Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and Authoritative Edition, Volume 1

by Mark Twain

  353.38–40 Papa was about twenty years old . . . he said “Yes, mother, I will,”] Of course this too came from the interview with Jane Clemens:

  He was about twenty years old when he went on the Mississippi as a pilot. I gave him up then, for I always thought steamboating was a wicked business, and was sure he would meet bad associates. I asked him if he would promise me on the Bible not to touch intoxicating liquors nor swear, and he said: “Yes, mother, I will.” He repeated the words after me, with my hand and his clasped on the holy book, and I believe he always kept that promise. (“Mark Twain’s Boyhood. An Interview with the Mother of the Famous Humorist,” New York World, 12 Apr 1885, 19, reprinting the Chicago Inter-Ocean)

  Autobiographical Dictation, 13 February 1906

  354.5–6 I was for a short time a Cadet of Temperance] Started in 1846 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, the Cadets of Temperance was a youth auxiliary of the Sons of Temperance. Initiates pledged to abstain from alcohol and tobacco. The Hannibal “Section” was founded in 1850, and Clemens was among the earliest members; his signature is the first on its manuscript “Constitution.” His friend Tom Nash and his brother Henry were also members. By his own report Clemens resigned in early July 1850. His name figures in a manuscript list of cadets dated “Nov. 25 1850,” possibly recording members delinquent in paying dues. His experience as a cadet is transferred to Tom in Tom Sawyer, chapter 22, and these ritualized temperance meetings are burlesqued in “The Autobiography of a Damned Fool,” chapter 4 (SLC 1877b; Eddy 1887, 340; SLC 1867h; Wecter 1952, 152–54; Cadets of Temperance [1850]; S&B, 149–53).

  354.32 Mr. Garth] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 9 March 1906, note at 401.30–34.

  355.2 We used to trade old newspapers (exchanges)] The post office allowed a newspaper publisher to send a single “exchange copy” to an unlimited number of papers, free of postage. This arrangement functioned as a primitive wire service, with news items being picked up and circulated nationwide. Having perused and clipped articles from the “exchanges,” a newspaper office would throw them away (Kielbowicz 1989, 141–61).

  355.13–14 However, I feel sure that I have written . . . “Following the Equator.”] See Following the Equator, chapter 1.

  355.17–22 papa had been a pilot . . . out to Nevada to be his secretary . . . Quaker City] See the Autobiographical Dictations of 12 January 1906 (note at 270.1) and 29 March 1906, as well as “Notes on ‘Innocents Abroad.’ ”

  355.30–32 That first meeting . . . five days later] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 1 February 1906, note at 320.32–34.

  356.3–4 She became an invalid . . . and she was never strong again while her life lasted] The nature of Olivia’s ailment has been much debated. She became ill earlier, and recovered later, than Clemens allowed for in this dictation. Already “in very delicate health” at the age of fourteen (1860), she was treated by doctors and spent time at the Elmira Water Cure. Showing little improvement, she was sent to a sanatorium in Washington, D.C., and then to the Institute of Swedish Movement Cure in New York City, which prescribed kinesipathy (curative muscle movements). She spent more than two years there before returning home to Elmira. The visit from “Dr.” Newton (see the note at 356.7–8) occurred on 30 November 1864. Olivia’s case was recalled by Newton’s private secretary, writing about the cures wrought during that period:

  One of these was at Elmira, N.Y., where Dr. N. went to treat Miss Libbie Langdon, whom he cured, and she has since married the author known as “Mark Twain.” Dr. N. found her suffering with spinal disease; could not be raised to a sitting posture in her bed for over four years. She was almost like death itself. With one characteristic treatment he made her to cross the room with assistance, and in a few days the cure was complete. (Newton 1879, 294)

  Langdon family letters and papers, however, show that despite Newton’s visits Olivia’s health was still seriously impaired. She had a second visit from Newton on 3 June 1865, and was still unable to walk almost a year after that. A second stay at the Movement Institute in 1866 recovered her considerably; she regained her mobility but, as Clemens says, her health remained fragile (Skandera-Trombley 1994, 83–85, 90, 92–94).

  356.7–8 Dr. Newton, a man who was regarded in both worlds as a quack] James Rogers Newton (1810–83), a businessman from Newport, Rhode Island, performed massively attended public “healings” in both America and England. He was not well regarded by either the scientific or the religious community. He seems to have had no medical training, and attributed his powers variously to “magnetic force,” “controlling spirits,” and “the Father that dwelleth in me.” His usual practice was “the laying on of hands,” but some remedies were less conventional: one patient suffering from tuberculosis was told “Go, take a male chicken, cut off the head, split it in the back, and place it, warm, on your breast” (Newton 1879, 206–71, 112–13, 38; “Rev. Dr. Buckley and Newton the Healer” 1883, 519; Ober 2003, 129–34). There is no independent documentation of Clemens’s own meeting with Newton (356.37–40).

