Bored with Buffalo – Bret Harte on Top – Elmira Stay – Joe Goodman Boost - New York & Washington – Hartford House Hunting – Nook Farm Rental - Eastern Lecture Tour – Thomas Bailey Aldrich –Elastic Garment Strap - “Sociable Jimmy”— Roughing It Published
1871 – Mark Twain’s (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance is a pamphlet (sometimes issued with cloth binding), published by Galaxy editor Isaac Sheldon early in the year. It was Sam’s third “book,” and the hope was to quickly capitalize on his Innocents Abroad popularity for the 1870 Christmas market, but publication problems delayed release. It consists of two stories “First Romance,” (before named “A Medieval Romance”) which originally appeared in the Buffalo Express in Jan. 1870, and “A Burlesque Autobiography,” published in violation of Twain’s contract with Elisha Bliss. The “Autobiography” was unpublished at the time it was joined with “The First Romance” as a small book. Sam’s A Burlesque Autobiography did not first appear in “Memoranda” in the Galaxy.
The illustrations form an interesting aspect of this book. They have no relationship to the text of the book. Rather, they use cartoons illustrating the children’s poem The House that Jack Built to lampoon the Erie Railroad Ring (the house) and its participants, Jay Gould (1836-1892), John T. Hoffman (1828-1888), and Jim Fisk (1834-1872).
The book was not one of Sam’s favorites. Two years after publication, he bought all of the printing plates of the book and destroyed them. The sketch survived as “A Burlesque Biography” in the $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories (1906).
January – In the Galaxy for this month – MARK TWAIN’S MEMORANDA – Included:
“The Portrait”
“The Facts in the Case of George Fisher, Deceased”
“A ‘Forty-niner’ ”
“Doggerel”
“Goldsmith’s Friend Abroad Again, Letter VII”
“Mean People”
“A Sad, Sad Business”
“Concerning a Rumor”
“Agassiz” [Schmidt].
January 1 Sunday – James T. Fields announced his retirement as editor-in-chief of the Atlantic. William Dean Howells took over the job of the faltering publication. From a peak of 50,000 circulation, the Atlantic fell to 35,000 in 1870 after the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s attack on Lord Byron for adultery.
January 2 Monday – Laura E. Lyman (Kate Hunnibee) wrote on NY Tribune notepaper [MTP].. She wrote the “Home Interest” column. Basically a fan letter in praise of IA.
January 3 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Joseph Twichell, praising Charles Dudley Warner’s new book, My Summer in a Garden [MTL 4: 294].
He also wrote to Elisha Bliss about the proposed pamphlet, the sketchbook and Roughing It, which Sam planned to be out by August. It wasn’t published until Feb. 1872 [MTL 4: 295].
January 4 Wednesday – Elisha Bliss wrote to Sam:
Have not heard from you for some time—am anxious for your safety—let us know how you are. &c—& how goes the latter. Have looked for advt. of your pamphlet also. Your brother & myself have expected to see it advertised. What is the trouble? Did you get my contracts sent? / Our paper gets on now just perfectly, & will be out by & by, in good shape I think [MTP].
January 6? Friday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to John M.
January 7 Saturday – Clemens was elected to membership in the elite Buffalo Club. He resigned his membership two months after leaving Buffalo [Reigstad 187-188]. Note: William G. Fargo was president of the club.
In “The Literature of the United States in 1870,” the Athenæum, p.15, briefly mentioned IA, but gave higher plaudits to Bret Harte for The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches [Tenney 3-4].
January 9 Monday – John M. Hay wrote from the Astor House in NYC to Sam; the letter was sent with another of Jan. 14.
“My Dear Mr Clemens / I owe you many thanks for your kind letter. I think the pilot is a much more appropriate and picturesque personage and should certainly have used him except for the fact that I knew Jim Bludso and he was an engineer and did just what I said…” [MTL 4: 299]. Note: see the rest of the letter in source.
