Mark Twain: Business Man: Letters and Memoirs
Edited by SAMUEL CHARLES WEBSTER
1
IN TELLING the real story of Mark Twain’s publishing and business ventures, I am not trying to discredit him. I feel a good deal the way Hamlet must have felt when he wanted to see justice done his father — except that he had no love for his uncle, and I was fond of mine. Hut truly it was my father’s tremendous expenditure of work and energy that, in two years, made Charles L. Webster & Company one of the leading publishing houses of its day.
Fortunately, the truth does more credit to Mark Twain than his own fiction. There is a pettiness in the reminiscences of Mark Twain in Eruption that was not present in the letters he wrote when the events were happening. Uncle Sam may have been a distracting man to work with, for he went in eight different directions at once, but he was a lovable person.
His business ventures into such things as a patent steam generator, a steam pulley, and a new method of marine telegraphy cost him only twentyfive or thirty thousand dollars apiece. These sums were merely chicken-feed, but he got into big business when he started to finance the Paige typesetter.
Paige was a Hartford inventor whose unperfected machine Mark Twain began to promote in October, 1881. References to it crop up in the letters often from now on. The typesetter was a monster; year after year it swallowed money and demanded more. It consumed $195,000 in eight years. It was one of the tragedies of Mark Twain’s life.
In the letter that follows, we find the first reference to the typesetter. The Mr. Whitford mentioned was from Fredonia, New York. He was with Alexander & Green, who were lawyers — not pirates, as Uncle Sam intimates in Mark Twain in Eruption. Kaolatype was an invention for casting illustrative plates (described in detail in the letters published in the July Atlantic). When my father took over this business for Uncle Sam, it was losing money. For some time it continued to die “lingeringly and expensively.”
HARTFORD. Monday
DEAR CHARLEY,
Mr. Wm. Hamersley, our City Attorney, will call on you at your Engraving office, at 10 o’clock Thursday morning.
He & I are stockholders in the Page [Paige] TypeSetting Machine, This company wants to let a contract to somebody with $300,000 in his pocket, who can clear $2,000,000 on said contract in four or live years. I said Mr. Whitford, or you & Mr. Whitford between you, could probably find such a man (or men) if it could be made pecuniarily worth your while to do it. Mr. Hamersley will explain the matter to you; & then perhaps both of you had better step over & explain it to Mr. Whitford. It seems to me that it is a thing which might be arranged in New York without much difficulty.
It ought to be easier than to make capitalists see money in Kaolatype. . . .
I had to order new Prince & Pauper stamps from the die-sinkers. The fault was not in the casting, but in the crudeness of the original pattern; the lines were not perfect in shape, the lettering was not shapely. The cutting in Kaolatype was too hurriedly done, I suppose.
It is only a temporary failure, for we can make nice & sharp & shapely Kaolatype patterns; & we can reproduce them in brass, too. What has been done in brass during your absence? Let me know.
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS
Copyright 1944, by the Mark Twain Company.
The correct spelling of the inventor’s name was “Paige” but it is always “Page” in Uncle Sam’s letters. The name will be corrected in future letters, He persisted in this inaccuracy, although his spelling was unusually exact.
HARTFORD, Oct. 25, ‘81
DEAR CHARLEY —
How did you know where to look for Hamersley? Did he leave word at your office?
He tells me you & Mr. Whitford are to send an expert to examine the machine, & that if the report is fully favorable the proposed business can be engineered.
Of course the expert’s report will be thoroughly favorable; it certainly will be, if he is an old practical typesetter (like myself), for he will perceive the value of the thing.
Hamersley said that the foreman of the Herald composing rooms was here last Saturday to examine the machine, was satisfied with it, & said he should advise the Herald to order $150,000 worth (30 machines). (More than necessary, I should think, for 30 of them would do the work of 150 men.) However, my object now in writing, is to say, if you should carry Hamersley’s project through, telegraph me when it is actually done, for I shall want to scrape up some money & buy another block of this stock, here, if I can get it. I reckon it will take about a hundred thousand machines to supply the world, & I judge the world has got to buy them — it can’t well be helped.
How did you find out where Hamersley was?
And how is your brass?
