Mark Twain: Business Man: Letters and Memoirs

Edited by SAMUEL CHARLES WEBSTER

1

MARK TWAIN, when absorbed in the preparation of a new book, left the direction of his numerous business affairs in the hands of Charles L. Webster. He would state emphatically that he never wanted to be bothered with business questions again, but Webster probably learned not to take that declaration seriously. In the summer of 1883, Uncle Sam was at Elmira, New York, working on Huckleberry Firm, and as usual, he wrote my father that he could not be interrupted.

There followed an eloquent silence of one month — then a peremptory letter. One expects to hear that the masterpiece is finished. But no — something greater than literature had struck Uncle Sam. He had invented a game that entertained his children very much — when he played it with them. Webster was to get busy, patent the game, market it, and make a fortune.

The game swept Uncle Sam off his feet, and his brother Orion, too, in Keokuk. Uncle Sam employed Orion to look up historical data for him, and both households thought of nothing else. Huckleberry Finn was quite forgotten. The letters on the history game cover pages, and give all kinds of instructions that Webster was to carry out, and details that he was to look into. For instance: —

Aug. 1, ‘83
DEAR CHARLEY —
The implements of the game, & way to play it — are the patentable features & the only patentable features, ain’t they?
For instance:
A playing-board with pinholes connected with or punched through dates in the world’s history; & some after each ruler; reigns of kings, presidents or other rulers distinguished by separate colors, or like device, to show length & epoch of rule at a glance.
Chart for Empire. Has dates & color-arrangement corresponding with the playing board. In addition, has Events opposite the dates; also each ruler’s name & length of reign in his proper space or on his color.
And possibly the History-Book.
There — that’s simple, & it’s all there is that’s patentable, isn’t it so? I’m not expecting or purposing to change these implements even though I had till next centennial.
So, just go ahead & take out patents, for U. S., Canada & England.
As for the book, I suppose it can he mentioned, described & patented as a part of this machinery but if it can’t it can be copyrighted.
S. L. CLEMENS

[P.S.] I wanted a long delay, you know, in order mainly, to try the game & satisfy myself that it is worth patenting. But I see, without all that bother, that it is worth it—so, patent it in the 3 countries. S. L. C.

Aug. 3, ‘83
DEAR CHARLEY —
Never mind about applying for a patent. I see that the caveat is entirely sufficient, for the present.
I have sent Munn & Co. the required $25. I have also asked them to examine patent-office records & see whether my game-idea is old or new, patentable or unpatentable.
Yrs
S. L. C.

Copyright 1944, by the Mark Twain Company.

[P.S.] I hope you are’enjoying your holiday — you needed one.
We send love to Annie & the children.
S. L. C.

Sept. 22
DEAR CHARLEY —
I will write Orion.
Meantime I have arranged a few of the dates myself, since I came home, in order to be ready to practice the game when you send me the board.
Well, I’m very glad to get cheering news about that cursed book ¹ — it has been scarce enough.
Yrs
S. L. C.

2

AUNT LIVY CLEMENS and my father both had a love of antiques, and I think my father enjoyed shopping with her or for her. He loved rummaging around New York antique shops, and auctions were always a joy to him. None of Aunt Livy’s presents to my mother indicates the conventional Victorian taste she is supposed to have had. They are in line with the discriminating taste of today. The “little table” in the following lelter is evidently one of their purchases: —

Saturday
DEAR CHARLEY —
Now by the time you can get the board shipped to me, I shall be ready to use it. I’ve got all the reigns skeletonized, & shall have them printed & send you a copy.
Livy’s little table which you and she bought has not arrived yet, & is a week overdue.
Yrs
S. L. C.

[P.S.] Order 300 envelopes printed, with “return to S. L. C.” on them. The one which encloses this letter is nearly the last I’ve got. S. L. C.

Thursday
DEAR CHARLEY —
The board is excellent, now.
It is this moment received, so I have experimented but little. Thus far I observe but one possible improvement — to-wit: Let us repeat the initial dates of the several reigns. . , .
This emphasizes the initial years, & will develop other merits, too, I think.
I think that several thicknesses of the commonest, coarsest, cheapest, loose-woven blanketing or similar goods will answer our purpose quite well, when packed together pretty tightly between the boards — especially if we increase the depth a mere trifle, so as to give the pin a little deeper hold. I don’t believe an increased depth will be necessary, but we can do it if necessary.
It’s a successful board note.
Proof all right. Print a few copies — 25 is a plenty — & keep several for you & Annie to experiment with.
As soon as shall seem wise, come up & we will contract with Bliss for the new book. We will keep pretty quiet about it for the present — Bliss will see the advantage of that, himself. We shall need almost all the time between now & Jan. 7 to print canvassing books, circulars, & etc., & I’d like the canvassing to actually begin near that date, so that the book could issue May 25, or May 20.
Yrs truly
S. L. C.

