Yes, I dropped a bombshell at the Elmira Conference, but I could only cover 
the bare outlines of my article in my 15 minute paper, so I strongly urge 
anyone interested to read the much longer and documented article on the 
subject in the Mark Twain Journal. In fact, I urge everyone to subscribe to 
the MTJ. I'm not sure how soon volume 50 will be available for sale as a 
back issue, but that's also possible at some point. However, if you 
subscribe you'll be the first on your block to read my next bombshell in an 
upcoming issue of MTJ (I'm not kidding, and I'm not out of bombshells just 
yet).

In a nutshell, while looking for something else in Google Books in 2005-6-7, 
I found a use of the name "Mark Twain" used as a proper name in a burlesque 
sketch in a comic journal in 1861 that was edited by a prominent Phunny 
Phellow. This burlesque piece made fun of southern mariners by giving them 
names made up from insulting nautical terms, whose meanings I explain in my 
article. It's a comic journal already known to have been read by Twain, and 
an Artemus Ward piece in that very same issue of this journal has previously 
been cited as a piece familiar to Twain, so it's hard to imagine that Twain 
did not turn two more pages in that issue and notice "Mark Twain" in the 
little burlesque sketch I found. I confided my discovery to a colleague who 
agreed to keep it under his hat. But in 2012 I was offered a copy of this 
comic journal by a bookseller who cited the burlesque piece with "Mark 
Twain" and I knew my secret was out. I assume my colleague let the secret 
slip while trying to help me in my research, but it's possible somebody else 
became aware of the same piece on their own. But the bookseller offering me 
the journal for sale said they could not recall how they'd heard of it, so 
I'm doubtful. Anyway, it was time to go into print with what I had, a little 
sooner than I had planned.

Now, back to 1861... Twain was not in the market for a nom de plume at that 
point in his life, whether he read this journal in 1861 or not. He was a 
highly paid ($250/mo) successful steamboat pilot and had no body of writngs 
to call his own, and no intention of becoming an author at that moment in 
his life. But the war came and ended his chosen career. He was soon off to 
Nevada, and by 1863, when he visited Carson City, he was indeed a writer and 
had a body of work and needed a nom de plume. He abruptly adopted the name 
"Mark Twain" while in Carson City in Feb 1863 and ten years later when asked 
about it he claimed to have gotten it from Capt Sellers who he said had 
recently died and had used the name "Mark Twain" before him. This has been 
proven factually false. Sellers was not yet dead in Feb, 1863 and no piece 
by Sellers (or anyone else) has ever been found signed "Mark Twain" before 
Twain's use in Feb 1863. In my article I go into some detail to explain how 
the newspaper exchange system worked and which CA and NV newspapers were 
exchanging with this comic journal where this piece had appeared, and which 
papers would have had files of that journal sitting on their office shelves 
in Nevada in Feb., 1863 where Twain would have found them. Whetehr or not he 
saw it in 1861, I think he certainly saw it in 1863, and I explain why Twain 
would have made up the Sellers story to hide the true source of his nom de 
plume, how he began asserting his brand both in the literary and commercial 
marketplaces, and how he was deliberately changing his style of humor away 
from the Phunny Phellow style, and how this explains why he used the Sellers 
story to connect his nom de plume with the Mississippi River instead of the 
actual context in which the name was first used in that comic journal in 
1861 (as a nautical term used by ocean-going sailing vessels to merely 
indicate shallow water --a mere two fathoms or 12 feet--keep in mind that 
ocean-going vessels of that day drafted 15 to 25 feet, while flat-bottomed 
Mississippi steamboats drafted just 6-8 feet). So, the Mark Twain who 
appeared as a character in that 1861 burlesque piece was merely a shallow 
fool; Twain wanted to connect his nom de plume to the Mississippi River that 
was central to his life and writings, where it has dual meanings (safe or 
dangerous water, depending on your direction of travel from shallow or 
deeper waters). I make the case that he saw this burlesque in 1863 in Carson 
City in a newspaper exchange file (or one of several other likely places) 
and that this suggested the possibilities to him, triggering his sudden 
decision to adopt his nom de plume. The real importance of all of this is 
that it demonstrates that Twain was more aware of the meanings and 
usefulness of his nom de plume, and more conscious of his public image and 
brand than we might have thought, and was motivated to adopt a good nom de 
plume to increase his value as an author being reprinted in the exchange 
system, and was willing to engage in creating his own mythology. Nothing 
wrong with any of this, and I admire his smarts.

This is probably a terrible summary of my article, and if I take the time to 
reread what I've written in this posting I'll end up scratching around on it 
until I've written my entire article all over again, so I'll stop here. I've 
been a little vague on the details on purpose, hoping that the curious will 
consider themselves sufficiently teased into springing for a few bucks and 
supporting the MTJ with a subscription or at least a back issue request. I 
don't get a dime out of any of this, but the MTJ is very close to finally 
being caught up and deserves all the support anyone has to offer. Did I 
mention that volume 50, the issue in which my article appears, is full of 
purdy pichers of things that illustrate my article, including some things 
nobody has seen before? Well, I just did.

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: "Arianne" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2013 1:53 PM
Subject: Kevin's Discovery?


> Is there any chance we'll get any part of the revelation here?  I'm
> profoundly interested in this subject.  Another take on the source
> of TWAIN!
>
> -- 
> Arianne Laidlaw
>
>
>
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2013.0.3392 / Virus Database: 3209/6559 - Release Date: 08/08/13
> 



-----
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Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
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