To
William Dean Howells
3 December 1874 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS facsimile: Paine 1917, 790–91, UCCL 01160)
Dec. 3.
My Dear Howells:
Let us change the heading to “Piloting on the Miss in the Old Times”—or to “Steamboating on the M. in the Old Times”—or to “Personal Old Times on the [Missi.” We ]could change it for Feb. if now too late for [Jan.
I ]suggest it because the present heading is too pretentious, too broad & general. It seems to command me to deliver a Second Book of Revelation to the world, & cover all the Old Times the [Misssissipi ](dang that word, it is worse than type or Egypt) ever saw——whereas here I have finished Article No. III & am about to start on No. IV, & yet I have spoken of nothing but of piloting as a science so far; & I doubt if I ever get beyond that portion of my subject. And I don’t care to. Any muggins can write about Old Times on the Miss of 500 different kinds, but I am the only man alive that can scribble about the piloting of that day—& no man ever has tried to scribble about it yet. Its newness charms pleases me all the time—& it is about the only new subject I know of.
If I were to write fifty articles they would all be about pilots & [piloting ]—therefore let’s get the word Piloting into the heading. There’s a sort of freshness about that, too.1
Ys Ever
Mark
[letter docketed by Howells:] From Mark Twain. | WD.H.
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
“Old Times on the Mississippi” remained the “heading” of
Clemens’s series, but, beginning with the second installment, descriptive subtitles were added; all but the last of these
included the word “pilot” or “piloting” (see SLC 1875 [MT02540], 1875
[MT02542], 1875 [MT02543],
1875 [MT02544], 1875 [MT02545]).
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L6, 303–4; MTB, 1:532, excerpt; MTL, 1:235–36, facsimile of MS page 1 and transcript; MTHL, 1:47–48.
Emendations and textual notes:
Missi.” We • Missi.” —|We [‘Mi’ conflated]
Jan. [¶] I • Jan.—| [¶] I
Misssissipi • [letters malformed]
piloting • pilotin piloting [corrected miswriting]
