Philip,

You might be interested in my history of the uniform editions  -- online at

http://www.twainquotes.com/UniformEds/toc.html

Forrest Morgan was the proofreader hired by Bliss to help put together the
later editions and there is little evidence Clemens took an active interest
in the revisions for the 1899 and later volumes.

Barb

On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 5:39 PM Philip Trauring <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I’ve been comparing the spelling between the first edition (1869) of The
> Innocents Abroad, and the Author’s National Edition (which is copyright
> 1897 and 1899).
>
> I’m curious if the changes in spelling were approved by Twain, in this
> edition, or other uniform editions (which I have not yet looked at). Has
> there been anything written about the changes between editions and how they
> came about?
>
> Here are some of the changes I’ve noticed so far:
>
> Spelling changes:
>
> amphitheatre    amphitheater
> ancle           ankle
> centre          center
> ecstacy         ecstasy
> irruption               eruption
> lettred         lettered
> lustre          luster
> meagre          meager
> ploughed                plowed
> pretence                pretense
> spectre         specter
> sceptre         scepter
> staid           stayed
> theatre         theater
> woollen         woolen
>
> Words combined:
>
> any thing               anything
> any body                anybody
> any where       anywhere
> every thing     everything
> every body      everybody
> every where     everywhere
>
> While these were not combined:
>
> any one
> every one
> near by
>
> Also, pic-nic was changed to picnic, but to-day, to-morrow, and to-night
> were not changed.
>
> Looking at some of the words in Google Books Ngram Viewer shows when
> certain spellings overtook others, which is kind of neat to see visually.
> In most cases these map pretty well to what was changed. If the spelling
> didn’t switch until after 1899, it wasn’t changed in the Author’s National
> Edition. For example, ‘everywhere' overtook 'every where’ already in the
> 1840s, and it is changed in the uniform edition. However, ‘everyone’ didn’t
> overtake ‘every one’ until the late 1920s, so it isn’t changed in the
> uniform edition.
>
> Any other types of spelling changes I should be looking out for?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Philip
>