by Ben Tarnoff
These remembrances didn’t Gilded Age as autobiographical: MTAL, pp. 330–332, and MCMT, pp. 169–170. “dyspeptic” and “the crude material . . .”: WDH to Charles Dudley Warner, December 28, 1873, in MTL, vol. 5, p. 468. “I merely put him . . .”: TAMT, p. 25.
In London, Stoddard “I trust I am . . .”: Charles Warren Stoddard, Exits and Entrances, p. 70.
By January 1874 “Stoddard & I . . .”: SLC to OLC, January 3, 1874, in MTL, vol. 6, p. 4. “then the turning . . .”: SLC to OLC, January 2, 1874, in MTL, vol. 6, p. 3. “Sometimes I get so homesick I don’t know what to do,” he told Livy on December 31, 1873; see MTL, vol.5, p. 543. The farewell shows in Liverpool took place on January 9 and 10, 1874; see Fred W. Lorch, The Trouble Begins at Eight, pp. 149–151. “We’re done . . .”: SLC to CWS, January 9, 1874, in MTL, vol. 6, pp. 17–18. The “prompt notes” were for the Roughing It lecture, which he delivered on January 9. The following evening, he performed his Hawaii lecture, and, as an encore, read the jumping frog story aloud; see ibid., p. 20.
It made a fitting “He sank into . . .”: Charles Warren Stoddard, Exits and Entrances, p. 73. “friendless, forsaken, despised”: quoted in George Wharton James, “Charles Warren Stoddard,” p. 670. “I’ll become . . .”: ibid., p. 671. Oratorical fluency: ibid. “in a style . . .”: Charles Warren Stoddard, Exits and Entrances, p. 74.
It was a story “soul-deep”: quoted in George Wharton James, “Charles Warren Stoddard,” p. 671. Twain and Livy moved into their new house at 351 Farmington Avenue in Hartford in September 1874; see MTAL, p. 360.
Bret Harte looked “old-young man” and heavy eyes: from a correspondent who saw Harte in Washington, printed in Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, December 6, 1874, quoted in BHGS, p. 96. Wrinkles: Anne Fields’s diary, quoted ibid. Exhausted: ibid., p. 101. Harte on the lecture circuit: ibid., pp. 90–114, and BHAN, pp. 126–134.
People came out “[I]f I had been . . .”: quoted in Henry J. W. Dam, “A Morning With Bret Harte,” p. 50. Harte’s lecture style: BHGS, p. 95. Harte lectured from late 1872 through early 1873, the spring and winter of 1873, early 1874, and the winter of 1874–1875. “exceedingly dull affair”: St. Louis Republican, reprinted in Portland (ME) Daily Press, October 28, 1873. “Harte as a lecturer . . .”: Iowa State Register, quoted in BHGS, p. 106.
Twain had a “He has an . . .”: SLC to Josephus N. Larned, March 22, 1873, in MTL, vol. 5, p. 320. Twain saw Harte perform in Hartford on January 3, 1873; see ibid., p. 321. “Argonautic brotherhood”: Bret Harte, “The Argonauts of ’49,” in The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Writings, ed. Gary Scharnhorst, p. 237. “jauntily insolent”: ibid., p. 239.
The lost literary Accusation of embezzling: W. A. Kendall, “Frank Bret Harte,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 15, 1872. Kendall was a poet and journalist associated with the Bohemians. Harte had included three of his poems in Outcroppings, and five of his poems in the Overland Monthly; see MTL, vol. 5, pp. 9–10. Harte would soon see another old California friend turn into an enemy. In 1873, Joe Lawrence, editor of the Golden Era, reprinted Harte’s story “M’liss,” which first appeared in the paper in 1863, and hired a local writer to write an additional 62 chapters to supplement Harte’s first 16. Harte was outraged; see BHGS, pp. 98–99.