The last paragraph refers to Huckleberry Finn. Apparently the idea at this time was to have Bliss do the manufacturing.

Sept. 28, ‘83
MY DEAR BRO —
Kings rec’d. Quite satisfactory. Send balance soon as you can.
O, yes! — go right along with the former labor the minute you get the skeletons done—but don’t print till I say.
The news from Ma is first rate. All well here & send love.
SAM

On October 3 or 4 — as he dates it himself — he sent my father some new ideas to add to the history game patent, and instructions for a new experiment-board — to consist of two boards with felt between. By October 10 he has received and approved certain details Webster has introduced and tells him to go ahead and put the whole thing in type. “ . . . and mind, don’t send me first proof; & don’t send me first revise, either. Send me the second-revise. . . . Save me what profanity you can. Orion’s MS is infernal. . . . Make a new board, Charley, with all improvements to date and send it to me.”

After that a few more improvements are suggested. Meanwhile: —

Oct. 6
DEAR CHARLEY —
Did I tell you to buy that Secretary & ship it to me? I meant to, anyway. I shall hide it & bring it forth on Livy’s birthday.
Yrs
S. L. C.

Oct. 15. '83
DEAR CHARLEY —
Orion has been sick, but says he will soon send me George II. That will finish the Skeletons, I believe. I enclose his latest skeletons.
Received Am. Pub. Co.’s ck. I’m afraid they’ve sold as many old books in the last 3 months as Osgood has new ones.
That piece of furniture has arrived.
Ys truly
S. L. CLEMENS

The next letter is to Mrs. Orion Clemens, his sister-in-law: —

DEAR MOLLIE —
It is distressing. It is as pathetic as it can be, the way ma’s infirmities affect her. May I never be old with ruined faculties!
I have written ma, as you see. It will be many a long month, I fear, before Livy’s health & the heavy requirements of her family and housekeeping will make it safe for her to add to her freightage of care. There has been no time since last spring when it would have done to invite ma.
How is Wm. the Conqueror progressing? I don’t care to have him in full perfection yet, but want him in nearly any imperfect shape that will answer for me to experiment on. I could build him in such shape myself, in a couple of hours, but I can’t spare the couple of hours. If I had him to experiment on, I could soon perfect the game to my liking.
Love to all
SAM

Unfortunately the game, like Kaolatype and the Paige typesetter (described in the July and August issues of the Atlantic) defied “full perfection” — it didn’t even hit the outer rim of the target. In the end Uncle Sam decided that it was impracticable unless he could explain it to the players in person, and with that the notion blew away. He advised his friend William Dean Howells never to waste his time inventing a history game.

3

WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS and Mark Twain now wrote a play, The American Claimant. They had a lot of fun over it and thought they had turned out a masterpiece. Uncle Sam had an impression that there would be an awful fight to get the play, and the terms he laid down at first were the kind no actor would touch. He kept modifying the terms, but even so, there was no rush to secure the play. It was too farcical, and though Uncle Sam might change his terms, he wouldn’t change his script.

The character of the American Claimant combined Colonel Sellers (Cousin James Lampton) with another and more distant Lampton relative, a Mr. Leathers, who claimed to be the rightful Earl of Durham, because he was the nearest male relative of the original Lampton who had come to this country in the early days. The original Lampton was said to be the older brother of the Lampton who inherited the Durham title. Leathers was a man of some property, and could afford to spend money trying to substantiate his claim. He used to call on Uncle Sam and Aunt Livy, and my mother remembers that they loved to have him come because he was an entertaining character.

I don’t know what basis Uncle Sam had for his comments about JohnT. Raymond, the actor he had selected to play the part, in the next letter. He got the impression that Raymond had overreached him. Whether there was anything to it I don’t know.

