Part 25 (1/2)

(_To be Continued_)

FOOTNOTE:

[16] With the pen, I raphy is dictated, not written

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

No DCXX

AUGUST 2, 1907

CHAPTERS FROM MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY--XXI

BY MARK TWAIN

_Froraphy of Me_

_Feb 12, '86_

Mamma and I have both been very much troubled of late because papa since he has been publishi+ng Gen Grant's book has seeet his own books and work entirely, and the other evening as papa and I were pro up and down the library he told me that he didn't expect to write but one ether, die, or do anything, he said that he had written more than he had ever expected to, and the only book that he had been pertickularly anxious to write was one locked up in the safe down stairs, not yet published[17]

But this intended future of course will never do, and although papa usually holds to his own opinions and intents with outsiders, whenand says that it ives up his plans (at least so far) and does as she says is right (and she is usually right, if she dissagrees with hi convinced by her, that he published without her knowledge that article in the ”Christian Union” concerning the govern by the proofs of past years, I think that ill be able to persuade papa to go back to work as before, and not leave off writing with the end of his next story Mamma says that she sometimes feels, and I do too, that she would rather have papa depend on his writing for a living than to have hi it up

[_Dictated, November 8, 1906_] I have a defect of a sort which I think is not common; certainly I hope it isn't: it is rare that I can call before my mind's eye the form and face of either friend or enemy If I should make a list, now, of persons whom I know in America and abroad--say to the number of even an entire thousand--it is quite unlikely that I could reproduce five of them in my mind's eye Of ht whoo, but when I try to call them before me they are forht or ten days, in the country, and I wish I could reproduce her in the mirror of my mind, but I can't do it

It may be that this defect is not constitutional, but a result of lifelong absence of mind and indolent and inadequate observation Once or twice in o, in the days of Susy's Biography of Me, there was a dispute one hbor's eyes I was asked for a verdict, but had to confess that if that valued neighbor and old friend had eyes I was not sure that I had ever seen theested that perhaps I didn't even know the color of the eyes of my own family, and I was required to shut my own at once and testify I was able to name the color of Mrs Cleest a color for Jean's, or Clara's, or Susy's

All this talk is suggested by Susy's re up and down the library” Down to the bottom of my heart I am thankful that I can see _that_ picture! And it is not diht of twenty-one years ago In those days Susy and I used to ”promonade” daily up and down the library, with our arms about each other's waists, and deal in inti affairs of State, or the deep questions of human life, or our small personal affairs

It was quite natural that I should think I had written myself out when I was only fifty years old, for everybody who has ever written has been se Not even yet have I really writtenis pleasanter work, and because dictating has givenaversion to the pen, and because two hours of talking per day is enough, and because--But I a around in it for pretexts where no pretext is needed, and where the simple truth is for this one tiency I shall never finish my five or six unfinished books, for the reason that by forty years of slavery to the pen I have earned ain to sign the death warrant of my dearest enemy

[_Dictated, March 8, 1906_] For thirty years, I have received an average of a dozen letters a year froers who reI have not known these strangers nor their fathers I have not heard of the names they mention; the reminiscences to which they call attention have had no part in ers have beenme for so, of a letter from a man who deals in names that were familiar towhich has been wandering through the press for four or five weeks, and he wants to know if Capt Tonkray, lately deceased, was (as stated in the clipping) the original of ”Huckleberry Finn”

I have replied that ”Huckleberry Finn” was Frank F As this inquirer evidently knew the Hannibal of the forties, he will easily recall Frank

Frank's father was at one tily well-defined and unofficial office of those days He succeeded ”General”

Gaines, and for a time he was sole and only incumbent of the office; but afterward Jimmy Finn proved competency and disputed the place with him, so we had tn drunkards at one tie as Christendom experienced in the fourteenth century when there were two Popes at the same time

In ”Huckleberry Finn” I have drawn Frank exactly as he was He was ignorant, unwashed, insufficiently fed; but he had as good a heart as ever any boy had His liberties were totally unrestricted He was the only really independent person--boy or man--in the community, and by consequence he was tranquilly and continuously happy, and was envied by all the rest of us We liked him; we enjoyed his society And as his society was forbidden us by our parents, the prohibition trebled and quadrupled its value, and therefore we sought and got more of his society than of any other boy's I heard, four years ago, that he was Justice of the Peace in a reood citizen and was greatly respected

During Jimmy Finn's term he (Jimmy) was not exclusive; he was not finical; he was not hypercritical; he was largely and handsomely des My father tried to reform him once, but did not succeed My father was not a professional reformer In him the spirit of reform was spasmodic It only broke out now and then, with considerable intervals between Once he tried to reform Injun Joe That also was a failure It was a failure, and we boys were glad For Injun Joe, drunk, was interesting and a benefaction to us, but Injun Joe, sober, was a dreary spectacle We watched ood deal of anxiety, but it caot drunk oftener than before, and beca

I think that in ”Tom Sawyer” I starved Injun Joe to death in the cave