Harte was furious “I have been . . .” and “I don’t mind . . .”: BH to SLC, December 26, 1872, in MTL, vol. 5, p. 318. “borrower of . . .” and “a cool ignorer . . .”: W. A. Kendall, “Frank Bret Harte,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 15, 1872. “hoggishness”: BH to James R. Osgood, April 18, 1875, quoted in BHAN, p. 135.
His delusions grew Chicago magazine: BHGS, pp. 103–104. “I do not see how . . .”: BH to John H. Carmany, September 13, 1875, BANC.
Even the Atlantic Second chance at Atlantic: BHGS, pp. 108–110; BHAN, pp. 132–133; and Bradford A. Booth, “Bret Harte Goes East: Some Unpublished Letters,” pp. 331–333. “[S]ince my arrival”: BH to WDH, September 8, 1874, quoted ibid., p. 332. “I don’t blame . . .”: ibid., p. 333.
This exchange permanently Twain submitting “A True Story”: SLC to WDH, September 2, 1874, in MTL, vol. 6, pp. 217–220. “cheerful, hearty soul” and “Aunt Rachel . . .”: Mark Twain, “A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It,” Atlantic Monthly 34.205 (Nov. 1874), p. 591.
Howells judged the “extremely good” and “black talk”: WDH to SLC, September 8, 1874, in MTL, vol. 6, p. 219.
“A True Story” “Our Bret Harte . . .”: WDH to Melancthon M. Hurd, November 7, 1874, in MTL, vol. 6, p. 266. Twain submitted his first installment in “Old Times on the Mississippi” to Howells on November 20, 1874; see ibid., pp. 294–295. The series appeared in the Atlantic Monthly between January and August 1875. Later, the articles became chaps. 4–17 of Life on the Mississippi (1883).
Meanwhile, Harte entered “I have always found . . .”: from Harte’s letter, dated January 11, 1875, in Boston Transcript, January 14, 1875. Creditors suing Harte: BHAN, p. 135, and BHGS, pp. 115–116. Twain lent Harte as much as $3,000, according to his autobiography: TAMT, p. 386. Elisha Bliss signed a book contract with Harte for a novel in September 1872. Harte didn’t finish Gabriel Conroy until June 1875, and, in the meantime, regularly asked Bliss for advances. The novel appeared serially in Scribner’s between November 1875 and August 1876, and Bliss published it as a single volume in September 1876. The reviews were devastating, and it sold 4,000 copies in its first year. See SLC to Elisha Bliss Jr., July 28, 1872, in MTL, vol. 5, pp. 133–135; SLC to WDH, May 22, 1876, in MTLO; and BHGS, pp. 90, 114–117.
This wasn’t purely Twain’s stage adaptation of The Gilded Age: MTAL, pp. 352–354, 358–360. Reviews of Two Men of Sandy Bar: BHGS, pp. 121–122. “the most dismal . . .”: “Amusements: Bret Harte’s New Drama: ‘The Two Men of Sandy Bar’ at Union Square Theater,” New York Times, August 29, 1876.
But Twain liked Twain seeing Two Men of Sandy Bar: SLC to BH, September 7–11, 1876, in MTLO. Parsloe’s popularity: BHGS, pp. 124–125. “Me no likee”: Bret Harte, Two Men of Sandy Bar: A Drama (Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877), p. 88. Wood shoes and coolie hat: ibid., p. 9. “delightful Chinaman”: TAMT, p. 388. Beginning of collaboration with Harte: ibid. “Harte came up . . .”: SLC to WDH, October 11, 1876, in MTLO.
Over the following At the time, Harte and his family were living in New York. After Twain and Harte had their initial meeting in early October 1876, Harte returned to Hartford for visits in late October, early November, late November, and early December; see SLC to WDH, October 11, 1876, in MTLO, and SLC to George Bentley, December 5, 1876, ibid. Composition of Ah Sin: TAMT, pp. 389–390.
