History In Ink®  Historical Autographs


1431437

Samuel L. Clemens

Mark Twain

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Clemens acknowledges the history of his early years

as a miner and newspaper reporter in the Old West

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, 1835–1910.  American author and humorist.  Autograph Note Signed, S. L. Clemens, and dated in Clemensʼ hand London, Apr. 23 [1897], on a correspondentʼs letter.  With accompanying newspaper clipping.

This is an extraordinary note in which the "greatest American humorist of his age,” as the New York Times called him, confirms the accuracy of a newspaper article that recounted his early years as a miner and newspaper reporter in Nevada and, afterward, in San Francisco, California.  The note is on the bottom of a letter from a correspondent who sends him a clipping of the article, which the correspondent would “very much like to keep . . . if it is true,” and asks that Clemens “please read and return" it.  Clemens writes, in full:  “Yes, it seems to be all true.  /  Truly Yours  /  S. L. Clemens  /  London, Apr. 23."

The article refers to the wealth that Clemens accumulated from his stock in silver mines and the “liberal remuneration from his work" as a journalist.  But, it says, it “cannot be said that he made many friends in Nevada" because “hehad not the faculty of winning friendship."  Once he moved to California and “took up the burden of literary life again,” Clemens “did all sorts of literary work whereby he could turn a cent,” but it was “a terrible uphill business."  Thus, the article says, “a less determined man than himself would have abandoned the struggle and remained at the base.”

It appears that the clipping may be truncated at the end, but most of it is here.  It reads:

MARK TWAIN AS A REPORTER.

__________

His First Pen Name Was "Josh"Not a Good Itemizer.

Mr. Clemens' first pen name, when he commenced to write for Joe Goodman's Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nev., about 1863, as correspondent from Esmeralda district, where he mined for a living, was "Josh."  The fun and humor that bubbled up in his letters tickled the Washoeites and made the paper sought after.  They sent for him, and he came, gladly relinquishing the pick and shovel, the windlass, and the bucket, for the journalist's pen.  Mr. Clemens came to Virginia City dressed in the usual garb of a miner, well worn at that, and demeaned himself with all a miner's freedom.  He had also, to a greater degree than subsequently, the exceptional drawl in his speech, which he chose to consider one factor in the sum of his distinctive individuality.   He took readily to reporting the varying fortunes of the mining community, and strengthened the writing force on the Enterprise materially, while at the same time availing himself of legitimate opportunities to acquire "feet" in the Comstock and shares in different outlying mines.  He was accounted quite rich in this type of property at one time.  With liberal remuneration for his work, his personal appearance rapidly improved, and he grew to be a swell in the mild way, besides cleaner in speech as well as in dress. 

Becoming dissatisfied with his pen name "Josh," he changed it to "Mark Twain," by which at the present day he is known in the literature of the world.

About 1864 Mr. Clemens came to San Francisco.  It cannot be said he made many friends in Nevada.  There were some who affected his company on account of his writings, but he had not the faculty of winning friendship.  Before he arrived in the city he had accumulated, as before stated, a good deal of money, every stiver of which he sunk in Hale & Norcross.  Then he took up the burden of literary life again.  He wrote San Francisco letters to his old paper, the Territorial Enterprise, and for some real or fancy cause attacked the local police so persistently and fiercely that Martin G. J. Burke, who was chief of the force at the time, brought suit for libel against the paper.  Such envenomed communications as Mr. Clemens wrote on this subject have rarely been penned.  They made the official equanimity of the old city hall boil like a cauldron of asphaltum, the fume and stitch being in proportion.  He also contributed for Charley Webb ("Inigo") to the Californian, for the Golden Era, and did all sorts of literary work whereby he could turn a cent.  It was a terrible uphill business, and a less determined man than himself would have abandoned the struggle and remained at the base.  Mr. Clemens was at Steamboat Springs, Nev., for his health, when the letter was written offering him a place on the Call.  He came down shortly after, but judging from his appearance fortune had been playing scurvy tricks with him in the interim.  Without doing the gentleman any injustice it can be freely stated that although at the time a good general writer and correspondent, he made but an indifferent reporter.  He only played at itemizing.