  356.11 Andrew Langdon] Langdon (1835–1919) was Olivia’s first cousin.

  356.22–27 Newton made some passes . . . “Now we will walk a few steps, my child.”] Paine revised this passage on the typescript as follows, presumably in order to lend the whole transaction a more conventional, Christian cast:

  Newton made some passes about her head with his hands; ^opened the windows—long darkened—and delivered a short, fervent prayer;^ then he put an arm behind her shoulders and said “Now we will sit up, my child.”

  The family were alarmed, and tried to stop him, but he was not disturbed, and raised her up. She sat several minutes, without nausea or discomfort. Then Newton said that that would do for the present, he would come again next morning; which he did. He made some passes with his hands and said, “Now we will walk a few steps, my child.”

  Paine partly explained himself in the margin, saying “He came but once ABP” (TS1, 309–10). The historical record shows that Paine was mistaken.

  Autobiographical Dictation, 14 February 1906

  357.5–8 There were three or four proposals of marriage . . . stay a week] Clemens’s courtship of Olivia was accomplished between his lecturing engagements in the fall of 1868. In early September she turned down his offer of marriage, but by the end of November, after two more refusals, she accepted. Clemens slightly exaggerated when he said his planned visit was extended by three days (357.8, 358.23): Olivia wrote on the day of his departure, 29 September, that he had planned to stay one day, and stayed one more because of his accident (L2: 7 and 8 Sept 1868 to OLL, 247–49; 28 Nov 1868 to Twichell, 293–94; OLL to Hooker, 29 Sept 1868, CtHSD).

  357.15 democrat wagon] “A light wagon without a top, containing several seats, and usually drawn by two horses” (Whitney and Smith 1889–91, 2:1526–27).

  358.33–38 I had referred him to six prominent men . . . (Stebbins,)] Only two of the men to whom Clemens referred Langdon in late November 1868 are known, both clergymen. The Reverend Horatio Stebbins (1821–1902), pastor of the First Unitarian Church, replied (in Clemens’s paraphrase): “ ‘Clemens is a humbug—shallow & superficial—a man who has talent, no doubt, but will make a trivial & possibly a worse use of it—a man whose life promised little & has accomplished less—a humbug, Sir, a humbug.’ That was the spirit of the remarks—I have forgotten the precise language” (25 Aug 1869 to Stoddard, MTPO [a fuller text than published in L3]). The other clergyman was the Reverend Charles Wadsworth (1814–82), pastor of Howard Presbyterian Church. Langdon himself wrote to James S. Hutchinson, a former employee then working as a bank cashier in San Francisco, asking him to investigate Clemens’s reputation. Hutchinson interviewed James B. Roberts, one of Wadsworth’s deacons, and reported his assessment: “I would rather bury a daughter of mine than have her marry such a fellow” (Hutchinson 1910). On 29 December, even before these troubling estimates could have reached Elmira, Clemens provided the Langdons with ten additional references (L2: 17 June
1868 to Fairbanks, 229 n. 2; 29 Dec 1868 to Langdon, 358–59, 360–61 n. 2).

  359.8–13 Joe Goodman . . . Why didn’t you refer me to him?] Clemens had in fact referred Langdon to Goodman and other known friends—but only after he realized what the likely result of the first six names would be, one month after giving them to Langdon (29 Dec 1868 to Langdon, L2, 358).

  Autobiographical Dictation, 15 February 1906

  360.3 Hawthorne’s love letters . . . are far inferior] Julian Hawthorne included the love letters in his biography of his parents, issued around the time that Susy was writing. All of Clemens’s extant letters are published in Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 3 (Hawthorne 1885; see “Calendar of Courtship Letters,” L3, 473–80).

  362.3–10 He was prematurely born . . . followed by a dangerous illness] The “visitor whose desire Mrs. Clemens regarded as law” was apparently Mary Mason Fairbanks; her visit, and the dash for the station with which it ended, occurred in late October 1870. Langdon was born one month prematurely, on 7 November 1870. Three months later, in early February 1871, Olivia began to show symptoms of typhoid (L4: 5 Nov 1870 to OC, 222 n. 5; 17 Feb 1871 to JLC and family, 332 n. 1; for Langdon’s death see AD, 22 Mar 1906).