Yr truly
S. L. C.
From the next letter it appears that my father was not too keen about the prospect of making a fortune out of the Paige machine, though he did take several people to look it over.
HARTFORD, Oct. 26 '81
DEAR CHARLEY —
Ah, but I don’t work for nothing, either. I only do friendly offices for nothing; so I have done what I could to assist Hamersley in his enterprise, by a note of introduction & a hearty good word in favor of his project. But there I stop. Don’t stand mo up & lecture me violently about what has got to be done, or what hasn’t got to be done. Write to Hamersley, not me—the affair is his, not mine. In undertaking it, you give to it time & energy which would otherwise be used to my advantage in Kaolatype & brass, & the success of these are of higher importance to me than Hamersley’s matter is. So, you see, Hamersley is the favored party. I thought perhaps you might make something out of the thing, & yet use more of Mr. Whitford’s time than your own. I think so still. I thought there was a fine chance for a capitalist to tackle a dead sure thing. And I think so still. But lord, I ain’t going to help — too much business on hand already. I don’t need to do anything to protect the $5000 invested in that machine; it is safe, there, & is very much the best investment I have ever had. I want an opportunity to add to it — that is how I feel about it. And this is why I say that if Hamersley’s project should be accomplished, I want to know it by telegraph, so that I can go out & try to buy some more stock. . . .
If you should come up here, I shall want to talk a little about tackling this Publishing Co.1 at law; claiming damages, in that they have paid 25 per cent too much for the manufacture of the Tramp Abroad, from the beginning — a loss to me of $5,000 & upwards. (My bottom object would be, to frighten them into giving up all my copyrights to me, on condition that I withdraw the lawsuit — for they’ve got no money & can’t raise any.) Their last quarter’s business was even wretcheder than the previous one; & it was next to nothing at all, you remember. I wish to talk with you, but not until after you shall have shown this paragraph to Mr. Whitford; for unless his firm will undertake this project of scaring these publishers, I shall drop the idea.
I enclose $525.
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS
HARTFORD,Jan. 21 '82
DEAR CHARLEY
Suppose you put in an hour or two of your time for me at one of the big advertising agencies where they keep full files of the daily papers. Just quietly copy off & send to me every remark which the Tribune has made about me since the end of October, up to present date. Keep your own counsel; say nothing to anybody about this. As I understand it,
these remarks have usually been brief original paragraphs on the inside pages, & borrowed slurs on the other pages. Copy them exactly, punctuation & all; & give the origin of the borrowed ones.
Yr truly
S. L. c.
At this time Webster was working nights trying to achieve the impossible; he was also settling his family, including two children, in New York, and his co-worker, Marsh, was away. Now he is asked to spend “an hour or two” going through a three months’ file of the Tribune to find some imaginary slurs that Uncle Sam had been told the Tribune had been making against him. Uncle Sam’s own story of this is told in a letter to William Dean Howells of January 28, 1882 (Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain’s Letters, p. 413).
Uncle Sam had been writing long tirades against the Tribune and preparing a most ambitious revenge when, as he said, “the thought came to my mind (from Mrs. Clemens’s): ‘wouldn’t it be well to make sure that the attacks have been ‘almost daily’?” There turned out to be no slurs beyond some unfavorable mention of The Prince and the Pauper, and that was copied from English reviewers who felt that the sacred history of England had been tampered with.
2
LIKE most authors, Uncle Sam thought he was being robbed. This feeling is what prompted him to join with my father in starting his own publishing house in 1883.
July 8, ‘82
DEAR CHARLEY —
Yes the Bank Note Co. stock arrived all right. The American Publishing Co. declared another 5 per cent div. July 1, making the third since I sold out. In over nine years they paid no dividend; in which time they sold, say
75,000 Roughing It
60,000 Gilded Age
40,000 Tom Sawyer
40,000 Sketches
70,000 Tramp Abroad
285,000 books, & 15,00 [0] Innocents —
300,000 in all.
Since then they have sold 10 or 15,000 books and paid $7,500 in dividends. How’s that?
When the expert comes, let him do his level best to find out exactly how many of each of my books have been sold, if possible. And especially how many Sketches — for when they have sold 50,000 Sketches they will owe me a rebate of 2 1/2 per cent on each copy of the whole 50,000. It is a three-dollar book — so the rebate coming to me will be $3,750. You perceive the importance of finding out about this.
