THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
[Dictated IN
Florence, Italy,
Atril. 1004]
I WILL be-in
with a note
upontheded
ication. I wrote
the book in the
months of March
and April, IS6S,
in San rranciscoi
I" v,.: published
in August, IS6O.
Three years
afterward Mr.
Goodman of Vir
ginia City. Ne
vada, on whose
newspaper I
had served ten
years before.
came East, and
we were walking
down Broadway
one day when he said. "How lid you come to steal
Oliver- Wendell Holmes's dedication and put it in
your be '>:'■"
' I ma !e a careless and inconsequential answer;
for 1 --■-' '■ ■■■■-•-•■-'* he was joking. But he assured me
■ ; in earnest.] He said:
rl'm :: ". discussing the question of .......
=: , ,v ;: - ■■:: :::':. — for that is a question that can be
:■. first book store we come to, — 1 am only
bow you came to steal it, for that is
where ri -•' .sity is focalized."
I c ■•.:'. in* accommodate him with this informa
tion, :.- 1 '■'•■ Ln't it in stock. I could have made oath
tint I had not stolen anything; therefore my vanity
«"..: q - ■nr my spirit troubled; At bottom "I
cv: -..,, ; that he had mistaken another book for
•ami •"■ ■'•'•' setting himself into an untenable
pla ..-. ; - r, : ..ring' sorrow for himself and triumph
for me We entered a bookstore, and he asked for
"The It .cents Abroad" and for the dainty little
ild edition of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes's
poems !;■ pened the books,' exposed their dedica
ii )n>- an I ■..: : :
'"Read them. It is plain that the author of the
sec n 1 ne stole the .... isn't it r"
I v;; ; ; very much ashamed, and unspeakably
astonished. We continued our walk; but I was not
able : " " r w any gleam of light upon that original
cue-:: in :' his. I could not remember ever having
seer. I'r i >lmes*s dedication. I knew the poems;
bat the dedication was new to me.
II that secret until
.- afterward. Then "it came in a curious
way. a ! yet it was a natural way; for the natural
T .- iV .• '; by nature and the construction of the
mmd for the discovery ....... event
is to c: y another forgotten event for its resur
rect : ::
I rei :ived a letter from the Rev. Dr. Rising, who
■r. rector of the Episcopal church in Virginia
-- time! in which letter Dr. Rising made
refen ■• ; certain things which had happened to
v.- ir. Sandwich Islands six years before. Among
made casual mention of the Honolulu
'verty in the matter of literature. At first
Idid see r the bearing of the remark; it called
mv mind. But presently it did — with a
Sash !
ls but one book in Mr. K-lrchhof's hotel,
. :he .... volume of Dr. Holmes's blue
cries I had had a fortnight's chance to
£e-. v [uainted with its contents; for [had
un i the big island (Hawaii) on horseback.
- sight back so many saddle boils that if
i i »een a duty ... would have bank
•■ to pay it; They kept me in my room,
.-. ; in persistent pain, for two weeks,
with •:;: any but cigars and the little volume
': course : read them almost constantly;
] ri i :r .in beginning to end. then read them
then began in the middle and read them
: . then read them wrong end first and
vr. In a word. I read the book to rags,
aa I .:.:-c';v grateful to the hand that wrote it.
have an exhibition of what rejjetition can
: ersisted in daily and hourly over a con
;tretch < & time, where one is merely reading
for en: aintrient^ without thought or intention of
tre 2 in ' .- memory that which is read. It is a
proct which .n the course of years dr.es all the
3tfi c : a familiar verse of Scripture, leaving
not] ■ . /.-. a sapless husk behind. In that case
you a: least know the origin of the husk; but in the
<--;■■■ Hu-KT i Er^tiwrs. All K-^hts Kcscr-.eJ.
folixasint - C* » - en the Vw hart
Vl'her. Ljvmf i ■_ .riw in 1907.
MARK TWAIN
Notes on "The Innocents Abroad"
in point I apparently preserved the husk but
presently! Un I: lay lost in some
dim corner of my memory a yea . then came
.r i when I needed a dedication, and was
■ .ken by me as a child of my own
fancy.
i was new. I was ignorant, the mysteries of the
n I wen- a sealed >-"k to me as yet, and I
lly looked upon myself as a tough and i
riminal. I wrote to I»r. Holmes and told
'.. ■ the whole I i Eair, implored him in
■••'...-• I had never
ntei ■ ... crime, and was unaware
that! ■ ■ ■ lit until 1 was confronted with
nee.