January 11 Wednesday – Cleveland, Ohio. Sam attended the evening wedding of Alice Fairbanks and William H. Gaylord at the Fairbanks’ home [MTL 4: 302n1].
January 12 Thursday – Sam wrote at 1 AM from Cleveland, Ohio to Livy about the Fairbanks-Gaylord wedding. “About four to six or seven hundred people have asked after your & the cub’s health & the latter’s progress” [MTL 4: 301].
January 13 Friday – Sam visited the new Fairbanks’ home, which had been built after the two fires in 1869. The new place was called “Fair Banks” [MTL 4: 302n5]. He left Cleveland to return home to Buffalo.
January 14 Saturday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Charles Henry Webb.
“I dissent. I made up my mind solidly day before yesterday that I would draw out of the Galaxy with the April No. & write no more for any periodical—except, at long intervals a screed that I happened to dearly want to write” [MTL 4: 302].
January 15 Sunday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to the Editor of Every Saturday, Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907), setting him straight that the poem “Three Aces” run in the Express Dec. 3, 1870 over the byline “Carl Byng was not Twain’s. Aldrich complained in the Jan.
January 18 Wednesday – Isaac E. Sheldon wrote to Sam: “Yours of the 15th just at hand / We will get out the book just as soon as possible. The stereotypers have delayed us.” He included more publishing details for A Burlesque Autobiography [MTP].
January 19 Thursday – Isaac E. Sheldon wrote to Sam: “I send you by this mail 8 or 10 pages of print. / I think that you will like the page” [MTP]
January 21 Saturday – Isaac E. Sheldon wrote to Sam: “Why do you not return the proof sent to you some days since? I fear that it may not have reached you” [MTP].
C.F. Sterling wrote from Birmingham, Conn. to Sam.
January 22 Sunday – Sam wrote from Buffalo, again to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, asking that he not print the paragraph sent on Jan. 15. Aldrich replied on Jan. 25 that it was too late; that the note and his apology had been printed on 42,000 copies of the next edition [MTL 4: 305].
January 24 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Elisha Bliss.
January 25 Wednesday – Livy and Sam (mostly Livy) wrote to Alice Hooker Day from a Buffalo hospital where Livy took Langdon for a wet nurse. Sam added an apology for an “absurdly curt dispatch” he had sent, probably canceling Isabella Beecher Hooker’s visit [MTL 4: 313-4]. Haughty Isabella was not one of Sam’s favorites.
January 26 Thursday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Mary Mason Fairbanks.
“Remembering the hatchet, I am your own moral son, which cannot tell a lie, when a body is looking straight at him…make the bride & groom be sure to stop…” —that is, Alice and William Gaylord on their honeymoon [MTL 4: 314].
January 27 Friday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Thomas Bailey Aldrich concerning the Bret Harte plagiarism claim and Sam’s subsequent denial that the Carl Byng verses were his.
“No, indeed, don’t take back the apology! Hang it, I don’t want to abuse a man’s civility merely because he gives me the chance.”
Sam also gave credit to Harte for changing him:
January 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Willard McKinstry (1815-1899), publisher and editor of the Fredonia Censor since 1842, declining to attend a dinner at the Censor’s 50th anniversary.
January 29 Sunday – Sam’s article, “The Danger of Lying in Bed,” which also appeared in the Feb. 1871 issue of the Galaxy, was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 281]. This was the last known article Sam published in the Buffalo Express.
January 30 Monday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to James Redpath. Sam asked if his article on Rev. William Sabine in the Feb. issue of Galaxy (“The Indignity Put Upon the Remains of George Holland by the Rev. Mr. Sabine”) would bring damage.
January 31 Tuesday – Sam left Buffalo for Washington, D.C. via New York City. He telegraphed Elisha Bliss: “Have an appointment at Grand Hotel eleven tomorrow can you be there at noon.” Sam’s earlier appointment was with Isaac E. Sheldon or Francis P. Church of the Galaxy.