November – In the Galaxy for this month—MARK TWAIN’S MEMORANDA – Included:
“Riley – Newspaper Correspondent”
“Goldsmith’s Friend Abroad Again, Letters V – VI”
“A Reminiscence of the Back Settlements”
“A General Reply”
“Favors from Correspondents”
Also a Special Feature not in Memoranda: “Mark Twain’s Map of Paris” [Schmidt].
Author’s Sketch Book (Vol. 1 No.1) included excerpts from IA and previously unknown Mark Twain writings [Slotta 22]. The Twainian, May 1940, describes this publication (five-column pages 15 x 20 inches) as from the American Publishing Co., written by Sam and “clearly a ‘house organ’ designed to inject vim, vigar [sic] and vitality into the nationwide army of subscription-solicitors….” The article reprints much of this work which contained some unknown writings of Clemens.
Hence the importance of a conservative and independent sheet, which cannot be bought up like Esau’s birthright, for a mess of pottage, nor influenced for a glass of wine, a fragrant cabano, or a good dinner, but which shall be conducted on principle, and whose editor shall act as conscientiously as did the old Puritan Lady who used to whip her beer barrel because the beer would work on the Sabbath day. Having received and completed our education in the highest public school in a country village, and not being near sighted, as was the Western editor, who would rub out with his nose whatever he wrote with his pen, we feel confident no one will doubt our ability in this undertaking…[The Twainian, May 1940 p2].
Sam wrote to an unidentified person:
Buffalo, Nov. 1870.
The passage is as follows:
From Soliloquy at Tomb of Adam.
“The grave of Adam! How touching it was, here in a land of strangers, far away from home, & friends, & all who cared for me, thus to discover the grave of a blood relation. True, a distant one, but still a relation. The unerring instinct of nature thrilled its recognition. The fountain of my filial affection was stirred to its profoundest depths, & I gave way to tumultuous emotion.”
It is on page 567—well toward the end of the book.
Yrs Truly / Samℓ. L. Clemens /(Mark Twain.)