Yr truly
S. L. C.
ELMIRA, July 18, ‘82
DEAR CHARLEY —
Don’t forget to send me Bliss’s check.
Please send me 1/2 dozen of my small scrap-books — size of this page or somewhat larger.
Mrs. Moffett offers me her Watch stock at par. I suppose it is well enough to take it, isn’t it?
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS
In looking back on these days it always seems to us as if our ancestors had wonderful opportunities to make us rich if they had only shown a little sense. I often think of the fine stocks I could have picked out for my father. But there seem to have been hundreds of concerns with bright prospects that were never realized. This watch company was one of them. Uncle Sam seems to have pulled out suckers while others were landing the trout.
ELMIRA, Any. 8, ‘82
DEAR CHARLEY —
Go to Mr. W. M. Laffan (at Harper’s) & ask him to introduce you to the firm for me; then you can ask them to give you a note of introduction to such other publishers as you may wish to consult. This will afford you every opportunity you reejuire.
Drop a note to Laffan asking when you may call on him with a small matter of business from me.
Look here, have the Am. Pub. Co. swindled me out of only $2,000? I thought it was five. It can’t be worth while to sue for $2,000, can it? If we gain it will it pay lawyer’s fees? . . .
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS
ELMIRA,Aug. 9, ‘82
DEAR CHARLEY —
K. flourishes, better & better, but the monthly drain has always remained about the same since its earliest days. By the way — was the Slote note collected last month? — am hanged if I can remember now whether it was or not. How do the K. accounts stand, now? Let Marsh send me a statement — not one of these damned incomprehensible professionaltechnical debtor-&-creditor enigmas, which none but gods & bookkeepers can make head or tail of, but a plain sensible written-out statement of the case, which Jean [his daughter] can understand. Look at the stamp on the “White Elephant.” It is small, & perfectly simple — another sight simpler and smaller than the stamp which cost Osgood “probably” $56. Well, I am charged $45 for it — which I judge includes design — say $10. Now, do you imagine it would cost you $10 to cast that thing in spelter & then in brass? Why did your plate cost $28? Your part of the work did not cost you $3 if that famous Prince & P. picture cost you only $1.50. Osgood will presently be in as a part owner, & he shall give his entire attention to that brass — for it shall succeed. I hear Orion [his brother] is very sick with gastric fever. I like that big stamp — a gouge or two with a graver’s tool would perfect it. Suppose it did cost $28 — it won’t cost $10 when I get the facilities together. 1 think the brass man charged $18 or $20 anyhow, for rent. Perdition catch him. I shall call on him & ask him for statistics when I go to New York. Meantime, you ask him for them. It will puzzle the head entirely off his shoulders to explain that $25. Ten dollars for his work, $3 for yours — liberal sums, both. If he can explain the rest of the $28, raising the dead is foolishness to his talent. Inquire of him, Charley, for I am all impatience to know. And tell him to make Ins statistics simple & easy, for I want to take them to other founders for verification. . . . Yr truly S. L. C.
Sept. 19, '82
DEAR CHARLEY —
T want Messrs. Alexander & Green to go for these people at once & lively, on some charge or other. They are using my name to sell stuff which I never wrote. I would not be the author of that witless stuff (Bad Boy’s Diary) for a million dollars.
I want them salted well for saying I am author of Bad Boy’s Diary, too.
Get & send me this “Ha-ha-ha.”
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS
[P. S.] Go for ‘em lively & at once.
Bad Boy’s Diary was a piece of trash —poor English, poor spelling, and very poor humor — published anonymously in 1880 by J. S. Ogilvie & Company, who probably encouraged the fiction that it was written by Mark Twain. Ha! Ha! Ha! which bore the subtitle “72 pages of fun by leading humorists” and sold in paper for 10 cents (or 25 cents for the de luxe edition in boards), was published by Ogilvie in March, 1882. Uncle Sam’s indignation was certainly justified in this case, lie wasn’t exactly a Milquetoast, and he had pride in his craft. Having his name used to exploit stuff that was not: his was worse than piracy. Some of the jokes in the “pages by leading humorists” were evidently uncopyrighted matter that he had written, as he admits in a subsequent telegram to Webster, but he adds: “If people have a right to use my name to advertise a body of rubbish which I did not write I want to find it out.”
