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

by Mark Twain

  369.25–26 “If a man compel thee to go with him a mile, go with him Twain.”] Matthew 5:41, “And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.”

  Autobiographical Dictation, 21 February 1906

  370.32–33 E. Bliss, junior . . . a later chapter] Elisha P. Bliss, Jr. (1821–80), was born in Massachusetts. He worked in the dry goods business until becoming secretary of the American Publishing Company of Hartford (1867–70, 1871–73), and then its president (1870, 1873–80). During his tenure this subscription house published all of Clemens’s major books from The Innocents Abroad (1869) to A Tramp Abroad (1880). For the “later chapter” see the Autobiographical Dictation of 23 May 1906 (2 Dec 1867 to Bliss, L2, 120 n. 1; Hill 1964, 15).

  370.34–40 I told him my terms . . . I showed him letters . . . what they could get out of the book as an advertisement] Clemens’s extant correspondence for that time does not support his contention here that other firms offered him half profits, or more. When Bliss visited Clemens at Elmira in mid-July 1870 to discuss terms for the publication of Roughing It, Clemens claimed only to have been offered “ten per cent” by an unnamed publisher (2 Aug 1870 to Bliss, L4, 179–80; see RI 1993, 806–8).

  371.13 contract . . . had nothing in it about half profits] See “A Call with W. D. Howells on General Grant,” note at 71.36–37.

  371.22–23 He published that book . . . the next two at 10 per cent] Clemens recounted his royalty arrangements correctly, allowing for a slight shuffling of the books’ publication order. By “that book and the next one” he meant Roughing It (1872) and Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old (1875c); by “the next two” he meant The Gilded Age (1873–74, 10 percent shared with coauthor Charles Dudley Warner) and Tom Sawyer (1876, 10 percent) (RI 1993, 806–8; ET&S1, 435–36; “Contract for the American Publishing Company Gilded Age,” L5, 635–36; royalty statement in Scrapbook 10:77, CU-MARK).

  371.35–372.2 he wanted to leave and set up for himself . . . we signed the contract . . . Those are the terms. Take them or leave them] Although in 1879 Elisha Bliss, Jr., did contemplate leaving the American Publishing Company “by & by,” it was actually Francis (Frank) Bliss (1843–1915), Elisha’s son and the treasurer of the company, who resigned and established his own subscription house (Bliss to SLC, 13 Feb 1879, CU-MARK). Before leaving for Europe in 1878, Clemens had signed a contract with Frank—without Elisha’s knowledge—for a proposed travel book (ultimately A Tramp Abroad, published in 1880), stipulating a royalty of 10 percent. Frank agreed to keep detailed records of his costs in order to calculate the “gross profits,” and “if at the end of the first year one half of said gross profits exceeds the amount of said royalty for said year,” Clemens was to receive “the amount of such excess in addition to said royalty” (contract dated 8 Mar 1878, CU-MARK). Frank Bliss’s company did not thrive, however, and in November 1879, when the book was in production, Clemens agreed to transfer the contract to the American Publishing Company. A year later he claimed that “as a consideration for the book,” Elisha Bliss “required them to allow him one-half of the company’s entire profits for 3 years!—& they were exceedingly glad to comply. For it saved the company’s life & set them high on their pins & free of debt” (24 Oct 1880 to OC, Letters 1876–1880; Hill 1964, 127–32, 142–43; for a somewhat different account see AD, 23 May 1906).

  372.16–17 Newton Case] Case, a Hartford neighbor, was part owner of a printing and publishing establishment—the Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company—as well as a director of the American Publishing Company (N&J3, 203 n. 67, 456 n. 161).

  372.25–27 J. R. Osgood . . . “Old Times on the Mississippi,”] James R. Osgood first solicited a publication in 1872 from Clemens, who could not comply because of his prior contracts with the American Publishing Company. Osgood was likewise unable to publish Sketches, New and Old, and had to settle for the little book A True Story, and the Recent Carnival of Crime (SLC 1877a). For his part, Clemens was eager for the prestige of Osgood’s imprint, and published The Prince and the Pauper with him in 1881—requiring, however, that it be sold by subscription, an approach entirely unfamiliar to Osgood. The next year Osgood issued The Stolen White Elephant, Etc. He traveled with Clemens down the Mississippi, and in 1883 published the book that resulted from that trip, Life on the Mississippi (31 Mar 1872 to Osgood, L5, 72–73 nn. 2–3; ET&S1, 619–20; P&P, 9–11).

