Autobiography of Mark Twain

by Mark Twain

  But in late October Lyon relayed a rumor that alarmed Clemens (Lyon 1906, entry for 22 Oct; Teller to SLC, 24 Oct 1906, CU-MARK). Many years later Teller described what occurred:

  It was only a few days after that that Mr. Clemens, much agitated, told me he had heard people were gossiping about his seeing so much of me. He was at that time, as I remember, two years older than my grandmother who was living with me in New York. When I insisted on knowing just what the gossip was, he sent for his secretary, Miss Lyons, who said that someone at the Players’ Club had asked Mr. Paine (whom I never met,) who this Miss Teller was that Mark Twain was seeing so much of.

  I did not see any reason for his being disturbed, but he was always peculiarly sensitive to public opinion. . . . He asked me if I would be willing to leave 3 Fifth Ave. with my grandmother, and live somewhere else conspicuously so he could come to see me; but I was unwilling to take that much notice of this gossip, nor did I think it was worthy of his position to give that much credence to what was an indifferent rumor. I asked him if he was worried about the letter he had given Mr. Seers which was to be photographed and used as advance notice, and while he did not ask that I should give it back to him, I insisted upon doing so, and I did not see him again. (Teller 1925, 5–6)

  The rumor did not soon die away, however. Nearly a year later, on 2 July 1907, the San Francisco Morning Call reported that Clemens’s marriage to Teller was “considered a possibility” (“Mark Twain and Charlotte Teller,” 8). Then, even worse, on 4 July the New York Herald claimed that Clemens was engaged to Lyon. He responded with the following telegram from London: “I have not known, and shall never know, anyone who could fill the place of the wife I have lost. I shall not marry again” (“Mark Twain Will Not Marry Again,” Washington Post, 6 July 1907, 6). Lyon blamed Teller for the second rumor, but Clemens later came to believe that Lyon herself was responsible. Teller and Clemens exchanged several letters in 1907–9, but never resumed their friendship (Trombley 2010, 137–38; Hill 1973, 172–73, 230; Schmidt 2009). The Cage, published in 1907 by D. Appleton and Company, received mixed reviews (see, for example, Peattie 1907 and “The Haymarket Riots,” New York Times, 9 Mar 1907, BR142).

  236.16–22 I believe that only one command has ever been issued . . . from that day to this] This “philosophy” became the basis of Clemens’s essay “The Turning Point of My Life,” published in 1910 (SLC 1910).

  237.30 My father died] The account that begins here, of Clemens’s early career before his years in the West, repeats the one he gave in the Autobiographical Dictations of 28 March and 29 March 1906 (see AutoMT1, 454–62 and notes on 644–47).

  238.10 one of the pilots of the Paul Jones] Horace E. Bixby (see AutoMT1, 646 n. 461.16–17).

  238.24 drifting toward the ministry] Although Clemens’s remarks about the ministry may seem entirely facetious, he told his brother Orion in October 1865—evidently in earnest—that he had wanted to become a preacher:

  I never had but two powerful ambitions in my life. One was to be a pilot, & the other a preacher of the gospel. I accomplished the one & failed in the other, because I could not supply myself with the necessary stock in trade—i.e. religion. I have given it up forever. I never had a “call” in that direction, anyhow, & my aspirations were the very ecstasy of presumption. But I have had a “call” to literature, of a low order—i.e. humorous. It is nothing to be proud of, but it is my strongest suit. . . .

  But as I was saying, it is human nature to yearn to be what we were never intended for. It is singular, but it is so. I wanted to be a pilot or a preacher, & I was about as well calculated for either as is poor Emperor Norton for Chief Justice of the United States. (19 and 20 Oct 1865 to OC, L1, 322–23)

  238.27–31 By and by I went out to the Humboldt mines . . . my muscles so incompetent] After silver and gold were discovered in the West Humboldt Mountains in 1860, the area became a center of mining activity. Clemens’s trip there lasted from early December 1861 until late January 1862. For highly readable accounts of this adventure see chapters 26–33 of Roughing It and the letter to Jane Clemens dated 30 January 1862 (L1, 146–52). In early April Clemens departed for Aurora, in the Esmeralda mining region in southern Nevada; he worked briefly at Clayton’s quartz mill in late June (see AutoMT1, 251, 543 n. 251.32–38).

