
Gem? The jack of diamonds—when it’s trump
Style of Beauty: the Subscriber’s [some in the book state “blonde” for example]
Names, Male and Female: M’aimes (Maimie) for a female and Jacus [sic] & Marius for males.
Painters? Sign painters
Musicians? Harper & Bros.
Piece of Sculpture: The Greek slave with his hoe
Poets? [Sam crossed out the “s”]: Robert Browning, when he has a lucid interval
Poetesses [Sam crossed out the “es”] Timothy Titcomb
Prose Authors [Sam crossed out the “s]”: Noah Webster LLD
Character[Sam added an “s”] in Romance? The Napoleon Family
in History? King Herod
Book to take up for an hour: Vanderbilt’s Pocket Book
What book (not religious) would you part with last: The one I might be reading on railroad during the dvisas [?] to season
What epoch would you choose to have lived in? Before the present Erie – it was safer
Where would you like to live? In the Moon—because there is no water there.
What is your favorite amusement? Hunting the “tiger” or some kindred game
What is your favorite occupation? “like dew on the gowan—lying.”
What trait of character do you most admire in a man? The noblest form of cannibalism—love for his fellow man.
What trait of character do you most admire in women? Love for her fellow man
What trait of character do you most detest in each: That “trait” which you put “or” to describe its possessor.
If not yourself who would you rather be? The wandering Jew with a nice annuity
What is your idea of happiness? Finding the buttons all on.
What is your idea of misery? Breaking an egg in your pocket
What is your bete noire? What is my which?
What is your dream? Nightmare as a general thing
What do you most dread? Exposure
What do you believe to be your distinguishing characteristics? Hunger
If married, what do you believe to be the distinguishing characteristics of your better half? Opinion reserved
What is the sublimest passion of which human nature is capable? Love your sweetheart’s enemies
What are the sweetest words in the world? Not guilty
What are the saddest words? “Dust unto Dust”
What is your aim in life? To endeavor to be absent when my time comes.
What is your motto? Be virtuous and you will be eccentric
[Transcribed by Margaret Sibbitt from scrapbook at Beinecke Library at Yale, nowadays a University].
May 15 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss, acknowledging receipt of $703.35 royalties of some 3,800 sales of IA (Bliss’ letter not extant). The book was going well, and his daily output even exceeded his best on the Innocents book, going over 30 pages of manuscript daily. The inspiration had found Sam and he “couldn’t bear to lose a single moment” of it. “So I will stay here & peg away as long as it lasts.” Sam was two-thirds done with the book, but his plan was to write an equal amount more and then “cull from the mass the very best chapters & discard the rest” [MTL 4: 390-1].
Sam kept his ear to the literary marketplace. His fear about being overexposed as a writer, not to mention the difficulties in writing humor in the midst of the Buffalo tragedies, had led to a retreat and a plan. He also may have guessed that the faddish popularity of Harte’s “Heathen Chinee” poem, and the sensation Harte’s trek east had caused would fade, when he wrote:
Your favor recd Am glad to hear
from you. Sorry to hear you are not going to call on us to day. However it may
be for the best as I think you are in the mood to do good work, at which I heartily rejoice—
Glad to know you are so pressed with overtures for work.
We intend to do our part towards making your book, what it should be, viz in illustrations. We shall try to have just the kind in that will suit—& think we shall succeed. I think it would be well to have Prospectus out soon as practicible as agents are anxious for it—still lets have the best stuff in it. I have no doubt you have ample matter now to select from, therefore suppose you do as you suggest, send another batch on, of selected chapters if you think best & I will get right to work— Suppose you send on such a lot, marked with what in your opinion is particularly good, & let me then make up prospectus matter from it & get engraving for it under way.
Send the Mss. by express it will come then safely. I will put bully cuts into it, such as will please you
Think this will be the plan if it suits you— I assure you nothing shall be wanting on my part, to bring it out in high style—I reckon I can do it—
Glad to see you are feeling in good spirits & it seems a little closer to get a line in your old vein.
Your Bro. is well. / Truly / E Bliss Jr
I got your telegraph & didn’t go to N. Y waiting to see you first [in margin:] Dont let any body else get House’[s] book! [MTPO].
June 5 Monday – A letter sold on eBay (Sept. 18, 2007; # 270167135431) that puts the Clemens family’s departure for Elmira at June 5. Though dated only “June 5,” the letter could only fit into this date for the entire period from 1870 through 1885:
“Dear Sir, I snatch a moment to say Thank You—the baggage wagon at the door & the family ticketed & labeled & ready to flit for the summer. You have made ‘Events’ an interesting number—at a glance I see that. With thanks again, I am Sincerely Yours, S.L. Clemens.” [Note: the “Events number” may refer to an unknown publication or column, which, if found, may further cement this letter to 1871].
Dear
Clemens, /Thanks for your contributions I have been sick
10 days, flat on my back, most of the time—& feel hard yet.
Will
pay O. as you say $12.50 pr week. He says & shows me a letter in which you
say he can draw some more on your a/c beside this, he says 5 or 10 dolls. as he
wants. As you say in yours, pay him no more than the
$12.50—“I halt between 2 opinions” of course I should let him have it, but
simply felt I should mention it to you. Unless you say to the contrary, shall
consider it all O. K—Have got the engravings mill driving—& shall make a
merry book of it And now, would
like all the Mss. you have to be able to select subjects for full page engravings—want all I can of those to go in the book prospectus—And now another thing we have said nothing
about. What is to be the title— This is a matter of some importance you know,
& necessary for the Prospectus, unless we say we dont know it yet &
call it the “Unnamed” & wait for developments—to
christen it—
Let me have your ideas early as possible— Shall have prospectus ready early as possible to get the cuts ready, & make a sweep of the board—this fall— This & Beecher’s Life of Christ—will have the field & I’ll bet we win— [MTPO].
I am different from other women. They have their monthly period once a month, but I have mine once a week, & sometimes oftener. That is to say, my mind changes that often. People who have no mind, can easily be steadfast and firm, but when a man is loaded down to the guards with it, as I am, every heavy sea of foreboding, or inclination, or mayhap of indolence, shifts the cargo. See?