  372.29–30 these industries of his had cost me fifty-six thousand dollars] Clemens wrote to Osgood on 21 December 1883, “The Prince & Pauper & the Mississippi are the only books of mine which have ever failed. The first failure was not unbearable—but this second one is so nearly so that it is not a calming subject for me to talk upon. I am out $50,000 on this last book—that is to say, the sale which should have been 80,000 . . . is only 30,000” (21 Dec 1883 to Osgood, MH-H, in MTLP, 164). The total cost of the plates, paper, and binding of Life on the Mississippi came to $39,458.78 by Osgood’s mid-March 1884 account. Clemens also paid the cost of renting Osgood’s New York office during this period. His figure of “fifty-six thousand dollars” may include that expense as well (10 Mar 1884 to Webster, CU-MARK; SLC notes on handwritten sheet of printing costs for Life on the Mississippi, NPV).

  372.38 check for fifty-four thousand five hundred dollars] Clemens’s figure is not inconsistent with the high sales figures for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Less than three months after publication, it had sold fifty-one thousand copies at prices ranging from $2.75 to $5.50 a volume (Webster to Moffett, 6 May 1885, CU-MARK; HF 2003, 660–61).

  Autobiographical Dictation, 22 February 1906

  373.9–10 Aunt Susy] Susan Crane.

  373.15 to-day’s report of General Grant] The newspapers closely followed Grant’s battle with cancer. On 16 April 1885 the New York Times described “the General . . . serenely conversing with his family, his voice good, his appearance indicative of returning health, walking about with as firm steps as in bygone months, and the family free from worry about him” (“A Day of Hopefulness,” 16 Apr 1885, 4).

  373.16 Judge Smith] H. Boardman Smith, an attorney with Smith, Robertson and Fassett of Elmira, was a witness to the will, not an executor. Presumably he later became a judge. The executors included Clemens himself, Theodore Crane, Charles J. Langdon, John D. F. Slee, and Langdon’s widow, Olivia L. Langdon (Boyd and Boyd 1872, 195; “Last Will and Testament of Jervis Langdon,” photocopy in CU-MARK).

  373.28 Mr. Atwater] Dwight Atwater (1822–90) was born in a rural area near Ithaca, New York. He engaged in the lumber business in New York and Pennsylvania before settling in Elmira. In later years he owned a boot and shoe factory there (“Death of Dwight Atwater,” Elmira Advertiser, 2 Jan 1890, unknown page).

  375.2 Norman Hapgood’s palace up-town] Hapgood (1868–1937), a writer and journalist, had been editor of Collier’s Weekly since 1903. His house was on East 73rd Street, off Park Avenue.

  375.7 He said “David Gray.”] David Gray, Jr. (1870–1968), graduated from Harvard in 1892, wrote for several Buffalo newspapers, and was admitted to the bar in 1899. In World War I he served in the American Expeditionary Force, receiving the Croix de Guerre. From 1940 to 1947 he was the U.S. minister to Ireland (“David Gray Dies; Former Envoy, 97,” New York Times, 13 Apr 1968, 25).

  375.23 Ned House] Edward H. House (1836–1901) was a staff journalist on the New York Tribune when he met Clemens in January 1867. In 1870 he went to Japan to teach English at the University of Tokyo and to serve as the Tribune’s “regular correspondent.” He also corresponded for the New York Herald on Japan’s 1874 incursion into Formosa, turning his reportage into a book-length monograph, The Japanese Expedition to Formosa, which he printed in Tokyo in 1875. He founded the Tokyo Times, an English-language weekly funded by the Japanese government. He returned permanently to the United States in 1880, subsequently publishing a travel volume, Japanese Episodes (House 1881), and an illustrated novel, Yone Santo: A Child of Japan (House 1888) (3 May 1871 to Bliss, L4, 389 n. 1; 20 Jan 1872 to
OLC, LS, 30 n. 2; L6: 10 Apr 1875 to Bliss, 445 n. 1; link note following 10 Nov 1875 to Seaver, 591–92 n. 1). In 1889–90 House and Clemens quarreled over a dramatization of The Prince and the Pauper. The adaptation for the stage was done by Abby Sage Richardson; House claimed Clemens had given him the dramatic rights to the novel in 1886, and filed an injunction to prevent performance. The controversy estranged House and Clemens permanently. House spent his last years in Japan (9 June 1870 to Bliss, L4, 149–50 n. 3; N&J3, 542–43 n. 183).

  375.31 railway disaster, at night] The accident occurred on the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad near Binghamton, New York, early on the morning of 16 March 1888. Gray suffered a head injury and died two days later (New York Times: “Overturned in the Snow,” 17 Mar 1888, 5; “Editor Gray Dead,” 19 Mar 1888, 1).

