March – The North American Review for March carried Max O’Rell’s (Leon Paul Blouët) article, “Mark Twain & Paul Bourget,” an answer to Sam’s criticism of Bourget’s observations of America. O’Rell added a spirited defense of French morality [Tenney 24].

In his 1934 memoirs, I Remember, J. Henry Harper gave this account of Sam’s wish to be anonymous with JA; the meeting, though undated, would have taken place after Sam’s arrival back in the US on March 2, 1895, or just prior to the April beginning of JA as a serial in Harper’s Monthly Magazine:

We arranged with Mr. Clemens for the publication of his Joan of Arc, as a serial in the Magazine. He dropped into the office one day and asked if we had started it. I told him that we were just about to got to press.

“That’s fortunate,” he remarked, “for I want to ask a favor of you; it is not to include my name as the author, in serial form, but to publish it anonymously.” I protested, on the ground that his name was a most valuable asset.

“I know all that,” he agreed, “but I feel that it would be defrauding my public to have my name associated with it in serial form; of course, when it comes to book publication, that will be different.” He went on to say that he felt he had made a grave mistake in not originally taking two noms de plume, one for his humorous writings, and one for his serious work. “As it is now,” he went on, “my audience always looks for a laugh in whatever I publish, and it’s a fact that in England, whenever I am called upon to make an after-dinner speech, the guests are all on the verge of laughter before I begin, afraid lest they might miss a salient bit of humor. I am getting old, and I find I become more and more inclined to write on serious subjects.”

We left his name off the serial, although now, in re-reading the story with his name attached, it seems to me that in so many places it would hardly be possible to overlook his individual and masterly touch. Nevertheless, during its appearance in our Magazine it was attributed to several writers, no one hitting on Mr. Clemens as the author [139-40].