  362.11 Mrs. Gleason, of Elmira] The Clemenses sent for Dr. Rachel Brooks Gleason (1820–1905), a physician and cofounder of the Elmira Water Cure, a health resort at which Langdon family members had often been treated (22 Feb 1871 to OC, L4, 335 n. 2).

  362.21–28 Before Mrs. Clemens was quite over her devastating illness, Miss Emma Nye . . . illness proved fatal] Clemens reversed the actual sequence of events. Emma Nye (1846–70) was staying with the Clemenses on her way from Aiken, South Carolina, to Detroit; she lay ill with typhoid fever in the Clemenses’ own bed for almost a month, dying there on 29 September 1870. Olivia’s illness followed Nye’s death (L4: 31 Aug 1870 to PAM, 186 n. 3; SLC and OLC to Fairbanks, 2 Sept 1870, 189 n. 2; 7 Sept 1870 to Wolcott, 191; 9 Oct 1870 to Redpath, 206 n. 1).

  362.35–36 a crude and absurd map of Paris upon it, and published it] In the fall of 1870, newspapers closely followed the reports of the Franco-Prussian War. The German army began advancing on Paris in early September, and many American newspapers published maps showing the city’s fortifications. Mark Twain’s burlesque (reproduced below) was printed in the Buffalo Express on 17 September 1870 (SLC 1870d). Clemens’s inscription on it reads: “Mr. Spofford, could I get you to preserve this work of art among the geographical treasures of the Congressional Library?” (see 10? Oct 1870 to Spofford, L4, 207).

  Autobiographical Dictation, 16 February 1906

  363.14 Aunt Susy’s] Susan Crane’s.

  363.19 dear grandpapa] Jervis Langdon.

  363.20–21 (Emma Nigh) . . . typhoid fever] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 15 February 1906, 362.21–28 and note.

  363.23–25 (Miss Clara L. Spaulding) . . . great friend of mamma’s] Spaulding (1849–1935) was the daughter of a prosperous Elmira, New York, lumber merchant; in 1886 she married lawyer John Barry Stanchfield (9 and 31 Mar 1869 to Crane, L3, 182 n. 6). She is further discussed in the Autobiographical Dictation of 26 February 1906.

  363.32–33 David Gray . . . editor of the principal newspaper] Gray (1836–88) was born in Edinburgh and came to the United States in 1849. Settling in Buffalo in 1856, he worked as a secretary, librarian, and bookkeeper before becoming a journalist. When Clemens moved to Buffalo in 1869, Gray had just married Martha Guthrie and was managing editor of the Courier, a rival paper to Clemens’s Buffalo Express. Gray rose to be editor-in-chief of the Courier, but in 1882 ill health forced him to retire; in 1888 he was fatally injured in a railway accident (SLC and OLC to the Langdons, 27 Mar 1870, L4, 102 n. 9). Clemens talks of him further in the Autobiographical Dictation of 22 February 1906.

  364.2–9 bought Mr. Kinney’s share of that newspaper . . . I sold . . . for fifteen thousand dollars] Clemens bought his share of the Buffalo Express not from “Mr. Kinney” but from Thomas A. Kennett (1843–1911) in August 1869, and sold it again in March 1871 (for details of the purchase and sale see 12 Aug 1869 to Bliss, L3, 294 n. 2, and 3 Mar 1871 to Riley, L4, 338–39, n. 3). Clemens returned to Kennett (still calling him Kinney) later in this dictation: see the note at 366.29–32.

  364.19 Jay Gould had just then reversed the commercial morals of the United States] Gould (1836–92) was an unscrupulous financier and railroad speculator whose name became a byword for ruthless greed. As a director of the Erie Railroad, with James Fisk (1834–72), he looted the company; his attempt to corner the gold market in 1869 triggered the panic of “Black Friday,” ruining many investors. For part or all of the next two decades he controlled several major railways and the Western Union Telegraph Company, and owned the New York World from 1879 to 1883. At his death his estate was valued at $72 million. Clemens’s attitude toward Gould was not unusual: Gould was denounced early and often as the poisoner of the American republic. And when Daniel Beard pictured the slave driver in A Connecticut Yankee, he used Gould as a model—with Clemens’s enthusiastic endorsement (“Jay Gould’s Will Filed,” New York Times, 13 Dec 1892, 10; see Budd 1962, 44, 84, 114, 204; CY, 17, 405, 567).

  364.32–34 McCurdys, McCalls . . . insurance companies of New York] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 10 January 1906, note at 257.6–9.

