September 27 Sunday – The New York American, p. 1 section 2 ran an interview of Mark Twain by Charles Henry Meltzer, about the pamphlet Mark Twain on Three Weeks that Elinor Glyn had published earlier in the year, probably in January. The pamphlet had contained Clemens’ supposed verbatim opinion of Glyn’s Three Weeks, her scandalous but popular novel which depicted an adulterous relationship. Sam cleared up the matter of the pamphlet, which he called “not important,” and set the record straight, that Glyn put words in his mouth in trying to promote her work, and had left out the most important aspect of his opinion, that it had been a mistake for her to publish her book.
Twain Says He Told Her “Book a Mistake.” By Charles Henry Meltzer.
When I placed a copy of the pamphlet in the hands of Mark Twain, he accepted it in the philosophic attitude so characteristic of the man, and began to read it and make his comments as the reading progressed. He then dictated the following statement to me for publication in The American:
“This is not an important matter. I can say in two minutes all it is worthwhile to say about it.
Let me dictate it to you, and you write it down. Proceed:
“I am not well pleased with her conduct in publishing in a printed pamphlet (as charged by you) a private conversation which I had with her; also for making me talk in the first person, when she could not by any possibility reproduce the words I used, since she did not take me down in shorthand.
“She put into my mouth humiliatingly weak language, whereas I used exceedingly strong language—much too strong for print, and also much too indelicate for print—a fact which she has fully recognized by not reproducing any of it.
“Inadequate as was her report of my sermon, she got at a good part of the substance of it, but she left out its only worthwhile feature—which was the argument I offered that her book was a mistake, since, while it uttered a very large truth, it was a sort of truth which the world for wise reasons lets on to be unaware of and does not talk publicly about—a sort of truth which is best suppressed, because it is not a wholesome one and its discussion is much more likely to do harm than good.
“I think Mrs. Glyn originated the idea of getting you to publish that private conversation. It has the look of it. I think she gave you that typewritten report of it. It looks like the very one she showed to me the time I told her it was a quite extraordinary piece of misreporting, and much below her literary capabilities.
“I am afraid she wants another advertisement of her book. I am sorry, for it is a very harmful and very readable book, though I did not pay it the extravagant compliments which she has put into my mouth.
“There, I think of nothing further to say. And it is just as well, for your space is valuable and so is my time.” [MTCI 673-4]. Note: Charles Henry Meltzer (1853-1936), translator and playwright. See also Neider’s version of MT’s Auto, p. 353-7, and Gribben p. 262.
Sam’s new guestbook includes day visitors and a two-day stay by an angelfish with mother:
Name Address Date Remarks
Cora W. Nunnally Peachtree Road, Atlanta, Ga )September 27-29 [*]
Frances Nunnally M.A. “ “ “ “ ) “ “
Uneida? W. Teets Redding Ridge “ [27]
J.W. Teets “ “ “ “ [Joseph W. Teets]
D. Sanford “ “ “ “ [David C. Sanford]
Samuel T. Dutton New York “ “
Note: Dr. Samuel Train Dutton (b.1849), educator, coauthored the first school administration textbook, The Administration of Public Education in the United States (1908). He was secretary of the Peace Society of the City of New York, headed by Andrew Carnegie.
* Sam wrote in the Remarks Column the following:
“Francesca.” The year before—aged 16—when I was on the other side to receive an Oxford degree, she helped me pay calls in London every day for two weeks. Her picture is in the billiard room with the other M.A.s (Members of the Aquarium.)
The Aquarium is a club of 12 school girls. I appointed them. I am Curator (otherwise Autocrat) and the only male member.
Subordinate Officers:
Clara Clemens, Mother Superior
Miss Lyon, Chatelaine.
Daniel Frohman, Legal Staff.
R.W. Ashcroft — — ” ”
The Aquarium’s Official Device / is an Angel-Fish [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “This morning 8 of us, the King, Benares, Dorothy Sturgis, Mrs. Nunally, Francesca, Santa and I came home into this beautiful wonderful country” [MTP: IVL TS 67].
Friedrich Henke wrote a two-page letter in German to Sam. Apologized for bothering Twain by saying that he is a lover of his books and that he cannot get them at the public libraries because they are constantly checked out. Explained he got Twain’s address from reading his “Abenteuer mit den Dieben” (“adventures with the thieves”) in a newspaper. He identified himself as a young man of 16 years of age training to become a bicycle and car mechanic. He said he would like to emigrate to America with his mother, to join their relatives in Hiawatha, Kansas; announced if he got to America, he would visit Twain. Asked for a reply [MTP]. Note: translation summary courtesy of Holger Kersten.
Mabel Lakie Patterson from Miles City, Mont. wrote a thankful fan letter to Sam [MTP].