Where did French & Richardson’s Booksellers get “The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain” from?

Charles Henry Webb (John Paul)

Trying to unravel clues of the who, what, where, and why Mark Twain’s “The Jumping Frog” was sold in at least one city bookstore while he was a capital correspondent.

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During Clemens (Twain) stay in Washington he sent Charles Henry Webb 3 known letters. The first letter from November 1867 discusses a play they were collaborating on, the letter below from 10 January 1868 and the last was dated 15 January 1868. According to a small item in the Evening Star, 31 Jan 1868, Clemens and Webb were hanging tough around the US Capitol.

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I suspect Webb brought copies of “The Jumping Frog” with him when he came to Washington. How many could he have brought?

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To Charles Henry Webb 
10 January 1868 • Washington, D.C.
(Transcripts: AAA 1927, lot 109; Parke-Bernet Galleries 1940,
lot 188, UCCL 00178)

Washington, [Jan. 9]

. . . .

[Please send me 3 ]copies of [the Jumping ]Frog—I never got but 6 of the lot you gave [me ]an order [for]. [I lost the order. Send them (the 3) through the mail. ]It is 2[A.M.]—I will to bed.1

[Yr. Friend

Saml. Clemens.]

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bootleg version

Where did these 3 books end up?

According to the second explanatory note for SLC to Charles Henry Webb, 15 Jan 1868, “The ‘books’ were three copies of The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County which Clemens had requested (10 Jan 68 to Webb). Clemens sent one of the copies to Charles Langdon, who inscribed it “C. J. Langdon, Elmira, New York, Feby. 5th, 1868.” Another was probably sent to Mrs. Fairbanks, and others had already been promised to Henry Ward Beecher and to Emma Beach’s mother, both of whom Clemens saw in Brooklyn before the month was out (Parke-Bernet Galleries 1941, lot 90;20 Feb 68 to Fairbanks; 8 Jan 68 to Beach).

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Was French & Richardson’s selling bootleg versions of “The Jumping Frog” that had been printed in England? Hope to make some sort of determination here.

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For quick reading: Mark Twain and The Jumping Frog [Humor in America blog]

Letter to the Editor of Republican, January 11, 1868 [NR, p. 2]

Mark Twain.

We cheerfully publish the following. It is sufficiently explicit:

Editor of Republican:

I am sorry to see that the papers announce another lecture from me for this evening. I meant to be understood, last evening, as postponing the second lecture, but I suppose I was not. The gentleman who engaged me to lecture was taken very sick twenty-four hours before I was to address the public; (I had been reading my lecture to him, but upon my sacred honor, I did not think it would be so severe on him as that.) He is sick yet. I cannot lecture without an agent to attend to business. Please insert this for me, and let it stand as a postponement of my lecture, until what time, the health of my unfortunate friend must determine. I will give him a chance though – I will not read the lecture to him any more.

Very truly,

Mark Twain.

SOURCE:

National Republican., January 11, 1868, p. 2

Mark Twain to John Russell Young [4 Dec. 1867] “I am sorry to trouble you so much, but behold the world is full of sorrows ., & grief is the heritage of man.”

Twain had been trying to catch Young for a couple days without success. In closing he offered an apology of sorts saying, “I am sorry to trouble you so much, but behold the world is full of sorrows ., & grief is the heritage of man.

Mark Twain to Frank Fuller [2 Dec. 1867] “If you know of any villainy here that has money in it, let me know.”

As an apparent postscript, “If you know of any villainy here that has money in it, let me know.”

Mark Twain to John Henry Riley (3 March 1871 • Buffalo, N.Y. ) “G. A. T. says the Row boys will give him the cold shoulder when he gets back.” [Mark Twain Project Letters]

Newspaper Row _ Jan. 1874 _ New Harper’s Monthly Magazine

To John Henry Riley

3 March 1871 • Buffalo, N.Y.

(MS: NN-B, UCCL 00582)

Buffalo, March 3.

Dear Riley:

Your letters have been just as satisfactory as letters could be, from the day you reached England till you left it again.

I have come at last to loathe Buffalo so bitterly (always hated it) that yesterday I advertised our dwelling house for sale, & the man co that comes forward & pays us what it cost a year ago, ($25,000,) can take it. I Of course we won’t sell the furniture, at any price, nor the horse, carriage or sleigh. I offer the Express for sale also, & the man that will pay me $10,000 less than I gave can take that. 

We have had doctors & watchers & nurses in the house all the time for 8 months, & I am disgusted. My wife came near dying, 2 weeks ago.

I quit the Galaxy with the current number., & shall write no more for any periodical. Am offered great prices, but it’s no go. Shall simply write books.

Do you know who is the most celebrated man in America to-day?—the man whose name is on every single tongue from one end of the continent to the other? It is Bret Harte. And the poem called the “Heathen Chinee” did it for him. His journey east to Boston was a perfect torchlight procession of eclat & homage. All the cities are contend fussing about which shall secure him for a citizen.6

I mean to store our furniture until I can and build a house in Hartford just like this one.

Was in Washington nearly a month ago. The Sutro accused me of sending you abroad. So did George Alfred T.

The latter says Ramsdell went to San Domingo with the U.S. Commissioners for the NY Tribune, & left Washington when his wife was within 2 days of her confinement —& G. A. T. says the Row boys will give him the cold shoulder when he gets back.

God speed you, old boy—I must run back to my wife—she is not well yet by any means.

Ys Ever

Mark.

 

CITATION:

“SLC to John Henry Riley, 3 March 1871, Buffalo, N.Y. (UCCL 00582).” In Mark Twain’s Letters, 1870–1871. Edited by Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, and Lin Salamo. Mark Twain Project Online. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. 1995, 2007. , accessed 2013-04-29.

Mark Twain to George Alfred Townsend [undated] praising “Tales of the Chesapeake”

Hartford, Feb. 26 [no date]

My dear Friend –

Many thanks for the book. I got it yesterday evening and gave it a chance toward bedtime, but it failed to put me to asleep or even make me drowsy. Few books treat me so unkindly. I read it more than half through, picking out the plums, such as “The Big Idiot,” “The Circuit Preacher,” etc., and greatly enjoyed the entertainment. Thank you again. I will respond when my book comes out, George Alfred.

Your friend,
S. L. Clemens

Source:

George Alfred Townsend: One of Delaware’s Outstanding Writers, Ruthanna Hindes, 1946. p. 50

Note:

GATH sent a letter to Frederick Douglass dated April 29, 1880 concerning “Tales of the Chesapeake.”