10 May–1 June 1869 • Elmira, N. Y., or Hartford, Conn. (Paraphrase and transcript: AAA 1926, lot 79, UCCL 09924)
paraphrase: Sheet of Note Paper, containing an Autograph Note, consisting of about 35 words, being instructions to his printer regarding the word “tabu” in one of his books, and of which he writes,— If he does not know the meaning of “tabu” let him look it up in a dictionary.
paraphrase: On the verso of the sheet are two columns of figures, being the number of words in one of his works; in each case he has marked the chapter number and the number of words contained therein. A note, in the Autograph of Clemens, at the end of the final column reads,— After knocking as much as possible out, there must still be 200,000 words left.1explanatory note
Clemens almost certainly directed his remark about “tabu” to the “infernally unreliable” printer’s proofreader who so exasperated him in April 1869, when he was reading proofs of The Innocents Abroad, by failing to follow his instructions ( L3 , 197–98). This proofreader had evidently either written a query on the proofs themselves, or relayed it through Bliss. By 15 April Clemens suspected, and by 29 April had confirmed, that the manuscript for The Innocents Abroad was too long. He returned to Hartford from Elmira on 8 May to continue proofreading, planning to make cuts in the material that was not yet typeset, and even on the typeset pages that were not yet electroplated ( L3 , 196, 199–200, 202 n. 1, 206). By 10 May he had finished reading “500 pages of proof”—possibly through chapter 47, which ends on page 502—and believed he would have “about 200 more to read” ( L3 , 212, 218). That day or the next he received another set of proofs, which may have included chapters 51 and 52, where he used the words “tabooed” and “tabu” (pages 539 and 551 of the book). The earliest likely date for Clemens to receive a query about “tabu” was therefore 10 May. On 13 May he wrote Olivia that he had “just finished going over the last of the Book MSS. & scratching out for the last time. No proofs have come in since Monday or Tuesday” ( L3 , 225). He must have made his word count by chapter and his estimate of “200,000 words left” around this time, to determine the consequences of his cuts. If he did not receive chapters 51 and 52 in the 10 May batch (or the next, a small batch received on or before 17 May), he probably had them in hand by 24 May, when he wrote that the remaining proof included “all the vital part of the Holy Land”—the account of which ended in chapter 57 ( L3 , 239, 251–52). He had certainly completed reading them by 1 June, when he wrote to a friend from Elmira that he had “several chapters to read yet,” probably chapters 58–61 and the “Conclusion” ( L3 , 254).
Paraphrase and transcript, AAA 1926, lot 79. An earlier dealer catalog text is less complete and shows no significant variants (Dawson’s Book Shop 1925, item 113).
L5 , 683–684.
After its sale in 1925 the MS was offered again in 1926, in a sale that included the library of Hannah M. Standish.