Evening journal., 1910-05-05
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
How Mark Twain and
Charles Dudley Warner
Came to Write "The
Gilded Age"
BY "Ho,iano.'

The late Stephen A. Hubbard who was
for many years the managing editor and
one Of the owners of the Hartford,
Comm Gurant wnen Joseph r. Hawley
was editor and Charles Dudley Warner.
tho author and humorlst, CO editor, told
mo this. the real story Of the manner I'm
which Mark Twain and Mr. Warner came
to write "rhe Gilded Age" which was
published I'm 1873.
After Mark Twain came to Hartford
to live" said Mr.. Hubbard, "he early
made the acquaintance Of Ar. Warner
being especially attracted TO him be-
cause of the success of the deliciously
humorous book, My Summer IN a Gar
den which gained Mr.. Warner national
fame, and which was the first of his
separate writings The acquaintance rip
ened into intimacy, and the families Of
the two men were frequently together.
1T happened that one evening. when
the Twains had the Warmers at family
dinner, something was said about the sue
cess OF Innocents Abroad Thereupon.
both Mrs Clemens and Mrs. Warner be-
gan to twit Mark Twain; they made all
manner of good .natured fun of his book,
called It an accidental hit, and finally end
ed up by defying him to write another
work like f..
I'm high good humor Mark Twain turned
to Mr. Warner. You and / will show these
ladies that their laughter is unseemly and
"a cracking OF thorns under a pot he
cried Wen get together and write "A
story, chapter by chapter every morning,
and we viii so interweave our work that
these wives of ours will not be able TO
say which part has been written by Mark
Twain and which by Charles y. Warner;
for once a week we will gather ia my Ii
brary and read the story 20 them as 1t has
progressed under our pens.
what was spoken in Jest was acted
upon in the spirit of jest. Mr. Warner
agreeing to meet Mark Twain every morn
ing for an hour or two 80 that together
they could write new story somewhat on
the lines of 1nnocents Abroad After
they had been at work on their little joke
for little while they became thoroughly
Interested I'm it, and then. when Mark
Twain proposed to Introduce the character
OF Col. Sellers in the story, both he and
Mr. Warner grew actually enthusiastic
over it. and their wives confessed their
deep interest in it as it was read to them
as the writing progressed.
story was about half finished IL / rcmem-
so the jest was carried on until the
ber correctly, when # suddenly occurred
to Mark Twain that It might be worth
publishing; if it interested the wives of
the authors, Il ought TO interest the pub
lie Therefore, Twain approached his pub
fishers and told them that he and Mr
Warner were jointly writing book, and
he wondered whether he could make ar
rangements with them to publish it, They
jumped az the proposition. The book was
published under the title Of The Gilded
Age, il sold beyond all expectation for
awhile, and then, suddenly, the sales stop
ped II is the one dead failure among
Mark Twain's works. Yet a sufficiently
large number of copies were sold by sub
scription TO repay the cost Of manu-
facture and return some profit to the joint
authors and the publishers.
Later. however" continued Mr. Hub
bard. Mark Twain made a tidy sum oul
of the dramatic rights Of the book. About
the time that the book was to be publish.
ed he suggested to Mr.. Warner that hC
would buy whatever dramatic rights that
Warner might have IN the work. The
idea appealed TO Mr Warner. and 1 have
always understood that Mark Twain paid
him 5000 or thereabouts for his share OF
the dramatic rights; and with that money
Mr. Warner was able to make Ions
winter tour through Egypt. As for MARI
Twain. he made thousands in royalties
out Of the play based on his utterly deat
book"
Copyright, 1910, by E. J. Edwards)