Considering his experience in the mountains, he had an inexplicable aversion to walking, and in putting his matter on paper he was, to use his own expression, "slower than the wrath to come."  Many funny and characteristic incidents occurred during his few months' stay on the Call.  He only wanted to remain long enough, he said when engaged to go to work, to make "a stake," but on leaving his purse was no heavier than when he came.  The most notable thing he did that can now be recalled was a philippic against some undertaking employes [sic] where the morgue happened to be, for the dead house in those days, like the old-fashioned plan with the country school-mistress and the villagers, was "boarded round," each undertaker accommodating the corner in turn.  It appears some one about the place refused to give Mr. Clemens information or to let him see "the slate," and the next morning he got such a dose, commencing "these body-snatchers," that a general apology was immediately made by every man in the establishment.  The proprietor was East at the time, but when he read the article he shivered, as he confessed [after]ward, and considered his business ruined.

History indeed supports this narrative.  Clemens initially enlisted in a Confederate unit in Missouri when the Civil War began in 1861 but left shortly afterward to move west with his brother Orion, who was 10 years older, and who had become the secretary to Nevada Territory Governor James W. Nye.  They traveled by stagecoach across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains and through Salt Lake City. 

Clemens stopped in Virginia City, Nevada, which sprang up as a boom town in 1859 with the discovery of the Comstock Lode, the first silver deposit discovered in the United States.  He became a miner but failed at it.  He then worked as a reporter for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise from late fall 1862 until May 1864, when he left for San Francisco in the wake of a backlash from taunting and politically-charged articles that he published about a competing local newspaper and a ladiesʼ fund raising society.  By leaving Virginia City, Clemens avoided having to respond to several challenges to duels. 

It was as a writer in Virginia City that Clemens first used the pen name “Mark Twain."  A native Missourian, Clemens grew up in Hannibal, a Mississippi River town in northeast Missouri that formed the backdrop for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  He said that he took his pen name from the riverboatmen's call when the boat reached safe water depth—two fathoms, 12 feet, or “mark twain." 

Clemens wrote about his time in Nevada and the American West in his 1872 book Roughing It, in which he claimed that he left Virginia City out of boredom.  He published a humorous sketch entitled “How I Escaped Being Killed In a Duel" in the December 21, 1872, issue of Every Saturday.  Clemensʼs denunciation of undertakers that this newspaper article mentions apparently stems from the 1864 death of his niece, Jennie.  He was stricken with grief.  He lashed out at undertakers, claiming in writing that they were corrupt.  He remained bitter over the death for the rest of his life, and he slammed the undertakersʼ profession for years to come.

William Faulkner called Clemens—Twain—the “father of American literature."  Clemens's most famous writings are classics still read today:  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.  Indeed, Huckleberry Finn has been called “the Great American novel."  His numerous other works include both novels, such as The Gilded Age, and travel works such as The Innocents Abroad and A Tramp Abroad.

This letter attests to Clemens's fame.  The correspondent writes that “I simply address this letter ʻMark Twain,ʼ London Eng. and as you are well known I know that you will receive it."  Obviously he did.

Clemens has penned and signed his reply in jet black fountain pen at the lower left corner of the letter.  His handwriting and signature are bold and attractive.  The 5½" x 9" letter itself is toned from storage with the clipping, and there are pin holes in both pieces where the clipping was pinned to the letter.  We removed the original straight pin, and it, too, accompanies these pieces.  The letter has mailing folds.  A tiny area of paper loss on the top edge, a bent upper right corner, and two small edge fold splits have been archivally repaired.  The newspaper clipping is irregularly trimmed, with folds, and has archival repairs to three tiny tears.  Overall both the letter and the clipping are in fine condition.

These pieces come from a collection that was formed in the 1940s and has not been offered on the autograph market for some 70 years.

Unframed.

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