Therefore, if you will notice, one week I am likely to give rigid instructions to confine me to New England; next week, send me to Arizona; the next week withdraw my name; next week, give you untrammeled swing; and the week following modify it. You must try to keep the run of my mind, Redpath—it is your business, being the agent, & it always was too many for me [MTL 4: 440-1].
“Dear Sir, /Your proposition is received. In reply I am obliged to say that my engagements are such that they debar me from accepting”[unknown amount of text and complimentary close missing; MTPO]
September 17 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion, enclosing a letter from Benjamin B. Bunker (b. 1815), who had been an attorney for Nevada Territory. Sam asked Orion to write Bunker, since Sam had “touch[ed] him up a little” in Roughing It [MTL 4: 458].
September 18 Monday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam about his invention: “You are right about the immense advantage of such a railroad brake—but has it not already been invented?” he recalled seeing an article about such a brake on the Missouri Pacific RR. “I think it was the way you suggested—by steam under control of the engineer.” He drew a hinge he proposed to have made for the brake [MTP].
September 18–22 Friday – Sam went to Buffalo to close the sales of his house and share of the Buffalo Express and to remove his personal property to Hartford.
September 21 Thursday – The Washington National Republican ran a summary of a conversation, “Mark Twain Takes Out a Patent — Why He Did It,” about a patent for suspenders based on Sam’s take on Horace Greeley’s pants [Schmidt].
September 22 Friday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to James Redpath. Livy was sick in Elmira and Sam and the servants were packing. He and his wife were to take possession of their Hartford house on Oct. 1. Sam liked the Young Men’s Association in Buffalo and wouldn’t mind lecturing for them, but not the G.A.R. [MTL 4: 459-60].
Orion Clemens wrote to Sam:
“I answered Bunker’s letter as requested. / I got out of patience with the clockmaker yesterday and went and took away the unfinished buttons and told him if he would finish my chain I would not bother him any more. I don’t know what he’ll do.” He then wrote details about buttons, auger holes and gimlet holes, and ended with: “Glad to hear such good news from the baby, and that you are packing for Hartford…I think your paleontology ably handled. / P.S.—do you think it will pay you to put my gimlet holes through and give me half?” [MTP].
September 26 Tuesday – Sam again wrote from Buffalo to James Redpath, setting Feb. 2 as the final date for his lectures [MTL 4: 460].
Sam and Livy also wrote to Charles C. Duncan, steamboat captain, regretting that they could not attend:
“…the gathering of the pilgrims … We have packed up everything but ourselves, to move to Hartford, & shall pack ourselves aboard the train within the hour … If I am not there when you beat to quarters, you will know that circumstances … have got the advantage of me. In which case I shall at least be present in spirit & make a mute speech well packed with cordial good wishes for the long life & happiness of all that stand where they could hear if the silent syllables were voiced …” [MTP, drop-in letters from a sales catalog which only partially quoted the letter].
September 27 Wednesday – Sam’s article, “The Revised Catechism” ran in the New York Tribune [Camfield, bibliog.].
The City of Buffalo receipted Sam for $222.25 for city tax on the “Delaware st. house; Outer lot 50ft, front feet 60 ft, Feet deep 118” [MTP].
Napoleon Sarony, photographer, wrote from NYC to ask Sam to sit for a photo “any time you are in the city” [MTP].
September 28 Thursday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to John A. Lant, a printer Sam had worked with as a boy, probably in St. Louis.
“Thank you kindly for the picture of the baby. But it seems to me you did not economise material to the best advantage: there is meat enough in this youngster for twins” [MTL 4: 461].
October – Sam’s article “A Brace of Brief Lectures on Science, Part 2” ran in American Publishing Co.’s in-house promotional monthly, American Publisher [Camfield, bibliog.].
October 1 or 2 Monday – Sam left Buffalo and met Livy in New York City, staying a day at the St. Nicholas Hotel [MTL 4: 462n1].
October 2 or 3 Tuesday – Sam and Livy arrived in Hartford and took possession of the Hooker house on Forest Street in Nook Farm, a small community on the western reach of the city. John Hooker, descendant of Hartford’s founder, Thomas Hooker, began Nook Farm with a 100-acre tract. Hooker and his wife Isabella Beecher Hooker developed the land and chose their neighbors. It was a loose, first name, and friendly island of cultural stimulation. Nook Farm was staunch Congregationalist and Republican, though somewhat progressive in religion tenets. The group raised money to build Joseph Twichell’s church, the Asylum Hill Congregational, a few blocks away from Nook Farm. Note: Andrews claims Oct. 1 as the day they took possession [24].
Livy was expecting again [MTL 4: 462n1; Kaplan 140]. Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Orion that he would come by in a day or two [MTL 4: 462].
October 6 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford, with an affidavit by John Hooker, to Mortimer D. Leggett (1821-1896), Commissioner of Patents, about the date of his ideas for the elastic strap. Sam included his first drawings, for use with vests and pants. Henry C. Lockwood had applied for a patent on a similar device only six days after Sam’s application [MTL 4: 462-4]. Note: the Oct. 9 of Alexander & Mason, patent solicitors, may suggest Sam also wrote them the same information.
October 9 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James Redpath, asking him to send the first part of his lecture list “& let me see where I am to talk.” He requested a copy be sent to Bliss. “We are settled here.” Sam had read less than a third of the proofs on Roughing It, and hoped to be finished with the task in a month or so [MTL 4: 466]. Sam also wrote to John Henry Riley responding to questions about the South Africa book. Sam, involved with a move, an ill wife and his new book, was about to embark on his lecture tour so he put Riley off [MTL 4: 467].
Alexander & Mason, patent solicitors, Wash DC wrote: “Yours of the 6th with copy of statement in the pending interference case is at hand. Your opponent is named H. C. Lockwood, residence….Baltimore Md. We have this day written to him with a view to settle the case by compromise & allowing your patent to issue…We feel quite certain that he goes back of you…” [MTP].
