Mark Twain Project :: Letters :: : an electronic text

To Elisha Bliss, Jr.
10? April 1869 • Elmira, N.Y.
(Transcripts by Albert Bigelow Paine and others: CU-MARK, UCCL 00288)

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[Elmira, April Something, 1869.]0 1

[Friend [Bliss—]

All the names were correct, I think, except Masserano. Jam] the Queen of Greece [in anywhere. She] [is the daughter of the Emperor of Russia,] [& can stand it]. [No—put her in the Grecian chapter—that will be better.2

You will find [Scylla & Charybdis] mentioned [before] you come to Athens—perhaps the cut you speak of comes in there. (If it is a picture [of the Acropolis], though, put it in along with the description of the Acropolis in the [chapter] on Greece.)]3

I think the [“suppositions”] I dealt in about the oyster [shells,] were not [funny,] but foolish[—& so, being [disgusted,] I marked them out [&] was sorry I had ever printed them—so I think it much better to let them stay out. But you are always accommodating [&] I wish to be accommodating [too]—so if you prefer it, let the [“suppositions”] [go in.] (I don't say that reluctantly, but cordially [& heartily, &] [meaning] it.)]4

[Your printers are doing well. I will hurry the proofs.]

[Always, &c.,]

[Mark.]

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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0The present text, notes, and apparatus supersede those previously published in L3, 187–88. L3’s version is available here.

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1 The date conjectured for this letter depends upon Clemens’s first sentence, which alludes to his listing of famous men, including the Prince of Masserano (Carlo Emanuele Ferrero La Marmora, 1788–1854), in chapter 15 (page 140) of The Innocents Abroad. Clemens had evidently corrected a misspelling of “Masserano.” In response, Bliss appears to have requested confirmation, which the present letter provides, that the other names were correct. Clemens finished his proofreading of chapters 15–17 (pages 139–70) by 3 April (Saturday), for he noted in his copy of Holmes’s Autocrat: “April 2—midnight—Livy and I read 18 pages of proof—Versailles and Genoa [chapters 16 and 17]” (PH in CU-MARK, in Booth 1950, 459). He probably mailed these chapters back to Bliss on 5 April (Monday). If Bliss received them two days later and replied on the following day (8 April)—enclosing the next batch of proof as well (chapters 18–22, pages 171–227)—then Clemens probably received his letter and wrote this response on Saturday, 10 April. It is unlikely that this exchange took less time, and it cannot have taken more, since it clearly was completed before 12 April, when Clemens replied to yet another question from Bliss about chapter 16.

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2The former Olga Konstantinovna Romanov (1851–1926) had been the wife of Christian William Ferdinand Adolphus George (1845–1913), King George I of Greece, since 1867. She was the daughter of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich Romanov (1827–92), the younger brother of Aleksandr Nikolaevich Romanov (1818–81), Tsar Aleksandr II. Her portrait eventually appeared, as Clemens here decided, in chapter 33 (page 355) of The Innocents Abroad. Bliss’s questions about where to place this and other illustrations do not signify that Clemens had received proofs for these later chapters. The process of inserting electrotyped engravings in the standing type necessarily preceded, by several days, at least, the generation of author’s proofs.

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3“View of the Acropolis, Looking West” appears in chapter 32 of Innocents, the first of the two chapters partly devoted to Greece. It follows the “Oracle’s” confusion of Scylla and Charbydis with Sodom and Gomorrah and precedes Mark Twain’s night visit to the Acropolis.

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4The “suppositions” accounted comically for the presence of oyster shells in the hills above Smyrna. Probably in early March, when he went over his manuscript for the last time, Clemens “marked them out” in a clipping from the 21 November 1867 San Francisco Alta California that he used as part of his printer’s copy for chapter 39 (SLC 1867; Hill 1964, 28; Hirst 1975, 234). The passage was restored to that chapter (pages 414–15), as Bliss requested.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

