263. “Lecherous old rascal”: BM, 260.
264. “Had the first edition”: The Webster interview is quoted in Walter Blair, Mark Twain and Huck Finn (Berkeley, Calif., 1960), 365-66.
264. “Charley, if this is a lie”: BM, 284.
264. “I said we couldn’t help”: BM, 289.
264. “Youth dear”: OLC to SLC, Jan. 2, 1885, Hartford (MTP).
264. “Sell property which does not belong to him”: From the text of SLC’s letter to the Concord Free Trade Club, March 1885, as edited by WDH (MTH, 876-79).
265. “Bromfield is an idiot”: BM, 295.
265. “You’ll never lay it down”: Cable cited the prophecy in his speech at the Mark Twain memorial services Nov. 30, 1910.
265. “A great man”: SLC to OLC, Feb. 3, 1885, Chicago (MTP).
265. “Cable’s gifts of mind”: MTH, 520.
266. Henry Watterson: Cable supplies the details of the encounters with Watterson and Nasby in letters to his wife published in Record, 72-75, 83.
266. “His closeness”: SLC to OLC, Jan. 2, 1885, Paris, Ky. (MTP). The litany of SLC’s complaints runs through LL, 234-37.
267. “With his platform talent”: Notebook No. 32, MTP.
267. “A heart as tender as a child”: Ozias Pond’s diary (Berg-NYPL). Ozias describes the derailment and SLC’s bout with the window shutter.
267. “I am not able to see anything”: BM, 300.
267. “Huck is a good book”: BM, 303.
268. “A vivid picture”: The Century and other reviews are quoted and analyzed in A. L. Vogelback, “The Publication and Reception of Huckleberry Finn in America,” AL, XI, No. 3 (November 1939), 260-72. The two reviews in Life were reprinted in AL, XXI, No. 1 (March 1959), 78-81.
268. “Dear Charley”: L, 452-53.
269. “Endorses me as worthy to associate”: MTH, 876-79 (text of the letter as edited by WDH).
269. “Those idiots in Concord”: BM, 317.
269. “The truth is”: L, 805. SLC’s comments on the N.Y. World are in Notebook No. 19, MTP.
269. “You can’t stir it up”: MTH, 526.
270. “Prefatory Remark”: The text is quoted in MTH, 535n. SLC cites OLC’s proscription in BM, 309.
270. “Swan-song”: MTH, 610-11.
271. “One of the highest satisfactions”: MMT, 72.
271. “There’s big money”: BM, 302.
271. “If it had only been true”: MTN, 174.
271. New letterhead: BM, 323.
272. “I wish to be close at hand”: BM, 305.
272. “The Bull Run voice”: The sales techniques are discussed in Gerald Carson, “Get the Prospect Seated …,” American Heritage, IX, No. 5 (August 1958), 38-41, 77-80.
272. “Vastest book enterprise”: SLC to Orion, May 16, 1885 (MTP).
272. “Overwork killed”: BM, 307.
272. “Neither of us”: AU-1924, II, 144.
273. Would “cripple”: BM, 319.
273. “Butter-mouthed Sunday school-slobbering”: MTH, 572. The fictitious interview is published in MTH, 573n. SLC’s designs on Laffan were stated in his letter to Fred Hall, Aug. 6, 1886 (Berg—NYPL).
273. “He has dictated 10,000 words”: MTN, 182.
274. “This is the simple soldier”: Speeches, 137. In his notebook for 1866 (Nos. 4-5, MTP) SLC singled out Grant’s “I propose to move at once upon your works” as an example of circumstances forcing eloquence on the noneloquent. SLC’s comment on Matthew Arnold is in Notebook No. 22, MTP.
274. “Bloody bit of heartache”: MTH, 541.
275. “How near he came”: MTN, 183.
275. “I came within a few hours”: “The Private History of a Campaign That Failed,” Century, December 1885 (W, XV, 281).
