An Abolitionist's Dedication

Martin Zehr

Kansas City, MO

For every Mark Twain aficionado, scholar and amateur alike, the prospect of personal revelations regarding Twain and his writings are as exciting as they are expected, since he was a complex individual who was "...the embodiment of that most American of traits; the ability to inventCand reinventConeself."¹ That there is no dearth of opportunities to vicariously experience these personal recreations is a fact with which every Twain scholar is undoubtedly familiar. The central transformation of his life, the one which was a major focus for him as author and for us as readers and students, was the change in his attitude regarding racial issues. From his childhood in slaveholding Missouri to Huckleberry Finn is a long, important, and, surprisingly, sketchily documented personal journey.

A recent serendipitous discovery has become the impetus for exploring this transformation in greater detail. One year ago, I obtained an early-edition copy of The Innocents Abroad from Robert Slotta, proprietor of Admirable Books in Columbus, Ohio. My interest in this particular copy was based on the handwritten dedication on its flyleaf, which is as follows:

Presented to Richard D. Webb,

By his attached friend,

Wm. Lloyd Garrison.

Boston, 1870.

William Lloyd Garrison was the publisher of The Liberator, the primary printed forum for antislavery news and writings in the United States for more than three decades (1831B65). For me, the dedication immediately raised questions regarding a possible Garrison-Twain connection, but the serendipitous part of this "discovery" came from the 1998 publication of All On Fire, a biography of Garrison by Henry Mayer which was nominated that year for a National Book Award. While "reading" a copy of this book at an airport newsstand, I came across references in the index to none other than Richard Webb, who, as it turns out, was a Dublin, Ireland abolitionist whom Garrison met during prewar antislavery meetings in Europe; according to Mayer, they became lifelong friends.

For Twain scholars, this finding raises a number of questions. At the date of the dedication, had Garrison and Twain crossed paths? Is the dedication in this book an indication that Twain's views on racial issues were known, and approved of, at this early stage of his career as author and celebrity? What evidence, in printed form or circumstantial, exists regarding Twain's views on racial issues prior to 1871? I have solicited Henry Mayer's views regarding these questions, and with respect to the first, his research does not indicate any meeting between the two or any direct communication. This conclusion is also supported by my own cursory review of Twain secondary sources, which thus far has not provided references to any meeting between Twain and Garrison. Of course, it is quite possible that Garrison was in the audience for one of Twain's Boston Lyceum lectures, organized by James Redpath, in 1869, a period during which Webb visited Garrison in the U. S., or that Garrison, who had been a visitor to the house of his fellow abolitionist Jervis Langdon in Elmira prior to Sam Clemens' arrival on the scene, was also familiar with Twain through this channel. Finally, as Henry Mayer has observed, it may well be the case that the dedication of this book reflects nothing more than Garrison's appreciation of Twain's wit and satire, part and parcel of his established celebrity status by 1870.

There are, of course, other well-known clues regarding Twain's transformation in the 1860s. His 1869 "Only A Nigger" column in the Buffalo Express and "Disgraceful Persecution of a Boy," printed in The Galaxy (1870) are hardly subtle pieces of evidence regarding themes which would prominently figure in the remainder of his printed legacy. Twain was also quite familiar with the topical work of fellow lecturer-humorists like Petroleum Nasby; he wrote in a July 1869 issue of Alta California regarding Nasby's satiric antislavery diatribe "Cussed be Canaan" that "The lecture is a fair and logical argument against slavery, and is the pleasantest to listen to I have ever heard upon that novel and interesting subject." Nevertheless, clues regarding the changes in attitude and his conscious focus on racial issues which occurred during the 1860s are surprisingly scarce considering the literally hundreds of letters and newspaper articles which are still available from this formative period in his career.

I have written this piece with the intention of disclosing the existence of this "discovery" to Twain scholars who are more capable of divining its significance than I, but I would also like to solicit the assistance of fellow Twainiacs in answering my own questions; specifically, I would appreciate hearing from Twain scholars who have any information or other evidence bearing on the questions raised in this article.

I would like to thank the following individuals who generously gave invaluable assistance and advice during preparation of this article:

¨ Shelley Fisher Fishkin, University of Texas, Austin.

¨ Kevin MacDonnell, Proprietor, MacDonnell Rare Books, Austin, Texas.

¨ Henry Mayer, Berkeley, California, author of All On Fire, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1998.

¨ Robert Slotta, Proprietor, Admirable Books, Columbus, Ohio.