Twain’s impatience with, 120, 142, 143, 144–45
Twain’s introduction to, 115–16
Paige Compositor
in competition, 162, 163, 164–65
description and promise of, 116–18
failure of, 165–66, 168, 169, 193–94
investors sought for, 115–16, 149
publishing profits pumped into, 136, 142, 155
Rogers and, 156–58
slow progress on, 120–24, 142–46
Twain’s investments in, 118–20, 142–43, 159, 160–61
Paine, Albert Bigelow, 11, 16, 41, 82, 110, 119, 130, 192
Panic of 1873, 93
Panic of 1893, 140, 159, 167
Paul Jones (steamboat), 15, 19–21
perpetual calendar, 110
personal brand, 190–91
Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan (Sheridan), 134
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (Grant), 1–2, 110, 111–13, 114, 123, 125, 126–27, 134, 137
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (Twain), 165, 168, 173
Plasmon, 179–81, 183–85, 189, 191–92
Porras, Jerry, 13–14
Powers, Ron, 12, 42, 82–83, 105, 151
Prince and the Pauper, The (Twain), 103, 104
Q
Quaker City (paddle-wheeler), 60–62, 63, 83, 130–31
Quarry Farm, 75, 81, 106
R
railroads, 7, 23, 24, 86, 185
Rasmussen, R. Kent, 8
Redding, Connecticut, 188–89
Rice, Clarence, 151–52
Richards, Charles B., 92
Riley, John, 68–70
Rockefeller, John D., 4, 28, 144, 152
Rockefeller, William, 152
Rogers, Henry Huttleston
life and financial success of, 152–53
Paige Compositor failure and, 164–66
Twain’s communications with, 163–64, 167, 174, 175–76, 179–80, 181, 182–84, 185
Twain’s financial assistance from, 152, 153, 155–62, 171, 173, 189, 191
Twain’s friendship with, 168–69
Twain’s introduction to, 151–52
Roughing It (Twain), 31–32, 41, 43, 47, 69, 81
S
Sacramento Union, 55–56, 58
Salt Lake City, Utah, 29
San Francisco, California, 54
San Francisco Alta, 60
Santa Monica, California, 86
Saturday Press, 57
Schmidt, William, 135
Schumpeter, Joseph, 117
Scott, Frank, 132–34
Self-Pasting Scrap Book, 82, 83, 95, 99
Sheridan, P. H., 134
Sherman, W. T., 134
silver fever, 35
Slote, Dan, 83–84, 91, 95–100
Sneider, Charles, 96–100
South African diamond strike and expedition, 67–70
spiral pin, 110
Standard Oil, 152, 155, 182
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 131
steam, 92–93
steamboats, 7, 15, 19–25, 26, 27, 105
St. James Hotel, 87–88
St. Louis, Missouri, 25, 27
Stormfield, 188–89
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 78, 131
St. Paul, Minnesota, 100–101
Studebaker, Clement, 29
subscription book business, 61, 77–78, 104, 134, 135–36
Szczepanik, Jan, 181–83
T
Tarbell, Ida, 152–53
telephone, 88–90
Tennessee, property in, 6, 7, 8, 21, 30, 40, 43, 46, 49, 58–59, 65, 94–95, 100, 195
Territorial Enterprise, 51–54, 55
Tiffany, Louis Comfort, 79
Tocqueville, Alexis de, 7
Tom Sawyer, Detective (Twain), 173
Tom Sawyer Abroad (Twain), 173
Tragedy of Puddin’head Wilson, The (Twain), 173
Tramp Abroad, A (Twain), 94, 95
Trombley, Laura Skandera, 191
Twain, Mark
birth and early life of, 3–13
books and writings of, 2–3, 8–9, 16, 146, 150, 160, 189, 191
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The, 105–6, 107, 110, 113–14, 123, 125, 192
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The, 81–82, 167
American Claimant, The, 140–41
autobiography, 22–23, 40, 41, 192
Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches, The, 57–58
Colonel Sellers (play), 82
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, A, 122, 135
Following the Equator, 173, 174
Gilded Age, The, 3, 81, 82
Innocents Abroad, The, 60–62, 67, 70, 81, 104, 173
Life on the Mississippi, 100, 104
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, 165, 168, 173
Prince and the Pauper, The, 103, 104
Roughing It, 31–32, 41, 43, 47, 69, 81
for Sacramento Union, 55–56, 58, 59–60
for Territorial Enterprise, 51–54
Tom Sawyer, Detective, 173
Tom Sawyer Abroad, 173
Tragedy of Puddin’head Wilson, The, 173
Tramp Abroad, A, 94, 95
travel pieces, 59–62, 141, 173
children of, 67, 81, 108, 171, 173, 174, 177, 188–89, 192