276. “It is curious and dreadful”: MTN, 182.
276. Grant’s worries: Grant’s account of his service in Missouri is in Chapters 18-20 of his Personal Memoirs.
277. 300,000 sets: MTN, 180.
278. “A starving beggar”: MTH, 539.
278. On a June evening: OLC’s diary, June 13, quoted in NF, 92-93.
279. “Profitable return”: SLC to OLC, Feb. 4, 1885, Chicago (MTP).
279. “I am frightened”: Paine, 831.
279. Grant funeral procession: SLC’s accounts in MTN, 185-86, and LL, 244; Boston Evening Transcript, Aug. 10, 1885; The Riverside Souvenir: A Memorial Volume (New York, 1886) ; Grace M. Mayer, Once upon a City (New York, 1958), 462-63.
279. “He was a man”: L, 460.
279. “Toward the sunset”: LL, 246.
Chapter Fourteen (pages 280–311)
280 “Mama and I”: North American Review, Aug. 2, 1907, 689-90.
281. “I have begun a book”: BM, 355.
281. “Mechanical marvel”: L, 508.
281. “Wait thirty years”: Camden’s Compliment to Walt Whitman, ed. Horace Traubel (Philadelphia, 1889), 64-65.
282. “And I watched”: The Portable Mark Twain ed. Bernard DeVoto (New York, 1946), 775.
282. A typesetting machine: SLC wrote extended accounts of Paige and his typesetter in notebooks, correspondence, and autobiographical material. Among other sources are: Paige’s various patents; the files of The Inland Printer, Chicago, which from the 1880s on trace the evolution of machine composition from mere novelty to a mainstay of the printing trades; John S. Thompson, “Composing Machines—Past and Present,” Inland Printer, XXX, No. 5 (February 1903), 697-99; W. Turner Berry, “Printing and Related Trades,” a chapter in Charles Singer et al., A History of Technology (Oxford, 1958), V, 685-87; Royal Cortissoz, The Life of Whitelaw Reid (New York, 1921), II, 105-6; Waldemar Kaempffert, A Popular History of American Invention (New York, 1924), I, 228-33; Willi Mengel, Ottmar Mergenthaler and the Printing Revolution (New York, 1954). A suggestive discussion of SLC’s involvement is Tom Burnham, “Mark Twain and the Paige Typesetter: A Background for Despair,” Western Humanities Review, VI, winter 1951-52, 29-36.
283n. “My God!”: Peter Lyon, Success Story: The Life and Times of S. S. McClure (New York, 1963), 139.
284. “He is a poet”: MTN, 72-73.
284. “An inventor is a poet”: BM, 114.
284. “I knew that country”: W, XIV, 68.
284. “For some cause”: L, 29.
285. “It did seem to me”: MMT, 80.
285. “Very much the best”: BM, 173.
286. “Ask the President”: Notebook No. 20, MTP.
286. On May 27: SLC’s memoranda concerning Western Union are in Notebook No. 19, MTP.
286. “Never mind that”: Paine, 906.
287. “Wanted to get an idea”: SLC to Fred Hall, Sept. 11, 1886, Elmira (Berg—NYPL). Writing from Elmira on August 28, SLC had told Hall, the junior partner in Charles L. Webster & Co., “I want to know where each of these unions is—and what its strength is” (Berg—NYPL).
288. “Only smiled”: Paine, 906.
288. “The Mergenthaler people”: SLC to HHR, Oct. 7, 1894, Rouen (Berg—NYPL); DeVoto omits this passage from the text of the letter he printed in The Portable Mark Twain (New York, 1946), 778-80.
288. “We go on and on”: BM, 339.
288. “When he can afford it”: Notebook No. 23, MTP.
289. Impressed a local reporter: The interview (Minneapolis Tribune, June 30, 1886) is reprinted in J. T. Flanagan, “Mark Twain on the Upper Mississippi,” Minnesota History, XVII [December 1936], 369-84.
