Compiling Volume 23

My Début as a Literary Person and Other Essays and Stories, Volume 23, is the last volume of American Publishing Company's uniform edition that Frank Bliss would publish. It had been three years since he had published Volume 22 and it was up to individual subscribers to continue to purchase new volumes to add to the sets they acquired in 1899. In 1900, at the time Frank Bliss was compiling How to Tell a Story and Other Essays, Volume 22, Harper and Brothers had been at work compiling a collection of stories and essays titled The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays for publication in their uniform red cloth and gold cornstalk binding. Bliss's Volume 22 was copyrighted on April 9, 1900. Harper copyrighted their book a few weeks later on April 30, 1900. "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg" was the lead story for Harper's collection of previously published essays. Bliss's Volume 22 and Harper's The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays contained a number of stories in common. The following chart compares the two tables of contents.

Titles in bold designate the stories in common between the two volumes.

ORIGINAL FIRST EDITION

Table of Contents for Vol. 22 American Publishing Company 1900 Uniform Editions and Harper's editions through mid-1917

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (Harper and Brothers, 1900) The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg My Début as a Literary Person From the "London Times" of 1904 At the Appetite-Cure My First Lie, and How I Got Out of It Is He Living or Is He Dead? The Esquimau Maiden's Romance How to Tell a Story About Play-Acting Concerning the Jews Stirring Times in Austria The Austrian Edison Keeping School Again Travelling with a Reformer Private History of the "Jumping Frog" Story My Boyhood Dreams

How to Tell a Story and Other Essays on title page with Literary Essays on spine How to Tell a Story In Defence of Harriet Shelley Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences Travelling with a Reformer Private History of the "Jumping Frog Story" Mental Telegraphy Again What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us A Little Note to M. Paul Bourget The Invalid's Story The Captain's Story Stirring Times in Austria Concerning the Jews From the "London Times" of 1904 At the Appetite Cure In Memoriam Mark Twain: A Biographical Sketch

What is evident from comparing the above charts is that in 1900 Harper's volumes offered additional stories that Bliss's Volume 22 did not feature. To that end, Bliss was compiling the contents for Volume 23 as early as August 1902 and it would be deposited for copyright in Washington, D. C. on April 28, 1903. Bliss chose to make "My Début as a Literary Person" the lead story of Volume 23. It was an essay that had appeared in Century magazine in November 1899. Harper had included the essay in the 1900 first edition of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays but did not consider it a story worthy of top billing.

Refining the Work

Although Clemens had an opportunity to revise and refine his work for Volume 23 of the uniform edition, there is little evidence to suggest he took an active interest in doing so. However, no extensive comparison between Volume 23 and the previous printings of each essay has been conducted. Bliss did revise the spelling on "A Double-Barrelled Detective Story" choosing to use the spelling "Barreled."

For the first 22 volumes of American Publishing Company's uniform editions published from 1899-1900, Frank Bliss hired Forrest Morgan to proofread for errors. There is no evidence that Morgan had an opportunity to proofread Volume 23 in 1903.

Different Title on the Spine

Instead of using the book's title My Début as a Literary Person and Other Essays and Stories on the spine of Volume 23, Bliss chose to identify the book as Volume XXIII / My Literary Début. This designation appears on all the editions published by American Publishing Company including Autograph Edition, Edition De Luxe, Japan Edition, Author's De Luxe Edition, Royal Edition, Underwood Edition, Riverdale Edition and American Publishing Company's Hillcrest Edition of 1903.

Secondary title page for Volume 23 reads My Début as a Literary Person and Other Essays and Stories

Spine for Volume 23 reads My Literary Début

W. H. W. Bicknell's Contributions

William Harry Warren Bicknell photo courtesy of the Winchester, Massachusetts Archival Center

Frank Bliss hired new illustrators for the uniform edition. Artist and etcher William Harry Warren Bicknell (b. 1860 - d. 1947) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of a grocer. Bicknell graduated from the Boston Latin School in 1878 and later studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He was a pupil of Otto Grundmann and Frederic Crowningshield. Bicknell etched a number of frontispieces made from photographs of Clemens that were used throughout the set. Bicknell's etching of the Tiffany monogram appears as a title page in every volume of the Autograph Edition, Edition De Luxe, Japan Edition, Author's De Luxe Edition, and the Royal Edition. Bicknell's engraved title page is present in Volume 23 but it is omitted from the illustration list. Thus, Bicknell's work is uncredited in Volume 23. In order to reduce production costs the Underwood, Riverdale, and Hillcrest editions featured the Tiffany title page only in Volume 1. The Author's National Editions eliminated the Tiffany title page altogether. These later editions also eliminated a number of Bicknell's engraved frontispieces.

Frontispiece

The frontispiece for Volume 23 is an uncredited photo of Clemens dated 1902.

Francis Luis Mora, Illustrator

Frank Bliss did not use the original illustrations that had appeared with the magazine publication of a number of the stories included in Volume 23. Both "The Death Disk" and "Double Barreled Detective Story" had been illustrated by Lucius Wolcott Hitchcock in Harper's Magazine. "Two Little Tales" was illustrated by Frederick Dorr Steele for Century magazine. Instead of reusing the magazine illustrations, Bliss hired Francis Luis Mora to draw three new illustrations for Volume 23.