Nov. 30, ‘83
DEAR CHARLEY —
Now that you have made your opening, let Raymond do the rest. That is to say, you & Whitford sit still, & let R. come there — don’t you go to him. We can’t allow our agents to occupy the position of second fiddle.
Do you think you understand my position toward Raymond as to the play? It is simply this: I wish to God he would not take it.
(Read that over, four or five times, till you get it soaked home.)
if he should take it, there must be a lot of things put in the contract —a limit (of time) for one thing: — say, the first time another piece has to be inserted into the week, this contract to cease then. (I bet I know the value of that clause from old experience.)
Whenever you & Whitford talk with Raymond, have the conversation taken down in shorthand & preserved. You can do this openly. He would stand with his foot on the steps of the throne of God & lie, concerning what was said — so, for your security & mine, you want to preserve a record of what he did say. He knows that I know, that as a liar he has not his equal, either in hell or out of it.
(Keep this letter for future reference — You’ll see.)
Why do I offer him the piece at all? 1. For these reasons: He plays that character well; there are not thirty actors in the country who can do it better; & 2. He has a sort of sentimental right to be offered the piece— though no moral or other kind of right.
Therefore, we do offer it to him — but only once, not twice. Let us have no humming & hawing — make short sharp work of the business.
Yrs truly
S. L. CLEMENS

[P.S.] I decline to have any correspondence with R. myself, in any way. S. L. C.

Dc 19
DR CHARLEY —
It occurs to me that you could have got that information in 24 hours by paying the Sunday Mercury’s dramatic Editor $10 to furnish it to you on a piece of paper. Do it, & let’s hurry along.
Yrs
S. L. C.

[P.S.] But we had decided on this procedure, hadn’t we? ....

Dec. 27, ‘83
DEAR CHARLEY —
We will lie low until Raymond has played his new piece in New York, & if it is not a promising success, we will go for him again, with a modified proposition. Lawrence Barrett strongly urges this, & gives good reasons for it.
Meantime, hurry up that Sunday Mercury business, as a part of the preparation. Livy was delighted with the andirons. Merry Xmas to you all.
Yrs.
S.L.C.

P. S. Return me the MS copy of the play of “Col. Sellers” if you have it.
S. L. C.

Uncle Sam seems to have changed his mind a little on Raymond. I wonder what became of the actors who might play the part better.

Jan. 2, ‘84
DEAR CHARLEY —
If the book business interferes with the dramatic business, drop the former— for it doesn’t pay salt; & I want the latter rushed. If you’ll pay that Sunday Mercury man $25 for the information we want, you can probably get it in 10 hours.
I have been talking with Barrett, & he thinks it will be a mistake on Raymond’s part if he lets this play go to somebody else, & a mistake on my part at the same time. He wanted me to wait till he could talk with Raymond.
Now therefore, step in at 1 East 28th Street, & if Barrett is at home, ask him if he believes Raymond will pay $400 a week for the use of this play. It may well be that that is more than an actor of It’s reputation should he asked to pay; but at the same time it is as low as I can afford.
According to his answer, make Raymond the offer, & let me know the result.
(The reason I say $400 per week is because I wish to let out the play by the week & not so much per night. If it is a successful play I want it played exclusively while it pays to so play it, & stop when it ceases to so pay. This would be no hardship to R., & no injustice to either of us.)
But I expect nothing in this matter, so I want to be on the lookout for another candidate. You were to visit the theatres upon this quest. Have you done it? —& what is the result? I have tried Boston — didn’t think much of those comedians.
Ask Wall where Jimmy Lewis is playing (he used to be in Daly’s 5th Avenue Company).
And also ask him where N. C. Goodwin is playing. This is a young fellow who made something of a strike as the gravedigger in Hamlet at the Cincinnati festival a year or two ago. Barrett might give you an opinion about him.
Now I want to come down & see somebody play, the minute you can name me a man.
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS

The book business, which didn’t “pay salt, ” was practically the only enterprise that Uncle Sam engaged in that paid well. A year after this letter was written, the firm of Charles L. Webster & Company published that enormously successful novel, Huckleberry Finn, and the best-selling work of nonfiction that had ever been published in America, Grant’s Memoirs.

I hope they got that information from the Mercury man. The price seems to be going up, and the hours of labor down.

N. C. Goodwin is of course Nat Goodwin.

4

UNCLE SAM had two plays on hand at this time: The American Claimant, which he wrote with Howells, and his own dramatization of Tom Samyer.

Jan. 28
DEAR CHARLEY —
No, the actor must play Tom Sawyer till it is down to where it pays him only an average of $300 or $400 a month clear & above expenses, for a whole season.
It’s important.
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS

[P.S.] I’m finishing the last act, to-night. S. L. C.

Sunday
DEAR CHARLEY —
Do send me your pen or a carefully selected one like it.
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS

Sunday
DEAR CHARLEY —
You may drop a note to Mr. Mallory & say I don’t think the Sellers play would be sufficiently profitable to any of us with the gains divided into thirds. And say to him, likewise that I am now writing a new play by myself (while Howells & I are kept asunder by Cable’s illness), & that if I finish it to my liking maybe we can strike up some terms for it which will be mutually satisfactory. It is a 4-act play, & two acts are nearly done. I think I can finish it in a couple of weeks, but of course I can’t tell for sure. I’m kind of boiling with it, & so it gets on paper pretty fast.
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS

George W. Cable, whom Uncle Sam had met in New Orleans on his Mississippi River trip, visited at the Clemens home and came down with a particularly violent case of measles. Albert Bigelow Paine says, “It required the constant attendance of a trained nurse and two members of the household to pull him through.”

