Autobiography of Mark Twain

by Mark Twain

  153.36–42 letters of the late John Hay, copies of which I enclose . . . Chas. Orr] The letters were written to Alexander Gunn (1837–1901), a Cleveland industrialist, by Clemens’s friend John Hay, who had died on 1 July 1905 (see AutoMT1, 534 n. 222.9). Charles Orr (1858–1927), superintendent of the Cleveland public schools, sent the copies; he was preparing the letters for publication in a short article. Orr had been shown the letters by their owner at that time (1906), lawyer and patron of the arts Frank H. Ginn (1868–1938). The work by Clemens that is discussed in them (and in the dictation that follows) is Date 1601, a ribald pastiche of Elizabethan speech and manners. Clemens initially showed the sketch, composed in 1876, only to trusted male friends. But it attained a wider circulation in 1880 through Hay, who took the manuscript to Cleveland. There it was appreciatively read by his literary circle, the Vampire Club, and privately printed in an anonymous edition of perhaps six copies (Kohn 1957; SLC 1880a, 1996b; Orr 1906; BAL, 2:3388; Barnes 2009; 19 July 1880 to Twichell, transcript in CU-MARK; Hay to SLC, 15 Aug 1880, CU-MARK; Rhodes 1922, 120–21).

  154.16 The Globe has not yet recovered from Downey’s inroad] Hay refers to a recent occurrence in Washington, D.C. On 12 April 1880 Stephen W. Downey, a congressional delegate from Wyoming Territory, introduced a bill that began with a recital of the Apostles’ Creed and went on to propose that $500,000 be appropriated to decorate the Capitol walls with scenes from “the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.” Downey also obtained permission to have additional “argument” in support of his bill published in the Congressional Record (which Hay casually calls by the name of its predecessor, the Congressional Globe). When the Record appeared on 22 April, readers were surprised to find that Downey’s “argument” was a religious-mythological poem over twenty-five hundred lines in length. The affair occasioned much mockery of Downey and debate about the abuse of the Congressional Record (Washington Post, 23 Apr 1880: “Downey’s Immortal Ode,” 1; “Downey Invades the Record,” 2; Downey 1880).

  154.34 I replied to Mr. Orr as follows] Isabel Lyon recalled that she took down Clemens’s dictation of his letter to Orr as he lay in bed “roaring, and chuckling, and smoking and rejoicing” (note by Lyon, NN-BGC, TS in CU-MARK).

  155.13–15 sumptuous edition . . . was made by Lieut. C. E. S. Wood at West Point—an edition of 50 copies] The so-called West Point edition of 1601 was printed in 1882 by Lt. Charles Erskine Scott Wood—with Clemens’s active consent—at the little press of West Point Military Academy. At least fifteen copies remained in Clemens’s hands at the time of his death and are now in the Mark Twain Papers. Wood (1852–1944), a polymath from Pennsylvania, was the adjutant to the superintendent of West Point, the director of the press, and a personal friend of Clemens’s. Pirated editions began to appear in 1901, but not until this correspondence with Orr did Clemens acknowledge to anyone outside his group of intimates that he was the author of the sketch (for a facsimile of the West Point edition, see SLC 1939; Barnes 2009; Kohn 1957; SLC 1882a, 1996b).

  156.16–17 ten-mile walk to Talcott Tower and back] Bartlett Tower, a wooden lookout on the ridge of Talcott Mountain near Hartford, was about eight miles from the Nook Farm neighborhood where Clemens and Twichell lived. Built in 1867 by Matthew Henry Bartlett, it was part of a tourist resort with picnic tables, swings, and refreshments for sale (Brenda J. Miller 2012; Courtney 2008, 148–50).

  156.26–34 Dean Sage . . . got a dozen copies privately printed in Brooklyn] Sage (1841–1902), the son of wealthy lumber merchant Henry W. Sage, was Clemens’s close friend and occasional financial adviser. He was well known as a writer on angling and collected books on the subject. No evidence has been found that he sponsored or printed any edition of 1601 (AutoMT1, 599 n. 377.14; 28 Mar 1875 to Sage, L6, 431 n. 1).