October 10 Tuesday – Bill paid to Thomas Carron Co. “$47 for moving; 3 teams moving furniture 11 hours each, 75 plus two hours; 2 men helping at house; 10 hours each, etc.” [MTP]. Note: This bill was likely for moving the family’s goods from the Hartford depot to their rental house in Nook Farm.
October 11 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Redpath & Fall. Having rec’d the lecture list.
“You can lecture me on Saturdays if you have the opportunity. Sometimes one of those idle days is hard to put in” [MTL 4: 468].
October 12 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam declined an invitation by G.K. Jewett.
Dear Sir: / Your kind invitation is received, & I return my hearty thanks for the compliment. But I am compelled to tender my regrets, as well—& they are hearty ones, too, for it is hard to have to miss the opportunity of having personal experience of this great international event. But I am just leaving on a long lecturing tour & cannot get free.
Very Truly Yours,
Samℓ. L. Clemens.
[MTP, drop-in letters; also www.liveauctioneers.com/item/948609 on May 12, 2005].
October 13 Friday – Sam and Charles Langdon left Hartford. Sam was to begin his lecture tour in three days. He stopped in New York, where he stayed at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Charles Langdon and Sam and Edward L. Marsh (a cousin of Charles and Livy) played billiards and went to a popular variety show at the Olympic Theatre, “Humpty Dumpty” [MTL 4: 467n3; p469]. Note: Marsh attended Sam and Livy’s wedding [MTA 2: 251].
October 14 Saturday – Sam wrote from the St. Nicholas Hotel in New York to Livy:
“Charley left for home a few minutes ago—9 AM. Well, I do wish I could see you, now, Livy dear, & the splendid cubbie.”
Sam left New York and arrived in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania at 4 PM [MTL 4: 469-470].
October 15 Sunday – Sam wrote from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to Livy. Sam wrote of the town, “an old Dutch settlement, & I hear that tongue here as often as ours.” He was impressed by a cemetery with acres of identical graves with tombstones “the size of a boy’s slate.” Sam had registered with an assumed name at the hotel to guarantee his privacy, even though it meant bypassing a reception and “sumptuous rooms provided” [MTL 4: 470-1].
October 16 Monday to February 27 – 1872 Lecture Tour:
Sam returned to the lecture circuit under the management of James Redpath and the Boston Lyceum Bureau. There were at least 77 engagements using three different speeches.
Note: Schmidt is one good updated source for dates and places of lectures, yet there is no guarantee that any website, will be up indefinitely. Print sources are thereby given priority; Emerson gives 76 performances in sixteen weeks [81].
October 16 Monday – Sam lectured at Moravian Day School Hall, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. “Reminiscences of Some Uncommonplace Characters Whom I Have Met”. He gave this lecture three times and then chose the segment on Artemus Ward to expand, dropping pieces about Dick Baker the quartz miner; Riley the journalist; the King of the Sandwich Islands; and others.
Sam wrote a short note before the lecture from Bethlehem, Penn. to Livy. Sam thought he might have to pare down the lecture, but would talk without notes [MTL 4: 473].
October 17 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Allentown, Penn. He wrote from Allentown to Livy:
Livy darling, this lecture will never do. I hate it & won’t keep it. I can’t even handle these chuckle-headed Dutch with it.
Have blocked out a lecture on Artemus Ward, & shall write it next Saturday & deliver it next Monday in Washington [MTL 4: 474-5].
The Easton Free Press ran a notice by “The Committee” dated Oct. 17 announcing “Mark Twain has been compelled to disappoint the good people of this town,” citing two telegrams pleading “sudden illness” in the family. A promise of “another evening shortly” would not be fulfilled until Nov. 23.
October 18 Wednesday – Sam lectured (“Uncommonplace Characters”) in Music Hall, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Sam enlisted the help of “an old Californian friend” (unidentified) to cancel lectures in Easton, Penn., and Reading, Penn. for Oct. 19 and 20. The Easton Free Press had called the lectures in Bethlehem and Allentown a “failure,” so Sam was:
“…mourning over my miserable lecture…. I shall reach Washington tomorrow night, & then for two days & nights I shall work like a beaver on my new lecture. How I ever came to get up such a mess of rubbish as this & imagine it good, is too many for me” [MTL 4: 475-6].
October 19 Thursday – Sam wrote from Wilkes-Barre, Penn. to Elisha Bliss. The typesetters had lost part of Ch. 18 of Roughing It, which described crossing the alkali desert. Sam could not focus to rewrite it and suggested perhaps they might have to omit the whole chapter [MTL 4: 477].
Sam left Pennsylvania and arrived in Washington that evening, staying at the Arlington Hotel, where he wrote the “Artemus Ward, Humorist” lecture, and threw the other lecture “overboard.” Sam wanted to lecture for Reading and Easton, Penn. for nothing, due to his cancellations [MTL 4: 478].
October 22 Sunday – W.L. Denning did work at the Hartford rental house; also provided feather bed, 2 feather pillows, and misc. See Nov. 17 entry for payment [MTP].
October 23 Monday – Sam gave the “Artemus Ward” lecture in Lincoln Hall, Washington, D. C. [One version of this speech is found in Mark Twain Speaking, 41-7]. The lecture attracted a record crowd for Lincoln Hall, some 2,000, with 150 crowded on stage. The reviews were mixed, and Sam found it difficult to lecture about a dead humorist, or to tell Ward’s jokes and make them funny [MTL 4: 480n3].
Artemus Ward’s real name, as most of you are probably aware, was Charles F. Browne. He was born in Waterford, Main, in 1834. His personal appearance was not like that of most Maine men. He looked like a glove-stretcher. His hair, red, and brushed well forward at the sides, reminded one of a divided flame. His nose rambled on aggressively before him, with all the strength and determination of a cow-catcher, which his red moustache—to follow on the simile—seemed not unlike the unfortunate cow [Fatout, MT Speaking 43].
Sam wrote a receipt for his lecture fee:
Received of JH Demeritt, Treas. G.A.R. Lecture Committee for the delivery of my lecture “Reminiscences of Some Uncommonplace Characters I have Chanced to Meet” at Lincoln Hall Monday evening 23d Octo 1871 One Hundred and Fifty ($150.) Dollars. Saml L. Clemens [MTP] .
