1 In 1904, when Clemens recalled that he wrote The Innocents Abroad in “sixty days” by working “every night from eleven or twelve until broad day in the morning” and averaging “more than three thousand words a day,” he was thinking principally of the two months between 5 May, when he returned to San Francisco from Virginia City, and 6 July, when he finally departed San Francisco (SLC 1904, 78). As early as 7 June the Call reported that he had “been industrious of late, strange as it may seem. By dint of almost superhuman application, he has nearly prepared for press the narrative of his travels in the East” (“Nearly Completed,” San Francisco Morning Call, 7 June 68, 1). More than half the manuscript, however, consisted of printed dispatches from the Alta, Tribune, and Herald, pasted to separate leaves and revised in the margins. And when Clemens began his intensive stint in May, he already had in hand “the first ten chapters” completed earlier in Washington (22? Feb 68 to MEC). In fact, Clemens seems to have completed his manuscript draft in less than “sixty days,” for he began to “reduce” it sometime in mid- to late June, when he asked Bret Harte, who was then struggling to complete the first issue of the Overland Monthly for publication by 1 July, to read “all the MS of the ‘Innocents.’” Harte did so, and told him “what passages, paragraphs & chapters to leave out,” and Clemens “followed orders strictly. It was a kind thing for Harte to do, & I think I appreciated it” (SLC to Charles Henry Webb, 26 Nov 70, ViU). At Harte’s suggestion, Clemens may have omitted as many as sixty-five pages of manuscript, most of which survive—some with Harte’s penciled suggestions on them. Clemens also recalled that he told Harte “to take such matter out of it as he pleased for the Overland free of charge” (SLC to Milicent Washburn Shinn, 27 Oct 82, CU-MARK). The Overland was announced as “now ready” on the evening of 30 June, and it included, among other things, the first of four extracts from the Innocents manuscript which Harte had selected and edited for the new magazine (advertisement, San Francisco Evening Bulletin, 30 June 68, 2; SLC 1868 [MT00745]). Harte’s reading and suggested revisions of the manuscript must therefore have been completed shortly after this letter to Bliss. For a full discussion of Harte’s editorial advice, see Hirst 1978.

2 Clemens had agreed to deliver his manuscript to the American Publishing Company “about the first of August” (27 Jan 68 to Bliss).