  156.34–35 He sent one to David Gray, in Buffalo; one to a friend in Japan] David Gray, a poet and the longtime editor of the Buffalo Courier, and journalist Edward H. House, who in 1880 returned permanently from a ten-year stay in Japan, both received copies of the 1882 West Point edition of 1601 from C. E. S. Wood (see AutoMT1, 594 n. 363.32–33, 598 n. 375.23; Wood to SLC, 25 July 1882, CU-MARK).

  156.35 Lord Houghton] Richard Monckton Milnes, first Baron Houghton (see AutoMT1, 634 n. 433.27–35).

  156.38–157.3 learned rabbi said it was a masterpiece . . . ‘He wrote the immortal “1601”.’] The rabbi in Albany has not been identified. When Clemens repeated this anecdote to a friend in 1907, he made it clear that the quoted remark about the epitaph was the rabbi’s, as “delivered” by Gray (Lyon to Owen, 19 Jan 1936, NN-BGC).

  157.7–8 Rudolph Lindau, of the Foreign Office] Rudolf Lindau (1829–1910) was a German diplomat and novelist. Clemens became acquainted with him during the winter of 1891–92, when the Clemenses were living in Berlin. He tells a story about Lindau, disguising him as “Smith,” in the Autobiographical Dictation of 6 December 1906.

  157.9 Mommsen] Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903), the great historian of Rome, was Germany’s preeminent academic, a liberal politician, and a noted public figure. While living in Berlin, Clemens wrote in his notebook, “Been taken for Mommsen twice. We have the same hair, but upon examination it was found that the brains were different” (Notebook 31, TS p. 27, CU-MARK).

  157.9–10 William Walter Phelps, who was our minister at the Berlin court] See AutoMT1, 527 n. 204.25–26.

  157.13–17 In 1890 I had published in Harper’s Monthly a sketch called “Luck,” . . . it is Lord Wolseley] This sketch was written in April 1886, the purported facts of the case deriving, according to Clemens, from Twichell’s report of an acquaintance’s story. The sketch, built around the revelation that a renowned British military hero was in reality “an absolute fool,” is slight, and Clemens did not publish it until what Paine called “the general house-cleaning which took place after the first collapse of the [Paige typesetting] machine”; it was published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in August 1891 (MTB, 2:1106; N&J3, 226; SLC 1891b). As Clemens tells the story, he was later informed that in “Luck” he had unwittingly retailed the personal history of Garnet Wolseley, first Viscount Wolseley (1833–1913), the foremost British soldier of his day. Born into a poor family with military traditions, Wolseley rose through the ranks, campaigning in Burma, the Crimea, and Africa; he was made a peer in 1882 and commander in chief in 1895. Regarded as an intellectual and a professionalizing force within the army, he was publicly acclaimed as “our only general” and inspired the “very model of a modern major general” in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance He does not, however, fit the details of the tale very closely, and the protagonist of Clemens’s sketch may be a composite of more than one military figure (Beck 2005). Clemens tells this anecdote again, with variations, in the Autobiographical Dictation of 27 December 1906.

  157.23–24 In 1900, in London, I went to the Fourth of July banquet . . . Choate was presiding] Clemens did attend the American Society’s Independence Day dinner in London in 1900; Choate and Wolseley were also present (“London’s Fourth,” New York Daily People, 5 July 1900, 5).

  157.31–38 he asked me for a copy of “1601,” . . . see whether it really is a masterpiece or not] Having recovered his store of copies, Clemens did eventually offer one—rather tentatively—to Wolseley. Writing on 17 April 1909, he correctly recalled the occasion of their meeting, but not the book’s exact title (UkBrH):

  My dear Lord Wolseley:

  It is long ago—8 or 9 years. I arrived late—it was a Fourth of July dinner & the last speakers were gasping out their feelings to half a crowd & many empty & emptying seats, & you halted me on my way & I sat down & had a pleasant chat with you. You see I am trying to identify myself.

  With this purpose in view: to inquire if you asked me for a copy of “1603?” I believe it was your very self, but truly & sincerely I am not charging it, & would not charge it upon any innocent man, since the classic I speak of, being a quite free conversation between Queen Elizabeth, Shakspeare, R
aleigh, etc., is not a proper thing to charge any unoffending person with wanting.

  When I came home I ransacked this country & searched several foreign countries where it had been republished in the dark, but I failed to find a copy. I had promised three copies while in England, & I had to fall short of those promises.

