Mark Twain and his English Editor.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 168, 28 January 1873, Page 7

Mark Twain and his English Editor.

[To the Rditor of the .'.'/), da' r.] S'.r, —[only venture to intmrle upon yrui hecans.) l come, in some sense, ii the int rjsfc of public molality, and this makes my mission respectable. Mr Join: Cimdon 11<>tton uf London, has, of his own iiKHvidti;d hj otion, republished several of my books in Ent'land. I do not p-okstagaiiHt this, for there is no law that could give cil'ect t > tin' protest; ;md besides, ]iub!i where are notaeconnta-He to the law b of heaven or earth in any country, as I understand it. Bv>.t my little grievance is ibis : My books are bad enough just a; ti ey art written ; then V.r J. hn Camden Hotteti liarcomposed half-a-dozt n eh. ptera and ai'ded the same to thciu .- 1 feel Ihai ai! true 1 carls will bletd for an author w,.o»i \ol.imes hj m fallen under such a dispensation a.> ilr.h. Ii

a friend of yours, or if even you yourself, were to write a book and set it adrift among the people, with the gravest apprehensions that it was not up to what it ought to be intellectually, how would you like to have John Camden Hotten sit down and drool two or three original chapters on the end of that book 1 Would not the world seem cold and hollow to you ? Would you not feci that you wanted to die and beat rest I Little the world knows of true suffering, And suppose he should entitle these chapters "Holiday Literature," "True Story of Chicago," "On Children," "Train up a child, and Away ho Goes," and " Vengeance," and then, on the strength of having evolved these marvels from bis own consciousness, go and "copyright" the entire book, and put in the titlepage a picture of a man with his band in another man's pockets, and the legend " All Ilights Reserved." (I only mppow the picture ; still it would be rather a neat thing.) And, further, suppose that in the kindness of his heart and the exuberance of his untaught fancy, this thorough well meaning innocent should expunge the modest title which you have given your book, and replace it with so foul an invention as ibis, " Screamers and Eye-Openers," and went and got tliat copy-righted too. And suppose that on the top of all this he continually and persistently forgot to offer you a single penny or even send you a copy of your mutilated book to burn. Let one suppose all this. Let him suoooso it with strength enough and then he will know something about woe, Sometimes when 1 read one of those additional chapters constructed by John Camden Hotten, I feel as if I wanted to take a broom-straw and go and knock that man's brains out. Not in anger, for 1 feel non?. Oh no ! not in anger; but only to see, that is all. Mere idle curiosity. And Mr Hotten says that one nom dz plmne of mine is " Carl Byng." I hold there is no affliction in this world that makes a man feel so down-trodden and abused as the giving him a name that does not belong to him. I How would this sinful aborigine feel if I were !to call him John Camden Hottentot, and Iconic out in the papers and say he was entitle dtoit by divine right \ Ido honestly believe it would throw him into a brain fever, if there were not an insuperable obstacle in the way.

Yes —to come back to the original subject, which is the sorrow that is slowly but surely undermining my health—Mr Hotten prints imrevised, uncorrected, and in some respects, spurious books, with my name to them as author, and thus embitters his customers against one of the most innocent of men. Messrs George Routledge and Sons .'ire the only English publishers who pay me any copy-right, and therefore, if my books are to disseminate either suffering or crime among readers of onr language, I would ever so much rather they did it through that house, and then I could contemplate the spectacle calmly as the dividends came in.—l am, Sir, &c, Samuel L. Clemens ("Mark Twain.") Loiulon, September 20, 1872.