Of course, the name "Greeley" must have had some comic associations out in
the territories, thanks to the oft-repeated Hank Monk story.

*_________________________________*

*Peter Salwen /* salwen.com
*114 W 86, NYC 10024 | 917-620-5371 <(917)%20620-5371>*


On Sun, Jan 8, 2017 at 1:37 PM, Jim Leonard <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Bob-- Thanks for this--a great job of piecing the fragments together.
> --Ji=
> m L.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robert H.
> HIR=
> ST
> Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2017 3:00 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Reopening the Jim Smiley question
>
> No, no references to Greeley in the notebook. But when Bret Harte
> reprinted=
>  the story in the Californian, less than a month after it appeared in the
> S=
> aturday Press, "Smiley" was replaced throughout with "Greeley." Mark Twain
> =
> seems to have revised the printer's copy for this reprint (it included
> some=
>  changes only he could have made) but he certainly did not read proof for
> i=
> t, since it contained many errors as well as Greeley throughout. If
> there's=
>  any truth in his recollection for the Adelaide Register ("That's a
> fact") it seems likely that it was Harte's Californian printers who ran
> out=
>  "S's" (*not* "G"s) and made the change to Greeley. We know that because
> wh=
> en Mark Twain used a clipping of the Californian reprint to reprint the
> sto=
> ry in his Jumping Frog book (1867), he demonstrably changed all the
> Greeley=
> 's back to Smiley (see Early Tales & Sketches, volume 1, pp. 528-33, which
> =
> show facsimiles of the clippings with his holograph changes). In 1981 I
> was=
>  inclined to think that Mark Twain must have made the change to Greeley
> but=
>  changed his mind a few months later (see Early Tales & Sketches, volume
> 2,=
>  p.668). But thirty-five years later it seems more likely that the
> printers=
>  made the change to Greeley (possibly for the reason he recalled in 1895,
> t=
> hough getting the change backward), and that
> *he* reversed the printers' change when preparing the Jumping Frog
> printer'=
> s copy. So Mark Twain didn't always remember the things that didn't
> happen.=
>  His memory was pretty good at aged 60, and it's easy to appreciate how
> eas=
> ily little mistakes like reversing the change (Greeley to Smiley instead
> of=
>  Smiley to Greeley) can make the memory of real events seem like fiction,
> w=
> hen they are in fact just slightly skewed, factual memories. I doubt that
> h=
> elps very much with the question of whether Smiley/Greeley was a real
> perso=
> n, but if he was, it would not be the first or the last time Mark Twain
> bas=
> ed one of his characters on someone real.
>
> Bob Hirst
>
> On Sat, Jan 7, 2017 at 10:51 AM, Jim Leonard <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > A nice tidbit for the Adelaide reviewer, but evidently not heavy on=20
> > accurate facts.  According to the U of C edition of Twain's notebooks
> (vo=
> l.
> > 1), a pertinent notebook entry records, "Wrote this story for Artemus=20
> > [Ward]--his idiot publisher, Carleton gave it to [Henry] Clapp's=20
> > Saturday Press [not the Saturday Gazette]" (p. 80).  The Saturday=20
> > Press did cease publication in 1866, but Twain's 1865 sketch=20
> > apparently wasn't in the last issue.  And the jumping frog, far from
> kill=
> ing it, was a great success.
> > Also, Twain refers to the Smiley character in early notes as=20
> > "Coleman," but there are no references (so far as I know) to=20
> > "Greeley."  As we know, Twain cared a lot more about telling a good=20
> > story than sticking to the sort of dreary facts I'm offering here.  By=20
> > the way, Twain's 1894 "Private History of the 'Jumping Frog' Story"=20
> > relates a version of the story's composition that combines elements of=20
> > the notebook entries with the "snapper" (killing the Press/Gazette) that
> =
> he would again use for the Adelaide reviewer the
> > following year.   --Jim L.
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Clay=20
> > Shannon
> > Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2017 11:39 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Reopening the Jim Smiley question
> >
> > We discussed whether Jim Smiley was a real person; note this from=20
> > twainqout=3D es=3DC2=3DA0Mark Twain quotations - Jumping Frog
> >  =3D20
> > | =3D20
> > |   | =3D20
> > Mark Twain quotations - Jumping Frog
> >    |  |
> >
> >   |
> >
> > =3D20
> >
> > He was a real character, and his name was Greeley. The way he got the=20
> > name =3D of Smiley was this -- I wrote the story for the=3DC2=3DA0New
> Yor=
> k=20
> > Saturday Gaze=3D tte, a perishing weekly so-called literary newspaper --=
> =20
> > a home of poverty; =3D it was the last number -- the jumping frog killed=
> =20
> > it. They had not enough "=3D G's", so they changed Greeley's name to=20
> > "Smiley." That's a fact.
> > - "Mark Twain Put to the Question" interview, Adelaide=3DC2=3DA0South=20
> > Australia=3D n Register, 10/14/1895
> > =3DC2=3DA0- B. Clay Shannon
> >
>