October 24 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Institute Hall, Wilmington, Delaware – “Artemus Ward. ”
In Washington, D.C. at the Arlington Hotel, Sam wrote to James Redpath:
(The only hotel in this town) {WILLARD’S—O, my!—seventh-rate hash-house.}
Dear Red— / I have come square out, thrown “Reminiscences” overboard & taken “Artemus Ward, Humorist,” for my subject. Wrote it here on Friday & Saturday, & read it from MSS last night to enormous house. It suits me, & so I’ll never deliver the nasty, nauseous “Reminiscences” any more.
Please make appointments for me at Reading & Easton Pa (between 5th & 10th of Feb., or sooner if it interferes with nothing,) for I am to talk for them for nothing—I threw them off, you know—telegram saying my folks were sick—(it came just in the nick of time, I may say, for I wanted to go to Washington & write a new lecture—which I’ve done it. / MARK [MTPO].
Notes: Only a single page of the MS that Sam refers to survives. The Easton and Reading lectures (See Oct. 18, 1871) were rescheduled for Nov. 23 and 24. Sam’s main bio source for Artemus Ward “seems to have been” The Genial Showman: Being Reminiscences of the Life of Artemus Ward (1870) by Edward P. Hingston, Ward’s manager. Reviews of Sam’s Ward lectures were mixed.
October 25 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Odd Fellows Hall, Norristown, Penn. – “Artemus Ward.” That morning Sam met Susan Dickinson, sister of the famous suffrage lecturer Anna E. Dickinson, who wrote to her sister:
“I came across Mr. Pugh with an individual whom he introduced as Mr. Clemens. I can’t say that I admire his personal appearance, tone, or manner.” Note: Thomas B. Pugh, lecture manager. The Norristown lecture was not successful. Sam was still struggling to find the right content and approach [MTL 4: 481n18].
October 26 Thursday – Sam spent the day traveling back to Hartford [MTL 4: 482n18].
October 27 Friday – Sam lectured in Sumner Hall, Great Barrington, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote at midnight (into Oct. 28) from Great Barrington to Livy that the lecture “went off very handsomely.” But the Great Barrington Berkshire Courier of Nov. 1 claimed that of the crowd of 400, at least 390 went away disappointed and dissatisfied [MTL 4: 482-3].
October 28-29 Sunday – Sam probably spent the free weekend in Hartford, only 60 miles away, then traveled to Brattleboro, Vermont.
October 30 Monday – Sam lectured in Brattleboro, Vermont – “Artemus Ward.”
October 31 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Milford, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Milford to Livy.
…the same old practising on audiences still goes on—the same old feeling of pulses & altering manner & matter to suit the symptoms. The very same lecture that convulsed Great Barrington was received with the gentlest & most well-bred smiles & rippling comfort by Milford. Now we’ll see what Boston is going to do. Boston must sit up & behave, & do right by me. As Boston goes, so goes New England [MTL 4: 483].
November – Sam’s article “A Big Scare” ran in American Publishing Co.’s in-house promotional monthly, American Publisher [Camfield, bibliog.].
November 1 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Music Hall, Boston, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Boston to Livy:
“…it was a bad night, but we had a packed house, & if the papers say any disparaging things, don’t you believe a single word of it, for I never saw a lecture go off so magnificently before. I tell you it makes me feel like my old self again. I wanted to talk a week…I am satisfied with tonight” [MTL 4: 484].
The reviews, however, were mixed. Sam added:
“I am going to lunch with Ralph Keeler, Thomas Bailey Aldrich & one or two others tomorrow” [484].
Sam was receipted from Gridley & Frisbee, manufacturers of soap & candles for $5 [MTP].
November 2 Thursday – Sam went to the memorable lunch at Ober’s Greek Revival Restaurant on Winter Place, described by William Dean Howells as Sam’s introduction into the Boston literary circle. Ralph Keeler (1840-1873), a young bohemian Sam had known at the Golden Era, organized the lunch. In attendance: publisher James T. Fields, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and Bret Harte. “This is the dream of Sam’s life,” Harte was reported as announcing. Sam ignored Harte’s condescension [MTL 4: 484n4; Powers, MT A Life 307].
That evening Sam lectured in Town Hall, Exeter, New Hampshire – “Artemus Ward.”
November 3 Friday – Sam lectured in Town Hall, Andover, Mass. – “Artemus Ward”
November 4–5 Sunday – Clemens used Hartford as his base while lecturing in New England, so it’s likely that on this open weekend he returned home to Livy and “cubbie.” Newspapers were calling the Artemus Ward lecture “plagiarism,” and that “Mark Twain is capable of better things.” The critical responses to Sam’s lecture stayed mixed, though Sam tweaked the material. The result was that many were disappointed though pleased with Sam’s onstage persona.
November 5 Sunday – Elisha Bliss sent Sam a royalty check from the American Publishing Co. [MTP].
November 6 Monday – Sam lectured in Town Hall, Malden, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.”
November 7 Tuesday – Sam traveled the 125 miles back to Hartford.
November 8 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Allyn Hall, Hartford, Conn. – “Artemus Ward.”
November 9 Thursday – Sam won a positive review from the Hartford Courant. Sam lectured in Mechanics Hall, Worcester, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Worcester after the lecture, upset that the lecture chairman sat behind him on the stage—“a thing I detest.” Sam had talked to:
“1700 of the staidest, puritanical people you ever saw—one of the hardest gangs to move, that ever was. I’m going to bed—I’m disgusted” [MTL 4: 487].
November 10 Friday – Sam lectured in Stetson Hall, Randolph, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam had a “delightful & jolly little audience.” He spent the night in Randolph.
November 11 Saturday – Sam woke at 6 AM and traveled to Boston, where he had breakfast and then wrote Livy at 11 AM. Feeling “rusty & stupid,” Sam wrote:
“You see those country hotels always ring a gong at 6 & another at half-past, & between the two they would snake out Lazarus himself, let alone me, who am a light sleeper when nervous” [MTL 4: 488].
