had but three days to acquaint the public with the fact that he would lecture, and for one week only. Nobody expected him to draw an audience unless he could be advertised at least three months in advance. He drew. He drew better every night. The week’s business was something astonishing. In this same hall Dickens used to read, and when Mark took it people were turned from the door on the last nights of his first week. (Stoddard 1874)

Mark Twain’s success as a lecturer has been distinct and perfect. The general opinion is that he is not so essentially original a humorist as Art[e]mus Ward, but there are compensating qualities in his fun which render him as a whole as successful a “show"—he will pardon the expression—as was the poor fellow who came over here to make us laugh while he was coughing his way to an early grave. (Reprinted in the Elmira Advertiser, 7 Nov 73, 3)

Mr. Twain is a comparatively young man, small in form and feature, dark-haired and dark complexioned. He has a good deal of the nasal tone of some portion of the Americans. He possesses all that insouciance and aplomb which is generally ascribed to American lecturers, and apparently came upon the stage assured of the success which he so speedily obtained. (14 Oct 73, 2, clipping in Scrapbook 12:9, CU-MARK)

Anything more thoroughly original and enjoyable than Mark Twain’s lecture on our fellow savages of Sandwich Island has never been presented to the London public. If ever an entertainment had to be personally witnessed, to be fully enjoyed, it is Mark Twain’s lecturing. No amount of verbatim reporting or glowing description could give you a fair idea of the charmingly novel mannerism and marvellously happy story-telling ability of this singularly eccentric American genius. . . . Judging by the attendance, applause, and laughter, the lecture was a great success. (Fitzgibbon 1873)

description[s] of the manners and customs of the natives were interspersed with various witticisms, which were heartily appreciated and loudly applauded. Mr. Twain evidently has “the art of putting things.” The lecture, which lasted rather more than an hour, . . . was listened to throughout with great interest. (18 Oct 73, 375)

This week we have had in Mark Twain (Mr S. L. Clemens) a genuine specimen of the American humorous lecturer. Although some of the more essentially American allusions were barely appreciated by an English audience, Mark Twain’s dry manner, his admirable self-possession, and perfectly grave countenance formed a background that made the humorous portion of the lecture irresistible. Once or twice in the course of the evening the lecturer, partly on his credit as a man of humour and partly on the expectation that each sentence would prove to contain an artfully-hidden joke, was watched and listened to with almost breathless attention whilst he indulged in some rather bombastic prose-poetry descriptions of life in the islands that formed the subject of his lecture; and it was one of his boldest strokes to conclude, not with a quaint anecdote, but with one of those flowery performances that had been listened to in this way, and to make his exit in the most complete silence. (18 Oct 73, 10)

Fresh, original, and amusing this new kind of humor is; at its best, it is irresistible; even at its worst, it is popular. Its success here, as well as across the ocean, is beyond dispute. But we doubt whether it is destined to amuse the world for long; or whether anything more than ashes will be felt when its fire goes out.

belongs decidedly to the brotherhood of the great humourists whose works are among the ornaments of literature and the reforming agencies of society. He is of kin to the genuine poets who were satirists as well; his humour is always refined by high culture, intensified by its tinge of pathos, and strengthened by manly purpose. (17 Oct 73, 5, clipping in Scrapbook 12:3, 5, CU-MARK)