Mallory was the owner of the Churchman, a religious publication, and he also owned the Madison Square Theatre, a queer combination it seems to me for those days. But perhaps he wanted an anchor to windward. He was eager for a Howells play, and

Howells — being from Boston — thought Mallory would add a religious note to an otherwise profane undertaking. This roused Uncle Sam to righteous indignation: —

HARTFORD, Feb. 8, ‘84
DEAR CHARLEY —
The thing I had in my mind when I went to see Nat Goodwin play, was, to offer him the play at one-third of the profits, & we keep the two-thirds. You perceive that the ingenious Mallory has been sent the same idea from on high — with this exception: that he will take one of our thirds — for what sufficient service, I would like to know? For risking the amount of capital necessary to start the piece on the boards? I don’t need his help there — neither do I need any of his peculiar book-keeping.
Hang Mallory. Drop him.
The thing I grieve about, is, that he has been seen, when the seeing him was a matter of absolute unimportance, & Lewis has not been seen, when the seeing him was a matter of the very first importance.
The thing to do, now, is to drop Mallory entirely, as regards this play, until we have some idle time to fool away on him; & see Lewis without delay.
After seeing Lewis, see Nat Goodwin. After you have got Goodwin’s terms, he can see the piece (I mean the Sellers piece) & not before. There was not the least sense in Howells’ allowing Mallory to see the piece before offering terms for it. If he had first offered these brilliant terms of his, that would have spared him the opportunity of examining the play,
Tom Sawyer is finished; & it is a good play — a good acting play. There is nothing in your hands half as important as seeing Lewis — so let’s drop everything else until that is attended to.
I am not finding fault with you, for I gave you authority to act upon Howells’s suggestion — still, I never meant that this Sellers business should stand for a moment in the way or take precedence of Tom Sawyer.
Thanks, I’m mighty glad to get the pen.
Yrs
S. L. C.

5

I DON’T quite know how the play business was rim in those days, and I don’t believe Uncle Sam knew either. He seems to want to begin with the actors before he has a producer, and he has an idea that the producer is going to offer a good price for a play he’s never seen, and he’s not going to let him read it until he gets his terms, and then if the producer wants to make anything out of it Uncle Sam will tell him where he gets off.

Feb. 18, ‘84
DEAR CHARLEY —
See the enclosed, from Mr. Howells (& return it).
You need not show the play to Goodwin. Simply tell him Howells objects to changing Sellers’s name; that Howells has thought the thing over & arrived at the conclusion that it could do no real good to change the name, for the character would remain Sellers. Say I disagree with Howells, but I bow to the decision of course, for he may be right; & is entitled to have his objection respected by me, anyway.
Now that is all you need say to Goodwin. If he should wish to combat that objection, let him do it himself, by letter to Howells; or do it through you to Howells. See? I’m entirely out of the fight. The next time I interest myself in the play, it will be when I am armed with written authority to do exactly as I please with it.
I have written Howells a letter which will probably make him inextinguishably ashamed of his letter; & of the infantile objection which he makes to Goodwin; & of the preposterous idea that the Mallorys can make a thing or a man respectable where our names couldn’t. And doubtless it will also make him ashamed of having placed me in the awkward position of having to stop negotiations with an actor without having any decent explanation to offer why I act so.
You see I have offered the only explanation I could offer — Howells’s objection to change of name. Now it remains for Howells to do the rest of the explaining—& he won’t find it any holiday job, if he has to tackle it.
When the copying of the Sellers play is finished, keep the new copy —yes, keep both until Howells asks for one.
Yrs
S. L. C.

Feb. 29, ‘84
DEAR CHARLEY —
Let us canvass Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer both at once, selling both books for $4.50 where a man orders both, & arranging with the Pub. Co. that I shall have half the profit on all Sawyers so sold, & also upon all that they sell while our canvass lasts.
Also, canvass Finn, Sawyer & Prince all at once — a reduced price where a man orders the three. It’s a good idea — don’t forget to arrange for it.
Yrs
S. L. C.