  Was your lordship one of the three? I am merely a well-meaning person who is trying to keep his word, so I know you will forgive me if I am off the right track. Perhaps I ought not to have written “1603,” but I was young then (34 years ago) & familiar with misdoing. Once I expurgated it, but then—well then there wasn’t anything left, of course.

  With the pleasantest recollections of that now ancient Fourth of July chat, I am

  Your lordship’s

  Obedient servant to command,

  Mark Twain

  Autobiographical Dictation, 6 August 1906

  158.4–7 Let us go back three months, now, and take up—no, let him wait . . . boil him in oil] Clemens never identifies this person. At the end of the Autobiographical Dictation of 7 August 1906 he calls him “No. 14 in the blatherskite gallery,” and once again postpones his indictment.

  158.10 feeding fat my ancient grudges in the cases of only thirteen deserving persons] The Merchant of Venice, act 1, scene 3. For a conjectural list of the “deserving persons” see AutoMT1, 22–23.

  158.28–38 resume where we left off . . . debt left behind by the dead Webster firm] Clemens discusses his disastrous investments, the financial panic of 1893–94, and his debts in the Autobiographical Dictation of 2 June 1906.

  158.38–39 I stumbled accidentally upon H. H. Rogers . . . Dr. Clarence C. Rice] Rice (1853–1935), who practiced medicine in New York City, became the Clemenses’ family physician in 1885, sometimes visiting them in Hartford. Clemens was a guest at Rice’s house at 123 East 19th Street at the start of his 1893–94 stay in New York. His claim that he and Rice “stumbled accidentally upon H. H. Rogers” is belied by contemporary correspondence: Rice brought them together deliberately. Clemens wrote of Rice to Olivia on 17 September 1893: “He told me he had ventured to speak to a rich friend of his who was an admirer of mine about our straits. I was very glad” (CU-MARK; Clarence C. Rice 1925; 1 May 1893 to OC, transcript by PAM in CU-MARK; N&J3, 332 n. 92).

  159.11–12 decorating the globe’s circumference . . . in the interest of the Webster creditors] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 2 June 1906, note at 79.39–80.4, and the Autobiographical Dictation of 4 June 1906.

  159.21–22 We had paid a hundred cents on the dollar, and owed no one a penny] In his original dictation Clemens admitted, “I am a weak sister, and I could probably have been persuaded to let the Webster assets pay what they could of the indebtedness and stop there. But no persuasions could ever have been compiled out of the dictionary that would have moved Mrs. Clemens.” He deleted the remark when revising his typescript (see the Textual Commentary at MTPO).

  160.3–8 the books had revived . . . generous support for my children] In the course of revising this account of his income from royalties, Clemens rewrote several sentences, substituting general terms for specific dollar amounts. In his original dictation he explained that his royalties soon amounted to “twenty thousand dollars a year,” and sometimes “ten or twenty thousand above it”; in fact, they were sometimes “as high as fifty-seven thousand dollars in a year, and will go well beyond that in the next twelve months, counting old books, new books, and magazine stuff “(see the Textual Commentary at MTPO).

  Autobiographical Dictation, 7 August 1906

  160.28–29 Mr. Rogers gave a part of his time . . . to the straightening out of my Paige entanglements] For Rogers’s role in dealing with the failure of the Paige typesetting machine see AutoMT1, 497–98 n. 106.23–24.

  160.29–30 an agreement between the American Publishing Company and the Harpers . . . issued by the former Company] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 17 July 1906, note at 143.34–144.5.

  160.32–36 three years ago . . . servant to only one—the Harper Corporation] In October 1903 Harpers bought the American Publishing Company for $50,000, half of it paid by Harpers and half by the Clemenses. Harpers agreed to pay the Clemenses a royalty of 20 percent on individual titles and 17 percent on uniform editions (HHR, 691–99, 700–708). Clemens wrote in his notebook at the time:

  The contract . . . concentrates all my books in Harper’s hands, & now at last they are valuable: in fact they are a fortune. They guarantee me $25,000 a year for 5 years, but they will yield twice as much [as] that for many a year, if intelligently handled. Four months ago I could not have believed that I could ever get rid of my 30-years’ slavery to the pauper American Publishing Co—a worthless concern which always kept a blight upon the books. (Notebook 46, TS p. 15, CU-MARK)

  162.9–11 Federal Steel . . . more than twice the figure he had paid for it] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 2 June 1906, note at 80.6–7.

