May 23 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “May 23, 1897. Wrote first chapter of above story to-day”

Paine writes of the beginning of “Which Was The Dream?” which was not published in Sam’s lifetime:

The “above story” is a synopsis of a tale which he tried then and later in various forms—a tale based on a scientific idea that one may dream an episode covering a period of years in minute detail in what, by our reckoning, may be no more than a few brief seconds. In this particular form of the story a man sits down to write some memories and falls into a doze. The smell of his cigarette smoke causes him to dream of the burning of his home, the destruction of his family, and of a long period of years following. Awakening a few seconds later, and confronted by his wife and children, he refuses to believe in their reality, maintaining that this condition, and not the other, is the dream. Clemens tried the psychological literary experiment in as many as three different ways during the next two or three years, and each at considerable length; but he developed none of them to his satisfaction, or at least he brought none of them to conclusion [MTB 1041-2]. Note: Sam’s notebook 41 TS 25-6 outlines this story and characters.

May 23/97. Wrote first Chapter of above story today.

Fortune spent on a flying-machine. Then it busted & spilt out the aeronaut. He had kept his secret & our money was lost.

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It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those 3 unspeakably precious things: free speech, freedom of conscience, & the prudence never to practice either of them [NB 41 TS 26-7].