P.S. I have put in my whole time, yesterday & today, (and shall for several more days) writing original matter for Prang’s calendar. Besides other stuff, I have written special squibs for 10 of the months & all the national holidays. My time is worth from $100 to $500 a day, according to what I am doing.
Now then, it would be unfortunate to do all this work & then have eventual trouble & misunderstanding. So you’d better look very carefully into that contract. If Prang is going to have but one priee for the calendar, & that price a dollar, it is all right — 10 cents to me is correct. But don’t you think there ought to be a clause saying that if he should conclude to charge any higher price for any or all of them, my royalty in that case shall be 10 per cent?
It isn’t the amount of extra money involved that is bothering me particularly — it is the dread of a loose, unclear contract. Carefully look into the thing & get it just right.
S. L. C.

Prang was the big calendar and greeting card publisher, whose color work was famous. A later letter shows that Uncle Sam was released from this particular job, much to his joy. He warns Webster not to suggest any payment for the work done, evidently wanting to let sleeping dogs lie.

Monday, Mch 3 or 4, ‘84
DEAR CHARLEY —
If Prang’s contract says 10 per cent on the retail prices, it’s all right.
I’ve made my head sore over these dramatic calculations this morning, with the final assistance of the manager of the Opera House, & now I have to give it up. It’s too complicated for me. So, let Mallory do the proposing, & we will try to answer. There’s one thing that is quite certain, however — we won’t have a contract for any portion of profits, the Mallorys to boss the expenses & make them what they please. I’d rather have a contract by which my share was a third or a fourth, or a fifth, after the deduction of $300 per night for expenses. That or a stipulated sum per week.
In either of these cases, we could generally know how much they robbed us of. So also with your gross proceeds royalty — though it seemed to me that that was hardly enough.
If it is one-third or one-fourth of the play’s actual profit it is enough; but I can’t imagine it to be that.
Great guns, it makes my head ache!
Call the lowest figure per week $350.
And I think that whenever you & Mallory think you have nearly reached an understanding, you’d better run up here & explain it to me. It will save a world of time.
I’ve no data to cipher on — I simply befog myself.
Yr truly
S. L. C.

6

MEANWHILE the sale of Huckleberry Finn was proceeding by subscription, and it was time to choose an artist to illustrate it: —

Mch 81, ‘84
DEAR CHARLEY —
Is that artist’s name Kemble? — I can not recall that man’s name. Is that it ? There is a Kemble on “Life,” but is he the man who illustrated the applying of electrical protectors to door-knobs, door-mats, &c & electrical burners to messengers, waiters, &c., 4 or 5 weeks ago. That is the man I want to try.
Yr
S. L. C.

[P.S.] Osgood has sent me $2500.

Is the name Kimble? S. L. C.

Kemble is of course the artist who went down to fame as the illustrator of Huckleberry Finn. In 1930 he published an article in the Colophon describing his joy when he landed the job.

June 11, '84
DEAR CHARLEY —
I have reshipped the pictures to you. I knew Kemble had it in him, if he would only modify his violences & come down to careful, painstaking work. This batch of pictures is most rattling good. They please me exceedingly.
But you must knock out one of them — the lecherous old rascal kissing the girl at the campmeeting. It is powerful good, but it mustn’t go in — don’t forget it. Let’s not make any pictures of the campmeeting. The subject won’t bear illustrating. It is a disgusting thing, & pictures are sure to tell the truth about it too plainly.
Spread your general agencies all around — This book will have a big sale.
Yrs
S. L. C.

I think this picture still survives, but is in storage somewhere. My impression is that I gave it to a cousin who died.

July 5, ‘84
DEAR CHARLEY —
Yes, let Raymond see copy of play.
When you come to make contract with him, try to leave as few loopholes as possible, or he will be a big annoyance to you. . . .
Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS

[P.S.] He will report to you, not me. S. L. C.

Uncle Sam is getting soft, letting an actor see the play before he signs the contract.

The next letter records a historical event heretofore unnoticed: —

ELMIRA, July 10
DEAR CHARLEY & ANNIE —
Your aunt Livy & I congratulate you & rejoice with you. There is nothing so valuable in a home as a baby — & no young home is complete without a baby — a baby & a cat. Some people scorn a cat & think it not an essential, but the Clemens tribe are not of these. I send my little name-sake love & greeting, and all good wishes — & his mother too. Yr truly
S. L. CLEMENS

Uncle Sam sent the baby a silver mug and a spoon, and later I was used as the guinea pig for one of his greatest inventions — a bed-clamp to keep children from kicking off the covers. But it didn’t work so well in my case, much to his indignation. There couldn’t be anything wrong with the bed-clamp — it was either the baby or the way the clamp was hitched on. He probably suggested to my mother that she get another baby.

(To be continued)