Vol 3 Section 1131
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August 15 to 31, 1889 addition – Sam wrote a sketch unpublished until 2009: “Professor Mahaffy on
Equality” [Who Is Mark Twain? xxvi; p.153-6]. Note: the title was assigned by the MTP.
November 28, 1889 addition – Norman Hapgood (1868-1937) played a part in Susie’s play, The Love Chase. Hapgood was the drama critic of the NY Commercial Advertiser and of the Bookman (1897- 1902), then editor of Collier’s Weekly (1903-1913). He remembered freezing up in Susie’s play in his 1930 reminiscence:
In such a setting I found myself during vacations of my college years [1886-1890], and it was on my first visit that Margaret Warner took me across to the Clemens house, where I was promptly cast for the role of the lover in a play written in scenario outline by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner. Susie Clemens, the beautiful and poetic oldest daughter of the humorist, was the leading girl; the words in these plays were improvised by the actors; and my orders were to go upon the stage and make a violent declaration of love to Susie.
We had become friends at first sight, and more especially after a long walk in which the enthusiasm we both had for talking about English poetry, and quoting it, had full expression, and I was in truth not afraid of her, any more than a youth of that age is almost inevitably afraid of an especially lovely girl. The terror started only when I stepped out before the audience, of a dozen or so members of the group of families, under the sentence of making an open and continued declaration of consuming passion. My cheeks took fire, and not a single word would pass my lips. Susie, a seasoned actress, though several years my junior, did what trained artists on the professional stage do also in similar emergencies; she changed the direction of the plot immediately, and the girl it was who did the wooing. I stood and listened like a burning stick. When I stepped back from the Thespian boards at the end of that scene, it was to appear on any stage as an actor, alas, nevermore [The Changing Years – Reminiscences of Norman Hapgood (1930) p.205-6]. Notes: Hapgood was
21 insert; Susie Clemens 17.
Clara remembered Hapgood:
One stellar attraction in these gatherings was the dramatic critic and biographer, Norman Hapgood. He, too, visited in the neighborhood and gave us the great pleasure of his society. The brilliance of his mind and intellectual talents were evident at that early age when he was a freshman at Harvard College [MFMT 57]. Note source also pinpoints this to Thanksgiving.
Note: Hapgood graduated in 1890, and in 1886 as a freshman, the only plays given by the Clemens’ girls were P&P performances; no performances on Thanksgiving that year, Nov. 25, were recorded by Susie or others. Also it should be noted that Hapgood observed Susie to be “a seasoned actress,” which was much more so the case at age 17 than 13. Salsbury also makes the mistake of placing discussion of Hapgood in Susie’s 13th year.
December, 1889 addition – Sam inscribed an early green cloth copy of CY to George L. Bell, a Pratt & Whitney toolmaker involved with the Paige typesetter: “Geo. L. Bell / with compts of / The Author / 1889.” Since the book was registered with the copyright office on Dec. 5, 1889, this is a very early specimen. [Alan C. Fox catalog one, n.d., Sherman Oaks, Calif.]
Also: the other inscribed copies of CY to: S.J. Kirk, Annie E. Trumbull, F.H. Watts, and J.R. Newton, previously dated only 1889, should also be dated Dec. 1889, since CY was first deposited with the U.S. Copyright office on Dec. 5, 1889.
December 3, 1889 addition – The gentleman Sam and Bowen were writing about was W.D. Meares of Christchurch, N.Z. See Will Bowen’s answer Dec. 10.