  Autobiographical Dictation, 23 February 1906

  376.4–7 Mr. Talmage Brown, who was an annex of the family by marriage . . . yielded a large loss] Brown (d. 1891), a Des Moines, Iowa, attorney, real estate developer, and paving contractor, was married to Olivia’s first cousin, the former Anna Marsh. In 1869 Langdon brought suit against the city of Memphis, which owed him five hundred thousand dollars. After Brown’s death, Clemens preserved three obituary clippings from Des Moines newspapers that eulogized him for his generosity, business acumen, devotion to family, and religious enthusiasm. In the notebook he was using at the time, Clemens indicated that these tributes made him question his own negative view (N&J3, 635; L4: link note following 28–31 Jan 1870 to Twichell, 43; 6 July 1870 to OLC, 165 n. 1; see also AD, 26 Mar 1906).

  377.14 Mr. Henry W. Sage, of Ithaca] Sage (1814–97) was a highly successful businessman whose lumber enterprises made him one of the largest landholders in the state. He was a generous benefactor of Cornell University, and built and endowed many libraries, churches, and schools. His son, Dean Sage, was a good friend of Clemens’s (L6: 28 Mar 1875 to Sage, 431 n. 1; 22 Apr 1875 to Sage, 453 n. 5).

  377.37 Mr. Arnot] John Arnot (1793–1873) emigrated with his family from Scotland in 1801. He was an Elmira merchant and foundry owner before taking a position as cashier at the Chemung Canal Bank, becoming president in 1852 (Peirce and Hurd 1879, 284; Boyd and Boyd 1872, 41).

  378.25–27 bulky manuscript, an autobiography of my brother Orion . . . from Keokuk, Iowa] Clemens suggested to Orion two possible plans of writing a ruthlessly honest memoir in a letter of 26 February 1880. Orion, excited rather than insulted by the prospect of writing “The Autobiography of a Coward” or “Confessions of a Life that was a Failure” (Clemens’s suggested titles), went straight to work, and by June 1880 Clemens was able to offer Howells a sample for publication in the Atlantic Monthly. Howells declined: “It wrung my heart, and I felt haggard after I had finished it. . .. But the writer’s soul is laid too bare: it is shocking” (Howells to SLC, 14 June 1880, CU-MARK, in MTHL, 1:315). Orion sent his brother the finished manuscript of 2,523 pages, retitled “The Autobiography of a Crank,” on 18 January 1882; but it would never see print. Here Clemens claims that Orion’s manuscript was “in the other room”; in the Autobiographical Dictation of 6 April 1906, he claims to have “destroyed a considerable part” of it at an early date. The manuscript, whether whole or fragmentary, was apparently lost by Paine in Grand Central Station on 11 July 1907. After Clemens’s death, Paine gave inconsistent accounts of the fate of the autobiography, claiming variously that it had been deposited in a vault, lost, or destroyed at Clemens’s behest; Paine quotes from it, however, in Mark Twain: A Biography, saying there that the earliest chapters had been preserved. Apart from those quotations, Orion’s autobiography is extant only as a few stray leaves in the Mark Twain Papers, and some items of correspondence that Orion annotated for inclusion (Letters 1876–1880: 26 Feb 1880 to OC, 9 June 1880 to Howells; OC to SLC: 29 Feb and 1 Mar 1880, 18 Jan 1882, 19 Jan 1882, CU-MARK; MTB, 1:24, 44, 85, 2:674–77; MS fragments in DV 391, CU-MARK; Orion’s note on 6 Feb 1861 to OC and MEC, NPV; Schmidt 2008b).

  378.32–34 Benvenuto tells a number of things . . . Rousseau and his “Confessions.”] The autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini was for Clemens the “most entertaining of books” (N&J2, 229); he referred to it in his letters and notebooks as well as in chapter 35 of Huckleberry Finn, and in chapter 17 of A Connecticut Yankee. In his letter of 26 February 1880 he told Orion that “Rousseau confesses to masturbation, theft, lying, shameful treachery” (Letters 1876–1880; the letter is quoted more fully in the Introduction, p. 6).

  379.1–13 I think perhaps I have already mentioned . . . My brother tells that incident in his autobiography] See “My Autobiography [Random Extracts from It],” 209.24–33 and note. Orion’s account, in which he rather than Samuel is left behind, is less dramatic; he was fourteen (1839–40) and his “abandonment” was brief: “The wagon had gone a few feet when I was discovered and invited to enter” (MTB, 1:24).

