Papers of Mark Twain 1862-1946, bulk 1872-1910

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968

Summary

Creator:
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains manuscripts, personal correspondence, business correspondence and documents, illustrations, paintings and photographs.

The manuscripts include The Jumping Frog. In English. Then in French. Then clawed back into a civilized language once more by patient, unremunerated toil, six chapters of A tramp abroad, one chapter of The gilded age, prefaces to the English editions of The innocents abroad and Roughing it, and several other shorter pieces together with Susy Clemens's Biography of Mark Twain with his footnotes.

Family correspondence consists of cheerful letters to his wife Olivia Clemens and daughters Susy, Clara and Jean about his travels, lecture audiences, and acquaintances. There are also letters to his mother Jane L. Clemens, his brother Orion and family, his nephew Sam Moffett and his sister-in-law and her husband Susan Langdon and Theodore Crane.

Business correspondence concerns Twain's emergence from the bankruptcy of Charles L. Webster Publishing Co. in which he was the majority stockholder. There are also book contracts, papers concerning his ill fated Paige typesetter investment, and papers concerning Edward H. House's unsuccessful suit against him over dramatization rights to "The prince and the pauper."

There is professional correspondence with authors, editors, and publishers in the United States and England including Hjalmar Boyesen, George Washington Cable, William Dean Howells, Albert Bigelow Paine, George Bernard Shaw, and Charles Dudley Warner.

Other correspondents include fellow journalists and miners in the U.S. West in the 1860s, voyagers on "The Quaker City," friends in Hartford, Ct., Hannibal, Mo., and Keokuk, Ia., members of the Players Club and other societies to which he belonged, friends from his travels, and his reading public.

Acquisition information:
Gift and purchase.
Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in six series: Series I: Manuscripts; Series II: Letters; Series III: Documents; Series IV: Photographs, Images, and Illustrations; Series V: Miscellaneous; and, Series VI: Charles L. Webster & Company Debt Receipts

Physical description:
This collection consists of approximately 1500 items