Harte’s days as “He worked rapidly . . .”: TAMT, p. 390. “bottles of spirits”: Isabella Beecher Hooker’s diary, quoted in BHGS, p. 125. Harte’s drinking: ibid., p. 96. Harte’s visit in early December 1876: SLC to George Bentley, December 5, 1876, in MTLO and TAMT, pp. 388–389. “not even tipsy”: ibid., p. 389. Harte’s story was “Thankful Blossom: A Romance of the Jerseys, 1779,” published in four weekly installments in the New York Sun, beginning on December 3, 1876.
Liquor didn’t magically “working over . . .”: Alta California, quoted in BHGS, p. 112. Harte and Parsloe: Margaret Duckett, Mark Twain and Bret Harte (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964), pp. 124–125. “I read him . . .”: BH to SLC, December 16, 1876, ibid., p. 124. Harte’s ragged clothes: TAMT, p. 395. In his autobiography, Twain claimed that Harte dragged his feet in getting the play to Parsloe: “Harte had been procrastinating; the play should have been in Parsloe’s hands a day or two earlier than this, but Harte had not attended to it”; see ibid.
Harte’s tone suggested “He was a man . . .”: TAMT, p. 388.
But this closeness In his autobiography, Twain claims incorrectly that he and Harte wrote Ah Sin in a “fortnight” at the Hartford house. Their collaboration took place over a longer period of time, as Harte made multiple visits. “slight and vagu
e and veiled”: TAMT, p. 390.
He was nothing All quotes: ibid., pp. 390–391.
Possibly Twain said The precise cause of the break between Harte and Twain remains a mystery, but there are clues scattered throughout their correspondence. In Harte’s letter of December 16, 1876, he refers jokingly to his “heterodoxy” and begs Livy’s forgiveness: “I feel her gentle protests to my awful opinions all the more remorsefully that I am away.” On February 27, 1877, Twain complained to his sister of the “smouldering rage” he had felt recently “over the precious days & weeks of time which Bret Harte was losing for me”; see SLC to Pamela A. Moffett, February 27, 1877, in MTLO. For more on the possible causes of their estrangement, see Margaret Duckett, Mark Twain and Bret Harte, pp. 130–142. “I’m not anxious . . .”: BH to SLC, March 1, 1877, ibid., p. 134.
The ensuing pages Twain signed the contract for Ah Sin on December 30, 1866, while Harte and Parsloe both signed on January 5, 1877; see ibid., pp. 127–129. “Either Bliss must . . .”: BH to SLC, March 1, 1877, ibid., p. 135. “marring it”: ibid., p. 136.
The letter enraged “I have read . . .”: quoted ibid., p. 137. “left hardly . . .”: SLC to WDH, August 3, 1877, in MTLO. Twain’s changes to Ah Sin: Margaret Duckett, Mark Twain and Bret Harte, pp. 146–151, and MTAL, pp. 403–404. “[D]on’t say harsh . . .”: OLC to SLC, July 29, 1877, quoted ibid., pp. 405–406.
He was regressing “Look at him . . . ”: “Twain and Harte’s New Play,” San Francisco Argonaut, May 19, 1877, quoted in Gary Scharnhorst, “‘Ways That Are Dark’: Appropriations of Bret Harte’s ‘Plain Language from Truthful James,’” pp. 391–392. Ah Sin played in Washington from May 7 to May 12, 1877, in Baltimore from May 14 to May 19, and reached New York on July 31; see BHGS, p. 128. “The Chinaman is killingly funny”: SLC to William Dean Howells, August 3, 1877, in MTLO. “as good . . .”: quoted in Margaret Duckett, Mark Twain and Bret Harte, p. 153. See also “The Drama: The Heathen Chinee,” New York Tribune, August 1, 1877.
Whether he actually San Francisco riot of 1877: San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, July 24, 1877, and July 25, 1877; Alta California, July 24, 1877; Kevin Starr, Americans and the California Dream, p. 132; and Robert Edward Lee Knight, Industrial Relations in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1900–1918, pp. 15–16. Failure of Bank of California: Ira B. Cross, A History of the Labor Movement in California, pp. 69–70.
This element made “On to Chinatown!” and “indulging . . .”: Alta California, July 24, 1877.