None. The text is based on four transcripts. Tr1 apparently derived directly from the MS. Although both the original typescript and its carbon survive, typed underscores struck below the ribbon on the original and show up on the carbon only. Albert Bigelow Paine must have had the letter transcribed before 1912, when he published an excerpt in MTB, 1:380, and in Paine 1912, 944 (‘Your printers . . . hurry the proofs’), but neither the MS nor the transcript was available to him five years later (MTL, 1:157). P1, however, which published the dateline, signature, and three excerpts (‘the Queen of Greece’, ‘is the daughter. . . stand it’, and ‘I think . . . but foolish’), was independently based on the MS, which had fallen into private hands by 1938 (see Provenance). The identical text was republished with no changes in Parke-Bernet 1941. Tr2 and P2 each derived independently from transcripts of the MS made by Dana Ayer. Tr2, a typescript made by Bernard DeVoto from Ayer’s transcript, was made in 1942 while the transcript was still in Brownell’s possession. P2 apparently derived independently from the Ayer transcript after the Brownell Collection had moved to WU-MU.

Tr1	Transcript (carbon) made for Albert Bigelow Paine, CU-MARK
P1	Parke-Bernet, 16–17 November 1938, item 47
Tr2	Transcript of Dana Ayer’s transcript, CU-MARK
P2	Davis 1951, 3

glyph Previous publication:

See Copy-text; MTLP, 20–21; McBride 1984, 365, partial publication; L3, 187–88.

glyph Provenance:

See Paine Transcripts in Description of Provenance. The MS evidently remained among the American Publishing Company's records until it was first sold (and probably at that time was copied by Dana Ayer; see Brownell Collection in Description of Provenance). The MS was eventually acquired by William Randolph Hearst, who sold it in 1938, presumably to Harold Fisher, who in turn sold it in 1941 (Parke-Bernet, 16–17 November 1938, no. 63 [Part 1], lot 47; Parke-Bernet, 15–16 January 1941, no. 248, lot 87).

glyph Emendations, adopted readings, and textual notes:

Elmira, April Something, 1869. (Tr1, Tr2, P2) • Elmira, April Something, 1869. [reported, not quoted] (P1)

Friend . . . Jam (Tr1, Tr2, P2) • [salutation and first sentence not in] (P1)

Bliss— (Tr1) • ~: (P2); ~:— (Tr2)

in anywhere. She (MTP) • in any where. She (Tr1); in anywhere. She (Tr2, P2); [three words not in] (P1)

is . . . Russia, (Tr1, Tr2, P2) • ~ . . . ~‸ (P1)

& . . . it (Tr1, P1) • and . . . it (Tr2, P2)

No . . . Greece.) (MTP) • No . . . Greece. (Tr1, Tr2); No . . . Greece.) (P2); [passage not in] (P1)

Scylla and Charybdis (Tr2) • Scylla and Charybdis (Tr1); Scylla and Charybdis (P2)

before (Tr1, Tr2) • before (P2)

of the Acropolis (Tr1) • of Acropolis (Tr2, P2)

chapter (Tr1) • Chapter (Tr2, P2)

“suppositions” (Tr2, P2) • “Suppositions” [corrected by Paine] (Tr1); ‘suppositions’ (P1)

shells, (Tr1) • ~‸ (P1, Tr2, P2)

funny, (Tr1, Tr2, P2) • ~‸ (P1)

—& . . . it.) (MTP) • —& . . . it,) (Tr1); —and . . . it.) (Tr2, P2); [passage not in] (P1)

disgusted, (Tr1) • ~‸ (Tr2, P2)

& (Tr1) • and (Tr2, P2)

too (Tr2, P2) • t,o (Tr1)

“suppositions” (Tr2, P2) • “Suppositions” (Tr1)

go in. (Tr2, P2) • ~ ~.— (Tr1)

& heartily, & (Tr1) • and heartily, and (Tr2, P2)

meaning (Tr1, Tr2) • meaning (P2)

Your . . . proofs. (Tr1, Tr2, P2) • [paragraph not in] (P1)

Always, &c., (MTP) • Always &cc (Tr1); Always, etc., (Tr2, P2); [complimentary close not in] (P1)

Mark. (Tr1, Tr2, P2) • Mark [reported, not quoted] (P1)