June – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus—a preliminary “page by itself” draft for inclusion in the front of FE, or, as it would be called in England, More Tramps Abroad (due to the past success there of A Tramp Abroad). Only the dedication, slightly changed, to Harry Rogers made it into the book. ,
EXPLANATORY NOTE
Of the seventy Innocents who sailed in the “Quaker City Excursion” twenty-eight years ago, I am the only innocent one still living. I called the record of the trip “The Innocents Abroad” & the title plausibly suggested that all the excursionists were without guile, but that was a courteous exaggeration. Strictly, the title described only two of us. The other one is no more. / June, 1897 Mark Twain
THIS BOOK
Is affectionately Inscribed to my young friend
HARRY ROGERS
With recognition of what he is, & apprehension
Of what he may become unless he form himself
A little more closely upon the model of
THE AUTHOR
[Sothebys Lot 86 Item 165626].
Harper’s Monthly, June issue, included a review of How to Tell a Story and Other Essays by Laurence
Hutton. “Singles out for praise the title essay, ‘Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses,’ and ‘In Defense of Harriet Shelley,’ adding: ‘Whenever Mr. Twain makes up his mind to “citify his English,” as Lowell puts it, it will be found to be vigorous, nervous, flexible, direct English; and it presents ideas which are well worth listening to and heeding” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Seventh Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1983 p. 168].
Sam’s notebook entry refers to Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin, Son of Parsifal opera. “Clemens pretended to think Bach or Mendelssohn wrote the “Wedding March,” then corrected himself” [Gribben 731: NB 42 TS 1].