  238.38 Chief Justice Turner] George Enoch Turner (1828–85), an Ohio attorney, was appointed chief justice of Nevada Territory in 1861. He resigned that post in 1864, after the Nevada press accused him—and the rest of the judiciary—of corruption (Turner and SLC to OC, 18–30 Sept 1861, L1, 128–29 n. 2).

  238.41–42 ‘the honey of the bees of Hymettus,’] Hymettus, a mountain southeast of Athens, was renowned in the ancient world for its exceptional honey.

  238.42–239.1 ‘Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad,’] This Latin saying is sometimes misattributed to Euripides (Householder 1936; Bartlett 1980, 78:1, 134:21).

  239.1 ‘Against the stupid, even the gods strive in vain.’] From The Maid of Orleans (1801) by Friedrich Schiller: “Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens” (act 3, scene 6).

  239.11–13 It was published in the Enterprise . . . I was offered his place for that interval] The burlesque was in one of several letters he signed “Josh” and sent gratis to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, probably beginning in April 1862, several months before he was hired as a local reporter. No text for any of the “Josh” letters has been found, but in 1893, Rollin Daggett, a colleague of Clemens’s on the staff of the newspaper, described this particular burlesque as a “bogus Fourth of July oration purporting to have been delivered near Owens’s Lake, where Mark was engaged in prospecting,” and he recalled that owner and editor Joseph T. Goodman “decided at once that the writer was a man worth cultivating” (ET&S1, 13, 15, 17). Clemens traveled to Virginia City to begin his new job in September 1862 (for Daggett see AutoMT1, 568 n. 294.28; for William Wright, the “paper’s city editor,” see AutoMT1, 543 n. 251.32–38).

  239.18–21 I had to go to Carson City . . . I signed these letters ‘Mark Twain.’] Clemens corresponded for the Territorial Enterprise during the second session of the Territorial Legislature, held from 11 November to 20 December 1862. Only two of his reports are known to survive, written on 5 and 12 December, but neither is signed “Mark Twain” (SLC 1862a, 1862b). Although Clemens may have used the pseudonym in work now lost, Joe Goodman reported that he first signed “Mark Twain” on “Letter from Carson City,” probably written on 31 January 1863 and published in the Enterprise a few days later. Goodman also remembered that the “first special article” signed “Mark Twain” was “Ye Sentimental Law Student,” published on 19 February (SLC 1863a, 1863b; MTEnt, 48; ET&S1, 18, 192–93, 215–16).

  239.25–28 accident which gave me a correspondence-job . . . Sandwich Islands for the Sacramento Union] Clemens was fired from the Call in October 1864 (see AD, 13 June 1906). Joe Goodman of the Territorial Enterprise agreed to pay him for a daily letter from San Francisco in September or October 1865, which he wrote until he left for the Sandwich Islands in March 1866.

  Autobiographical Dictation, 3 October 1906

  240.6–8 I went up to Norfolk, Connecticut . . . She had sung in public once before, but that was in Italy] In late 1898 Clara changed her musical study from piano to voice, hoping to pursue a professional career as a mezzo-soprano. She gave her first recital on 22 January 1901 in Washington, D.C.; it went badly, one sympathetic reviewer blaming “stage fright” and “partial paralysis of the vocal cords” (“Music and the Drama,” Chicago Tribune, 23 Jan 1901, 7). The Italian concert Clemens mentions took place in Florence, on 8 April 1904. Clemens wrote Rogers that Clara “astonished the house—including me—with the richness & volume of her voice, & with her trained ability to handle it. It was a lone hand quite triumphantly played. The congratulations have been abundant & cordial” (12 Apr 1904 to Rogers, Salm, in HHR, 561). Clara’s Norfolk, Connecticut, performance of 22 September 1906 was her professi
onal debut. She continued to give concerts (largely bankrolled by her father) over the next several years, but never pursued a professional career (5 Mar 1899 to James R. Clemens, CtHMTH; Hartford Courant: “Miss Clemens’s Debut,” 23 Jan 1901, 8; “Miss Clemens’s Success,” 3 May 1904, 5; “Miss Clemens Well Received,” 24 Sept 1906, 10; Shelden 2010, 173–75, 231–32, 345–46, 382).