Not far from Failure of Ah Sin: Margaret Duckett, Mark Twain and Bret Harte, p. 158. “most abject . . .” and “I’m sorry for . . .”: SLC to WDH, October 15, 1877, in MTLO.
Poor Parsloe would Parsloe: “An Actor Stricken With Paralysis,” New York Times, November 19, 1894, and “Death List of a Day: Charles Thomas Parsloe,” New York Times, January 23, 1898. “floating on the raft . . .”: quoted in BHGS, p. 132. “run over in . . .”: quoted ibid. Harte’s campaign for a consulate: ibid., pp. 134–138. Harte may have been hoping to secure a position overseas as early as 1876; see SLC to WDH, June 21, 1877, in MTLO and TAMT, p. 398.
Twain did everything “I think your . . .”: SLC to WDH, June 21, 1877, in MTLO. “Father has read . . .”: Birchard A. Hayes to Elinor Mead Howells, July 9, 1877, in BHAN, p. 158.
Harte kept pushing Harte’s Republican friends: BHGS, p. 137. “heard sinister things”: Rutherford B. Hayes to WDH, April 5, 1878, in BHAN, p. 161. “solvency and sobriety,” “great affection . . .” and “It would be . . .”: WDH to Rutherford B. Hayes, April 9, 1878, in BHGS, pp. 137–138, and Susan Goodman and Carl Dawson, William Dean Howells, p. 162.
Nine days later Harte’s meeting with Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward: BHGS, pp. 138–139, and BHAN, p. 161. “[W]ith all my . . .”: BH to Anna Griswold Harte, April 19, 1878, ibid. Harte accepted the post on May 11, 1878. Crefeld is now known as Krefeld.
Harte sailed on Harte’s departure: BHAN, pp. 161–162. All quotes: SLC to WDH, June 27, 1878, in MTLO.
AFTERLIFE
There was a certain “a man without a country”: TAMT, p. 396.
Charles Warren Stoddard suffered Stoddard in 1878: CSCWS, pp. 201–204.
Aside from his Stoddard’s travels in Europe and the Middle East: ibid., pp. 178–196, and GP, pp. 67–84. “I find no English . . .” and “Surely your success . . .”: CWS to SLC, December 12, 1874, in MTL, vol. 6, p. 365. “the old times . . .”: CWS to SLC, February 24, 1875, ibid., p. 418.
He felt happy Stoddard first asked for Twain’s help in publishing a book in a letter from February 24, 1875. He asked again in 1876, in a letter now lost, prompting Twain’s reply. “he shook his head . . .”: SLC to CWS, September 20, 1876, in MTLO. In the same letter, Twain proposed the idea of a consulship to Stoddard. “Stoddard’s got no . . .” and “He is just . . .”: SLC to WDH, September 21, 1876, in MTLO. “leg like a . . .”: WDH to SLC, October 8, 1876, in MTLO. Stoddard’s return to America: CSCWS, pp. 197–201.
“You will find” All quotes: CWS to unknown, March 8, 1877, in George Wharton James, “Charles Warren Stoddard,” p. 661. See also CSCWS, pp. 321–324.
San Francisco had changed Unemployment rate and depression: William Deverell, Railroad Crossing, p. 38, and Robert Knight, Industrial Relations in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1900–1918, pp. 14–15. “Bankruptcy . . .”: William Deverell, Railroad Crossing, p. 37. Stoddard’s parents lived at 42 Hawthorne Street; see CSCWS, p. 204.
The city’s literary fortunes The Overland Monthly ceased publication in 1875, but was revived in 1883; see ICLL, p. 163. The new magazine never lived up to its predecessor. “[T]he present corps of contributors do not equal the old,” Coolbrith told Stoddard; see IC to CWS, September 18, 1883, HUNT. Origins of Bohemian Club: Roy Kotynek and John Cohassey, American Cultural Rebels, pp. 28–29; Andrew McF. Davis, “High Jinks,” Californian: A Western Monthly Magazine 1.5 (May 1880), pp. 418–422; and Charles Warren Stoddard, “In Old Bohemia: Memories of San Francisco in the Sixties,” pp. 639–641.