In the evening Sam went to the Boston Press Club dinner, but described it as a “cold-water” dinner (no alcohol) and that it broke up at “10.30—& with a sign instead of a hurrah.” Nevertheless, Sam’s toast was a huge hit [MTL 4: 490].
November 12 Sunday – Sam wrote from Boston to Elisha Bliss. He’d enjoyed a good many dinners with Howells, Aldrich and Keeler. Sam directed copies of Innocents be sent to the three men, in care of J.R. Osgood & Co., Boston [MTL 4: 489].
He also wrote to Livy about the “cold-water” dinner of the night before [MTL 4: 490].
November 13 Monday – Sam lectured in Mechanic’s Hall, Boston, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.”
November 14 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Smyth’s Hall, Manchester, N.H. – “Artemus Ward.”
November 15 Wednesday – Sam lectured in City Hall, Haverhill, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Haverhill after the lecture to Livy.
Livy darling, it was a dreadfully stormy night, the train was delayed a while, & when I got to the hall it was half an hour after the time for the lecture to begin. But not a soul had left the house. I went right through the audience in my overcoat & overshoes with carpet bag in hand & undressed on the stage in full view. It was no time to stand on ceremony. I told them I knew they were indignant to me, & righteously so—& that if any aggrieved gentleman would rise in his place & abuse me for 15 minutes, I would feel better, would take it as a great kindness, & would do as much for him some time. That broke the ice & we went through with colors flying & drums beating [MTL 4: 491].
Sam felt he was getting the lecture “in better shape,” and ended it with “the poetry, every time, & a description of Artemus’ death in a foreign land.”
In the 1871 financials file at MTP, a receipt to Pottier & Stymus Mfg. Co. of Buffalo “To 10 days labor packing Express, Board, &c.” for $128.
November 16 Thursday – Sam lectured in City Hall, Portland, Maine – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Portland to Moses S. Beach, declining an invitation Beach had sent to Livy for the family to stay with the Beaches [MTL 4: 493-4]. Note: It was Mrs. Beach who had disapproved of Sam as a suitor for their daughter Emeline in 1868.
Robert M. Howland wrote to Clemens, his letter not extant but referred to in Livy’s answer of Nov. 20.
November 17 Friday – At 1 AM in Portland, Maine, Sam wrote a short note to Livy. Sam thought the Portland lecture enjoyable, and the Portland Eastern Argus agreed [MTP].
In the evening Sam lectured in Huntington Hall, Lowell, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” [MTPO].
Bill paid to W.L. Denning for work at house on Oct. 22 and this date: feather bed, 2 feather pillows, misc. $43 [MTP].
November 18 Saturday – With another open weekend, Sam arrived in Hartford in the afternoon or evening and spent the rest of the weekend at home [MTL 4: 493n8].
In the year’s financial papers is a receipt from Western Insurance Co. for $60 to insure $20,000 of furniture moved from Buffalo to Hartford in September. Also a bill and receipt for $38.52 to J.J. Huppuch, House and Sign-Painting, Graining and Glazing, Buffalo for “repairing walls. Putting & painting woodwork on Delaware st. House” [MTP].
November 20 Monday – Sam took the morning train from Hartford to New York, and made connections to Philadelphia [MTL 4: 493n8]. Sam lectured in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – “Artemus Ward.”
In Hartford, Livy wrote for Sam to Robert M. Howland at the St. Nicholas Hotel in NYC:
Dear Sir
Your letter of the 16th rec’d— Mr Clemens spent yesterday at home, but was too jaded out to write letters or do anything but try to get rested— He desired me to answer your letter for him—
I do not yet know when he is to lecture in Auburn as I have only his a list of his engagements through Nov.1 I shall probably have his Dec. list before very many days, if the Auburn appointment should be in that month if you will let me know where to address you, I will send you word—
I wish Mrs Howland was with you and you could come here and finish your Buffalo visit—I think with great pleasure of that day spent with us, and truly hope it is the first but far from the last visit that we may have together—
We are all well, our baby grows fat and hearty every day—
I wish that Mr Clemens was to be at home for two or three days while you are in New York, then perhaps you could find time to come and see us—
You and Mrs Howland shall have pictures of the baby and myself as soon as we have any taken— We are exceedingly obliged for yours, I think them very good indeed—
Please give my love to Mrs Howland when you write her, and express my wish to her that we may know each other better—
With the kindest regards
Your Truly
Mrs S. L. Clemens [MTPO].
November 21 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, New York – “Artemus Ward.” Plymouth was Henry Ward Beecher’s church. Sam evoked “continuous fits of laughter” [MTL 4: 497]. Advertisements like the one that ran on Nov. 9 in the Brooklyn Eagle, promoted this as “Reminiscences of Some Un-commonplace Characters that I have Chanced to Meet,” tickets 50 cents. This particular ad ran a note by Redpath & Fall that this would “be his only appearance in that city the present season.”
November 22 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Washington Hall, Roundout, NY – “Artemus Ward.”
November 23 Thursday – Sam lectured in Court House, Easton, Penn. – “Artemus Ward.”
In MTP a receipt for $53 to W.B. Willard, Hartford dealer in flour, grain & feed.
November 24 Friday – Sam lectured in Reading, Penn. – “Artemus Ward.” The theater of Keystone Opera House, as reported by the Berks and Schuylkill Journal of Nov. 25:
Mark Twain, author of “Innocents Abroad,” delivered a lecture on the “Uncommon-place Characters he has met with” at the Keystone Opera House last evening to a full house.”
The Reading Times and Dispatch for Nov. 25 offered a positive review:
Mark Twain’s Lecture
A large and appreciative audience greeted Mark Twain last evening to hear his humorous discourse on “Uncommonplace characters I have met.” The lecturer is a modest gentleman, free from all stage affectation, and is perfectly “at home” on the platform. His delivery is not at all unpleasant, as we have been led to believe by some newspaper reports recently published, but is rather suited, we think, to the presentation of a quaint composition such as his lecture is.
[“Mark Twain in Reading: 1871” Historical Review of Berks County 51.2 (Spring 1986): 53-4, 69].