  Autobiographical Dictation, 8 August 1906

  163.18 forlorn hope] In military language, a detachment of soldiers, usually volunteers, selected to perform some especially perilous service.

  164.8 ‘Lohengrin’] Clemens saw a performance of this opera by Richard Wagner in Mannheim in 1878, which he described in chapter 9 of A Tramp Abroad as a “shivaree” (Gribben 1980, 2:731).

  165.12–14 Papa went to Europe to lecture . . . reading with Mr. G. W. Cable] Susy made a leap in time here. Clemens and Olivia took Susy to England, Scotland, and Ireland from May to October 1873; Clemens lectured in London near the end of the trip. The reading tour with Cable took place over the winter of 1884–85.

  166.2 the nurse] Rosina Hay (see AD, 3 Oct 1906, note at 242.34).

  166.11 Aunt Clara Spaulding] A dear childhood friend of Olivia’s (see AutoMT1, 593–94 n. 363.23–25).

  166.15 Frank Warner] Frank (1867–1931), then aged seventeen, was the son of George H. and Elisabeth (Lilly) Gillette Warner, Nook Farm neighbors. George was the brother of Charles Dudley Warner (“Nook Farm Genealogy” 1974, 30; AutoMT1, 580 n. 327.14).

  166.28–29 I have already described that monumental night in an earlier chapter of this autobiography] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 6 February 1906 for Clemens’s earlier description of this occasion, which took place on 14 March 1885 (AutoMT1, 334–36, 583 n. 335.18–21).

  166 footnote at dinner the other night . . . Sir Henry Irving] Clemens added many such footnotes to Susy’s original manuscript. He dined with the renowned British actor Sir Henry Irving (1838–1905) at The Players club on 10 November 1901 (Notebook 44, TS p. 17, CU-MARK).

  Autobiographical Dictation, 10 August 1906

  167.5 This morning’s mail brings me this clipping from the Westminster Gazette] The undated clipping was sent by George Harvey of Harpers, enclosed in a letter of 9 August. On it he wrote, “What ho! GH” (CU-MARK).

  167.9 “Diary of Eve”] Eve’s Diary was written in July 1905 and published as a book in June 1906 (16 July 1905 to Duneka, NN-BGC; SLC 1906a; BAL, 2:3489).

  168.25–30 At last we have heard from Higbie . . . he proposed to pass his manuscript through my hands] Calvin Higbie was Clemens’s cabinmate in the mining camp of Aurora in 1862. His letter of 15 March 1906, in which he proposed to write an account of his experiences in the West, is transcribed in the Autobiographical Dictation of 26 March 1906 (AutoMT1, 445–46, 640 n. 445.4–13).

  169.4–5 Robinson Crusoe] Clemens owned a 1747 edition of Daniel Defoe’s novel, one of his favorite books to read to his children (Gribben 1980, 1:181; CC 1931, 25). See also the Autobiographical Dictation of 11 June 1906, note at 109.17–20.

  169.18–20 “A Little Experience in Nevada and Surrounding Country in the Early Sixties, Leading up to My Acquaintance with Samuel L. Clemens, ‘Mark Twain.’”] Higbie’s essay is in the Mark Twain Papers, in two forms (both purchased in 2002): the original manuscript, and a typed copy of it bearing Clemens’s revisions. It remained unpublished at Higbie’s death in 1914, but was quoted extensi
vely in a 1920 Saturday Evening Post article (Higbie 1906; Phillips 1920).

  169.33–34 I have written Higbie the following letter] Only Hobby’s typed transcription of this letter is extant; the original sent to Higbie has not been found.

  170.6 You have invented some new things—such as . . . the ball] Higbie’s essay describes a ball celebrating the opening of a saloon:

  It was a queer combination five ladies and a thousand men, and in the nature of things the sets were composed allmost entirely of men, and very picturesque they were. All sorts and conditions; very few wore coats, miners with red shirts, pants outside of boots, with gun knife or both strapped to their waist. . . . [Sam] was all animation and making great play to entertain his partner, bowing and scraping at a great rate but paying not the slightest attention to the music or prompter calling off the figures. (Higbie 1906, TS pp. 15–16)