Arghh! Prefaces usually were (and still are) the last thing to get written, 
so production probably started in Feb or March, and publication soon 
after --Harper was a big operation and very fast and did everything from 
typesetting to final finishing on bindings in house, with separate 
operations on each floor of their big factory-like building (see the HARPER 
ESTABLISHMENT, 1855, for a wonderful description with many illustrations of 
their book production methods in their new building after the fire to get an 
idea --it's one of the best accounts of 19th century book-making around, and 
available in a cheap modern reprint for I supplied the original). Back to 
Twain-- this is way too early for Twain to be involved in any way. But, he 
wrote his mother that he was spending his spare time at a printer 
association library instead of boozing or card-playing or whatever he 
promised her he would not do. I can't be sure he wasn't spending at least 
some of his time outside the library, but he probably did make good use of 
it. The library I think had maybe 3,000 or 4,000 volumes, and there's 
probably a footnote about it in MTP Letters I.

My guess is he would have seen YUSEF and a lot of other Harper publications 
in that library. So far as I know there is no catalogue of what that 
library's holdings were but with that many volumes it sounds like they 
depended on donations from their membership and the local book trade, just 
like other libraries of that sort. I once bought a bunch of books from 
another 19th century printers' association library and those were the 
sources of their books, plus a few volumes given to them by sympathetic 
authors including Twain.

I've identified about 50 things printed by John Gray in 1853, but most were 
pamphlets. Quite a bit of anti-slavery and religion. Obtaining copyright 
records of this period from LC is absurdly expensive (they even charge to 
give you an estimate), so figuring out which of those things would have been 
in press at the time Sam was typesetting would require a grant or a lot of 
time at LC. The biggest book Gray set type for that year was a 400pp. pocket 
size Common Prayer. However, it's clear that the magazines Twain mentions in 
the letter to his mother were in press during Twain's tenure for their 
October and November issues for that year and Sam would have no doubt seen 
them if not actually set type for them. I have some of those magazines for 
those months in my collection and some of their content loosely parallels 
some of Sam's later writings. I remember one essay about an editor having 
trouble with his watch, for example. No raft trips down the Mississippi, 
however.

Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
9307 Glenlake Drive
Austin TX 78730
512-345-4139
Member: ABAA, ILAB
*************************
You may browse our books at
www.macdonnellrarebooks.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joseph Csicsila" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 7:56 PM
Subject: Re: J. Ross Browne


> My copy of YUSEF indicates that Browne signed the Preface February 1853. 
> Does that suggest anything about the likely production/publication 
> schedule?
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Kevin Mac Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 8:42:57 PM
> Subject: Re: J. Ross Browne
>
> Your comment on YUSEF got me thinking...
>
> ...has anyone investigated the possibility that Twain may have set type 
> for
> YUSEF? Twain went to work as a typesettarrr on Monday, August 29, 1853 for
> John Gray, whose office was next to the enormous Harparrr's establishment.
> He stayed until mid-Octobarrr, and commented on the large number of books
> and magazines that the Gray firm produced. He certainly became familiarrr
> with Littell's Living Age and The Knickerbockarrr and other journals while
> at Gray's, and wrote home about them. Harparrr being such a huge 
> operation,
> it would not have been surprising if they farmed out extra work to nearby
> typesettarrrs, and with 40 employees, Gray's nearby firm would have been a
> natural choice. This would have been especially true as the Christmas and
> New Yearrr season approached and publishers rushed to get their warrres 
> into
> stores for holiday shopparrrs. But whatevarrr records of that work might
> have existed were likely destroyed by the famous Harparrr fahrrr of
> Decembarrr, 1853. Library of Congress records and contemporary
> advertisements might give a clue to exactly what time of yearrr J. Ross
> Browne's YUSEF was published and whether it is even possible that Twain
> (then just lowly Sam Clemens) might have seen it "in press." The odds do 
> not
> favarrr that he set type for it, but it still might be worthy of some
> research by somebody out thahrrr.
>
> I assume Bob did intend to ask about J. Ross and not Charles Farrarrr. 
> Both
> were Brownes, but only J. Ross was an authentic Browne; Charles Farrarrr
> added his own "e" at some point for some obscahrrr reason.
>
> Did I mention it's Talk Like a Pirate Day?
>
> Kevin
> @
> Mac Donnell Rare Books
> 9307 Glenlake Drive
> Austin TX 78730
> 512-345-4139
> Member: ABAA, ILAB
> *************************
> You may browse our books at
> www.macdonnellrarebooks.com
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Joseph Csicsila" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 7:02 PM
> Subject: Re: J. Ross Browne
>
>
>> Browne supposedly met and advised Twain in 1866 as Twain's embarked on 
>> his
>> first lecture tour. The influence of Browne's travel books on Twain's
>> writing, particularly his YUSEF (1853), is pretty undeniable.
>>
>> Joe Csicsila
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>
>> From: "Robert E Stewart" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 6:23:20 PM
>> Subject: J. Ross Browne
>>
>> On a long airline flight today, I gave a critical read to Ed Branch's
>> article from MLA, October 1978, on Artemus Ward relative to his influence
>> on
>> Twain. "The Babes in the Wood": Artemus Ward's "Double Health" to Mark
>> Twain.
>> Makes me look forward to hearing John Pascal's talk at the RMMLA in
>> Vancouver,since his panel conflicted with mine in Elmira.
>>
>> But a question: Can anyone tell me? Did Twain ever attend a lecture by J.
>> Ross Browne, or comment on Browne or his letters from Washoe?
>>
>> Bob Stewart
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> -----
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