3
UNCLE SAM was saved from losses at this time at the hands of some people he refers to as the “watch thieves.” These were not pickpockets, but two Fredonia men who had started a watch company. I don’t know whether they sold many watches, but they sold a good deal of stock in Fredonia, where people naturally thought that their early environment had made them honest.
This time Uncle Sam didn’t yell for a lawyer. He sent the following statement to my father with the brief note: “Put this one time in Buffalo Courier, Express & Censor A* Advertiser & Union, also in posters in Fredonia”: —
$5,000 WATCH STOCK FOR SALE
I desire to sell $5,000 of stock in the Independent Watch Co., of Fredonia, N. Y. Lest the possible purchaser pay too much and afterward upbraid me, I will lay the facts bare before him; then he can buy’ wittingly.
Two or three years ago, some persons called the Howard Brothers (given names — & —) born & reared in Fredonia & favorably known to everybody there, conceived the idea of getting up a watch manufacturing Company. Their cipherings & prophecies were specious & plausible, & the stock was promptly subscribed by the confiding villagers. It is not unlikely that the Howards intended, from the beginning, to unload profitably, in due time, leaving the rest to save themselves as best they might; in any case, what is not unlikely, but certain, is, that they did presently unload a large portion of their stock — offered to sell me $25,000 of it, I to allow them to control & vote upon it several months & until after the next ensuing annual meeting(!) And next the Company declared a dividend — not from earnings, therefore unlawfully, & consequently laying themselves heavily liable — & on the strength of the fresh confidence thus created by this sign of (apparent) prosperity, the Howards worked off nearly all the rest of their stock — taking most any description of propertyfor it that offered. The Howards are virtually out, now, & fortified with fresh capital wherewith to push their patent medicine business,; and the rest of us are still in — but most of us do not know how to make watches or manage watch factories. Therefore I desire to withdraw. Persons wishing to make me an offer (an exorbitant one not required) may address S. L. Clemens (Mark Twain), Hartford, Conn.
Webster did not publish the advertisement, but he seems to have found a satisfactory way of handling the situation: —
ELMIRA, Sept. 19, ‘82
DEAR CHARLEY —
You did miraculously with the Watch thieves. It was an ugly job well carried through. The Howards were wise to hold their temper & come to our terms; for if they hadn’t we would have made it warm for them & the rest of the directors on that fraudulent dividend. I have put the note & the accompanying paper in J. L. & Co.’s safe, here. . . .
I am not well yet, & my book2 drags like the very devil. Some days I cannot write a line.
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS
Sept. 23, ‘82
DEAR CHARLEY —
Is not using my name in that way a kind of forgery, or obtaining money under false pretenses? And can it not be punished?
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS
[P. S.] . . . How much could I punish them? To what extent? Jail? —or several thousand dollars damages? Ask Mr. Whitford. Meantime I have a suit pending in Chicago which may cover the case of these Ogilvie bastards. S. L. C.
The illegitimate Ogilvies were the people who had published someone else’s book under his name.
The next letter is a little confusing because I don’t know whether “these thieves” are the same as the watch thieves, or the same as the “Ogilvie bastards,” but I think they are a new lot entirely. Mark Twain was like the man in the Bible who fell among thieves. But he didn’t wait for a good Samaritan to come along.
ELMIRA, Sunday, Sept. 24, ‘82
DEAR CHARLEY —
Be sure to have this advertisement in the Herald Personals Tuesday morning—& keep it there 7 years unless these thieves pay up sooner. Their sale is Tuesday & Osgood will be there. He w ill stop at the Brunswick — saves you a trip to Boston.
If you prefer, you can show the ad to Sheldon before publishing; but my judgment is, publish without seeing them. I leave you free in the matter. They must promptly do certain things, or I will come down on them in print in an exceedingly vigorous way.
They must make to you a detailed statement of account.
They must pay the money, & also interest.
I should say, don’t show them the ad — for I shall publish them by & by anyhow, whether they pay up or not. . . .
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS
[P.S.] ... If I could find out how many clothbound books Sheldon sold, I would require him to pay me 25 cents on every one over the 75 copies (he was to bind no more than that). S. L. C.