Stoddard joined before The club’s first location was on Sacramento Street between Kearny and Montgomery. In 1877, the club moved into better rooms at 430 Pine Street. “It was soon . . .”: Edward Bosqui’s diary, quoted in G. William Domhoff, “Bohemia Betrayed: Sellout to the Social Register,” in César Graña and Marigay Graña, On Bohemia: The Code of the Self-Exiled (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1990), p. 639. “I never saw . . .”: Roy Morris Jr., Declaring His Genius: Oscar Wilde in North America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), p. 140.
Stoddard visited the Impecunious Stoddard at the club: GP, p. 89, and CSCWS, pp. 204–209, 218–219. Coolbrith’s election as honorary member and fund-raisers: ICLL, pp. 119, 124–125, 135, 224, 276.
She was grateful Death of Coolbrith’s sister Agnes: ICLL, p. 122. Decision to become librarian: ibid., pp. 125–126. Hours and salary: pp. 131–132. “living tomb”: SLC to CWS, August 31, 1882, HUNT.
It wasn’t all Schoolchildren: ICLL, pp. 149–151. All quotes: Jack London to IC, December 13, 1906, in Jeanne Campbell Reesman, Jack London: A Study of the Short Fiction (New York: Twayne, 1999), p. 6.
Coolbrith created a “Why, we used . . .”: ICLL, p. 151. “She sat in her . . .”: Henry Kirk, quoted ibid., p. 150. Ina D. Coolbrith, A Perfect Day, and Other Poems (San Francisco: John H. Carmany, 1881). “Miss Coolbrith’s admirers . . .”: Ambrose Bierce, San Francisco News Letter, undated clipping in the Coolbrith scrapbooks held by OAK. A Perfect Day was reviewed in the Chicago Inter-Ocean, the Boston Transcript, and the Philadelphia Times; these reviews are quoted in an advertisement for the book included in the Californian 6.32 (Aug. 1882). “Without having . . .”: “New Books,” New York Times, June 20, 1881. Inscribed copy to Stoddard: ICLL, p. 156. “I know of no . . .”: CWS to IC, May 6, 1881, BANC. In October 1881, Stoddard left SF. He would return briefly in 1885 on his way to Notre Dame, where he taught for a year
and a half. He didn’t see SF again until 1905, and he died in Monterey, CA, four years later. See CSCWS, pp. 220–313, and GP, pp. 93–167.
But at least “My relatives? . . .”: IC to CWS, February 15, 1898, HUNT.
California became loathsome “convict-life”: ibid. “How I hate . . .”: IC to CWS, October 28, 1898, HUNT. On June 29, 1915, at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition Congress of Authors and Journalists, Coolbrith received the poet laureate’s crown; see ICLL, pp. 310–316; Marian Taylor, “Congress of Authors and Journalists at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition,” Overland Monthly 66.5 (Nov. 1915), pp. 439–447; and Josephine Clifford McCrackin, “Ina Coolbrith Invested With Poets’ Crown,” ibid., pp. 448–450. “I feel that the . . .”: quoted in ICLL, p. 314.
Harte died in Memoir manuscript and its destruction: ICLL, pp. 245–246, 254, 258. “I took frequent . . .”: ICHC. “Were I to write . . .”: quoted in Carlton Kendall, “California’s Pioneer Poetess,” Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine 87.8 (Aug. 1929), p. 230. According to a 1919 article in Physical Culture by George Wharton James, available at http://www.twainquotes.com/Bradley/bradley.html, Twain sent three autographed photographs of himself to help raise money for Coolbrith after her house burned down, and later sat for more portraits.
After the blaze Coolbrith’s dream and quotes: San Jose Mercury, November 21, 1907, in a scrapbook held by OAK. Coolbrith is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland. Her grave remained unmarked until 1986, when the Ina Coolbrith Circle placed a headstone on the site.
INDEX