  241.12 Polish wet-nurse] Julia Koshloshky (22 Apr 1882 to OLC, CU-MARK).

  241.36 George, the colored butler] George Griffin (see AutoMT1, 583 n. 335.28–32).

  241.41–242.1 we have always set a high value on the three which I have described] The first two incidents that Clemens describes occurred on 2 and 9 January 1881 (9 Jan 1881 to JLC, NPV). The third incident, involving the barber, is not mentioned in any 1881 letters.

  242.9–14 on the third floor of a hotel in Baden-Baden . . . her small body through the pillars] This incident took place at the Hotel de France, where the Clemenses stayed in late July and early August 1878. Clara later reported the she had been on the sixth floor (N&J2, 113–14, 367; CC 1931, 6).

  242.34 she married a young farmer] Rosina Hay (1852?–1926) came to work for the Clemenses in 1874, and left on 16 August 1883 to prepare for her wedding. On 4 September she was married in Elmira’s Park Church to Horace K. Terwilliger. In 1909 he was a committee clerk for the New York State Assembly (N&J2, 365 n. 33; Hartford Census 1880, 97:117C; Staver 1938, 34; Koenig 1909, 591; AutoMT1, 607 n. 394.15–18).

  Autobiographical Dictation, 4 October 1906

  243.9 Clara was to sing in Norfolk on the 22d] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 3 October 1906, note at 240.6–8.

  243.10–12 some of them printed Clara’s portrait . . . but put “Mark Twain’s daughter” in very large letters] The Boston Journal, for example, printed a portrait under the headline “Twain’s Daughter to Make Debut as Singer” (14 Sept 1906, 7). The drawing appears to be a stock image, however, and is not an accurate likeness.

  243.23 our old Katy] Katy Leary.

  243.27 Mrs. R. W. Gilder] Helena de Kay Gilder (1846–1916), who married Richard Watson Gilder in 1874, was an accomplished artist who had studied under Winslow Homer. Many of her illustrations appeared in the Century Magazine and in her husband’s books of poetry. The Gilder home in New York became a gathering place for the most talented artists, writers, and musicians of the day. Clemens and his daughters frequently attended their regular Friday night soirées (McNay 2011; “R. W. Gilder’s Widow Dies,” New York Times, 29 May 1916, 11; Lyon 1906, entries for 3, 16, 23, 30 Mar, and 6 Apr).

  243.35 Mr. Luckstone] Isidore Luckstone (1861–1941) was Clara’s vocal coach and accompanist. He began his professional career as a pianist at age fifteen, and within a few years had become a conductor as well. He accompanied many famous singers and instrumentalists, including Enrico Caruso, Fritz Kreisler, and Marcella Sembrich, and composed a number of songs. In recent years he had given up most of his work as an accompanist to focus on teaching voice, for which he was greatly in demand. Clara first sang for him in March 1906. Isabel Lyon noted in her journal, “Mr. Luckstone gave his verdict & it was that C.C.’s breath is not as it should be. Luckstone is strong & breezy & Norsemanlike & competent—& his explanations were illuminating & inspiring” (Lyon 1906, entry for 16 Mar).

  244.6 Rodman Gilder] After his graduation from Harvard in 1899, Rodman Gilder (1877–1953), son of Richard Watson and Helena Gilder, worked as a freelance journalist for the New York Evening Sun and the Criterion. In 1904–11 he was employed by the Crocker-Wheeler Electric Company (manufacturers of motors), first as publicity manager and then as secretary. In 1911 he married Louise Comfort Tiffany, daughter of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

  244.21 Miss Gordon] Clara J. Gordon, a nurse at the New York sanatorium where Clara stayed after her mother’s death, had become her good friend (Hill 1973, 97).

  244.42–245.1 My talk was reported in the newspapers] A review of the concert in the New York Sun—entitled “Twain’s ‘First Appearance.’ At His Daughter’s Singing Debut He Tells How Stage Fright Once Gripped Him”—included a complete text of Clemens’s speech, in which he “recalled the agony of his own first appearance upon a public stage,” in San Francisco in October 1866. The reviewer said nothing about Clara’s performance until the last paragraph, where he noted that she “displayed some nervousness in her opening number,” but then “acquitted herself with coolness and effect” in performing works by Grieg, Schubert, and Haydn, among others (24 Sept 1906, 3). For a text of Clemens’s speech see Fatout 1976, 528–29.

  Autobiographical Dictation, 5 October 1906

  245.26–27 Several weeks ago I injected into one of these chapters a couple of odd and comical letters] Clemens included the texts of two “odd and comical” letters in the Autobiographical Dictation of 29 August 1906.