The following enclosure is the copy for the advertisement mentioned in the letter: —
Will the publishers, Sheldon & Co., furnish to the undersigned a statement of account (now eight years overdue, although several times demanded) & accompany it with the overdue cash, or will they not?
And will they also be warned & make no attempt to sell certain stereotype plates advertised by them, except to be broken up? Address MARK TWAIN, Hartford, Conn.
One of the charges that Mark Twain (in eruption) made was that my father was always running to lawyers. He probably was.
Oct. 6, '82
DEAR CHARLEY —
Find out, in Chicago, how my old books are now sold — by canvassers? or are they ordered by individuals, or by publishers? What is to account for their continuous & regular sale? It is a sale which keeps right along; this last quarter equals what they used to be, in old Bliss’s time. How are these sales accomplished? Find out the method while in Chicago.
I’ve got an idea. The Am. Pub. Co. might be crowded, by this suit, into this compromise— T to withdraw the suit, & they to turn over my copyrights to me one or two years from now.
Book contracts seem to be usually limited to 3 years or 5, but as I had the monumental fool of the 19th century for a lawyer, these endure forever. Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS
HARTFORD,Oct. 30th, 1882
DEAR CHARLEY, Give this man the papers he wants, or kill him, I don’t care which.3
Yours truly,
S. L. CLEMENS
HARTFORD,Dec. 30th, 1882
DEAR CHARLEY: —
Here is the usual bill for the “Portfolio.” I subscribed for it for one year, and ordered that year to be paid for. I never subscribed a second time, but have done my best to keep them from throwing away that excellent work upon me. I do not want to have to refuse to receive the publication from the post-man, for that is an offense which I don’t wish to offer to anybody. I never see the post-man anyway, and could not offer the offense if I wanted to.
I wish you would explain the case to Mr. Bouton and have the periodical stopped without bloodshed. . .
, Yr truly
S. L. C.
Webster noted on the letter: “Attended to Jany 2nd 1883. Mr. Bouton said he would stop it. C.L.W.” But it crops up again from time to time.
Jan. 3, 1883
S. L. Clemens, Esq.
DEAR SIR,
We are beginning to receive reports from canvassers with applications for the premiums offered for the largest bona fide lists of subscribers. Kindly give us such instructions as you deem necessary for the method of awarding these premiums.
Yrs truly,
JAMES R. OSGOOD & Co.
[S. L. C. pencil notation:] Charley, if there are any instructions to be given, you may give them —I will not interest myself in anything connected with this wretched God-damned book.4
If you know of no other instructions, you can write them & tell them I say invent instructions of their own. S.L.C.
The next letter is from Aunt Livy, who frequently appealed to my father for help.
DEAR CHARLEY —
Will you find out for me at Tiffany’s the price of the small Chime traveling clocks. I would like to have you write & tell me about different sizes & prices.
Hoping this will not trouble you I am very truly yours,
OLIVIA L. CLEMENS
4
THE next letter was written just before the publication of Life on the Mississippi. By this time Webster was practically Mark Twain’s publisher, with Osgood being merely the manufacturer of the books. Mark Twain records that Life on the Mississippi cost him fifty thousand dollars to manufacture and print, “but Osgood was a lovely fellow.” Probably the latter part of the statement is correct.
DEAR CHARLEY —
If you are to be absent from New York any more than 48 hours, don’t go to Fredonia. Have somebody do the packing under Annie’s supervision.
After all our efforts & all our hopes we are going to have a brief canvass at last. Your canvassers are not all secured yet — yet we have but 5 or 6 weeks left before publication. Bliss never issued an octavo for me with less than 43,000 subscribers. I was expecting to beat Bliss this time. Our main harvest has got to come before the issue of the book; so I strongly advise against the Fredonia trip. Your personal presence in New York is worth that of a dozen Marshes or other subordinates at this most important time.
Your aunt Livy is not getting along fast; is very weak & wasted to a shadow. Gains a trifle of strength in the daytime, & loses it again at night through loss of sleep.