Portrait of Francis Luis Mora by James Allen St. John

Francis Luis Mora (b.1874 - d. 1940) was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. His father Domingo Mora was a Spanish sculptor. His mother Laura Gillard was born in France. The family left Uruguay in 1877 and in the 1880s settled in New Jersey. Mora attended school at Manning's Seminary in Perth Amboy, New Jersey as well as public schools in New York and Boston. He studied art at the School of Drawing and Painting at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston where he studied under Edmond Tarbell and Frank Benson. He also studied at the Art Students League in New York under Henry Siddons Mowbray. Mora likely studied alongside artist James Allen St. John who illustrated Volume 21 of Mark Twain's uniform edition. A November 1898 interview in Metropolitan magazine identifed St. John's portrait of Mora as one of his best.

Beginning about 1892 Mora worked as an illustrator for magazines and periodicals including Harper's Weekly, Scribner's, Century, Collier's, Sunday Magazine, and Ladies' Home Journal. His first important commission was for a large decorative panel for the Lynn, Massachusetts Public Library which he completed in 1900. On August 18, 1902 Frank Bliss paid Mora $300 for three full-page black and white drawings for Volume 23. The receipt for those illustrations survives in archives at the University of Virginia Library, Special Collections, Mora later worked as a teacher at the New York School of Art. Among his students was Georgia O'Keeffe, who studied with him between 1907 and 1908.

Francis Luis Mora

Mora's full-page illustrations for Volume 23 were for "The Esquimau Maiden's Romance," "Two Little Tales," and "A Double-Barreled Detective Story." "The Esquimau Maiden's Romance" was initally published in Cosmopolitan, November 1893, with illustrations by Daniel Carter Beard. Mora's illustration for that story is for the same scene Beard illustrated.

Illustration by Daniel Carter Beard for "Esquimau Maiden's Romance" in Cosmopolitan, November 1893

"Listening to Her Story" by Francis Luis Mora for "Esquimau Maiden's Romance" in Volume 23, My Début as a Literary Person and Other Essays and Stories (American Publishing Company, 1903)

Illustration List for Volume 23

The following are the original full-page illustrations that first appeared in the 1903 Autograph Edition, Edition De Luxe, Japan Edition, Author's De Luxe Edition, and the Royal Edition. issued by American Publishing Company. As other editions were developed and prices were lowered, some of these illustrations were eliminated.

Harper and Brothers Revises the Title and Contents

In October 1903 Harper and Brothers bought out American Publishing Company including the unsold inventory of Frank Bliss's 1903 Hillcrest Edition. Over a year later on December 10, 1904 The New York Times reported that Harper and Brothers would be releasing a new Hillcrest Edition from new printing plates. In 1904, Volume 23 of the Harper Hillcrest Edition was retitled The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Essays and Stories. This title appeared on both the title page and spine of the new edition. Harper believed "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" was the most powerful story in the collection.

From 1903 until 1916 the contents of Volume 23 remained the same. In 1917 Harper revised the contents of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Essays and Stories for a new printing of the Author's National Edition. This reshuffling of material is one source of confusion for book collectors who often try to acquire replacement volumes for incomplete sets. The task is further complicated due to the fact that the bindings for a number of years were extremely similar even though the contents were different.

Harper edition of Vol. 23, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Essays and Stories with printing date of L-Q (November 1916) retains the original 1903 table of contents.

Harper edition of Vol. 23, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Essays and Stories with printing date of G-T (July 1919) features slightly smaller binding and Arabic volume numbers 23 on the spine and different contents.

For the 1917 Author's National Edition, Harper and Brothers removed "Extracts from Adam's Diary" from Volume 23 and added "The £1,000,000 Bank-Note" and "A Petition to the Queen of England." The additions were stories that had previously been part of Volume 21, The American Claimant and Other Stories and Sketches.

The following table details the shifting contents of Volume 23.
Titles in bold are unique to each volume.

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Essays and Stories Volume 23 (1904 - mid-1917)

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Essays and Stories Volume 23 (mid-1917)

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg My Début as a Literary Person The Esquimau Maiden's Romance My First Lie, and How I Got Out of It The Belated Russian Passport Two Little Tales About Play-Acting Diplomatic Pay and Clothes Is He Living or Is He Dead? My Boyhood Dreams The Austrian Edison Keeping School Again Extracts from Adam's Diary The Death Disk A Double-Barreled Detective Story

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg My Début as a Literary Person The £1,000,000 Bank-Note (moved from pre-1917 Vol. 21) The Esquimau Maiden's Romance My First Lie, and How I Got Out of It The Belated Russian Passport Two Little Tales About Play-Acting Diplomatic Pay and Clothes Is He Living or Is He Dead? My Boyhood Dreams The Austrian Edison Keeping School Again The Death Disk A Double-Barreled Detective Story A Petition to the Queen of England (moved from pre-1917 Vol. 21)

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