I include some bibliographical background on QUEEN VICTORIA'S JUBILEE in my
article on Twain's publications that first appeared in `Firsts Magazine' and
is now available online at www.abaa.org

At the time I published that article (1998) I had personally examined two
copies supposedly inscribed by Twain, both with forged inscriptions, and had
noted the location of a third. Another copy, this one with a Eugene Fields
II forgery of Twain's signature has since surfaced, bringing the total of
copies with forged signatures to four. As of 1998 no evidence had ever
surfaced that would document that the book was even printed during Twain's
lifetime.

But last year I discovered a letter from the well-known New York rare
bookseller James F. Drake, dated January 24, 1910, in which he discusses
shipping a copy to a customer. This is the first documented evidence that
the book appeared before Twain's death, and it seems likely from the context
of the letter that it was a very recent publication. Since Twain was in
Bermuda by that date, it is extremely unlikely that Twain ever learned about
its publication.

There is certainly no reason to believe that Twain had anything to do with
its publication. What evidence that does exist points to the contrary. It
was printed on paper watermarked 1887, and Merle Johnson (a bookseller who
hid his involvement with several later anonymous private printings, as did
his protege Jake Blanck) claimed that it was printed before 1908, but
offered no evidence. This, coupled with the relative abundance of copies
with forged signatures all point to an attempt to make the thing look like
an earlier publication than it actually was, and Merle Johnson would seem to
be the most likely suspect. Johnson's signature even appears along with one
of the Twain forgeries in one copy. Shades of T. J. Wise, perhaps? And the
Drake letter makes clear that it was being marketed as a "collector's item"
from the very beginning --hardly a true "private printing."

Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX 78730