To Elisha Bliss,
Jr., in Hartford:
SanFrancisco, May 5, ’68.
Dr. Sir,—The Alta people, after some
hesitation, have given me permission to use my printed
letters, and have ceased to think of publishing them
themselves in book form. I am steadily at work,
and shall start East with the completed Manuscript,
about the middle of June.
I lectured here, on the trip, the other night-over
sixteen hundred
dollars in gold in the house—every seat
taken and paid for before night.
Yrs
truly,
Mark
Twain.
But he did not sail in June.
His friends persuaded him to cover his lecture
circuit of two years before, telling the story of his
travels. This he did with considerable profit,
being everywhere received with great honors.
He ended this tour with a second lecture in
San Francisco, announced in a droll and characteristic
fashion which delighted his Pacific admirers,
and insured him a crowded house.—[See
Mark Twain: A Biography, chap xlvi, and Appendix
H.]
His agreement had been to deliver his
Ms. about August 1st. Returning by
the Chauncey, July 28th, he was two days later in
Hartford, and had placid the copy for the new
book in Bliss’s hands. It was by no
means a compilation of his newspaper letters.
His literary vision was steadily broadening.
All of the letters had been radically edited,
some had been rewritten, some entirely eliminated.
He probably thought very well of the book, an opinion
shared by Bliss, but it is unlikely that either
of them realized that it was to become a permanent
classic, and the best selling book of travel
for at least fifty years.
Letters 1868-70. Courtship, and
“The innocents abroad”
The story of Mark Twain’s courtship
has been fully told in the completer story of
his life; it need only be briefly sketched here as
a setting for the letters of this period. In
his letter of January 8th we note that he expects
to go to Elmira for a few days as soon as he
has time.
But he did not have time, or perhaps
did not receive a pressing invitation until he
had returned with his Ms. from California.
Then, through young Charles Langdon, his Quaker
City shipmate, he was invited to Elmira.
The invitation was given for a week, but through
a subterfuge—unpremeditated, and certainly
fair enough in a matter of love-he was enabled
to considerably prolong his visit. By the
end of his stay he had become really “like one
of the family,” though certainly not yet
accepted as such. The fragmentary letter
that follows reflects something of his pleasant situation.
The Mrs. Fairbanks mentioned in this letter had