289. “The issue of this book”: JHT’s unpublished journals (Yale) are quoted in LL, 247.
290. “The failure was incredible”: MMT, 74.
290. “Enough piousness”: BM, 376.
290. “Momentary annoyance”: BM, 377-78.
291. Back to Fredonia: Samuel C. Webster supplies the details of his father’s last years in BM, 388-90.
291. “Not a man”: SLC to Pamela Moffett, July 1, 1889, Elmira (Moffett—MTP).
291. “I have never hated”: SLC to Orion, July 1, 1889, Elmira (Moffett—MTP).
&
nbsp; 292n. “Webster kept back”: Eruption, 189.
292. “Don’t imagine”: L, 503.
292. “Machine O.K.”: Telegram in MTP.
292. “I have seen a line”: MTN, 205.
293. “Immense historical birth”: SLC’s fullest account of the event is L, 506-8.
293. “All good things”: SLC to Jane Clemens and Orion, Apr. 3, 1889, Hartford (Moffett—MTP).
293. “Dream of being”: MTN, 171. In general I have followed the chronology in H. G. Baetzhold, “The Course of Composition of A Connecticut Yankee: A Reinterpretation,” AL, XXXIII, No. 2 (May 1961), 195-214.
294. The idea of a great battle: Notebook No. 18, MTP.
294. Tom Nash: SLC wrote to Livy about the visits to Hannibal and Keokuk in LL, 228-29.
294. “Poor old Ma”: SLC’s note on envelope of letter from Jane Clemens (MTP).
295. “He mourns his lost land”: Notebook No. 20, MTP.
295. “That notion of yours”: MTH, 550. WDH’s later comment is in MTH, 833-34.
295. The final battle: H. G. Baetzhold, “The Autobiography of Sir Robert Smith of Camelot,” AL, XXXII, No. 4 (January 1961), 456-61.
295. “In all history”: Lloyd Lewis, Sherman (New York, 1958), 158.
296. “The story isn’t a satire”: F, 257-59.
296. Union Veterans’ Association: SLC’s speech, “An Author’s Soldiering,” is in Life as I Find It, 216-18.
297. “Rude animal side”: LL, 257-58.
297. “A perfect day”: L, 488-89.
298. “Relief of mind”: SLC to Charles L. Webster, Aug. 3, 1887, Elmira (Berg—NYPL).
298. “This kind of rush”: F, 262.
298. “My vision of the evidences”: MTH, 595.
299n. Arnold argued: Matthew Arnold, “Civilization in the United States,” The Nineteenth Century, XXIII, April 1888. “The creators of Uncle Remus”: Charles F. Richardson, American Literature, 1607-1885 (New York, 1886), I, 521.
300. Most familiar epitome: Bernard Bowron, Leo Marx, Arnold Rose, “Literature and Covert Culture,” American Quarterly, IX, winter 1957, 377-87.
301. “She is afraid”: MTH, 608-9.
301. “Last night I started”: MTH, 612.
301. “Well, my book is written”: MTH, 613.
301. “It will not be necessary”: L, 521.
302. “The stock is either”: Notebook No. 24, MTP.
302. “The machine”: SLC to Orion, Dec. 10, 1889, Hartford (MTP).
303. “An entire family”: Speeches, 81. The advertising pamphlet was issued in Hartford, 1874, as Mark Twain’s Speech on Accident Insurance.
303. “That lying thief”: Notebook No. 12, MTP. SLC tells the story of his accident-insurance career in AU-1959, 230-32.
304. “News today”: SLC to J. T. Goodman, April 18, 1890, Hartford (Yale). There is an account of Thursday’s disaster in Mary Lawton, A Lifetime with Mark Twain (New York, 1925), 107-8.
304. “I don’t believe you ought to feel”: OLC to SLC, Hartford, May 2 (?), 1890 (MTP).
304. “Do everything you can”: SLC quoted Mackay in Notebook No. 24, MTP.