  364.34–36 President McCall was reported to be dying . . . The others . . . engaged in dying] Clemens presumably refers to reports such as the following, all from the New York Times: “M’Call, on Deathbed, Defends Hamilton,” 15 Feb 1906, 1; “President M’Curdy out of the Mutual,” 30 Nov 1905, 1; “John A. McCall Quits N. Y. Life Presidency,” 1 Jan 1906, 1 (where James W. Alexander is said to be “a physical wreck”).

  365.11–17 John D. Rockefeller . . . after his father’s fashion] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 20 March 1906, where Clemens discusses the Rockefellers and their Sunday school classes at length.

  366.29–32 Kinney went to Wall Street . . . borrowed twenty-five cents of me] Kennett worked briefly as a Wall Street broker, then returned to journalism, editing various trade publications. He died in a Bronx clinic for destitute consumptives (12 Aug 1869 to Bliss, L3, 294 n. 2; New York Times: “Editor Kennett Dead,” 30 June 1911, 9; “Praise for St. Joseph’s Hospital,” 26 May 1895, 17).

  Autobiographical Dictation, 20 February 1906

  367.11–12 name of Wilkes, the explorer, was in everybody’s mouth] Charles Wilkes (1798–1877) was captain of the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–42, the first international maritime expedition that the country had sponsored. Its mission was to explore the Pacific Ocean, the Antarctic regions, and the West Coast of North America. Wilkes commanded a squadron of six vessels, two of which, early in 1840, surveyed a long stretch of Antarctic coastline. The existence of a land mass within the Antarctic circle had been suspected for centuries. British and French explorers had sighted land in the area before the U.S. expedition, but nationalist sentiment made Wilkes, for Clemens as for many other Americans, the “discoverer” of Antarctica. Wilkes retired from the navy with the rank of rear admiral (“Antarctic Discoveries” 1840, 210, 214–19).

  367.15–16 in our late day we are rediscovering it, and the world’s interest in it has revived] After a lull of many decades, the “heroic age” of Antarctic exploration began in 1897 with the new goal of reaching the South Pole. The 1901–4 expedition under the Englishman Robert F. Scott penetrated farther south than any previous explorer; during the same years Antarctic expeditions were mounted by Germany, Sweden, Scotland, and France. The pole would be reached by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen in 1911.

  367.21 One of the last visits I made in Florence . . . was to Mrs. Wilkes] Born Mary H. Lynch, Mrs. Wilkes was first married to William Compton Bolton, who at the time of his death in 1849 was a commodore in the U.S. Navy. In 1854 she married Wilkes—whose first wife had died in 1848—and they had one child. According to his notebook, Clemens met with Mrs. Wilkes on 4 April 1904 (Notebook 47, TS p. 8, CU-MARK).
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br />   367.33–34 article which you wrote once . . . about my grandfather, Anson Burlingame] Clemens eulogized Burlingame in February 1870 in a Buffalo Express article (SLC 1870a; see “My Debut as a Literary Person,” note at 128.30–32).

  368.43–369.3 Potter, (that is the name, I think,) the Congressional bully . . . laughter of the nation ringing in his ears] Clemens misremembered the name of Preston S. Brooks (1819–57), known in the North as “Bully” Brooks. A representative from South Carolina, in 1856 he brutally beat Senator Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber in retaliation for perceived insults to his state and kin. Anson Burlingame, then a representative from Massachusetts, denounced Brooks’s assault in a House speech. Brooks promptly challenged him to duel; Burlingame accepted, naming the Canadian side of Niagara Falls as the place and rifles as the weapon. Brooks, who could not with safety travel across the Northern states, declined to pursue the matter (Nicolay and Hay 1890, 2:47–55; “The Brooks Affair; Examination of the Controversy between Mr. Brooks and Mr. Burlingame,” New York Times, 25 July 1856, 2).

  369.14 I have already told the rest in some book of mine] Clemens alludes to “My Debut as a Literary Person,” written in 1898, and included in the Preliminary Manuscripts and Dictations section of this volume.

  369.19 Mr. Burlingame’s son—now editor of Scribner’s Monthly] Edward L. Burlingame (1848–1922) left his studies at Harvard University to travel to China as his father’s secretary. He later earned a Ph.D. at Heidelberg. He took a position at the New York Tribune in 1871, forming a lifelong friendship with John Hay. In 1872–79 he was one of the editors of the American Encyclopedia, and in 1879 began to work for Charles Scribner’s Sons, becoming the editor of Scribner’s Monthly from its first number in 1887. After his resignation in 1914, he became a general editorial adviser for the publisher (“Edward Burlingame, Editor, Dead at 74,” New York Times, 17 Nov 1922, 16).