November 25 Saturday – The London Leisure Hour ran reprints from the St. Louis Republican and a story of how Sam took the name Mark Twain—this one relates him writing a sketch about Captain Isaiah Sellers, then asking “John Morris, now steward of the Belle Memphis,” what name he should sign to it. When the leadsman called out “Mark Twain,” it supposedly decided the issue [Tenney 4].
Redpath & Fall Co. wrote to advise Clemens of a recorded engagement to lecture in Kalamazoo, Mich., Saturday Dec. 16 [MTP].
November 25–26 Sunday – With no lectures scheduled, Sam spent part of the weekend in Elmira before traveling on to Bennington, Vermont [MTL 4: 498].
November 27 Monday – Livy’s 26th birthday.
Sam lectured in Bennington, Vermont – “Artemus Ward.” Afterward, Sam wrote to Livy:
Livy darling, good house, but they laughed too much. A great fault with this lecture is, that I have no way of turning it into a serious & instructive vein at will. Any lecture of mine ought to be a running narrative-plank, with square holes in it, six inches apart, all the length of it; & then in my mental shop I ought to have plugs (half marked “serious” & the others marked “humorous”) to select from & jam into these holes according to the temper of the audience [MTL 4: 498].
Sam also thought that too many books about the West made Roughing It a bit “hackneyed,” and mentioned writing a Mississippi book—“then look out! I will spend 2 months on the river & take notes…” Sam had thought of a river book at least since Jan. 1866 [MTL 4: 499].
Hume & Sanford Co. Buffalo, wrote to Sam with a statement of account balancing goods & services with payments totaling $1,072.35 [MTP].
November 28 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Tweddle Hall, Albany, New York – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Albany to George L. Fall, scheduler for the Boston Lyceum Bureau.
Fall, my boy, you haven’t given me a hotel, from Fredonia clear to Chicago. Now you think I am going to roost in a tree—but I leave it to you, as a man & a brother, if a man can do that in the winter time & keep in good lecturing condition? Now you know he can’t. Fall, this comes of your exhuberance—your inhuman gaiety of spirits. I shall come to Boston & shoot you, with no mere Colt’s revolver, but with a Gatling gun [MTL 4: 501-2].
November 29 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Opera House, Newark, New Jersey – “Artemus Ward.”
On this day or the next, Sam wrote from Newark, N.J. to Redpath & Fall. “Well, Troy had telegraphed for Feb. 8. We telegraphed you. You answered with a ‘word with a bark to it—No’ ” [MTL 4: 503; paraphrased]. Note: see source n1 for a full explanation.
November 30 Thursday – Sam’s 36th birthday.
December – Sam’s article “My First Lecture” ran in American Publishing Co.’s in-house promotional monthly, American Publisher [Camfield, bibliog.]. Similar to Roughing It, Ch. 78.
December 1 Friday – Sam gave the “Artemus Ward” lecture in Doolittle Hall, Oswego, NY [MTPO].
December 2 Saturday – Sam gave the “Artemus Ward” lecture in Barber Hall, Homer, New York to a “large assemblage.”
December 3 Sunday – Sam spent the day in Homer, New York. He wrote a laundry list of concerns to Livy, including loans to his Express partner, Josephus Larned; money to his mother; bills for shirts; directing that Margaret (the maid) should be given “the nightly care of the cubbie”; and another lecturer from Virginia City days, C.B. Plummer. Sam met an old Langdon family friend in Homer, Dr. George V.R. Merrill [MTL 4: 503-4,509n8].
John Henry Riley wrote from Wash DC: “Friend Clemens / I returned to Phila from California on the 23d ult. And remained there till over Thanksgiving Day, and then on the 1st inst came back here. I just missed your ev’g of lecture at the Academy of Music, Phila….” He obliquely asked for funds as he was almost out of money [MTP].
December 4 Monday – Sam gave the “Artemus Ward” lecture in Linden Hall, Geneva, New York. He wrote from Geneva to Livy, telling of being approached by “two-little-girl friends” of his “early boyhood,” Mary E. Bacon and Mildred Catherine (Kitty) Shoot.
Livy darling, I am thus far. Coming up from Homer I got acquainted with Rev. Mr. Foster, Episcopal City Missionary of Syracuse, a noble, splendid fellow—a Twichell. He tells yarns, smokes occasionally, has weaknesses & lovable vices, just like a good, genuine human being, instead of a half-restored theological corpse like some preachers. Sails right into the meat & marrow of a thing with a whole-hearted cordiality that makes you think what a pity it is there are so many people in the world who never know what it is to have anything more than a mere lukewarm, half-way interest in the pleasures & duties that fall to their lot.
Foster was a Colonel, & was in 14 battles in the war—was in active service from the beginning of the war to the end of it. Only entered the ministry a year ago. But I think it requires more than war pluck to be a city missionary & wade into filthy Irish slums & back streets & face the insults & the hateful beastliness that offend eyes & nose & spirit in such places. Foster looks about my age, but he has several children—the eldest a clerk in a bank, aged 17! I don’t know Foster’s age. I gave him “Waterloo,” & told him to read it & then mail it to you, as I had marked it somewhat. I guess we’ll have him up to Hartford, some day, & let him see Twichell.
Last night when the lecture was over, two ladies came forward heartily & shook me by the hand & called me “Sam Clemens, the very same old Sam”—& when the explanations came out, by & by, they were two-little-girl friends of my early boyhood—children with me when I was half as old [as] Sammy Moffett. They both saw me once, ten years ago, but I did not see them. One has been married 13 years & the other about 20. One was Mary Bacon & the other Kitty Shoot. They seemed like waifs from some vague world I had lived in ages & ages & ages ago—myths—creatures of a dream.
Livy dear, I didn’t see Dr Taft—he wasn’t in. I suppose I forgot to tell Patrick. You just send for the doctor & have a talk with him—or send Mrs Twichell to him.
I suppose the watches haven’t reached you yet. Livy darling, my diamonds are a daily & nightly & unceasing delight to me, they are so beautiful. I thank you with all my might, my darling.
Saw Dr Merrill last night & treated him the best I knew how.
Livy dear, my shirts are doubtless lying in the Express office, since you don’t speak of their arrival.
With lots of love for you, & Mother & the cubbie.