305. “The hoary old song”: MTN, 211.
305. “Dear Mr. Clemens”: James W. Paige to SLC, Jan. 2, 1891, Hartford (MTP).
305. In Washington: SLC described the visit in two letters to OLC from Washington, Jan. 13 and Jan. 14, 1891 (MTP). Three increasingly frantic letters from SLC to Jones Jan. 17, Jan. 20, and Feb. 7 are in MTP, as are Jones’s telegram and letter of Feb. 11.
306. “For a whole year”: SLC to Sen. J. P. Jones, Feb. 13 (?), 1891, Hartford, incomplete, not sent (MTP).
306. “Penny-worshipping humbug”: SLC to J. T. Goodman, Feb. 22 or 24, 1891, Hartford (MTP).
306. “I’ve shook the machine”: SLC to Orion, Feb. 25, 1891, Hartford (Moffet—MTP).
307. “Yesterday a thunder-stroke”: MTH, 575.
308. “Some strange spirit”: MF, 256-57.
308. “She was a poet”: MTN, 315.
308. List of famous men: MTH, 424.
308. “In a great many directions”: North American Review, May 17, 1907, 120.
308. “How I hate that name”: Grace King, Memories of a Southern Woman of Letters (New York, 1932), 173-74.
309. “The last time I saw her”: SLC to Pamela Moffett, Oct. 12, 1890, Hartford (MTP).
309. One of Susy’s classmates: Mrs. Charles M. Andrews. Mrs. Andrews’ letter of Feb. 26, 1949, to the late Dixon Wecter is in MTP and is the basis for my account of Susy at Bryn Mawr and of the “Golden Arm” episode there.
309. “The right length precisely”: How to Tell a Story (New York, 1897), 9-10.
310. “A lovely story to tell”: SLC’s letters of Aug. 10 and Dec. 12, 1881, are published in Mark Twain to Uncle Remus, 1881-1885, ed. Thomas H. English, Emory Sources and Reprints, Series VII, No. 3. (Atlanta, Ga., 1953), 1-23. Harris’ version of the story had a silver seven-pence, and this, SLC told him, seemed “rather nearer the true field-hand standard than that achieved by my Florida, Mo., Negroes with their sumptuous arm of solid gold.” SLC’s version, dealing with a return from the dead to punish the theft of a golden arm, has folklore analogs in France, Germany, and the British Isles.
310. “Stop street sprinkling”: Notebook No. 25, MTP.
311. “Travel has no longer”: MTH, 645.
311. “This maniac”: Notebook No. 25, MTP.
311. “We are going”: Notebook No. 25, MTP.
Chapter Fifteen (pages 312–335)
313. “So desperate”: SLC to Fred Hall, July 18, 1891, Paris (Berg—NYPL).
313. “Extinction from the world”: L, 558.
313. “To glide down”: “Down the Rhone” (W, XXIX, 129).
313. “Down the Rhone”: Arthur L. Scott, “The Innocents Adrift …,” Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, LXXVII, No. 3 (June 1963), 230-37.
314. “Changed itself”: W, XVI, 208.
314. “Great yesterdays”: SLC’s prospectus, or “explanatory note,” is DV 233, MTP. He later described the project in a dictation in January 1906 (AU-1924, I, 335-37).
315n. “The higher life”: A. E. Stone, Jr., The Innocent Eye (New Haven, Conn., 1961), 209.
315. “Loveliest book”: Susy is quoted in MF, 126-27.
316. “Real nature”: “Jean’s Illness” (MTP).
316. “Fine soft-fibered little fellow”: quoted in R. B. Perry, The Thought and Character of William James (Boston, 1935), I, 806.
316. “I seem able”: AU-1924, I, 227. Clara describes the episode in MF, 120.
317. “Cannot be compared”: quoted in Grace King, Memories of a Southern Woman of Letters (New York, 1932), 172-73.