Yr truly
S. L. C.
[P.S.] At the T. S. [typesetter] meeting there were about 60 stockholders. They conferred full powers on the Directors to raise capital, &c. Paige was brought to book — that is, made to stand up & distinctly say he knew the machine to be now flawless. A capital of $1,000,000 was proposed to be raised. . . .
There is something illogical about that forced confession of faith, but I can’t put my finger on it. However, it seems to have satisfied Uncle Sam, because for the next ten years he put something like $30,000 a year into the “flawless” machine.
After a hurried trip to Canada to secure copyright on his new book — a necessary nuisance in those days— Mark Twain was in a dither to get to the peace of his summer home in Elmira.
HARTFORD, June 8, ‘83
DEAR CHARLEY—
Go to the D L & W RR office in New York (26 Exchange Place, I think), (Delaware, Lackawanna & Hudson RR I mean) & see if they will rent me a special sleeping car to Elmira, on daylight train next Friday the 15th. Telegraph me their answer &: let me know the hour the train leaves. I think it leaves at 1 p.m., but am not sure.
We go Thursday from here, & Friday from Xew York unless death or desperate illness interfere.
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS
[P.S.] Have formerly got the car from Mr. A. Reasoner — wrote him a day or two ago, but have received no answer yet. Go directly to the President of the road & he will tell you how to proceed. Hurry! S. L. C.
The next excitement is again a lawsuit — but this time against Uncle Sam. Charles C. Duncan, the captain of the Quaker City, evidently planned to sue Mark Twain for something he was alleged to have said in an interview, but as Mark Twain had been misquoted, Duncan eventually sued the New York Times and got six cents in damages. The Jones mentioned in the second letter must have been either the reporter or an editor.
(Telegram)
Chas. L. Webster
658 Broadway N. Y.
Say nothing to anybody until you hear from me again. You did not send me that paper containing interview7. I must see that before I can know how to proceed. Let me know, as soon as Duncan actually sues me — a thing which I am not expecting to happen.
S. L. C.
ELMIRA,June 18, ‘83
DEAR CHARLEY —
Say nothing at all to Jones, for if there is a suit I cannot be a witness on his side. There is not a sentence in the interview that ever issued from my mouth. There are two or three parts of sentences, but no complete one. As a rule the interviewer has invented both the ideas & the language.
Yrs
S. L. C.
[P.S.] It seems to me Duncan has a strong case against the Times — would have, if he had any character. S. L. C.
ELMIRA,June 20, ‘83
DEAR CHARLEY —
All right. Tell Mr. Whitford [Uncle Sam’s lawyer] about Duncan’s proposed suit. Tell him also that if I can be allowed to testify on my own behalf I will go on the stand & point out each & every word in the printed interview that was actually uttered by me, & will show that 20 words will cover the whole; & I will swear that all the rest was the interviewer’s own — invented it himself. Then if Whitford lets Duncan know this, possibly he will drop his prosecution of me & strengthen his Times suit by summoning me as a witness against the Times — a chance I should not be sorry to have.
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS
ELMIRA, June 28, ‘83
DEAR CHARLEY —
All right. I will wait till Duncan goes for me individually before I bother. I guess he will not see his way to tackling me at all if Whitford gives his lawyer a hint of what my defense would be.
I enclose a letter from Ogden, I cannot answer letters; I can ill spare the time to read them, I am writing a book; my time is brief; I cannot be interrupted by vineyard business or any other. Explain this to Ogden.
When I turned him over to you & Whitford, I did all I meant to do. You are my business man; & business I myself will not transact, neither will I write letters or consult about it.
As to your going to California, we don’t want any of that.
Now whensoever any determination has been arrived at in this vineyard matter, I shan’t mind hearing about it; but I don’t want to hear another syllable of the preliminaries—not one. Will you make Ogden understand that this must be so, & why I take this position?
I won’t talk business—I will perish first. I hate the very idea of business, in all its forms.
Oh, about Australia. That goes with the English copy-rights — belongs to Chatto.
Yrs
S. L. C.
Uncle Sam had been fired with a brief enthusiasm for the vineyards in California, probably inspired by his nephew and his old friend Joe Goodman. My father didn’t believe in buying a vineyard by mail, and Uncle Sam lost interest. Besides, he was writ ing Huckleberry Finn. Business, vineyards, suits, were all forgotten and repudiated — fortunately for everybody.