I ' .. • I thi an wer I uld better 1
forde I ■ an uncle. Of these I had a surplus,
• ■ ' ■ Eno real value to m< l 1 th I letter
--i c, bey< >nd un 101 md unspaj
Ir. :■ Dr. li >lmes . kindest and
wh< ■!<-• mat let md at con
ad in happ; | i issured me
thai there \ i ra • in uncona a p] .".iri.sm;
that 1 ■ ■ ■ '. ■ every day ■
every I thai ry i lan alive on the earth wh"
iks commits it every day, ai
■ cor twice bul ever I□ i b pens his
that a3 rasii lalized
■ multitudin< >usly Eroi
t i PPyj ] its is ever quite oi
:;: :. in it < ■ ' '
.• | :-.: : ur temperai
• . nda ■
■ it froi "
t, stamps i 1 with ■ »ur S] ■
n for the tii nj I resl
ng old, 1 ■ smelling : " . ■
: ■ E them thai have
■ . efore
me and gone
; . . • :. ■ ■ what Dr.
T\Y [SH to i ■ q 1 preface of " The
* [ni ■ ■ [n the last paragra]
- : i tor
ived Ihi ir rig ts in
.... .... . for that j un ■.'. while
■ -I was > iung then,
; . the insult of that word
[amrea ling that
for the fi
. ■ ■ ■■ • •
per ■ There were
t is tru rights as the
trong are a
-
I ■ • invited
me 1 • - • qhi
- ■ : ■ Morning
. md for
', ■•■ . ■ ■ ■ ■
plea ' rtune. The
proprietor I ~ ■ ' mento i
■•- ■ • "
■ ■ th< Sandwich
■ • ■ : •:- el ters a m< .nth at
I was there
: md returned to
t the besl known
■ ■■ ..• • the Pacific I
■ ■ ■ several
I 1 ■ : is the tii
.....
■ - ■ the lecture
:
[ did ii lam
~ ■ [sland ng 1
-■ ■ ■ "
• oe dollar, doors open ai pasl
d, the trou egii t eighi A
.
■ • .'
■ :■■■■■ ■ Ludiei I
fnghi
id to fool . • • ilyzing
It lasi ' - ■ '■■' as
... .....
... . . . . . ......... ...;..
.. . . - ■ • time to < >me.
| ■ ■ . • rnia
more in San
;.. . then retired from 1 fi rich : r me,
—and laid u1 i ] ' " • estward from San
■ . . nd go around 1 'rid The pro]
ma tit oi
...... t paper fiftj ettei Ea ilumn
■ • about two thousand
words per letter, and the pay to be twenty dollars
per letter
I went to East St. Louis to say good by to my
mother: and then I was bitten by the prospectus of
Captain Duncan of the Quaker City excursion, and
ended by joining it. During the trip I wrote and
sent the fifty letters Six of their miscarried, and I
wrote six new ones to complete my contract. Then
I put together a lecture on the trip and delivered it
in San Frai i itisfactory pecuniary
profit. Then I branched out into the country — and
was aghast at the result: I had been entirely for
gotten, I never had pe< iple enough in my houses to sit
as a jury of inquest on my lost reputation! I in
quired into this curious condition ><i things, and
found that the thrifty owners of that prodigiously
rich "Aha" newspaper had copyrighted all those
■ little twenty-dollar letters, and had threal i
with prosecution any journal which should venture
to copy a paragraph from them!
A XI) there I was! I had contracted to furnish a
■^^ large book, encerning the excursion, to the
American Publishing Company of Hartford, and I
up] >sed I should need all Ih< se letters to till i 1 out
with I was in an uncomfortable situation; that is, if
• ■ if this stealthily acquired copyright
should refuse to let me use the letters. That is just
what they did. Mr. Mac — something — I have : r
gotten the rest of his name — said his firm were going
• make a book out of the letters in orderto ;■;<.■; back
:i 1 dollars which they had paid for them.
I : that if they had acted fairly arid honorably,
I the coun > use the letters
or portions of them, my lecture skirmish on the
■ v uld have paid me ten thousand dollars,
whereas the attitude of '"The Aha", had lost me
thai amount. .
Then he offered a compromise: he would publish
ok and allow me ten per cent, royalty on it.
The comproi ■ did noi appeal I me, and I said so.
I was now quite unknown outside of San Francisco,
the book's sale would be confined to that city, and
:
The Trouble Began When I Found
Mvselt in Front of My First Audience.