317. “Nothing but a Co.”: Notebook No. 26, MTP.
318. “I am a Yale man”: H. A. Bayne, “Mark Twain Crosses the Ocean” (unpublished account—Yale). There is a brief account of the same episode in M. B. Leavitt, Fifty Years in Theatrical Management (New York, 1912), 595.
318. “My dear darling child”: LL, 264.
318. “Just about wild”: LL, 512.
319. He had tried to get the job: Orion to SLC, April 20, 1893, Keokuk (MTP). Orion described his economies in a letter to Mollie from Keokuk, July 7-9, 893 (MTP).
319. “A fiasco”: Banker’s Magazine, quoted in H. U. Faulkner, Politics, Reform and Expansion (New York, 1959), 142.
319. “Get me out”: L, 584.
319. “I think Mr. Clemens”: L, 586.
320. “I watch for your letters”: L, 594.
320. “I am coming over”: L, 595.
321. “The best new acquaintance”: LL, 269.
321. “The only man”: L, 612.
321. “He is not only”: “A Tribute to Henry H. Rogers,” in Paine, 1659.
321. Rogers: One account by SLC is AU-1924, I, 250-65. For material about HHR here and in later chapters I have drawn on: Dictionary of American Biography, XVI, 95-06; R. W. and M. E. Hidy, History of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey): Pioneeri
ng in Big Business (New York, 1955); Thomas W. Lawson, “Frenzied Finance: The Story of Amalgamated,” Everybody’s Magazine, August 1904; Allan Nevins, John D. Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Enterprise (New York, 1940); Ida M. Tarbell, History of the Standard Oil Company (New York, 1904).
322. “Our friend”: Andrew Carnegie, Autobiography (Boston, 1920), 296. Carnegie said this in his speech at SLC’s seventieth-birthday celebration in 1905.
323. “He’s a pirate”: Dan Beard, Hardly a Man Is Now Alive (New York, 1939), 348.
323. “Political and commercial morals”: Eruption, 81.
323. “Bought fame”: Eruption, 39.
323. ‘Sell all thou hast”: Eruption, 85-86.
323. “I expected it”: Notebook No. 38, MTP.
323. “You tell me”: “Corn-Pone Opinions” (W, XXIX, 399).
324n. Clemens’ account: L, 612-13. The publishing history of Wealth against Commonwealth is summarized in Daniel Aaron, Men of Good Hope (New York, 1951), 153. Warner’s account of his Winnetka visit is quoted in Caro Lloyd, Henry Demarest Lloyd (New York, 1912), I, 206. “No longer exists”: Wealth against Commonwealth (New York 1894), 58.
324. “I have been abusing”: Orion to SLC, Feb. 2, 1894, Keokuk (MTP).
325. “A body forgets”: LL, 275.
326. “Other people’s successes”: LL, 287.
327. “The very source”: SLC to OLC, Jan. 27-30, 1894 (MTP).
327n. Writing in 1885: SLC to Charles Warren Stoddard, June 1, Hartford (Univ. of Notre Dame Library).
327. “I have got the best”: L, 596.
328. “The fork on his neck”: Orion to SLC, Feb. 2, 1894 (MTP).
328. “A singularly clear-headed man”: LL, 280.
328. “It was beautiful to see”: LL, 282.
328. “Nearing success”: SLC kept a record of his progress bulletins to OLC (MTN, 235-36).
329. “That terrible book!”: SLC to Pamela Moffett, Feb. 25, 1894 (MTP). In this letter SLC supplies the figures on the firm’s indebtednesses.
329. “Cheer up”: LL, 299.
329. “Don’t let it disturb you”: In an attempt to console OLC, SLC quoted Mackay to her (L, 614).
330n. In 1835: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, tr. Phillips Bradley (New York, 1945), II, 236. “Men are up today”: David Macrae, The Americans at Home (New York, 1952), 34.
330. “I cannot get away”: Paine, 986-87.
Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography Page 60
