Chasing after Stage Plays – Cable & Mumps – Lobbying for International Copyright Canvassing
Huck – Duncan’s Lawsuit – April Fools! – Poor Doc Taft
Tuscaloosa Pirates – Rah for Cleveland!
Twins of Genius Hit the Road – The Children’s P&P Play
1884 – An interesting inscription by Sam made sometime during the year, place unknown:
“Some people can smoke to excess. Let them beware. There are others who cannot smoke to excess because there isn’t time enough in a day which contains 24 hours” [MTP].
In 1884-5 Sam wrote a sketch unpublished until 2009: “Happy Memories of the Dental Chair” [Who Is Mark Twain? xxiv].
From Hartford, Sam replied to an unidentified man:
“Dear Sir: / In reply I am obliged to say that I have quitted the platform permanently. With thanks for the compliment of your invitation I am / Truly Yours / Mark Twain” [MTP].
Sam also wrote from an unknown place to another unidentified man:
“Just enclose this letter to him, with a line of your own, if you like. I don’t want any correspondence myself.
“Cable proposes to try the subscription method, & I have hogged him away from the A P Co, who applied to him. Bliss knows I choused him out of Cable. / SLC” [MTP].
Orion wrote from Keokuk on a Sunday in 1884: “I enclose MS. and samples of my work on the paper. / I presume reporting night meetings will fall regularly into my line of duty.” He added a few details on Monday, and Monday noon [MTP].
Henri (Willy) Gauthier-Villars published Mark Twain, the first book-length study of Mark Twain [Description of item for sale by Mac Donnell Rare Books 4/2/2010]. Note: see March 28 from Villars and Apr. 22 MT to Aldrich.
Knut Hamsun published “Mark Twain” in Ny Illustreret Tidende Christiana (translated in 2003): Tenney: “Finds America materialistic and unintellectual, the literature lacking richness or a national character. MT is a favorite with Hamsun, who likes the western view in RI; he preferred it to IA, ‘marred by …their polemic, absurdly underdeveloped philosophy, and weak power of reflection.’ Hamsun heard MT on the platform: ‘Twain’s speeches are entertaining but have absolutely no content. You sit there in suspense, waiting for the introduction to end and the lecture to begin, until Twain suddenly makes his bow—and leaves. You look at the clock: an hour and twenty minutes. What can this mean? It means, my dear, that Mark Twain is a genuine public lecturer’ ” [Bibliography Number 6, Mark Twain Journal Spring/Fall 2012 50: 1 & 2, p.51]. Note: this reaction was undoubtedly based on the old assumption that a lecture was instructive, rather than entertaining.