Samℓ.
[MTL 4: 506-7; MTPO]. Note: Rev. James P. Foster.
Notes from the latter source on the two “little-girl-friends”: The two women had not approached Clemens “last night,” but rather on 2 December, after his lecture in Homer. Mary E. Bacon (b. 1842?) was the only daughter of Catherine Lakenan Bacon (b. 1817) and George Bacon (1809–1874), Hannibal’s leading wholesale grocer; her married name is unknown. Mildred Catherine (Kitty) Shoot (b. 1840?), was one of the daughters of Mary Pavey Shoot (b. 1822?) and William Shoot (1809–92), the proprietor of Hannibal’s finest hotel and co-owner of a livery stable. She had married Charles P. Heywood (1833–1909), the paymaster of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad and later a United States revenue collector, in 1858. [Editiorial emphasis on names].
December 5 Tuesday – Sam gave the “Artemus Ward” lecture in Academy of Music, Auburn, New York [MTPO].
Sam wrote from Auburn to Livy. He met again with Dr. Merrill in the morning:
Old Darling, I thank you very very much for so loving me & so missing & me & remembering my birthday & wishing for me there—& I do reciprocate—I love you with all my heart & long to be with you again.
Dr Merrill came again this morning & we had a real good talk about all the folks—& his hearty loving gratitude to father, & his genuine appreciation of father’s grand character & great heart quite touched me deeply. Then I wanted to go to his house, but felt that I must go & see my two old playmates instead, & he granted that my impulse was right. I spent a delightful hour with them. The Dr. sent me some excellent cigars. Ever, Ever so lovingly,
Saml. [MTL 4: 509; MTPO]. Note: Livy’s birthday letter not extant.
December 6 Wednesday – Sam telegraphed the American Publishing Company:
“Why have you not answered my telegram I particularly
want proofs of the California part of the book expressed immediately to Reeds
Hotel Erie Pa
shall use some
extracts in Public reading in place of a lecture if you have shipped none
already maybe you better send duplicates to Toledo
also answer. /
Mark Twain”[MTPO].
Sam gave the “Artemus Ward” lecture in Wieting Opera House, Syracuse, New York. Roughing It was copyrighted this day [Duckett 63].
Elisha Bliss wrote to Sam: “We send you all the parts of the book [RI] we have printed so far.” He included publishing details—plates, prospectus, etc. [MTP].
December 7 Thursday – Sam gave the “Roughing It” lecture in Sprague’s Hall, Warsaw, New York. One version of this speech is published in Mark Twain Speaking, pp. 48-63. Sam experienced mixed results with the Artemus Ward lecture, and even faced charges of plagiarism for retelling some of Ward’s old jokes. He was ready to try a new lecture. Sam probably invited his friend David Gray from Buffalo, some 30 miles away, to hear and review his new lecture.
A receipt to Livy from Spear & Whiting, Hartford dealers in greenhouse and other plants, shows $15 for various flowers, plants, and hanging baskets; also receipted for $102 to Isaac Glazier & Co., dealer in picture & looking glass frames; W.B. Willard $10 paid for flour [MTP].
December 7 or 8? Friday – Sam wrote from Warsaw, New York or Buffalo to the Staff of the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise about Thomas Kean’s tour through a Virginia City mine. Kean was a city editor and drama critic for the Buffalo Courier, and traveling in the West. He carried a letter of recommendation from Sam [MTL 5: 691].
December 8 Friday – Sam lectured in Union Hall, Fredonia, New York – “Roughing It.” Sam telegraphed from Buffalo to Redpath & Fall. “Notify all hands that from this date I shall talk nothing but selections from my forth-coming book Roughing It, tried it last night suits me tip top” Sam sent the telegraph while traveling from Warsaw [MTL 4: 511].
In Syracuse, New York, Sam also telegraphed to the American Publishing Co.:
Why have you not answered my telegram. I particularly want proofs of the California part of the book expressed immediately to Reeds Hotel Erie Pa shall use some extracts in Public reading in place of a lecture if you have shipped none already maybe you better send duplicates to Toledo also answer
Mark Twain [MTP, drop-in letters].
December 9 Saturday – Sam lectured in Farrar Hall, Erie, Pennsylvania – “Artemus Ward.”
In a letter about this date to Redpath, Sam wrote, “I like this lecture first rate, —better than any I have ever had except the ‘Vandal’ —three years ago.” While revising the “Roughing It” lecture, Sam returned to the Artemus content. The Erie Observer called Sam’s lecture a “decided failure” and a “pitiful attempt to ape the style of Artemus Ward, in which he only succeeded in reaching the standard of a negro minstrel” [MTL 4: 513n1].
December 10 Sunday – Sam wrote from Erie, Penn. to Mary Mason Fairbanks, apologizing for not being able to spend time with the Fairbanks family.
Am writing a new, tip-top lecture about California & Nevada—been at it all night—am still at it & pretty nearly dead with fatigue. Shall be studying it in the cars till midnight, & then sleep half the day in Toledo & study the rest. If I am in good condition there, I shall deliver it—but if I’m not just as bright as [a] dollar, shall talk A. Ward two or three nights longer & go on studying [MTL 4: 513].
December 11 Monday – Sam lectured in White’s Hall, Toledo, Ohio – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Toledo to James Redpath, claiming that his new lecture was “perfectly bully, now.” He wrote that he’d given it “at Warsaw & made a spectacular success—& at Fredonia & made a splendid failure.” So, Sam rewrote the “Roughing It” lecture again.
December 12 Tuesday – Sam lectured in University Hall, Ann Arbor, Michigan – “Artemus Ward.” “–a continuous roar of laughter” [MTL 4: 515].
December 13 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Union Hall, Jackson, Michigan – “Artemus Ward” this time was said to be “rather monotonous and tiresome.” Either Sam was inconsistent with this material, probably looking past it to his perfected new lecture, or regional/local differences applied.
December 14 Thursday – Sam gave the revamped “Roughing It” lecture in Mead’s Hall, Lansing, Michigan. Samuel H. Row introduced Clemens. See Nov. 14, 1905 from Row.
