24 October 1874 • (2nd of 2) • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NN-B, UCCL 02476)
Later——P.M.
I shall not stop the letter I wrote 2 hours ago, because it has the suggestion about the play—but I take back the remark that I can’t write for the Jan. number. For Twichell & I have had a long walk in the woods & I got to telling him about old Mississippi days of steamboating glory & grandeur as I saw them (during 5 years) from the pilot house. He said “What a virgin subject to hurl into a magazine!” I hadn’t thought of that before. Would you like a series of papers to run through 3 months or 6 or 9?——or about 4 months, say?1explanatory note
If you can’t print the enclosed poem you must be sure to send it back to me. Seems good for a child of 17—though I am no judge of poetry—it is as much as I can do to write it.2explanatory note
“Old Times on the Mississippi” finally comprised seven installments, in the Atlantic for January through June and August 1875 (SLC 1875 [MT02540], 1875 [MT02539], 1875 [MT02541], 1875 [MT02542], 1875 [MT02543], 1875 [MT02544], 1875 [MT02545]). Although Clemens had not previously thought to use the Mississippi River material in magazine articles, in 1866 and again in 1871 he had projected using it in a book ( L1 , 329, 331 n. 8, and L4 , 499). Twichell made a note in his journal of the long afternoon walk, but preserved nothing of the seminal conversation (Twichell, 1:6).
The enclosure, which does not survive, may have been by Clemens’s “cousin,” Emma Parish, who evidently was still of school age and was interested in poetry (see 10 Nov 74click to open link and 19 or 20 Nov 74, both to Parishclick to open link). The Atlantic Monthly did not publish a poem by her, or by any seventeen-year-old girl, at this time. Clemens himself had written some parodies and light verse, but little that could be considered serious poetry (see Scott, 41–96, where, however, numerous verses are incorrectly attributed to him, especially from the Buffalo Express).
References
- New York Public Library, Albert A. and Henry W. Berg Collection, New York
- Machlis, Paul, ed. Union Catalog of Clemens Letters. Edited by Paul Machlis. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. [In some cases, UCCL catalog numbers cited in this volume supersede those assigned in 1986 and reflect corrections or additions to the catalog since publication. An updated version of the catalog can be consulted via the Letters Search page at MTPO.] 1986
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 6: 1874–1875. Edited by Michael B. Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 2002
- Paine, Albert Bigelow, ed. Mark Twain’s Letters. Edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. 2 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1917
- MTHL. Mark Twain–Howells Letters. Edited by Henry Nash Smith and William M. Gibson, with the assistance of Frederick Anderson. 2 vols. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 1960
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). “Old Times on the Mississippi. I.” Atlantic Monthly 35 (January): 69–73. 1875
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). “Old Times on the Mississippi. II. A ‘Cub’ Pilot’s Experience; or, Learning the River.” Atlantic Monthly 35 (February): 217–24. 1875
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). “Old Times on the Mississippi. III. The Continued Perplexities of ‘Cub’ Piloting.” Atlantic Monthly 35 (March): 283–89. 1875
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). “Old Times on the Mississippi. IV. The ‘Cub’ Pilot’s Education Nearly Completed.” Atlantic Monthly 35 (April): 446–52. 1875
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). “Old Times on the Mississippi. V. ‘Sounding.’ Faculties Peculiarly Necessary to a Pilot.” Atlantic Monthly 35 (May): 567–74. 1875
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). “Old Times on the Mississippi. VI. Official Rank and Dignity of a Pilot. The Rise and Decadence of the Pilots’ Association.” Atlantic Monthly 35 (June): 721–30. 1875
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). “Old Times on the Mississippi. VII. Leaving Port: Racing: Shortening of the River by Cut-offs: A Steamboat’s Ghost: ‘Stephen’s’ Plan of ‘Resumption.’ ” Atlantic Monthly 36 (August): 190–96. 1875
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 1: 1853–1866. Edited by Edgar Marquess Branch, Michael B. Frank, and Kenneth M. Sanderson. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1988
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 4: 1870–1871. Edited by Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, and Lin Salamo. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1995
- Twichell, Joseph H. “Personal Journal.” MS of 12 volumes, Joseph H. Twichell Collection, CtY-BR[bib10615]. 1874–1916
- Scott, Arthur L. On the Poetry of Mark Twain, with Selections from His Verse. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 1966
MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B).
L6 , 262–263; MTL , 1:229–30, with omission; MTHL , 1:34–35.
see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.