Was Mark Twain a Liar?

In my research to discover whether Twain’s speech was offensive or funny, I looked for information about Twain’s Autobiography to discover whether it was ever published and whether it contained the chapter about the Whittier address. While searching for his Autobiography in the library, I stumbled upon a book containing Twain’s letters at the time. Online, I found an 1877 newspaper article that tells a very different story than Twain told in 1906.

Mark Twain published the first excerpts of his Autobiography in the North American Review, while intending its full publication for after his death. Mark Twain’s Autobiography was published in 1924, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine and copyrighted by his daughter, Clara Gabrilowitsch, fourteen years after his death in 1910. This first edition does not contain the North American Review’s passage about Twain’s speech at the Whittier dinner. Apparently, Paine “utilized all but one-fifth” (a review of a later version of Twain's Autobiography) of the selections sent to the North American Review and one of the passages included in this “one-fifth” happens to be about his speech at the Whittier dinner.

(A random, somewhat interesting, thoroughly meaningless coincidence: In the Paine version of Twain’s Autobiography, the passage dated January 10, 1906 begins “I have to make several speeches…” (278). This is immediately followed by the passage dated January 12, 1906, which begins “My seventieth birthday…” (291). The missing Whittier passage was written January 11, 1906 and (as you know) involves a speech Twain made on Whittier’s seventieth birthday.)

Since the 1924 version of Twain’s Autobiography, other versions have been published, including one solely dedicated to the chapters from the North American Review, in 1990. This book does contain Twain’s Whittier address and commentary, identical to the version published in the North American Review.

Twain’s Autobiography does not appear to contain any other mentions of his address to Whittier in 1877; however, Mark Twain’s letters at the time, now published as Mark Twain's Letters and edited by Albert Bigelow Paine, indicate the effect the speech had on him.

Twain writes in a letter to Mr. Howells, “My sense of disgrace does not abate. It grows … I feel that my misfortune has injured me all over the country; therefore it will be best that I retire from before the public at present … It seems as if I must have been insane when I wrote that speech.”

Howells reassures Twain, telling him, “You are not going to be floored by it; there is more justice than that, even in this world” (Paine 316).

Twain then proceeded to write to Holmes, Emerson, and Longfellow with his apologies. Holmes replied, “It never occurred to me for a moment to take offense, or feel wounded by your playful use of my name,” while Longfellow said, “I do not believe anybody was much hurt. Certainly I was not, and Holmes tells me he was not. So I think you may dismiss the matter from your mind without further remorse” (Paine 318). Emerson was unable to understand the speech due to his mental illness. I found it interesting that Twain failed to mention these courteous responses he received when writing about the event for the North American Review 28 years later.

Twain’s account also contradicts what newspapers at the time had to say of the event. The Boston Daily Globe reported, “This eccentric story was told in Mr. Clemens's characteristic drawling, stammering way, and produced the most violent bursts of hilarity. Mr. Emerson seemed a little puzzled about it, but Mr. Longfellow laughed and shook, and Mr. Whittier seemed to enjoy it keenly” (Boston Daily Globe). Clearly, the entire crowd was not silent throughout his speech as Twain suggested. It appears they enjoyed Twain’s speech as any other work of his.

From this evidence, I think Twain’s speech was more funny than offensive. Twain appeared to have lied in his North American Review account or he overreacted to his speech’s reception after the event.