December 15 Friday – Sam lectured in Luce’s Hall, Grand Rapids, Michigan – “Roughing It” was a moderate success.
December 16 Saturday – Sam lectured in Union Hall, Kalamazoo, Michigan – “Roughing It” drew a sharply divided reaction in the newspapers, the Kalamazoo Telegraph hated the performance, while the Gazette claimed Sam “enchanted” and “convulsed” the audience. Sam must have wondered what he had to do to win over the press. Sam spent the night in Kalamazoo.
In MTP: a receipt for $6.12 to W.B. Willard, Hartford dealer in flour, grain & feed.
December 17 Sunday – Sam started at 4 AM for Chicago, about 140 miles away.
December 18 Monday – Sam arrived in Chicago at 3 PM, some 11 hours for a 2-hour trip. He gave the “Roughing It.” lecture south of the area devastated by the Oct. 8 fire, in Michigan Avenue Baptist Church, Chicago.
Sam wrote from Chicago to Livy and spent the night at Robert Law’s home, a coal dealer and friend of the Langdons [MTL 4: 518n2].
“We sat up & talked till 10, & all went to bed. I worked till after midnight amending & altering my lecture, & then turned in & slept like a log—I don’t mean a brisk, fresh, green log, but an old dead, soggy, rotten one, that never turns over or gives a yelp” [MTL 4: 517].
December 19 Tuesday – In Chicago, Sam stayed with Dr. Abraham Reeves Jackson, the “doctor” of Innocents Abroad. Sam performed the “Roughing It” lecture at the Union Park Congregational Church, Chicago, Ill. Reporters praised both of Sam’s Chicago lectures.
On this day Sam was assigned patent number 121,992 for an “Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments” [MTL 4: 466n5; McBride 422].
Sam wrote a note to an unidentified person, “Dear Sir— / I am sorry to say that my nights are all full from this time to the end of my season, otherwise it would give me great pleasure to talk in your course” [MTP, drop-in letters].
December 20 Wednesday – Sam lectured (topic unknown) in Sandwich, Illinois (why not the Sandwich Islands lecture for Sandwich?) The Chicago Tribune printed a long synopsis of Sam’s “Roughing It” lecture, so he returned to the “Artemus Ward” lecture, at least in Princeton and perhaps here as well [MTL 4: 519].
December 21 Thursday – Sam lectured in City Hall, Aurora, Illinois – Topic was probably “Artemus Ward.” The Chicago Evening Post ran an interview on page 4 with Sam on some comments on King Edward VII [Scharnhorst, Interviews 1].
December 22 Friday – Sam lectured in Patterson Hall, Princeton, Illinois – “Artemus Ward.”
December 24 Sunday – Charles Langdon sent a small preface to a book: “Practical Suggestions on the Sale of Patents,” 1871 by Wm. Edgar Simonds, atty. Hartford. No letter enclosed [MTP].
December 25 Monday – Christmas – Sam wrote from Chicago to Livy at 2 AM. “Joy, & peace be with you & about you, & the benediction of God rest upon you this day!” Sam was still working over his lecture. There had been a smallpox scare in Chicago with fines levied against anyone not vaccinated. Sam urged Livy to get vaccinated, at least once a year [MTL 4: 521].
December 26 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Champaign, Illinois to Livy, then gave the “Artemus Ward” lecture there in Barrett Hall. Sam was memorizing his new lecture and wanted to:
“…get out of the range of the cursed Chicago Tribune that printed my new lecture & so made it impossible for me to talk it with any spirit in Illinois” [MTL 4: 522].
Redpath & Fall Co. wrote to Sam: “Jersey City writes ‘The best hotel is Taylors’ but I suppose Mr Clemens would prefer a hotel in New York” [MTP].
December 27 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Tuscola, Illinois – “Artemus Ward.” He was still not out of “Chicago Tribune territory,” he wrote Livy from Tuscola, but he’d memorized all of the new “Roughing It in Nevada” lecture [MTL 4: 525].
December 28 Thursday – Sam lectured in Lincoln Hall, Danville, Illinois – “Roughing It.”
He wrote from Danville to Livy, concerned about her health and the baby’s. He announced, “The debt to the firm is all paid up” (the $12,500 owned to Jervis Langdon on the purchase of the Buffalo Express.) [MTL 4: 526-7].
Sam also wrote to Jane Clemens, sending $300 and news that the “baby has lung fever” [MTL 4: 527].
December 29 Friday – Sam lectured in Mattoon, Illinois – Topic was probably “Artemus Ward.” The hall in Mattoon had a hall above it used by a secret order. During the lecture noise frequently came from above, disturbing Clemens. Before the close of the lecture Twain said he’d lectured in schools, churches and theaters but had never lectured in a livery stable where they kept horses overhead [“Editor’s Drawer,” Harper’s Monthly 70 (Apr. 1885): 822].
December 30 Saturday – Sam lectured in Paris, Illinois – Topic was probably “Artemus Ward.”
Sam wrote from Paris to Livy, a lost letter that probably included a description of “Sociable Jimmy,” published in 1874. Sam described a six or seven-year-old Negro boy who brought him dinner in the Paris House Hotel. The interaction between the “most artless, sociable, and exhaustless talker I ever came across,” and wise old Sam the narrator, anticipated Huck Finn [Fishkin 14; Powers, MT A Life 314].
Sam’s article, “MARK TWAIN IN A RAILROAD CAR” ran in the Jackson, California Amador Dispatch.
“I got into the cars and took a seat in juxtaposition to a female. The female’s face was a perfect insurance company for her—it insured her against ever getting married to anybody except a blind man” [Fatout, MT Speaks 65]. Note: This piece also ran in Comic Almanac, 1874 and in the Jan. 1873 issue of Theriaki, “a short-lived monthly published at Laporte, Indiana.
December 31 Sunday – In a “warm drizzling rain,” Sam went to church in Paris, Illinois, and wrote of the experience in a long letter to Livy.
“It was the West & boyhood brought back again, vividly. It was as if twenty-five years had fallen away from me like a garment & I was a lad of eleven again in my Missouri village church of that ancient time” [MTL 4: 527].