  Autobiographical Dictation, 26 February 1906

  380.9–20 In Germany once . . . our friend and excursion-comrade—American Consul at a German city] This accident occurred at Worms in July 1878. The “friend and excursion-comrade” was probably Edward M. Smith, U.S. consul at Mannheim (N&J2, 46, 125 n. 22, 248 n. 68).

  380.28–29 Clara Spaulding . . . has a son who is a senior in college, and a daughter who is in college in Germany] John B. Stanchfield, Jr. (1889–1946), and Alice Spaulding Stanchfield (1887–1941), who later married Arthur M. Wright.

  381.9–10 “Adonis” (word illegible) acted] This musical burlesque starring comedian Henry E. Dixey was a record-setting Broadway hit, with more than six hundred performances from 1884 to 1886 (New York Times: “Amusements,” 5 Sept 1884, 4; “A Great Day for Dixey,” 8 Jan 1886, 1). The parenthetical comment was Clemens’s substitute for what appears to be “the pals”: “We went to the theater and enjoyed ‘Adonis,’ the pals acted very much” (OSC 1885–86, 17). Susy may have meant to write “the play acted.”

  381.14 Major Pond] James B. Pond (1838–1903) was born in Allegany County, New York. First apprenticed to a printer, he became a journalist, and worked at several newspapers. During the Civil War he served in the Third Wisconsin Cavalry and was commissioned major at the end of the conflict. He joined the Boston Lyceum Bureau of lecture manager James Redpath, and bought out Redpath’s share of the business in 1875. Pond opened his own bureau in 1879. He managed Clemens’s 1884–85 tour of public readings with George Washington Cable, and arranged Clemens’s 1895–96 lecture trip around the world. Over the next years Pond made lavish offers for further tours, which Clemens declined (13 Sept 1897 to Rogers, 6–7 Nov 1898 to Rogers, 21 July 1900 to Rogers, Salm, in HHR, 300, 374, 448).

  381 footnote *I was his publisher] See “About General Grant’s Memoirs.”

  382.14–18 General Hood . . . Sherman . . . was perfectly free to proceed . . . through Georgia] John B. Hood (1831–79) attended West Point, and served in the Union army until he resigned and joined the Confederacy in April 1861. He was promoted to major general in October 1862. Grant gave substantially the same account of Sherman’s march to the sea in his Personal Memoirs (Grant 1885–86, 2:374–76).

  383.10–11 new and devilish invention—the thing called an Authors’ Reading] The event described here took place on Wednesday, 29 April 1885, at Madison Square Theatre, and was the second of two readings benefiting the American Copyright League. Clemens read his oftrepeated “A Trying Situation,” from chapter 25 of A Tramp Abroad; the other readers included Howells and Henry Ward Beecher. “Devilish” though he may have found them, the new fashion for authors’ readings (as opposed to recitations from memory) had been initiated by Clemens himself. The Washington Post noted that “the Cable Twain reading venture of last winter may be made the beginning of a new kind of entertainment. The lecture is obsolescent . . . but for an author . . . to read from his own writings is a new idea and an attractive one” (“News Notes in New York,” 3 May 1885, 5). Clemens’s Vassar lecture was on 1 May (N&J3, 112, 140–41 n. 48; “Listening to the Authors,
” New York Times, 30 Apr 1885, 5; “Authors’ Readings,” Life 5 [30 Apr 1885]: 248; “The Authors’ Readings,” The Critic, 2 May 1885, 210).

  383.37–38 I went to Boston to help . . . memorial to Mr. Longfellow] The Longfellow Memorial Association was formed in 1882 to raise funds for a monument honoring the late poet. The authors’ reading benefiting the association was held at the Boston Museum (a theater) on 31 March 1887 (Longfellow Memorial Association 1882; “The Authors’ Readings in Boston,” The Critic, 9 Apr 1887, 177; see MTHL, 2:589–90 n. 1).

  384.15 We got it arranged at last . . . fifteen minutes, perhaps] Howells read a selection from Their Wedding Journey (Howells 1872; MTHL, 2:589–90 n. 1).

  384.18 I think that that was the occasion when we had sixteen] There were nine speakers at the Boston event (“Authors’ Readings for the Longfellow Memorial Fund,” printed program, CLjC).

  384.18–20 If it wasn’t then it was in Washington, in 1888 . . . in the afternoon, in the Globe Theatre] Clemens was confusing two readings: the one in Boston, in 1887, and another in Washington, in March 1888, at the Congregational Church (not the Globe Theatre); see the note at 385.1–3.