Twain the Author: Sketches
Though he is well known for his novels and longer works, Twain made his name as an author of shorter comic sketches and essays, and he continued to write short pieces throughout his career. Following a series of financial and personal losses and growing pessimism about the state of the world, Twain’s later writing was increasingly infused with his politics, including his vehement anti-imperialism—but his humor remained. So did his knack for marketing himself; Twain generated revenue by publishing new collections of his earlier works and capitalized on his notoriety by writing several autobiographical texts.
Mark Twain. A Curious Dream; and Other Sketches. London: George Routledge & Sons, [1872].
In the title story of this collection, a dreamer experiences a macabre vision of a procession of skeletons who protest that the living have allowed their cemetery to fall into neglect. The macabre tale was inspired by the neglect that had befallen many American graveyards (including, possibly, the decision of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to move several graves to construct a new city hall), and the sketch became so popular that it inspired a nationwide movement to improve the upkeep of cemeteries.
Mark Twain. 1601, Being a fireside conversation in ye tyme of ye Goode Queene Bess in which divers persons of reknown hold converse on concerns personal and intimate. [N.p.]: Privately printed [for H.D.W.], 1926.
First published in 1880 in an anonymous edition of as few of four copies, 1601 is a ribald story in which William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other Elizabethan luminaries discuss flatulence, sex, and other taboo topics. Twain acknowledged his authorship in 1906, telling librarian Charles Orr: “If there is a decent word findable in it, it is because I overlooked it.” Considered obscene under American law until the early 1960s, it nevertheless circulated in a number of privately printed editions. This edition was printed by Eugene Connett III, one year before he founded his Derrydale Press imprint, in imitation of a book from the Elizabethan period.
Mark Twain. King Leopold’s Soliloquy: A Defense of his Congo Rule. Boston: The P. R. Warren Co., 1905. Second edition, with the publisher’s statement on pink paper tipped in.
King Leopold II of Belgium is notorious for the extent of the atrocities he visited on the Congo Free State between 1885 and 1908. In this bleakly satirical pamphlet, Twain presents the king as offering a self-damning “defense” of his actions. The publisher donated the proceeds from the pamphlet’s sale to humanitarian aid in the region.
Mark Twain. The Stolen White Elephant, etc. London: Chatto & Windus, 1882.
This collection of sketches opens with the eponymous tale, apparently cut out from the original draft of A Tramp Abroad, concerning a pachyderm intended as a gift to the Queen of England who was allegedly purloined during a stopover in Jersey City while en route from Southeast Asia. The lively sketch is a satire of both the increasingly popular genre of detective fiction and of real-world police investigation.
Samuel L. Clemens. Autograph manuscript table of contents for Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old. [N.p., ca. 1871–1875.] 9 p.
Here Clemens organizes a variety of his magazine and newspaper writing for his second collection of short works: Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old. The selection and order of texts in this list varies from the published edition. The manuscript shows Clemens’ process of editing: next to “The Undertaker’s Chat,” he writes “Where is this?”
Mark Twain. Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old. Hartford and Chicago: The American Publishing Company, 1875.
Twain’s second authorized collection of short fiction reproduces fifty-six old magazine and newspaper pieces alongside seven new humorous works. The texts tackle a range of social topics from politics to child rearing, demonstrating the ethical concerns that gave Twain the nickname “the Moralist of the Main.”
Mark Twain. Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old [salesman’s prospectus]. Hartford: The American Publishing Company, 1875.
The American Publishing Co. issued 1,369 copies of the salesman’s sample for Twain’s second authorized collection of short fiction; this copy was used by a salesman in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Mark Twain. Extracts from Adam’s Diary, Translated from the Original Ms. London and New York: Harper & Brothers, 1904.
Mark Twain. Eve’s Diary, Translated from the Original Ms. London and New York: Harper & Brothers, 1906.
Twain was playful about authorship. These two novellas purport to be his “translations” of the biblical story of Adam and Eve, told from their own perspectives. Twain’s retelling is a humorous take on gender politics. He revised Adam’s Diary several times, ending the final version with declaration of love to Eve reflecting his own grief over the death of Olivia: “wherever she was, there was Eden.”
Samuel L. Clemens. Autograph manuscript draft of “Extracts From Adam’s Diary.” [N.p., ca. 1893].
This working draft of Twain’s irreverent biblical satire shows that the author may have briefly considered writing a story not about Adam, but Cain (to whom he had intended to dedicate Roughing It prior to his editors’ objections). In later years Twain made sketches toward additional sequels, including “Shem’s Diary” and a firsthand account of “Noah’s Ark,” but no tale recounting Cain’s adventures has survived.
Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library
Pedro Carolino. The New Guide of the Conversation in Portuguese and English. With an Introduction by Mark Twain. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1883.
Carolino originally published this phrasebook (also known as English as She is Spoke) in Portugal in 1855. Because of his unfamiliarity with the complexities of English syntax, it contains innumerable unintentionally amusing mistranslations. Clemens discovered the book several years later and found it so entertaining that he arranged for its verbatim reprinting, declaring in his introduction: “Whatsoever is perfect in its kind, in literature, is imperishable: nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect, it must and will stand alone: its immortality is secure.”
Mark Twain. Punch, Brothers, Punch! and Other Sketches. New York: Slote, Woodman & Co., 1878.
The eponymous sketch of this collection also appeared under the title “A Literary Nightmare,” and concerns Twain’s encounter with what would be called in our day an “earworm”—specifically, a catchy jingle about streetcar conductors written by Isaac Bromley and others. This pamphlet was issued in part to advertise Mark Twain’s Scrap Book, Twain’s patented self-adhesive album.
Mark Twain. Is Shakespeare Dead?: From My Autobiography. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1909.
Twain’s semi-autobiographical reflection on Shakespeare, with an autograph note by Twain pasted inside the front cover: “Shakespeare gets a lot of applause for Hamlet, but if you had written it you couldn’t have got it accepted.” This is the first of only two collections of Twain’s essays published during his lifetime.