DEAR FOLKS,--I have nothing to write, except that I am well--that
the weather is fearfully hot-that the Henry Chauncey is a magnificent
ship--that we have twelve hundred, passengers on board--that I have two
staterooms, and so am not crowded--that I have many pleasant friends
here, and the people are not so stupid as on the Quaker City--that we
had Divine Service in the main saloon at 10.30 this morning--that we
expect to meet the upward bound vessel in Latitude 23, and this is why I
am writing now.
We shall reach Aspinwall Thursday morning at 6 o'clock, and San
Francisco less than two weeks later. I worry a great deal about being
obliged to go without seeing you all, but it could not be helped.
Dan Slote, my splendid room-mate in the Quaker City and the noblest man
on earth, will call to see you within a month. Make him dine with you
and spend the evening. His house is my home always in. New York.
Yrs affy,
SAM.
The San Francisco trip proved successful. Once on the
ground Clemens had little difficulty in convincing the Alta
publishers that they had received full value in the
newspaper use of the letters, and that the book rights
remained with the author. A letter to Bliss conveys the
situation.
*****
To Elisha Bliss, Jr., in Hartford:
SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, '68.
E. BLISS, Jr. Esq.
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.