twenty-six pieces were printed in Twenty-Two Easy Pieces by Mark Twain , a special limited edition published by the University of California Press. Four have been previously printed for a very limited audience. “Interviewing the Interviewer” and “The American Press” were included in Mark Twain: Press Critic , commentary by Thomas A. Leonard, published by The Friends of The Bancroft Library in 2003. “Jane Austen,” with editorial comment inserted between almost every sentence, was published by Emily Auerbach in the Virginia Quarterly Review for Winter 1999. “The Walt Whitman Controversy” was published by Ed Folsom and Jerry Loving in the Virginia Quarterly Review for Spring 2007. “Happy Memories of the Dental Chair” was not printed in full but only quoted by Sheldon Baumrind in “Mark Twain Visits the Dentist,” The Journal of the California Dental Association , in December 1964. But Who Is Mark Twain? represents the first time any of these manuscripts has been published for a general audience.
The date of composition if known, or an approximate range for it, is given for each manuscript. When the title is enclosed in square brackets, I have supplied it because Mark Twain left the manuscript untitled.
[Whenever I Am about to Publish a Book] 1881–1885
[Frank Fuller and My First New York Lecture] May–July 1895
Conversations with Satan October 1897–February 1898
Jane Austen 1905
The Force of “Suggestion” July–August 1907
The Privilege of the Grave 18 September 1905
[A Group of Servants] 4 June 1898
The Quarrel in the Strong-Box July–November 1897
Happy Memories of the Dental Chair 1884–1885
[Dr. Van Dyke as a Man and as a Fisherman] 29 April 1908
[On Postage Rates on Authors’ Manuscript] September 1882
The Missionary in World-Politics 16 July 1900
The Undertaker’s Tale September–October 1877
[The Music Box] 1879
[The Grand Prix] 1879
[The Devil’s Gate] June 1868
The Snow-Shovelers March–May 1886
[Professor Mahaffy on Equality] 15–31 August 1889
Interviewing the Interviewer 5–6 January 1870
An Incident September 1887
[The Jungle Discusses Man] 1902
I Rise to a Question of Privilege 18–23 May 1868
Telegraph Dog 1907
The American Press June–September 1888
The Christening Yarn March 1889
The Walt Whitman Controversy March 1882
WHENEVER I AM ABOUT TO PUBLISH A BOOK
W henever I am about to publish a book, I feel an impatient desire to know what kind of a book it is. Of course I can find this out only by waiting until the critics shall have printed their reviews. I do know, beforehand, what the verdict of the general public will be, because I have a sure and simple method of ascertaining that. Which is this—if you care to know. I always read the manuscript to a private group of friends, composed as follows:
Man and woman with no sense of humor.
Man and woman with medium sense of humor.
Man and woman with prodigious sense of humor.
An intensely practical person.
A sentimental person.
Person who must have a moral in, and a purpose.
Hypercritical person—natural flaw-picker and fault-finder.
Enthusiast—person who enjoys anything and everything, almost.
Person who watches the others, and applauds or condemns with the majority.
Half a dozen bright young girls and boys, unclassified.
Person who relishes slang and familiar flippancy.
Person who detests them.
Person of evenly-balanced judicial mind.
Man who always goes to sleep.
These people accurately represent the general public. Their verdict is the sure forecast of the verdict of the general public. There is not a person among them whose opinion is not valuable to me; but the man whom I most depend upon—the man whom I watch with the deepest solicitude—the man who does most toward deciding me as to whether I shall publish the book or burn it, is the man who always goes to
The date of composition if known, or an approximate range for it, is given for each manuscript. When the title is enclosed in square brackets, I have supplied it because Mark Twain left the manuscript untitled.
[Whenever I Am about to Publish a Book] 1881–1885
[Frank Fuller and My First New York Lecture] May–July 1895
Conversations with Satan October 1897–February 1898
Jane Austen 1905
The Force of “Suggestion” July–August 1907
The Privilege of the Grave 18 September 1905
[A Group of Servants] 4 June 1898
The Quarrel in the Strong-Box July–November 1897
Happy Memories of the Dental Chair 1884–1885
[Dr. Van Dyke as a Man and as a Fisherman] 29 April 1908
[On Postage Rates on Authors’ Manuscript] September 1882
The Missionary in World-Politics 16 July 1900
The Undertaker’s Tale September–October 1877
[The Music Box] 1879
[The Grand Prix] 1879
[The Devil’s Gate] June 1868
The Snow-Shovelers March–May 1886
[Professor Mahaffy on Equality] 15–31 August 1889
Interviewing the Interviewer 5–6 January 1870
An Incident September 1887
[The Jungle Discusses Man] 1902
I Rise to a Question of Privilege 18–23 May 1868
Telegraph Dog 1907
The American Press June–September 1888
The Christening Yarn March 1889
The Walt Whitman Controversy March 1882
WHENEVER I AM ABOUT TO PUBLISH A BOOK
W henever I am about to publish a book, I feel an impatient desire to know what kind of a book it is. Of course I can find this out only by waiting until the critics shall have printed their reviews. I do know, beforehand, what the verdict of the general public will be, because I have a sure and simple method of ascertaining that. Which is this—if you care to know. I always read the manuscript to a private group of friends, composed as follows:
Man and woman with no sense of humor.
Man and woman with medium sense of humor.
Man and woman with prodigious sense of humor.
An intensely practical person.
A sentimental person.
Person who must have a moral in, and a purpose.
Hypercritical person—natural flaw-picker and fault-finder.
Enthusiast—person who enjoys anything and everything, almost.
Person who watches the others, and applauds or condemns with the majority.
Half a dozen bright young girls and boys, unclassified.
Person who relishes slang and familiar flippancy.
Person who detests them.
Person of evenly-balanced judicial mind.
Man who always goes to sleep.
These people accurately represent the general public. Their verdict is the sure forecast of the verdict of the general public. There is not a person among them whose opinion is not valuable to me; but the man whom I most depend upon—the man whom I watch with the deepest solicitude—the man who does most toward deciding me as to whether I shall publish the book or burn it, is the man who always goes to
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