Source: Madison Memorial Union Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison | University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
([WU-MU CU-MARK])
To Elisha Bliss, Jr. 3 September 1868 •
(Typed transcript made for Albert Bigelow Paine
and handwritten transcript by Dana S. Ayer:
CU-MARK and WU-MU, UCCL02748)
None. The text is based on three transcripts, two typewritten for Albert Bigelow Paine
(Tr1 and Tr2), the third handwritten by Dana S. Ayer (Tr3), each of which derives
independently from the MS. When more than one Paine typescript survives, they are
almost always demonstrably both made with access to the original. So Tr1 and Tr2 are here treated as independent
even though the variants between them would not otherwise establish their independence.
0 The present text, notes, and apparatus supersede those previously published in L2,
245–46. L2’s version is available hereclick to open letter.
1 The actual clipping enclosed was presumably given to Bliss’s unidentified neighbor
and is therefore lost. But it was doubtless a single leaf (pages 99–100) torn from
the August issue of The Excelsior Monthly Magazine, and Public Spirit, which reprinted Clemens’s response to the toast to “Woman” delivered at the Washington
Correspondents’ Club dinner on 11 January; see the photofacsimile in Enclosure with 3 September 1868 to Elisha Bliss, Jr.click to open letter. The Excelsior was a New York periodical “devoted to the elevation of the race,” which had published
only two previous issues, for June and July. The magazine’s ultimate source for Clemens’s
speech, so far as this can be determined, was the text that appeared in the New York
Evening Post on 15 January (“A Eulogy of Woman by ‘Mark Twain,’” 1). Either the Excelsior editors, Miles N. Olmsted and Thomas A. Welwood, or some unidentified intervening
copy, omitted one sentence that was in the Post: “She bears our children—ours as a general thing” (Wilson 1869, 335, 830, 1143, and “City Register,” 25).
3 Bliss’s family consisted of his wife, Amelia Crosby Bliss—whom he had married in 1856—and
their three children: Walter (1858–1917), Emma (b. 1860), and Almira (b. 1865). Bliss
also had one surviving child by his first wife, who had died in 1855: Francis (Frank)
Edgar Bliss (1843–1915) (biographical information on Bliss, CtHSD; Donald T. Bliss to Hamlin Hill, 11 Nov 1964, CU-MARK; New York Times: “Obituary Notes,” 17 Mar 1917, 13; “Francis Edward Bliss,” 10 Nov
1915, 13).
4 Bliss evidently replied that he wanted to have “pictures sandwiched in with the text”
as well as full-page illustrations (5 Oct 1868 to Mary Mason Fairbanksclick to open letter). The Innocents Abroad ultimately contained more than 230 engravings, some of which were made from photographs
Clemens himself had acquired during his trip, while others were based on pictures
collected and made available by fellow passenger Moses S. Beach (Hirst and Rowles 1984, 31). The engravers may not have even begun yet to prepare the illustrations: by
early February 1869 only 150 had been completed (Bliss to SLC, 10 Feb 1869, CU-MARK).
Emendations and Textual Notes
All variants between the source texts are reported here. Readings identified by the
siglum ‘MTP’ are editorial emendations that draw from or fully replace the source
readings when none of those is deemed an accurate representation of the original manuscript.
None. The text is based on three transcripts, two typewritten for Albert Bigelow Paine (Tr1 and Tr2), the third handwritten by Dana S. Ayer (Tr3), each of which derives independently from the MS. When more than one Paine typescript survives, they are almost always demonstrably both made with access to the original. So Tr1 and Tr2 are here treated as independent even though the variants between them would not otherwise establish their independence.
L2, 245–46
See Paine Transcripts and Brownell Collection in Description of Provenanceclick to open letter.