death of, 189, 191–92
goals of, 8–9, 14–16, 22, 44–46
health of, 140–41, 160, 163–64, 173, 179–80, 187–88
as insurance underwriter, 85–87
inventions of, 9, 72–75, 82–84, 95, 99, 106–10
as investor, 87–88, 91–93, 95–100, 110–11, 115–24, 181–85, 189, 193 (see also Paige Compositor)
as laborer in quartz mill, 39–41
as lecturer, 60, 91, 151, 160, 190–91 (see also world tour)
marriage of, 62, 63–66, 67 (see also Clemens, Olivia Langdon)
move out West, 28–33
products based on, 111, 189–90
as prospector and speculator, 35–39, 41–42, 43–50, 55–56
as publisher, 1–2, 3, 9, 104–7, 111–14, 125–37, 139–41, 194
as steamboat pilot, 19–25, 105
Twichell, Joseph, 78, 131
typesetting machines, 115–16, 162, 163, 164–65. See also Linotype machine; Paige Compositor
U
Ury, William, 20
V
Vaporizer, 92–93
Virginia City, Nevada, 51–54, 91
W
Walter, William Thompson, 135
Wanamaker, John, 29
Ward (Twain’s business partner), 14–15
Warner, Charles Dudley, 78, 81
watch, Mark Twain, and watch thieves, 110–11
Watson, Tom, 14
Wealthy 100, The, 153
Webster, Charles. See also Charles L. Webster & Company
as head of Webster & Company, 1, 104–6, 125–29, 131
Kaolotype business and, 98–100
Livy and, 103–4, 127, 128–29
resignation of, 136–37
Scott’s embezzlement and, 132–34
Tennessee land and, 100–101
Twain’s baby-bed clamp and, 108–9
as Twain’s business manager, 103–4
Twain’s game and, 107
watch thieves and, 110, 111
Webster, Samuel, 106, 109, 111, 128, 134
Westinghouse, George, 71
What Mark Twain Learned Me ’bout Public Speakin’ (Cunneen), 190
Whitmore, Frank, 119, 121
Wide West Mine, 42, 43
Wilhelm II, Kaiser, 142
Willis, Resa, 172, 176, 181
Woodhull, Victoria, 131
world tour, 171–74, 179, 189
Z
Zacks, Richard, 135–36, 161, 173–74, 176–77
About the Author
* * *
ALAN PELL CRAWFORD is the author of Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thoma
s Jefferson, Unwise Passions: The True Story of a Remarkable Woman and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth-Century America, and Thunder on the Right: The “New Right” and the Politics of Resentment. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.
Formerly a resident scholar at George Washington’s Mount Vernon and at the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, Crawford has spoken at Harvard University, the Cooper Union in New York, the Union League Club of New York City, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Executive Institute, among others.
Crawford lives in Richmond, Virginia, with his wife, Sally Curran, an editor at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. They have two grown sons, Ned and Tim.
Crawford’s band, the Ham Biscuits, is available for both public and private events.
He can be reached at [email protected].
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Footnotes
The $74,000 Twain had invested in Webster & Company would come to about $1,830,000 in 2015, the most recent year for which such calculations are available. The investment of $175,000 in the Paige Compositor would be roughly $4 million. Twain’s monthly investment of $3,000 in the compositor would be about $74,000 now. Paige’s $7,000 annual salary would be approximately $173,000. The publishing company’s $30,000 debt to the Mount Morris Bank would be worth some $762,000, with Twain’s personal indebtedness of $6,000 worth $168,000.
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The $5,000 owed to the Mount Morris Bank would be about $127,000 in today’s dollars. The same is true, obviously, for the money Livy had budgeted for the family’s living expenses. The $100,000 debt the Twain family carried would come to roughly $2.5 million in our own time. The $175,000 the publishing company owed the family is worth roughly $4 million. Hall had borrowed, in today’s currency, $366,000.
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How Not to Get Rich Page 20