  245.36–246.1 I used one of them in a speech before the Associated Press . . . The speech was published] Clemens used the first letter in his speech at the Associated Press dinner on 19 September, which was printed in the New York Times the following day and is inserted into the Autobiographical Dictation of 19 November 1906 (“Spelling and Pictures and Twain at Dinner,” New York Times, 20 Sept 1906, 4; see AD, 2 Oct 1906, note at 235.33–34, and AD, 19 Nov 1906).

  246.9–10 Miss Anny Stokbridge] Anne W. Stockbridge (b. 1854), a music teacher, was the principal of Stockbridge Hall, a girls’ boarding school in Yarmouth, Maine (Freeport Census 1900, 590:21A; Patterson 1908, 96).

  246.11–12 Mr. Stockbridge of the University Club, Boston] William H. Stockbridge (b. 1844), a music teacher (Freeport Census 1900, 590:5B). The University Club was an athletic and social club founded in 1891.

  246.33 Miss Grace Donworth] Donworth (1857–1945) was the historian of the Machias chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (Machias Census 1900, 602:10A; D.A.R. Directory 1908, 45; Flagg 1966, 97–98).

  246.43 Very truly yours] In the top margin of Stockbridge’s letter Clemens wrote, “Tell her I will find a publisher when I get to New York.” He replied to her on 4 October, offering his assistance (NN-BGC):

  Dear Miss Stockbridge (if she really exists):

  257 Benefit Street (if there is any such place)

  Yes, I should like a copy of that other letter. This whole fake is delightful, & I tremble with fear that you are a fake yourself & that I am your guileless prey. (But never mind, it isn’t any matter)

  Now as to publication. I shall be going home to New York 8 days hence—

  21 Fifth Avenue

  Suppose you send me, there, type-written copies of as many of “Jennie’s” letters as Miss Donworth has thus far forged, & I will show them to a magazine editor & put him in correspondence with you if he thinks well of them.

  For they ought to be serialized in a magazine FIRST.

  I think that the swindle that they are genuine ought to be maintained. This is a sin, but that is nothing. The newspapers will attack their genuineness, & this will furnish good & cheap advertising. The Christian publisher likes that.

  Sincerely Yours

  S.L. Clemens.

  In 1907 the “Jennie Allen” letters ran serially in the Ladies’ Home Journal; Donworth admitted authorship only when she published them in book form the following year (MTB, 3:1318–20; Donworth 1908).

  247.2–3 Chatterton deceived Horace Walpole with his Rowley inventions] Thomas Chatterton (1752–70) was born in Bristol and grew up in relative poverty. At the age of sixteen he began forging manuscripts in a pseudo-medieval diction. Seeking the patronage of Horace Walpole (1717–97), the fourth earl of Orford and famed man of letters, Chatterton sent him a supposed treatise on early English painters, ostensibly the work of a fifteenth-century poet-monk named Thomas Rowley. Initially, Walpole was taken in, asking to see the poems; but further reflection and advice from literary friends convinced him of the fraud. Chatterton continued to create Rowley’s works, but died in 1770 of an overdose of arsenic and laudanum; he was not yet eighteen. In the decade after his dea
th, his “Rowley poems” began to be published and admired; immediately the question of their authenticity sparked a public controversy, in the course of which his fakery was proved, and his precocity acknowledged.

  247.4 The Ireland forgeries were accepted by astute Shaksperean scholars] William-Henry Ireland (1775–1835) was the illegitimate son of a Shakespeare-worshiping London artisan. To please his father, and in emulation of Chatterton (see the note at 247.2–3), Ireland began in 1794 to produce forged documents, supposedly in Shakespeare’s hand, which he claimed were from a cache of the playwright’s personal papers. Ireland’s early attempts were modest—a deed and a promissory note—but soon he was forging letters and dramatic manuscripts, including the complete play Vortigern. Ireland’s father exhibited his son’s “finds” to literary gentlemen, many of whom (including James Boswell) signed a “Certificate of Belief” in their genuineness. Upon publication of a collection of these papers in 1795, the fraud was exposed by Edmond Malone, the preeminent Shakespearean scholar of the age. Acclaim turned to abuse; Vortigern was “howled off the stage”; and the elder Ireland died in 1800, still refusing to accept that his son’s documents were forgeries (Schoenbaum 1991, 132–67).